Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette Art Thinking
See this page in
[FR]
The Improbable Chair by Galeries Lafayette is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way.
It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the "improbable" to think like creators. Through a unique method called "Art Thinking," developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.
A few words from
Guillaume Houzé
Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group
“The Improbable Chair is all about bringing together artists and entrepreneurs, linking art with business in a new way. It supports creative practices by connecting artists with entrepreneurs, businesses with cultural institutions, and artistic creation with business strategy. It encourages everyone to embrace the ‘improbable’ to think like creators. Through a unique method called ‘Art Thinking’, developed at ESCP, the Galeries Lafayette group and ESCP offer a way to support, encourage, and spread the act of creation.”
Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group Photo Credit: ©Lucasziwel
A few words from
Sylvain Bureau
Professor at ESCP Business School
Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
“Our initial belief was simple: to make creation accessible to as many people as possible. To achieve this, we developed a method called Art Thinking, which characterises how artists, entrepreneurs, and scientists go through similar steps in the creative process, such as gift-giving, deviating, destroying and drifting. For 15 years, our Art-Thinking seminars have trained thousands of students, entrepreneurs, managers, and researchers across a dozen countries and twenty universities and schools. Partnering with Galeries Lafayette group, a company with a strong entrepreneurial DNA, our chair combines theory and practice to amplify this approach and promote creators and creation in the broadest sense.”
Professor Sylvain Bureau, Scientific Director of the Improbable Chair
Objectives
The Chair has two major complementary goals:
- Support scientific research to better understand creative practices
- Teach the Art Thinking method and spread the Improbable pedagogy worldwide
Art Thinking not only helps participants unleash their innate creative potential; it also promotes collaboration, listening, leadership, negotiation, and constructive dialogue. Participants learn to question themselves, leverage failure, establish partnerships, and develop an agile approach to uncertainty.
Three areas of activity
- Scientific publications
- Doctoral theses and final dissertations
- Improbable Siesta: seminar bringing together researchers, artists, and experts in creation
- Spreading the Improbable method at ESCP and beyond
- Designing initial training in Art Thinking
- Training Art Thinking instructors
- Conferences and workshops on Art Thinking
- Exhibitions and Improbable openings
- Improbable residencies (artist/scientist/entrepreneur triads)
“This Chair is the story of an encounter between visionary creators who understood early on how future generations of students and entrepreneurs would need artistic and creative practices to prepare for the world of tomorrow. Through this collaboration, ESCP is grateful to the Galeries Lafayette group for opening up new playgrounds for unprecedented and improbable creations!”
Pascale Pernet, Director of chairs and corporate sponsorship
ppernet@escp.eu
Focus on...

Article
On Tuesday, 19th March 2024, Léon Laulusa, Dean and Executive President of ESCP, Jean-Stéphane Arcis, President of the ESCP Foundation, Philippe Houzé, Chairman of the Management Board of the Galeries Lafayette group, and Guillaume Houzé, Brand and Communications Director, Galeries Lafayette group, signed the first Chair dedicated to artistic and entrepreneurial creation.
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Direct and Indirect Effects of Corporate Community Involvement on Employee Attitudes and Behaviour
in Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, 2012, Boston, United States
Journal Article
2012
Disoccupazione- colpa di un circolo vizioso
LETTERA 43, 2012
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Do Behavioural Biases Explain Capital Structure Decisions?
in Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the European Financial Management Association 2012 (EFMA), 2012, Barcelona, Spain
Journal Article
2012
Do exports cause growth ? Some evidence for the EU members
POST-COMMUNIST ECONOMIES, 2012, vol. Vol. 24, Issue 1, pp. pp. 125-131
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Do German Firms Differ from UK Firms in the Internationalization of their Top Managers? A Neo-Institutionalist Perspective
in 38th Annual Conference of the European International Business Academy, 2012, Brighton, United Kingdom
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Does Anchoring Explain Capital Structure Decisions?
in Proceedings of the 19th Annual Conference of the Multinational Finance Society 2012 (MFS), 2012, Krakow, Poland
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Does debt discourage profitable investments?
in Proceedings of the India Finance Conference, Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, 2012, Calcutta
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Does debt discourage profitable investments? Evidence from health and safety programs in U.S. firms?
in Proceedings of the International Conference on Banking and Finance, 2012, New Delhi (India)
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Does Internationalization Make a Difference? Stock Market Reaction to Announcements of International Top Executive Appointments
in Annual Meeting of the International Management Division within the German Academic Association for Business Research, 2012, Saarbrücken, Germany
Paper presented in a Conference
2012
Doing More with Less: Exploring the Effects of HR Practices on Emotional Exhaustion in the Public Service
in Proceedings of the British Academy Management 2012 Conference, 2012, Cardiff, United Kingdom