2020: Icsi's new strategy and major projects

It’s a new year for Icsi and, with it, we are launching a new strategy for 2020–2024, together with some major projects that will begin this year. Discover this new roadmap with Ivan Boissières, the Institute’s Director General.

| Icsi’s Board of Directors has validated the new strategy. Can you outline the main points for us? |

Ivan Boissières : Of course. The new strategy covers the next 5 years (2020–2024), and aims to bring together a diverse community in our ongoing efforts to prevent the most serious accidents and prepare the safety culture of the future. It’s a huge job, we know! To achieve this objective, both within the team and with our members, we have divided our objectives into 3 axes.

The first is “Cultivating our identity: an association at the service of a plural community”. Exchanging and sharing best practices are part of Icsi’s DNA. But it is only possible – and really useful – if all safety stakeholders participate. Icsi must, therefore, ensure that it expands and leads its community, diversifies its industrial partners, and is a motor for interventions that are in the general interest, in particular with trade unions, local authorities, universities/ the French grandes écoles and associations.

The second axis illustrates our desire to “Be at the forefront of innovation and move towards greater operationalisation”. We are constantly being asked to develop operational tools, for example, to prevent the most serious accidents. In addition, we want to continue to innovate and aim to become the industry’s preferred safety partner. We have already made a start in using digital transformation as a lever to develop a safety culture, through e-learning solutions such as the Safety Academy and Safety Education. Now, our members are asking us to extend our initiative to other topics (safety and big data, virtual reality for major risks, the link between safety and security, etc.).

Finally, the third axis is “Putting in place a structure to support development”. We need a new structure to meet new challenges related to the Institute’s growth, development and management, and make it more attractive to potential partners. Our association is growing – I’m not complaining – but we must manage this growth and target our development, particularly internationally, for example by strengthening our branch in Latin America.

| It’s an ambitious programme. What projects will be launched this year? |

IB. We’ll be launching new projects related to each of the 3, strategic axes. First of all, a new website will be launched. It will be more modern, reflecting the new strategy, and we’ll use it to showcase the Institute and its values. The website will also help to present what we do to potential partners. Concerning working with our community and, in particular, non-industrial members who we are particularly keen to work with, a new discussion group on alert processes will be launched with Amaris (the French National Association of Communities to Manage Major Technological Risks). We are also working closely with the Mase network to develop and provide resources in the first quarter of 2020 for VSEs and SMEs.

Operationalisation is another element that will be at the heart of our efforts from 2020. First, we will be developing practical tools for the prevention of the most serious accidents; and second, we will prepare a new programme on leadership and just culture. This will include the development of concepts, the fine-tuning of tools and the creation of an e-learning lesson.

Finally, as 2020 is the first year of our new strategy, it’s a year of transition. So, in addition, we will be putting in place a new board of directors and a new internal structure. It’s clear that this year will be an opportunity to test our new strategy and the structure we are putting in place to deploy it. It’s a big challenge, but the team is ready.

| Icsi has been working closely with the Foncsi Research Foundation for many years. What links will there be, in 2020, between your two organisations? |

IB. Since last year, a small Icsi–Foncsi team has been working with GRDF on a pilot project called “Resilient Briefings/ Debriefings”. We are developing tools that will be released very soon. In addition, we’re planning a conference on HOF for 10 July. The Foncsi will present the results of its strategic analysis on the “Implementation of HOF in companies”; this will be an opportunity for Icsi to bring new life to the longstanding discussion group that has been looking at this theme.
The collaboration with the Foundation is very important to us. It feeds Icsi with new ideas from the research community. We also participate in the Foundation’s strategic analyses, and we will continue to do so with the 3 analyses planned for this year: “Principal contractors and Subcontractors”, “The Operator of the Future” and “Controller–Controlled”.

| Any last words to launch this new year? |

IB. Yes, for our members. I would like to remind them that these new projects and our new strategy were put in place because of them – and for them. We have looked at the results of the survey that we ran in 2018, and listened to feedback from workshops and the AGM, and now we think we have developed a strategy that best-meets their needs. Icsi is an association that serves its members, and we must never forget that our mission is to work together to improve safety culture. I’d like to thank each of our members for their involvement and willingness to work together on these excellent projects. Happy New Year, and I’ll see you soon!