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Thomas Le Cardinal
Senior Innovation Manager chez AXA Partners
Professional Background
Thomas Le Cardinal is a seasoned professional with a rich background in Open Innovation and idea management, particularly within large corporate structures. From 2009 to 2016, Thomas served in the Innovation Department at Groupe PSA, where his expertise in fostering creativity and managing idea challenges helped usher in a culture of innovation. His role entailed leading both internal and external idea management initiatives, facilitating hackathons, and incubating new business ideas that position the company as a forward-thinker in the automotive industry.
In a significant move to nurture entrepreneurial spirit among employees, Thomas launched an internal business incubator at Groupe PSA at the end of 2014. This initiative aimed at helping collaborators transform their innovative ideas into viable businesses using startup methodologies. The incubator was integrated into Groupe PSA's Business Lab, which was founded in January 2017, cementing Thomas's influence in the realm of corporate innovation.
After his tenure at Groupe PSA, Thomas took on the role of Senior Innovation Manager at AXA Partners. Here, he continues to explore ways to enhance innovation strategies, bringing his wealth of experience in ideation and project management to enhance client solutions and operational efficiency. Thomas's career reflects a robust understanding of how innovation can drive business growth, and he remains a respected thought leader in the field.
Education and Achievements
Thomas Le Cardinal holds an Engineering degree in Mechanical Systems Engineering from the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC), which laid the foundational skills necessary for his career in engineering and innovation. He has also broadened his knowledge through several MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), achieving various certifications from prestigious institutions:
- HEC Paris: Completed a MOOC on (Re)-inventing Business Models using the Odyssey 3.14 approach.
- University of Maryland Baltimore County: Studied Mechanical Engineering, fostering a strong technical background that complements his innovation management skills.
- Chalmers University of Technology: Furthered his education in Mechanical Engineering, emphasizing a diverse learning experience from renowned educational institutions.
- Udacity: Completed a MOOC on How to Build a Startup – the Lean LaunchPad, earning a Proficiency distinction, showcasing his entrepreneurial acumen.
- University of Pennsylvania (Wharton School): Completed a MOOC on Gamification, gaining insights into behavioral dynamics that can apply to innovative project management.
- Université Paris Descartes: Awarded a Creativity Certificate, enhancing his skills in creative thinking and problem-solving, essential for fostering innovation within a corporate setting.
Thomas's educational achievements demonstrate his commitment to lifelong learning and professional development, keeping him at the forefront of innovation methodologies.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Thomas has consistently demonstrated an ability to turn innovative concepts into practical applications that drive organizational change and business transformation. Some of his notable achievements include:
- Successful Launch of an Internal Incubator: By establishing an internal business incubator within Groupe PSA, Thomas played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between traditional corporate structures and agile startup practices, enabling colleagues to explore new business avenues.
- Integration into Business Lab: His incubator smoothly transitioned into Groupe PSA’s Business Lab, significantly enhancing the company’s innovation ecosystem and collaborative culture.
- Leadership in Open Innovation: As a leader of Open Innovation for People at Groupe PSA, Thomas led initiatives that opened collaboration with external partners, pushing the boundaries on creativity and ideation beyond the usual corporate confines.
- Operational Enhancements: In roles such as Customer Insight & Creativity Consultant and Project Management Support for Research & Innovation, Thomas contributed to boosting operational efficiency and fostering a customer-centric innovation strategy.
The blend of Thomas's strong educational background, robust professional experience, and a clear focus on innovation through collaboration has established him as a thought leader in the fields of engineering and corporate innovation. He continues to influence organizations with his vision for integrating innovative ideas into practical business outcomes, facilitating a culture where creativity thrives and new ideas flourish.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.