Management :

Article published in the magazine « Management » (France, Prisma Presse Group) in October 2000. Text written by the journalist Marie-Pierre Noguès. Translated from original French language.

Why do they all leave France ? Although there is euphoria around, it continues. A large number of entrepreneurs prefer going to other countries to work… and to succeed.

Thirty-three year old Karl Strepkoff, who has settled in Tokyo since 1993(read the portrait that follows), tells how, before leaving France, he could multiply his turnover by three in 4 years and still not have his monthly President’s salary exceed 3,000 French francs (around US$ 500) due to the French administrative system (compulsory unemployment insurance, retirement system).

I feel much more free in Japan than in France.

When I finished business school at ISG, in 1989, I refused a job offer from Philips at the end of my internship. I felt that I did not have the mentality necessary to work within a large group where individual promotion is inhibited by salary tables.

Together with a friend from the same business school, I opened a company in Paris and began importing items made with silk from Thailand. The name of this company was and still is “Soie Coquine” (“teasing silk” in English).

Within 4 years, we multiplied the turnover by three – from 330,000 to1 million French francs (from around US$ 50,000 to around US$ 150,000). However, we continued to have difficult times ! Our incomes could not cover accounting fees, fees related to French government unemployment insurance, and fees related to retirement plans. The result was that my monthly salary during that period never exceeded 3,000 French francs (around US$ 500).

In 1993, disgusted, I gave up and joined my Japanese girlfriend in Tokyo. There I started the Soie Coquine activity, first as a salary person working for an import-export trading firm and after 2 years, with my own company in association with my girlfriend. Today, the company employs three Japanese and has a turnover of 9 million French francs (around US$ 1,300,000). My customers include Coca-Cola, the cosmetics manufacturer Avon, Pernod-Ricard, etc.

Here in Japan, I have the feeling that it is possible to do what is impossible to do in France, like mixing office and home at the same location, without time limit, or benefit from a VAT decrease from a certain profit level. I believe that the Japanese system is very encouraging.

Japanese people are very suspicious when it comes to foreigners, but personally I feel nevertheless a lot more free here.