Olivier Torrès: From PMU to PMiste

Olivier Torrès has a way with words. This professor of management at the University of Montpellier often describes himself as a " bistrotier normalien ", by which he means that he grew up in his family's Tabary's bar-tabac-PMU in Sète, and went on to study at the École normale supérieure (ENS) in Cachan. These two milestones still mark his career today, as from the first he has retained a deep attachment to craftsmen, shopkeepers, farmers and other small entrepreneurs; from the other, the first steps in academic research that still drives him.

" At the ENS, SMEs didn't exist, so to speak. We only talked about big companies. A blind spot that unfortunately characterizes all great economic theories," points out the professor, who reminds us that almost 99.9% of companies in France are SMEs. They're everywhere except in books! The self-defined "PMiste" found his schooling in Montpellier, with economist Michel Marchesnay, with whom he did his thesis on the globalization strategies of SMEs.

"The inaudible and unavowable suffering of employers".

From this work, he draws the conviction that what defines SMEs is proximity, as opposed to the remote management of large groups. His attachment to small business owners grew as he became increasingly aware of their suffering at work. I was taken aback by a series of suicides by SME managers," he says, taking out a relic from his wallet, a small scrap of newspaper from a "Faits divers" section headlined " Acculé, un entrepreneur met fin à ses jours " (" Accused, an entrepreneur takes his own life "). The same day, Midi libre devoted a full page in its "Society" section to the suicide of an employee in a large company. " This difference in treatment prompted me to write an article in 2009 an article in Le Monde on 'the inaudible and unavowable suffering of employers'", recounts Olivier Torres. His article struck a chord with the media, opening up debate on the subject.

A warning system

" To " fill a gap ", the researcher set up the Amarok observatory in 2008 to monitor the health of small entrepreneurs: " One of my great discoveries through the many studies carried out over the last 20 years has been to show that entrepreneurship, despite the difficulties, is also good for your health! Pathogenic factors (stress, workload, loneliness, uncertainty...) are largely offset by salutogenic factors (resilience, mastery of one's destiny, adaptability...).

Creating a company always adds to the creator's soul; it's a profession of commitment, like all signature professions: artists, authors, researchers... In fact, "firme" does indeed mean signature. Quoting Jean-Paul Sartre, he declares himself an existentialist: everyone is the master of his or her own destiny, and the entrepreneur first and foremost. In German, the entrepreneur is an existenzgründer - which literally means a founder of existence - says the man who is preparing a book on the subject.  

His empathy with SME bosses also drives him to take action on their behalf. His work has shown that 6.5% of them are at risk of severe burnout(Dépistage de l'épuisement et prévention des burn out des dirigeants de PME, 2019). With Amarok, he is setting up a workplace malaise alert system. The association, which runs on its own funds, works in partnership with around a hundred occupational health services and professional federations such as the Fédération française du bâtiment (FFB) and the Fédération nationale des transporteurs routiers (FNTR).

^864th conference

Through these structures, entrepreneurs are invited to position themselves on stress and satisfaction scales, " the entrepreneur's stressometer and satisfactometer ". If the level of unhappiness exceeds a certain threshold, " a psychologist receives the alert and can discuss the situation with the person concerned, directing him or her towards the support services offered by Amarok's partner associations ", explains Olivier Torrès. These associations(60,000 Rebonds, Second Souffle and Re-Créer) are grouped together under the portal du Rebond, which won the European grand prize for business promotion in 2020-2021.

More recently, Olivier Torrès has also opened up his work to farmers and local councillors (A l'UM la science, La santé des maires de France, 10/10/2024). A true herald of the cause of the self-employed, he has just given his ^864th lecture on the subject. While he has received a number of awards, the Julien Marchesnay prize in 2024 is of particular significance to him: " a career award that marks my place in the Montpellier school of small business ". This year, he will also receive the insignia of chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite. A fitting title for a man who never ceases to ride the highways and byways to promote his cause.