Olivier Torrès: From PMU to PMist

Olivier Torrès has a way with words. This professor of management at the University of Montpellier often describes himself asa"bistrotier normalien," meaning that someone who grew up in the family-run Tabary's bar-tobacconist-PMU in Sète went on to attend the École normale supérieure (ENS) in Cachan. These two influences continue to shape his career today, as the former instilled in him a deep attachment to artisans, shopkeepers, farmers, and other small business owners, while the latter gave him his first taste of academic research, which still drives him today.

"At ENS, SMEs were virtually non-existent. All we talked about were large companies. This blind spot is unfortunately characteristic of all major economic theories," points out the professor, who reminds us that nearly 99.9% of companies in France are SMEs. " They are everywhere except in books!" The self-proclaimed SME expert found his school in Montpellier, studying under economist Michel Marchesnay, with whom he wrote his thesis on SME globalization strategies.

“The unheard and unmentionable suffering of employers”

From this work, he drew the conclusion that what defines SMEs is proximity, as opposed to remote management in large corporations. His attachment to small business owners grew as he became aware of their suffering at work. "I was shocked by a series of suicides among SME managers," he says, taking a relic out of his wallet, a small piece of newspaper from a "News in Brief" section headlined "Cornered, an entrepreneur takes his own life." On the same day, Midi Libre devoted an entire page in its "Society" section to the suicide of an employee in a large company. "This difference in treatment prompted me to write an opinion piece in Le Monde in 2009 a column in Le Monde on 'the unheard and unmentionable suffering of employers,'" says Olivier Torres. His column hit home in the media and opened up the debate on the subject.

An alert system

"To fill a gap," in 2008 the researcher created the Amarok observatory to monitor the health of small business owners: "One of my major discoveries through the numerous studies conducted over nearly 20 years was to show that entrepreneurship, despite the difficulties, was also good for your health!"Pathogenic factors (stress, workload, loneliness, uncertainty, etc.) are largely offset by salutogenic factors—those that are good for health—such as resilience, control over one's destiny, adaptability, etc.

"Starting a business always gives the creator an extra spark; it's a job that requires commitment, like all jobs that involve putting your name on something: artists, authors, researchers... In fact, the word 'firm' means 'signature'." Quoting Jean-Paul Sartre, he declares himself an existentialist: everyone is the master of their own destiny, and entrepreneurs are at the forefront of this. In German, a business creator 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 owners also drives him to take action on their behalf. His work has shown that 6.5% of them are at risk of severe exhaustion (Screening for exhaustion and preventing burnout among SME managers, 2019). With Amarok, he is setting up a system to alert people to workplace distress. The association, which operates with its own funds, works in partnership with around 100 occupational health services and professional federations such as the French Building Federation (FFB) and the National Federation of Road Transporters (FNTR).

^864th conference

Through these structures, entrepreneurs are invited to rate themselves on scales of stress and satisfaction, known asthe"entrepreneur's stressometer and satisfaction meter." If the level of distress exceeds a certain threshold, "a psychologist is alerted and can talk to the person concerned to refer them to support services offered by Amarok's partner associations ," explains Olivier Torrès. These associations (60,000 Rebonds, Second Souffle, and Re-Créer) are brought together under the Rebond portal, 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 elected officials (A l’UM la science, La santé des maires de France, October 10, 2024). A true champion of the cause of self-employed workers, he has just given his^864th lecture on the subject. Although he has received several awards, the Julien Marchesnay Prize he received in 2024 is particularly meaningful to him: "a lifetime achievement award that marks my place in the Montpellier school of SMEs." This year, he will also receive the insignia of Knight of the National Order of Merit. A title that suits someone who never stops traveling far and wide to promote his cause.