“French managers find French management innovative and human, but the problem lies elsewhere,” said Princeton academic Ezra Suleiman

Frank Bournois, Yasmina Jaïdi and Ezra Suleiman publish the French prowess, the management of the CAC 40 seen from elsewhere (Ed Odile Jacob). In this book, they dissect the results of a large-scale study carried out among foreign executives working in French companies. It emerges that large companies have undeniable assets, starting with their ability to reconcile economic performance and human management. Ezra Suleiman, a professor of political science at Princenton and a connoisseur of French society, deciphers for us the successes of the French model but also what constitutes a glass ceiling: a closed selection of elites that ends up discouraging society as a whole.

L’Usine Nouvelle – You asked foreign CAC 40 managers to give their opinion on French companies. French companies come out of it with a good image. Did this surprise you?
Ezra Suleiman – We were the first to be surprised by the results of our research. We more or less had in mind the theses about France being described as an old declining country where everything is going to hell. But what do foreign managers from 90 countries who work in CAC 40 groups tell us? That French companies are dynamic, efficient and that they like to work. To do this work, we carried out a quantitative study and qualitative interviews. It emerges that French management is, in their opinion, very innovative, very flexible, very human. For example, they believe that one can participate in the decision-making process and even that once the decision has been made, it is possible to continue to talk about it. Foreigners are formal: in a French company, you can talk to your n+1. When asked where they would go if they had to leave their company, a majority say they would like to work in a French company.

So everything is going well in the CAC 40 companies?
Obviously not. Managers told us, for example, that they thought that promotions were done in a fair way, with the exception of top management, where you have to have networks and gone to the right schools. The glass ceiling highlighted by foreign managers also applies to French executives. It is something very deeply rooted in French customs: the diplomas of the elite insert its members into a network. What is very specific to France is to consider that once you have passed a young competition, you will be brilliant all your life. However, the reality is very different: there are people who reveal themselves completely at the age of 40, others who, on the contrary, have given everything to win a competition or a good place in a competition and then they can’t achieve anything else. In the United States, for example, I know many very bright lawyers who joined the faculty at the age of 35 to study law after a first career. In France, it’s almost impossible. In any case, it’s very, very rare.

Read the rest of the article by CHRISTOPHE BYS for L’Usine Nouvelle: https://www.usinenouvelle.com/editorial/les-managers-etrangers-trouvent-le-management-francais-innovant-et-humain-mais-le-probleme-est-ailleurs-pour-l-universitaire-ezra-suleiman-de-princeton.N516139