Whereas it isn’t significantly uncommon for a international nationwide to go a significant firm overseas, what’s stunning is the variety of French C-suite gamers exterior of French borders.
Le Monde lately highlighted {that a} disproportionate variety of French nationwide CEOs lead firms exterior their residence nation, greater than in every other European nation.
Whether or not it’s Marguerite Bérard at ABN Amro, Ariane Gorin at Expedia, Christophe Fouquet at ASML, or Fidji Simo at Instacart, there are numerous main French gamers at a really excessive degree. Laurent Freixe at Nestlé would have been on this record too earlier than being lately ousted for having hid an affair with a extra junior colleague.
In truth, French nationals head about 30 main international firms with a complete valuation of $2 trillion, corresponding to the complete market cap of France’s CAC 40 index, in accordance with Le Monde.
So, what’s the key to French success abroad?
Effectively, it begins early. Napoleon laid the muse for the French faculty system, creating secondary colleges that might produce a political class able to successfully operating the navy and the nation, in addition to a center class that wouldn’t need to trigger one other revolution. Many functioned in a regimented method, much like navy colleges.
In the present day, the French faculty system nonetheless separates the elite, repeatedly encouraging kids—even at an elementary degree—to contemplate how their grades right now will assist them safe the best jobs after attending one of the best increased schooling establishments.
These are the grandes écoles, the place admission is fierce, and observe two years of intensive coaching in courses préparatoires, that are akin to college. The grandes écoles embrace elite enterprise colleges, corresponding to École Polytechnique, HEC Paris, Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, ESSEC, and Sciences Po, whose graduates have a repute for robust enterprise acumen, technique, and analytical abilities. And it’s these abilities that the enterprise world extremely values, wherever they could be positioned. Robust English abilities are anticipated.
Many of those graduates develop into French politicians or a part of the French elite, successfully making a administration class in each a part of French society. In 1980, an American examine revealed that 80% of the highest executives in essentially the most distinguished French firms got here from simply 5 grandes écoles.
A few of these French executives relocate abroad by way of a posting with a French agency after which transition to a unique firm; a few of these CEOs have been exterior of France for many years.
Matthieu Courtecuisse, founding father of consulting agency Sia Companions, instructed Le Monde that he believes it’s a part of a mind drain. U.S. firms are full of French PhD holders in any respect ranges, many working in U.S. biology or synthetic intelligence organizations, which he sees as a symptom of France’s de-industrialization.
Others would possibly say that non-French firms are enticing to French executives as a result of the French working world could be notoriously inflexible. Strict hierarchical buildings and extremely bureaucratic labor legal guidelines discourage risk-taking.
As well as, French employers count on candidates to own particular {qualifications} and expertise. Nonetheless, work cultures differ, and corporations exterior of France can permit for extra flexibility.
An fascinating conundrum arises from the truth that it might be the very nature of elite colleges and a inflexible company tradition that encourages some French leaders to maneuver away.
