France: French and American Management Cultures - Part 3
From ExecutivePlanet.com
As described by management consultant John Gaynard
The Short-Term Attitude
In the cases where acquisitions were a success, American managers were pleased to see that their French counterparts were willing to spend money on R&D and capital investment. Before the purchase, many of the U.S. plants were being run on a shoe-string, and milked of investment. All too often, it seems, an American manager who knows that he will be in a job for only two or three years will have a tendency to shirk necessary investment. The money thus “saved” will drop to the bottom line. This is because the manager knows that he or she is being judged on the quarterly profit figures. Unfortunately, his or her successor will be left to pick up the pieces, run foul of pollution laws, find him or herself faced with on-the-job accidents, or encounter any other of the myriad dangers that could have been avoided by preventive maintenance. This short-term attitude to investment is anathema to French engineers and managers who pride themselves on health and safety, plant maintenance and product quality. They were amazed at how many American plants they acquired were allowed to turn out product in plants held together with scotch tape.
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Learn to Read and Write French
American managers, on the other hand, run rings around the French when it comes to marketing and customer service. In France line managers have next to no contact with clients. In the U.S. the line manager seems to be constantly talking to and about the client. This is where the French know they have the most to learn. Only in the luxury goods industry do the French have the same brand awareness and clout and as good a distribution system and knowledge of the client as do the Americans.
Franck's comparison of American and French styles of management leads him to the conclusion that U.S. methods export themselves better. They impose more or less the same reporting structures on all of their subsidiaries, whatever the geographical location. An American company coming to France needs to learn how to read and write French but, culturally, it does not need to transform itself into a French company. French companies, however, do not have a management model that transfers easily. At first they try to impose on the acquired company an over-qualified elite, which is seriously beginning to lack the requisite variety needed to compete in continually evolving markets. Then the ones who succeed with their mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. realize they have transformed themselves, to a greater or lesser extent, into American companies and they do what it takes.
John Gaynard is a consultant with Systemes & Ressources in Paris. He also tutors in French and British Business Schools. Email : J.Gaynard@syre.com
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