How we can help

In French newspapers and on French websites and blogs there is a wealth of data and information about French companies and labor relations that never makes it into the English-language press, whether in the United States or the United Kingdom.   It takes a very good level of understanding of the French business scene and of the French language to pick up hints about how to work successfully with the Works Council and to understand the logic of honour that drives most French relationships in ways that Foreign Managers can take years to understand.   For example quite unwittingly you may be undertaking actions out of good intentions that are undermining your French management team.  In managing knowledge about France there are four levels to be taken into account : 

1. Data that may seem interesting, but that you cannot seem to fit into a framework of meaning.

2. Information (statements based on two or three pieces of data coming together in a way that suddenly makes sense.  It is better for this sort of sense-making to take place earlier than later.)

3. Tacit and Explicit Business Knowledge (this is not the same as scientific knowledge, but a result of management problem-solving, decision-making or creativity that has led to good results and that can be re-used in a specific business context.  Anybody who knows the French grande école system that produces senior managers and engineers knows that it has a logic of its own).

4. Intelligence (the checking out of understanding, looking for the missing piece of data, information or knowledge that can help an expatriate manager in France fill in the small gaps in his or her own knowledge and allow him or her make a risk-weighted decision that can have enormous payback in terms of avoiding risk or making a positive step forward).  This is where we can help.

We are based right in the middle of the Paris Financial District.

The Differences Between French and North American Managers

Very few books have been written about French-American or American-French take-overs. One of them was written in 1997 by Guillaume Franck, a professor of international management at HEC, probably the most influential French business school.  It takes a searching, often humorous, look at French acquisitions in the U.S. The book should be required reading for any French company wishing to buy into the U.S. or any American company wishing to buy into France. The book’s title is "Conquering The American Market - A la conquête du marché américain" and it is published by the Parisian publishing house, Editions Odile Jacob".  You will find an article about the differences in the sidebar. Our experience in working with typically French companies and the subsidiaries of international companies based in France has equipped us to offer multi-cultural coaching to American and British expatriate managers in this country.  French companies have different attitudes to working relationships, hierarchy, power, influence and the task than British or American firms.  Before a manager can focus on the task in France he or she needs to develop the right relationships inside the company.  A broad smile will not do the job, in fact it can be considered superficial and even downright insulting.  French people are very tolerant during the first few months a new expatriate manager spends on the job, but they also expect to see a rapidly deepening understanding and respect for the organizational and national culture.  In addition to personal multi-cultural coaching, our consultants teach intercultural and multi-cultural management in some of France's top business schools.