French companies are slowly changing

In a surprise move, the CEO of ALCATEL, Serge Tchuruk, has designed Mike Quigley, an Anglo-Australian with more than 30 years of experience within ALCATEL, to be the next COO. This makes him the likely successor at the top job.

This is a mini-revolution in the world of big French companies, dominated by alumni from X, ENA and HEC. Quigley does not even speak French! At least, when L'Oreal selected Lindsay Owen-Jones for the top job, he was speaking French.

Overall, this is a welcome move. Foreigners won't be constrained by cultural hurdles that could have limited their ability to shape French companies to face new challenges. I'm not saying that French firms should forget all about their nationality but to compete in the international arena requires a multi-cultural and diverse team.

For MBA students interested by French firms, this is also good news. Although most big French firms do not yet have a formal MBA recruitment program (some firms barely know what an MBA is), this will probably change in the future as a larger share of their business will be operated outside of France, in countries where X, ENA and HEC does not mean much but where an MBA does.