VincentIn the tumult some choose to reach

This Monday, October 20, in his Paris Office, Françoise Gri comes to wipe off his agenda of dozens of meetings, breakfasts, interviews. That morning, newspapers refer to the "contagion" of the financial crisis "in the real economy" and announce breaking of redundancies. A cup of tea smoking hand, President of Manpower France scans a great road map and selects, without losing one minute, the cities it arpentera, a month during its 800 heads of agency meeting. Lille, Rouen, Nantes... meetings in small committees, the boss will detail his vision of the crisis, its opportunities and efforts to provide. A speech reassuring, demanding, martelé tirelessly, to stand up to a market of the acting that collapses. Manpower comes to publish its quarterly results: in France, its turnover of EUR 1.3 billion decreased by 8 from the fall of 2007. Françoise Gri has yet to announce Milwaukee headquarters in France, she renounce a plan social, expensive, demotivating... and dramatic for recovery. A charge for this former boss of IBM France, not to err. The day before, the loss of 600 million euros of squirrel forced Charles Milhaud, the President of the Bank, and Nicolas Mérindol, its Director General, to resign.

The image of Françoise Gri, number of CEOs have reorganized their agendas, as they are now in the front line to restore the confidence of anxious shareholders, concerned employees and volatile markets. "The crisis needed to be on all fronts", summarizes the President of Manpower. Yet crises, these captains of industry to have experienced tens. Dislocation of the geopolitical sphere within globalization, crisis of raw materials, Internet bubble... "The job of CEO is to manage crises constantly," said Francis Labbé, Impress metal packaging giant boss. But it stands by its magnitude. "The brutal breakdown of the application synchronously affected all regions of the world, believes Jean-Pierre Clamadieu, CEO of Rhodia chemist, with some plants turning already idling.

Expect the unexpected

Pushing the traditional values, for example, by reducing the action of Citigroup, which was a few months ago, a flagship of world finance, a few pennies, turmoil caused a loss of benchmarks. "The company, seen as good merchant, has more benchmarks in terms of value. And proven revenues are not enough."Today, the major cost reduction plans, for example, they a relative effect on the value of the action", observes Michel Zarka, President of Oliver Wyman Delta Organization & Leadership. Another factor destabilizing: "There is no consensus on the output of crisis", he says.

Number of CEO therefore spend more time trying to predict this is unpredictable. Since September, the leaders of BNP Paribas are in their third adjustment plan. On the ground, Franck Riboud of Danone head says "doing the sponge", to better capture the signals which may affect its activity. Meanwhile, Michel - Edouard Leclerc has expanded his Observatory, called "Lookout", and the team of a dozen employees looks at trends: "there are a lot of noise, and all noise collide;" "but it is essential to distinguish between the background noise of real sounds", considers "MEL", his nickname, which has traded since the beginning of the crisis, its green tea luncheons lunch to save time.

It is urgent to anticipate, to appease investors, themselves set damaged by the storm. Officially, the report with the shareholders has not changed, meetings are often longer, sometimes more frequently and always more detailed. "Clearly, there is a need for reinsurance, because it build credibility without however providing opportunities," says Nina Mitz, President of the Office of strategic Council Financial Dynamics. "We are all in the same bath." Our activity is not to cut the head of the leaders! ", explains Pierre de Fouquet, President of the French Association of investors in capital (Afic).

Be more imaginative

For the time being, the future remains uncertain and calls for caution. "Since six months, verification measures are more drastic reflects Francis Labbé.". I am particularly attentive to the financial situation of our customers and our suppliers. However, I put the soft pedal on acquisitions that, in the turmoil, could undermine the company. "Thus, the time report is amended. In business, "it is necessary to go much faster, said Maurice Lévy, Publicis pattern." It must be more imaginative, search for new solutions, move permanently. My Chinese puzzle is to find almost every day a novel idea to be more effective and improve what you do.

Without visibility, patterns are trying to juggle, balancing the strategic decisions of long breath with a technical steering are cycled through the verdicts in the short term to walk the company on a daily basis. "We must make rapid decisions."

who can have a significant impact, such as reducing the production of a site. "Should not be mistaken", said Jean-Pierre Clamadieu in Rhodia.

Not to mention that, now, patterns are more challenged in an operational registry. "Many of the problems their back automatically." "Because in the uncertain, nobody dares to risk to decide," said Michel Zarka. Some problems are unpublished. As in this great group, where requests for advance on salary are multiplied by ten months. Because, for the teams, the crisis, which has already caused the deletion of 115.000 jobs in 2008, brutal consequences. Partial unemployment, salary freeze, motivation... At Lisieux, a head of Agency has entrusted Françoise Gri sorrow to respond: "There is no work" for candidates passing the door. Even if the Bank takes his pin of the game, the morale of the employees of BNP Paribas, at 92 the company shareholders, fell with the scholarship course which took a part of their heritage. An unjustified sanction to their eyes. Similarly, in bank branches, employees face the increasing aggressiveness of the customer. "For employees, it is far from being an abstract crisis", says Jean-Pierre Clamadieu.

"Down in bunkers".

In this turmoil, the role of the CEO is, more than ever, a teacher. Also Jean-Pierre Clamadieu multiplies meetings with colleagues on the ground, in France or abroad, including in "informal lunches" in small groups to strengthen its teams. In Renault, Carlos Ghosn introduced "open forums" where he responds to the voluntary employees 1,000 questions. After his tour of France of the agencies, Françoise Gri, for its part, has implemented a "calendar of the word" where she communicates through videos, a newsletter and meetings while conducting surveys to understand the felt of his troops. "It must be in permanent contact with the teams." "It is essential that a dialogue be established," says Françoise Gri.

With vulnerable teams, "bosses know they have a historic role to play, as a pilot in the turmoil, to make sense in the development of business, demonstrating courage and judgment to confront the difficulties", said coach Thierry Chavel. This is the time, according to Michel - Edouard Leclerc, "have the humility to descend in the bunkers that the engine of the ship gives the best". Despite a sluggish advertising market, Maurice Lévy began last week, to distribute free shares to its 45,000 employees, to "accompany" his troops and remind them that each is "part of the company."

Make more accounts

However, in sprawling groups, globalized and transversal, the message does not always. "Internally, employees have the impression that our CEO is more decision-making but that its role is that of a transmission between the seat belt in the United States, shareholders and employees," says Jean-Michel Daire, trade unionist CFDT in IBM France.

At a time where the debate on the compensation of fact patterns rage as reflected in the case of stock options to the General society, the leaders are more exposed. As the ubiquitous technology makes more instant and global messages. "The crisis created an additional distance between patterns and public opinion, regretted Jean-Pierre Clamadieu. As if CEOs were concerned mainly their bonus and their golden parachutes! We are too busy fighting to ensure the sustainability of the company.

Today, the crisis increases tenfold the pressure exacerbates the feelings, reinforces the dysfunctions such as good management. "The CEO must make more accounts to shareholders, banks, administrators, but also to employees, media and the general public." But they are caught by conflicting currents. And nothing them is forgiven. What loneliness! ", summarizes the Vaissière, Chairman of the cabinet V com V. Vincent

In the tumult, some choose to reach. Like Carlos Ghosn who appointed, this fall, Patrick Pelata to the post of Director General. In addition, old patterns return on the front of the stage. Thus, Claude Bébéar, but retired from the Presidency of the Council of AXA, comes to defend in the press the insurer battered stock, denouncing "the greed and the loss of sense of all the actors in the system." Similarly, Michel Pébereau has left BNP Paribas to Baudouin Prot operational joysticks, for six years, would not less one of the most influential patterns of ACC, including behind the scenes of ministerial.

Some CEO use of coaches to "find the mental calm in any ambient agitation", says coach Bernard Ortega. But at the time when "business culture is based on the personal progress and exemplary, risk exhaustion, ensures Eric Albert, coach and founder of the French Institute of action stress." The patterns are similar to situation of competition champions. They must be preserved as such.