Leadership Case: "How did Georges Plassat get Carrefour Group back on its feet in less than 3 years?"

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[...] Leadership Case: did Georges Plassat get Carrefour Group back on its feet in less than 3 years?” Yasmine RHOUL Pandora VALY Harold ZOUARI Professor: Camille PRADIES Introduction: the situation and the problem Carrefour is one of the first employer in France with employees ( worldwide) and millions of clients. But in 2011, Carrefour Group was in a very bad shape and was sinking under too much administrative paperwork, inadequate processes and way too many reporting. Its profit went down by 14% and its share price decreased by 30%. [...]

[...] HR/ Management: too many administrative people were working at the Head Quarters doing jobs, which were quickly considered by Plassat as useless to 600 of them were rapidly fired. The Followers First, Georges Plassat is strongly followed by his current shareholders Bernard Arnault and Sebastien Bazin. He is himself saying that his “shareholders believe so much in [him] that it sometimes make [him] do things never thought could have done”. Second, his colleagues/ co-workers, board of directors and employees follow him. It's a physical leadership and he is a very energetic man. [...]

[...] After its first semester as CEO of Carrefour, sales went up by In 2014, growth of worldwide sales went up by with an increase of net profit by 2.82 billion compared to 2013 and share prices went up by 50%. In France only, net profit increased by in 2014. By the end of 2014, Georges Plassat bought 800 DIA stores, which made Carrefour Group gain in market share. After 2 years and a half, clients come back at Carrefour, sales are progressing regularly and Carrefour can at last compete in this price war against Leclerc and Auchan. [...]

[...] Transformational leadership Inspirational motivation Idealized In;luence Total Transformational Leadership Individualized Consideration Intellectual Stimulation Authentic Leadership Self-­‐awareness Transparency Ethical behavior Balanced processing Total Authentic Leadership Transactional Leadership Contingent reward Management by exception A Management by exception P Total Transactional Leadership Leadership effectiveness Satisfaction Effectiveness Extra-­‐effort Total Leadership Effectiveness Negative leadership behaviors Total Laissez-­‐Faire Thanks to the ELI questionnaire we could determine that Georges Plassat is an effective, authentic and transformational leader but let's give example to show that he really is. - Georges Plassat spends time on the field to identify what goes really wrong. Here 3 examples: In stores, when he was working for Casino, he put the roaster far from the textile alley to avoid bad odors contaminating the clothes, he changed the store music, he adjusted the length of the cashiers' skirts and event their hair. He gave them a monthly subscription to a hairdresser because he did not like their hairstyle. [...]

[...] Nathaniel de Rothschild also fired Plassat from Vivarte in 2011. Both times, the shareholders perceived him as an agitator, as someone out of control. When he takes decisions, he strongly believes that they are the right ones and he does not consult anybody else to take even important decisions. So our recommendation for the company and shareholders of Carrefour would be to keep an eye open because even though they need Plassat they have to make sure that his impulsivity does jeopardize the firm in the future. [...]