In the process of patting himself on the back, Accor Director, Baudouin Prot, chief executive of BNP Paribas, shot himself in the foot. His comment through a spokesperson that "Compared with what would normally happen in French capitalism, this is the first time board members have rejected something proposed by a chairman for being poor corporate governance" shows that this type of behaviour; matched to a sycophantic board, is common in France and, as a leading member of the French establishment and a Director of some experience, he has obviously been playing that game, to date.
I suppose we should be grateful that he may have come to his senses, although we should not jump to conclusions and we should wait and see how he behaves in other situations and on other boards.
If this is the first step in cleaning up the way corporate Boards work in France then we should celebrate. I would not hold our collective breath just yet!
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See article:
Accor, the French hotels group, was plunged into crisis last night after it was revealed that three board members representing top shareholders had rejected the appointment of the co-founder's nephew as chief executive.
The board members - Baudouin Prot, chief executive of BNP Paribas; Philippe Citerne, chief operating officer of Société Générale; and Francis Mayer, head of state bank CDC - said they were withdrawing from the process of choosing a successor for Jean-Marc Espalioux as head of Accor.
For CDC, BNP and SocGen, which together own nearly 10 per cent of Accor, the move marks a rejection of the co-chairmen, Gérard Pélisson and Paul Dubrule, who founded the company but now own only 3.5 per cent.
Russell Reynolds, the headhunters hired to find a successor to Mr Espalioux, also pulled out of the selection process.
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