News From France - Avril 2002

Pascal Baudry's "Learning Expeditions"

Pascal Baudry's track record is impressive: a doctor in psychology, a civil engineer, with an MBA from the Institut Supérieur des Affaires, he began his career working for Renault and later for American Motors in Canada. He is now Founder of the San Francisco based WDHB Consulting Group, which since 1988 has offered "Learning Expeditions" throughout the U.S. for French businesses keen to develop new management methods. As a result of his rich experience of French and American cultural and business ethics, he has published one of the first interactive cyberbooks, L'autre rive  : Comprendre les Americains pour comprendre les Francais (The other side: Understanding Americans in order to understand the French), downloadable for free at www.pbaudry.com. News From France's Karen Iacobelli conducted the following interview.

NFF: What do you think are the most striking cultural differences which affect the French and the American business management styles?

PB.: Americans are sometimes surprised to see that a large number of French companies are very successful worldwide, including many which invest directly in the U.S. Usually, their managers are graduates of highly selective French "Grandes Ecoles" and many also hold an MBA. Such companies are very similar in style to their American counterparts, although they tend to place more emphasis on the long-term. In older firms, there is frequently a more traditional style at play, with a keen sense of hierarchy, a less explicit style of management, a weaker sense of one's contractual obligations, less use of predefined and formalized processes, and a more nimble attitude in contexts of rapid change.

NFF: How do WDHB's Learning Expeditions benefit French businessmen?

PB.: Twenty-four out of the top French 50 companies are our clients for Learning Expeditions, and some are very faithful. (France Telecom has sent us 450 of their top 600 executives; we hosted 17 groups from Leroy Merlin, 8 from Decathlon, 6 from Banque Populaire). Frequently, the Executive Committee comes first, then they send us their associates. We use the meetings with American companies, consultants, and academics, to renew the thinking of the visiting senior executives, but in no way to copy what the Americans do. We also put together Strategic Expeditions, catering to one CEO at a time. So far, we have hosted nine CEOs from European groups with more than 10 billion dollars in sales; there, we meet with top American CEOs, and do some strategic work between the meetings.

NFF: Have you considered setting up Learning Expeditions for Americans in France? If not, why?

PB.: A market study showed that American firms are not as interested in understanding how and why European firms function differently from that of American companies. They are more interested in getting help to set foot in Europe. But, we are in the "get it" business, not in the "let's do business abroad" business. As far as the Americans are concerned, we have begun an activity for Midwest and East Coast companies who want to understand the different mindset and practices in Northern California.

NFF: Do you have any plans to publish a hard-copy of your online book?

PB.: I have been approached by three publishers, and I am currently debating whether publishing the cyberbook on paper would weaken its now vibrant life on the Web (1,750 readers downloaded the cyberbook in March, and we received 1,100 comments since we posted the book online).