There was no dramatic turn at the head of Saint-Gobain. Chairman and CEO since 2010, Pierre-André de Chalendar hands over the reins of general management to Benoit Bazin on 1er July, while retaining the non-executive chairmanship of the world leader in building materials and glazing. After the chaotic transition of 2005-2007, during which the CEO Jean-Louis Beffa had rejected in extremis a designated dolphin of long time, Christian Streiff, for the benefit of Mr. de Chalendar, the tradition of the handover smoothly within the distant heir to the Manufacture royale des glaces, created by Jean-Baptiste Colbert in 1665, has been respected.
Spotted a long time ago by Mr. Beffa, dubbed by his successor, Mr. Bazin inherits, at the age of 52, a company which, he assures, “Never looked so good”. He largely contributed to this “legacy”. Joining Saint-Gobain in 1999 as strategy director of the “abrasives” branch, the Ponts et Chaussées engineering school graduate, holder of a master of science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has been around since his expatriation to the United States. United States then financial management, up to responsibility for the distribution division, and that of construction products.
At the start of 2019, he was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer. And, in fact, Mr. de Chalendar’s dolphin. This engineer passionate about industry, who says to himself “Inspired by men like Louis Gallois, Bertrand Collomb or Jean Gandois”, is carrying out the Transform & Grow strategic plan, which it has drawn up, at a rapid pace. “Saint-Gobain has radically changed in a few years”, assures Mr. Bazin: this is noticeable not only within his teams, with an executive committee made up half of foreign leaders and more feminized, even if it has not reached parity, but also, and above all, within his organization.
Decentralized activity
The group is in fact reorganized around seventy countries, “Each with a managing director who knows his markets and his customers intimately”, describes Mr. Bazin. These local managers offer less products than complete solutions (materials, insulation, glazing, etc.) integrating an environmental objective and a requirement for operational performance. Thus, 85% of the activity is now managed in a decentralized manner. The head office of La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine) retains a few directorates for global markets, such as Sekurit automotive glass, and cross-functional functions (research and development, strategic marketing, industrial performance).
You have 56.37% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.