L’Oréal management profile

Résumé du document

L'Oreal is a French company, worldwide leader in cosmetics, based in Paris. The company was founded in 1907, since then, experience and knowledge in the making and the selling of cosmetics have enriched and passed on from generation to generation. L'Oreal is a very big company which owns 17 different cosmetic brands and trades in 130 different countries. Its mission statement reflects the guiding values and objectives of the company : "At L'Oreal, we are fully committed to put all our expertise and research resources to work for the well-being of men and women, in all their diversity, around the world" (loreal, 2005). As expected from a large company, L'Oreal Paris is divided into a lot of departments. These departments are : corporate communications & external affairs, research & development, production & marketing, sales & finance and human resources. Besides, the number of managers working inside the organisation is enormous : indeed L'Oreal, as a worldwide company, has more than 52.000 employees. Thus, in order to draw L'Oreal's organisation chart, I needed to focus particularly on the higher layers of the company : the top managers who make strategic decisions and the middle managers who co-ordinate, from decisions taken, the work of their staff.

Extraits

[...] L'Oreal : cosmetics, beauty, perfumes. [...]

[...] L'Oreal is a French company, worldwide leader in cosmetics, based in Paris. The company was founded in 1907, since then, experience and knowledge in the making and the selling of cosmetics have enriched and passed on from generation to generation. L'Oreal is a very big company which owns 17 differents cosmetic brands and trades in 130 different countries. Its mission statement reflects the guiding values and objectives of the company : L'Oreal, we are fully committed to put all our expertise and research resources to work for the well-being of men and women, in all their diversity, around the world (loreal, 2005) Company structure. [...]

[...] II- Theoretical background 2.1 Organisational culture. L'Oreal, like every organisation, has an organisational culture. This culture, as Unwin (1999) points out, develops over time as the organisation grows. In his study, Handy (1993) holds that organisational structure and organisational culture and deeply linked together. Indeed for each existing structure corresponds a specified culture. In L'Oreal case, an analogy can be noticed between the hierarchical structure of the company and the role culture evoked by Handy(1993). He describes this culture as suitable for large organisations which tend to be more formalized. [...]

[...] Besides these ideas, l'Oreal possesses particular values which influence its management. A case in point is the code of ethics that the group distributes to all its employees : inside we can find the main values and principles of l'Oreal related to its respect for law, individuals, environment This code implicitly shows the clear and fair nature of this hierachical company where everything is stricly checked. Moreover, as a worldwide company, l'Oreal takes account of cultural diversity in the world to produce what they call geocosmetics adpated to each woman wherever she lives, in Asia or America. [...]

[...] For instance, the marketing department of l'Oreal which has a matrix structure, is associated with a task culture. A task culture is, according to Handy, a project-orientated culture where emphasis is on getting the work done. Contrary to hierarchical structure, task culture is based more on expert power than on position and does mainly use of team work. In l'Oreal marketing departement, most of the work is achieved thanks to a team of experimented people working on projects such as launch of new cosmetics : here, individuals' capacities and qualities are part of the strengh of the organisation and are used efficiently (loreal, 2005). [...]