The New organisation of Auchan France

Résumé du document

Most of the biggest French firms are doing new organisations in order to save operating cost. It is directly linked with the fact that the growth of yearly turnover is very low (less than 2%). Indeed, there is a structural decline of the purchasing power. The companies have to find solutions to entice costumers into buying. The headquarters of Auchan have realized that the regional headquarters were too far from the reality of the hypermarket and the concerns of the directors of hypermarkets. The trend was the widening of the gap. The general and strategic decisions were taken by senior executives who had forgotten the daily concerns of hypermarkets in terms of costs, competitions, consumptions, relationships between the managers (shopwalkers, department managers, human resources manager…) and the employers (salesmen, technicians, labourers, cashiers…). The senior managers used to take decisions from their office in the regional headquarters without being aware of the case by case situations in hypermarkets.

Extraits

[...] These five “operational director” will be members of the general direction of Auchan France. In other words, the general direction will be closer to the directors of supermarkets and their staff (see Appendix 4). Moreover, the grade of the sales direction which was in the former organization chart between the general direction and the regional direction is suppressed. The role of the “operational director” is first to be the link between the general direction and the top managers of hypermarkets. [...]

[...] The first family concern was the textile distribution named Phildar. In July 1961, Gerard Mulliez opened in Roubaix the first supermarket (600 in Roubaix (North of France) in the district of “Hauts Champs”. The first hypermarket (more than 3000 of sales surface) opened in 1967 in Roncq. Seven others supermarkets have opened until 1973 in the region “Nord-Pas-de-Calais” The group opened a central purchasing department which embodied the strategy: purchasing in massive volume to cut the costs and permitting to the supermarkets to have the same products The openings are outside from northern France: Le Havre (Normandy) and Fontenay-sous-Bois (suburb of Paris) 1974-1980. [...]

[...] The shareholding is also a founding value of the group. Indeed, the employees own of the capital of the firm of Auchan employers are shareholders around the world and 97% of Auchan employers are shareholders in France. The objective of the top management consists in that each employee owns one year of wages in saving. Of course, these measure permits that the employers find more attachment in the company, interest in its economical results and they would think hard whether they want to leave the company because of such advantages. [...]

[...] With my position of internship, I was not concerned with this new organisation with quick-acting but I noticed the changes and employees' reactions. My intention is to give an account of managing change and the sense of leadership in complex operating environments. Introduction Most of the biggest French firms are doing new organisations in order to save operating cost. It is directly linked with the fact that the growth of yearly turnover is very low (less than Indeed, there is a structural decline of the purchasing power. The companies have to find solutions to entice costumers into buying. [...]

[...] Also, the new organisation permits the reinforcement of the transmission of knowledge and experiences. It is also the end of speeches about the profitability in weekly direction meetings. Henceforward, the speeches of directors of hypermarkets will deal with the shopping, the customers' service The reinforcement of synergy: a key factor of success The synergy between hypermarkets is also reinforced. It means the synergy between the directors of hypermarkets. Indeed, they can exchange their impressions about their sites and their keys' successes factors. [...]