Managerial stories from countries in transition : case studies and lessons learned from the Saint-Gobain group in Poland and Romania

Managerial stories from countries in transition

Case studies and lessons learned from the Saint-Gobain Group in Poland and Romania

Compagnie de Saint-Gobain celebrates its 350th anniversary this year. It has been and remains a great crucible for managers. Of course, all the top managers, who have guided the Group in its growth and international expansion come to mind. Several have continued their careers elsewhere : illustrious CEO's in several major French groups and many others who may have been less visible, but nevertheless effective in the fields of distribution, furnishings, automobiles, petrochemicals, heavy industry, aeronautics and finance. Many earned their operational stripes in Saint-Gobain.

This collection offers a glimpse of operational and practical challenges that grounds Saint-Gobain's « School of Management » pupils in handling complexity and valuing collective intelligence, while eschewing ready-made solutions, miracle cures and universal managerial techniques.

These six testimonies of real management predicaments all bear the same hallmark. They are infinitely more evocative than any profession of principles. They took place 7 or 8 years ago in Poland and Romania, but they could very well occur today or tomorrow in Vietnam, Columbia, Turkey or Ghana.