Hubert de Boisredon is the director of Armor, Midcap Industriel (2000 employees, 280 M € turnover), world leader in thermal transfer ribbons for the traceability of products and packaging. He was elected strategist of the year 2019 by Les Echos, in the SME and ETI category.
What do you see as the challenges facing a business leader?
This crisis presents us with two challenges. The first is a health challenge, the second is to ensure the continuity of our activity. Indeed, Armor provides essential products for the activity of the economy and for the functioning of the nation. The company manufactures barcode printing consumables for food, pharmaceuticals and basic necessities. If we were unable to supply these products, the entire production and distribution chain would be affected. So we chose to stay in business.
When we had to decide on the continuation of the activity, a debate was established. I listened to all the arguments to the end. For many, the question arose as to whether loyalty to one’s family and to everyone’s health did not require closing the business and remaining confined to one’s home. Unity was built around the decision to remain active in the name of the general interest, that of society as a whole. We see ourselves as being the second line behind those who are at the front (the medical world, food, public services, etc.).
What are the qualities that the leader must mobilize to face this crisis?
It is for the leader to ensure the safety of the teams while taking care of the social body of the company. The complexity lies in the fact that some people have no choice but to come to the factory to ensure production and others can continue their activity by teleworking. We didn’t want a distance to develop between the workers who are at the front, and the others at home, in the second line. Therefore, to signify the unity of the company and show solidarity with those who ensure production at the factory, some of us (including about 30% of the people in the head office managers) have chosen to be present at the office even if we were not obliged to. I made the choice to be present every day at the office. The other members of the general management committee as well. I then spend as much as I can see the employees who are at their post to support them, tell them that I am with them, thank them and encourage them. And also support each other on the phone. It also does me good and gives me strength to witness the commitment of each other. I therefore experience that my role in the continuation of the activity requires above all a quality of presence.
We apply, of course, the highest sanitary rules. This crisis requires the rigorous application of all the health measures enacted and proposed by the government to give confidence to employees, showing that the company is doing everything possible to avoid contamination. This involves strict respect of distances, hygiene measures to the elimination of bottled water in the factory and the identification of anything that could ensure the spread of the virus. Exemplarity is a quality that must be particularly implemented at this critical moment. As such, I would like to thank the various managers and actors of the company in the industrial and logistics field for their constant vigilance and their courage 24 hours a day. And also a huge thank you to the sales, administrative and financial teams who ensure the relationship with customers, who also need to be reassured about our ability to provide them with the stocks they need.
In this period, I particularly perceive the importance for me of ensuring the unity of the company, in particular within the management team, by ensuring that there is a quality relationship with everyone. A crisis like the one we are experiencing can bring to light differences or differences of opinion that can break this unity. We tried to identify what it means for us to be united and responsible. Everything we have built together over the past few years in terms of the quality of our relationship is a foundation on which we can build today.
A fundamental attitude on the part of the leader is also, I believe, to convey confidence.
In this very special period, the business leaders that we are are also shaken. Usually I convey confidence by showing our strength, by communicating results on a healthy business. Today, it is a question of transmitting confidence of another order because no one knows how long this crisis will last, in what state the economy will be in a few months, in what state the company will be coming out of the crisis. I am unable to predict the turnover for the month of April. I then have to transmit a much more inner confidence, a confidence in the fact that the value of the life of the company lies in the quality of our relations between us more than in what will happen. The pillar on which we can rely is “being together”. The main message that I strive to deliver to employees but also to investors, suppliers and customers is the following: we are together, you can count on us as I know we can count on you. If we live this fully we can believe together that the best will be given to us, even if we do not know today how this best will materialize. It requires a certain letting go.
This crisis constitutes for me an invitation to return to the source of my first commitment which is to ardently desire to build a more humane, more harmonious, more ecological and fairer world. The meaning of my life is that.
This crisis foreshadows the possibility of a profound transformation of our world: promotion of certain professions, including production professions, and confirmation of the priority to be given to ecological commitment. When we see that we are able to put thousands of billions to fight against a virus, why can’t we invest similar sums to fight against what can make all of humanity disappear and in particular global warming.
What advice do you want to share with other leaders?
First do not remain alone as leaders. We are all confronted with the same difficulties, the same questions, the same powerlessness sometimes in the face of the future. Share with your peers so you don’t stay isolated.
In a very practical way, enter all the measures offered to you, including the loans offered by the banks with the guarantee of the BPI. We’ll have to hold on, it’s going to be hard. We have to admit that this crisis is going to be long and difficult.
Do everything possible to respect your customers and suppliers, commit to paying invoices on time because we are indirectly responsible for the chain and we have a real social responsibility. We are responsible for each other’s survival.
Be present in the field with your staff who need you even more than usual. This crisis is an opportunity to demonstrate living together in society, but also within companies.Share FacebookTwitterLink to source https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/manager-dans-la-crise-avec-hubert-de-boisredon-a…
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