Air liquide: exceptional stable governance
Are there any recipes, or even secrets, to explain this serenity at the top of the group?
Air Liquide is an exception in the landscape of large companies in France. Since its creation in 1902, the group has had only five presidents. The calculation is quickly done: a manager stays in charge for an average of twenty years.
Who can boast such longevity within the major French groups? There is Publicis, over which Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet and then Maurice Lévy reigned for nine decades; L’Oréal, with six bosses in one hundred and twelve years; Bouygues with its founder, Francis, and then his son, Martin. Three groups with deep family roots. This is not the case with Air Liquide. Are there any recipes, or even secrets, to explain this serenity at the top of the group?
