A book has just been published containing the writings and speeches of Antoine Riboux, who during the 30 years he spent at the head of BSN (now Danone) was always a pioneer in social and managerial matters.
This month’s issue of Management contains a number of excerpts, and I can only share with you part of the article entitled ‘Taylorism is outdated – we need to rely on the intelligence of employees’.
Let’s put things into context. It was 1987, and the Prime Minister at this time, Jacques Chirac, had entrusted Riboud with a mission to analyse and make proposals on the introduction of new technologies in business. Riboud travelled the world to get a global view of the problem and came to one major conclusion: Taylorism was out of date. The more production becomes mechanised, the more crucial human capital becomes.
I quote: ‘The act of human production is only efficient and profitable if it draws on the full potential of productive capital. For that we need their rigour, their imagination, their motivation and their autonomy. Obedience, strength, repetition, anything that goes in the direction of a well-mastered routine, falls into disuse. The most successful companies will be those that think in terms of technological development, work content and changes in social relations within the company’.
Where are we 20 years later, when what Antoine Riboud analysed is unfolding before our very eyes? Particularly as regards the part of the sentence quoted in bold. At the same point? While technological development and the content of work have been taken into account (at least for some people, not enough of them), the aspect of social relations within the company has fallen by the wayside. In any case, it has not been taken into account along with the other two points.