3. INTRODUCTION
“Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it.
Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the
window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The social contract or Principles of Political Right, 1762
4. PART I – FRANCE
TÉLÉCOM
1. Background information
2. Reactions
3. Actions and Consequences
5. A. Background Information
1. MAJOR HISTORICAL FACTS– A PROFIT-MAKING
COMPANY
1996: the state-owned monopoly became a private firm
Costs/Benefits approach
2002: Internet Bubble
2008: Financial Crisis
22 000 layoffs planned to
increase the productivity by
15% between 2004 and
2006
6. 2. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
2003: Official Code of Ethics
“We believe in the loyalty, integrity, motivation, skills, sense
of initiative and accountability of our employees”
Ethics Officers
Whistle blowing program
Group Ethics Committee
7. 3. What led to problems/symptoms
Top
• Schizophrenic Government and European Directive
• Private Market > Expectations Raised
• Pressure on Top Managment
Middle
• Efficiency/Effectiveness
• Pressure on Middle Managment
Emp
• Downsizing/Frozen Recruitment
• Not aware of everything, Internal Competition
• Pressure on the Employees
8. B. Reactions
Management and Investors
• Personal issues
• Statistics against emotion
• “Faire la part des choses”
• After Government intervention:
new social contract (long term
vision: 2015)
• Training for managers
• TV advertisement with
employees as actors
• No changes in FT quote (no
visible reaction from investors)
Employees and Costumers
• Employees were first to
react:
• France Telecom Cries (Video)
• Anti-boss song
• Enquiry on employee’s
feedback
• FT is the biggest firm of a
tripartite oligopoly: switch
cost important
no heavy reaction from
costumers
Wednesday, Sep. 16 2009
The first priority is to stop the contagion that's led to this infernal spiral of suicides.
- Didier Lombard, CEO of France Telecom
Corporate Social Responsibility Committee
9. Media
• “The non-existing issue”
• “When statistics kill the
debate”
• “From one suicide to a
media storm”
Led the national debate
Government
• Made the difference
• Late intervention with
“Fight against stress at
work” campaign
• Is the first shareholder of
the company: has the
most influence
10. April 2010 5 suicides in 15 days
New position CEO
C. Actions and Consequences
11. PART II – MONSANTO
A. Past and Present
B. In India
C. In North-America
13. B. Monsanto in India
• GM seeds
• Heavy promotion
• Huge debts
• Tough climate conditions cause failing crops
• Mass suicides
“Villagers gathered in the house of Anil Kondba Shende and looked at his body as the local police investigated his suicide.”
14. C. Monsanto in North-America
• Monsanto’s North-American Reputation
• Issues Monsanto Faces
• Private Investigators
• Many farmers keep quiet about their abuse
Monsanto vs Schmeiser
The Classic David vs Goliath Struggle
15. A few days later, representatives of a multi-national
corporate group pay you a visit at home, demand that
you surrender your vegetables and file a criminal
complaint against you requesting a fine a $20,000 USD
against you - for the illegal use of patented and
genetically-manipulated seeds.”
“Imagine that a storm blows across your garden - and
that now, without your knowledge and without your
consent, foreign and genetically-manipulated seeds
are in your vegetable patch which you have nourished
and maintained for many years.
16. PART III – CASE
COMPARISON
A. Power
B. Business Cultures
C. Social Consequences
D. Government Interventioin
17. A. Power
France Telecom
Oligopoly
Monsanto
Monopoly
High Impact on the world and their markets
Part of the leading image of what is good or wrong
Smaller firms follow their lead
Stakeholders expect a lot more from them than from other firms
18.
19. EXACTING CULTURES
MONSANTO enlightened egoism FRANCE TELECOM egoism
Role of conflict of interest
Suicide + Violence = Forms of Expression
B. Two unique but not so different
Corporate Cultures
20. C. Dramatic Social Consequences
Monsanto
• Monsanto’s control over
farmers
• Financial and emotional
burdens
• Farmer Suicides In India
France Telecom
• Bad Management
• Effects of downsizing
21. D. Government Intervention
Monsanto
• Sphere of influence
• Little government
intervention
• Monsanto has a large
sphere of influence in US
politics
France Telecom
• Owns a 26.97% stake in
the company
• Board of directors are
French State
representatives
• Government and union
persuaded France
Telecom to suspend
employee transfers to
lessen the stress on the
workers
22. Monsanto’s “Employees”
Prior to being the Supreme Court Judge who put GW Bush in office,Clarence
Thomas was Monsanto's lawyer.
The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (Anne Veneman) was on the Board of Directors of
Monsanto's Calgene Corporation.
The Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld) was on the Board of Directors of
Monsanto's Searle pharmaceuticals.
The U.S. Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, received $50,000 in donations from
Monsanto during his winning campaign for Wisconsin's governor.
The two congressmen receiving the most donations from Monsanto during the last
election were Larry Combest(Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee)
and Attorney General John Ashcroft.
23. Conclusion
For the attention of my family
And all my business associates
The 13th of July, 2009
Thank you for spreading this message to my
colleagues and employees representatives
I killed myself because of my work at France
Telecom. This is the only cause. Continuous “on-
time” and short-deadlines pressures, extra load of
work, lack of training, general disorganization of
the company. “Terror Management”!
I’m now completely lost and disturbed. What is
to become of me? It is better to put an end to that.
(...) I repeat, it is my work that causes all of that, it
is France Télécom to blame for my suicide.
Michel D.
PS : I know that many of you will probably say
they are other causes than work (I’m alone,
single,without kids, and so on). Come will also
imply that I felt my age and did not accept it. But it
is not true, I was always doing well. It is my work
the single cause.
Editor's Notes
“Every man has the right to risk his own life in order to preserve it. Has it ever been said that a man who throws himself out the window to escape from a fire is guilty of suicide?”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The social contract or Principles of Political Right, 1762
Three centuries ago, the French author Jean-Jacques Rousseau described the action of committing suicide as a possible way of escaping danger. Today, two of the biggest companies in the world have faced suicide issues, from either employees or customers.
Can these companies be, therefore, associated with danger?
These modern “capitalist monsters” (Newitz, 2006) control our food (seeds, pesticides, etc.) and means of communication (internet, television, telephone and cellular). They exercise great influence on the government, and they’re so widespread that, in many situations, customers don’t have the option to choose a competitor’s product or service. Investors do not react to their missteps in ethical issues. They have more power than any other company in their industry.
They are France Telecom and Monsanto Inc.
France Telecom has faced a turbulent upbringing, migrating from the public to private sector. Facing the new national competition, it had to make restructuring changes to remain competitive. Shortly after, the Internet bubble of 2002 occurred. This led to the idea that a massive reduction of debt, along with the reduction of job duplicates was the key objective of its new strategy, and would lead to increased employee productivity. The result was empowered but overworked and overstressed employees. Internal mobility was promoted, and employees were expected to perform multiple functions outside of their traditional roles. In 2004, another major downsizing occurred. Along with many employees retiring early and job transfers to the public sector, the recruitment of employees froze. The company decided to outsource some of its activities to cheaper countries, particularly in its call centres.
The employees themselves weren’t immediately aware about what was going on. Then, when next-desk rivalry appeared, it created internal tension between workers. Some of them were even brutalized with psychological abuses, and all of this led to an increase in the feelings of loneliness when the competition among workers made them “turn themselves on each other”.
While some Media supported France Telecom, calling their employee suicides and coping strategies “The non-existing issue” and “When statistics kill the debate”, most of national medias took an opposite standpoint, creating the idea of “From one suicide to a media storm”.
With the media in a frenzy and public outcry reaching a deafening level, the French government was forced to intervene. France Telecom was forced to improve its business practices while following the government (the most influential of its primary stakeholders) requirements. Shortly after, France Telecom created a new social contract between its employees and the company in order to restore confidence, with objectives set on a long-term vision for 2015. Next, the company decided to implement training for managers on psychological social risk prevention (6,000 trained in 2009). In October 2009, more than 2,700 local site meetings were organized with both manager and employee representatives to find the origins of the problem. In the end, they did not find anything more than what had been said by the media.
Monsanto’s Influence:
80% of the beef consumed in the US,
80% of the farmland acreage through its Roundup corn,
93% of US soy beans
