When Antoine Frérot left his chair as CEO of Veolia in July 2022, he was 64 years old, thirteen of which he had spent at the head of the water and waste giant. Buoyed by the recent success of the hard-fought takeover bid for Suez, he could have stayed on for a few more years. But he preferred to hand over the reins to his right-hand woman, Estelle Brachlianoff, while retaining the presidency.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers France, the country where seniors are (almost) kings
Add to your selections
“It was the right time. Estelle was ready, she was 50, it’s the right age to start a general management and plan for the long termhe explains. With the acquisition of Suez, Veolia was entering a new era and it was important to start it with a leader who could serve several terms. To run a company, you need to have time ahead of you.” But not too much either. “After a long period of time, we are less likely to renew ourselves in the ideas to be implemented and this can weigh on the company if we do not bring in new blood”he concedes.
Between an old sage or a young wolf, who is ultimately the best boss? Academic research has looked into this question of the age of the captain without really finding a definitive answer. If researchers demonstrate that risk appetite decreases as the CEO ages, this has advantages and disadvantages: young wolves will tend to invest more, to be more innovative, to conduct acquisitions, which allows them to display overall better financial performance than their elders, but, conversely, the probability that they will “fail” the company is higher…
“The experience bonus is in full swing”
This trade-off between performance and security is the role of the board of directors, whose main mission is to choose the best leader for a company. And, depending on the period, the pendulum swings in one direction or the other. “Since Covid, the experience bonus has been in full swinganalyses Hervé Borensztejn, partner at the headhunting firm Heidrick & Struggles. The average age of managers of large French companies, which had been tending to fall regularly, has risen again. It has gone from 55 two years ago to 57 years.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers In Creuse, the oldest department in France, the gamble of repopulation
Add to your selections
“This may seem surprising, at a time when the arrival of artificial intelligence or the consideration of global warming could encourage the rise to power of a new generation of bosses, but the environment is so complex, on a geopolitical, societal or economic level, that boards of directors are choosing experience and existing leaders are staying longer.”continues Sylvain Dhenin, partner of the firm.
You have 48.12% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Related News :