Manager of a public company or the art of resisting

• Pierre GIRAUDET
  Honorary managing director, RATP (Paris public transport system) ; President of honour, Air France
  

Summary

At the age of seventeen, one is not very serious and, as Rimbaud wrote, one dreams of the wider world. However, the dream can be shattered and Pierre Giraudet found himself with a ruling pen in his hand in an office without knowing if he would realise his dream one day. Fate was fickle. He learned his apprenticeship by working first in the highways department and then for the Paris underground before he launched himself into the wider world on the wings of Air France. Experiences resulting from such an atypical career helped this important civil servant to say 'no' to powerful people when the life of the company and the work of the most humble employees, formerly his equals, were threatened.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Pascal LEFEBVRE.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference VA030295).