Radically reforming chaos

Although for a number of years Total had flourished from its oil activity revenues, the company was hit by a sudden collapse in prices which affected its profitability and called into question its entire investment strategy.  At the same time, its charismatic president died in an accident and his successor had to implement a strict cost-cutting plan quickly in order to carry out drastic change in work practices. In the ensuing organisational chaos, everything was reassessed. The new CEO refused to accept the easy solution of a new redundancy plan, and concentrated instead on the company’s survival and employee mobilisation in order to make Total the most profitable of the five large major oil companies in the space of three years.