The Favi foundry : a world leader which trusts its employees

Despite what he may say, Jean-François Zobrist is neither as naïve nor as lazy as all that! His method is to create conditions in which his company can continue without him. For this to be possible, he knows that he must trust the people who create the company’s wealth. And for that trust to exist, the employees have to be happy and share the same dream and founding values. Therefore, he has gradually removed everything which is an obstacle to the workers and everything in the production structure which creates a barrier: no more inspections, no more time-clocks, and no more locked warehouses or little Hitlers. In a foundry in the far reaches of the Picardy region, an unusual group adventure has made this SME (small or medium-sized entreprise) a world leader in its speciality, a permanent innovator and a model of profitability thanks to its employees and not in spite of them. It has been like this for the past thirty-five years. So is Mr. Zobrist really as naïve and lazy as all that ? I don’t think so !