The Egyptian Mobinil may soon fall under his Cup

"Michel Bon was appreciated because he was a rabble-rouser strand." Thierry Breton was feared. Didier Lombard is simply ignored. "For this former of France Telecom, the current CEO of the historical operator, serving for four years, has neither the charisma nor the exuberance of his predecessors, to the joysticks and the time of the bubble, then of the debt. Become the number one, Didier Lombard remained in the shadows, as to the time he was Adviser to the President Thierry Breton. If the latter had tours in the region, Didier Lombard prefers to speak with captains of industry, alliances of high level, the international strategy. With success.

It was he who had the idea to deploy the mobile in Africa, a market today growing. The Egyptian Mobinil may soon fall under his Cup. Recently, he has married its British subsidiary with T-Mobile UK and strengthened in Switzerland with Sunrise. If it failed to buy Teliasonera, he surprised his world by acquiring Spanish led. The former Director of the industry, passed by the French Agency for international investments, known to use a long address book as the arm to a vision.

"It is him who understood that the heart of the business of operator would move the telephone and the Internet to the television." "Everyone here recognizes that it is a visionary" approves Patrice Diochet, CFDT Union representative. "But the problem is that the business to business, it does not work if there is no social cohesion in the enterprise.".Of course, Didier Lombard is not the man who set fire to France Telecom. Since privatisation, the pressure of competition is felt and technological innovations are forcing the company to molt. The workforce has been reduced with big "holidays of end of career", technicians were asked to become commercial and frames to move, to go to another region or another trade.

Malaise announced

Believe a close business banker of the Directorate, "the malaise was part long." "It was not even sure that it could reduce it if it had been a more political boss, knowing manage media communication".

And the engine of the Permanent Revolution began to have misfiring, reflects Patrice Diochet: "in 2002, with debt of 67 billion, we have agreed to give a necklace." In 2006, when the Group has been restated, we thought that it would be a different style of management. But the restructuring are distributed than ever! "This year, Didier Lombard has launched the Next plan, 22,000 deletions of posts in three years. Since his arrival, he also increased the training budget to accompany internal mobility - these both voiced mobilities, he agreed to freeze until the end of the year after the wave of suicides of school.

Internally, we is focused but not against Didier Lombard. The pattern of operations France, Louis-Pierre Wenes, has long been the scarecrow. Until his resignation forced in October, under political pressure, it was the cutter of costs without heart, one that has removed the financial support that allowed sweetener of mobilities. "Didier Lombard has completely delegated the management people have applied to revenues." "When the case of the suicides broke, it was catastrophé for real", believes a framework of France Telecom. It was however not without having listened to the grievances of the unions. But there are messages hard to hear for a pattern-loving transformation.