The local-global firm : Lyonnaise des Eaux, 1980–2004 - D. Lorrain

Dominique Lorrain
Centre d’études des mouvements sociaux, CNRS-EHESS, 54, boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris, France

Available online 21 December 2007 on ScienceDirect
doi:10.1016/j.soctra.2007.10.004

Abstract
This article describes the policy of internationalization conducted by Lyonnaise des Eaux (renamed Suez) and it focuses on the internal transformations during the period from 1980 to 2004 : the stages in these changes, the organizational characteristics and the principles that were applied. The central argument is to consider that this company has, over the period, designed a new type of organization which combines a deep center and the operation of many different operating units based in a large number of countries. It has thus become a “local-global” firm ; different from existing types (H, U, M, J) of firms. This new form has four characteristics : the central role played by local units, procedures of reporting towards a compact center, assistance from the center, and direct exchanges between local units following a “principle of connectivity”. This discussion of the specificity of the large firm with institutional properties is related to a general history of large firms and it contributes as well for a theory of change. It leads to revising the well-established dichotomy between Institution and Market as this type of firm borrows from both fields.

Keywords : Large firm ; M firm ; Cellular firm ; Lyonnaise des Eaux ; Suez ; Privatization ; Public services ; Utilities

Article Outline

• 1. Beginning to go international : 1980–1993
  • 1.1. Commando-type organization
  • 1.2. Learning to explain the specificity of a service approach
  • 1.3. Where to develop further and with whom ? Partnerships
  • 1.4. What makes the firm a group ?
• 2. Towards an international organization : 1993–2000
  • 2.1. Organizational changes
  • 2.2. Personnel management
  • 2.3. Influence strategies
  • 2.4. Developing global intelligence
• 3. Since 2000, the local-global firm
  • 3.1. New competition
  • 3.2. A more compact group, disciplined by the figures
  • 3.3. Human resources : the connectivity principle
  • 3.4. Governance : between realism and sustainable development
• 4. Institutional organizations and change
• Appendix A.
• References

Sociologie du Travail
Volume 49, Supplement 2, December 2007, Pages e90–e109
Translated by Amy Jacobs