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An interview with Luc Frayssinet

1/ Can you brief us about how the company works and about the part you play in it ?

For one thing, you have to grasp the economic trend and the market the company is evolving in. We serve a distributing clientele that supplies viticulture, arboriculture, market gardening, and horticulture, but also other distributors specialized in green spaces, stadiums and golf courses. Both networks are looking for experts in organic fertilization but also for lasting companies. With time, a relationship of mutual trust sets in and drives us into permanent self-questioning. Unlike some flashy businesses with limited innovation, our trade requires a more stable and more humane approach. From this market axiom and this required loyalty level, one can understand how the company works and the part I play in it.

2/ According to some people the way you function is atypical, is that right ?

Atypical or not, one should ask if it works or if it doesn’t … up to that point I should say it does and above all that it durably works. The policy we’ve been following is a unifying one. A great general manager told me one day that a company’s barometer had three crucial intertwined indicators : the customer’s satisfaction, the company’s perennation, the staff motivation. Let’s resume, is it atypical to pay special attention to your customers, to your corporate image and credibility, to the quality of your products and services? Of course it isn’t, but a lot of companies have too easily forgotten these fundamentals which make up a company’s ethics and help build up a reputation in a trade. Whatever their position in the company, the staff have been feeling concerned and have been developing a sense of detail, a behaviour they used to call « a good-spirited sense of fellowship and conscientiousness », which has become scarce nowadays. The notions of efficiency and the values of usefulness have been adopted by everyone, honestly.

3/ What is your function then and what are your recipes ?

Clearly, I hold the position of President and General Manager which means setting into move and giving spirit to men and women you have handpicked, by making everyone respect the rules and a spirit based on mutual respect. It means being extremely demanding with the others and with myself. The eleven « process pilots » need to be given spirit in order to circulate the management’s objectives and policy. To achieve this, a high level of communication and availability from my part is most important.

The quality label used in management and Iso label for heads of department.

Every morning a 15 to 30 mn ”round table” allows us to debate on general and major topics with these pilots. On Tuesday mornings, a 3 hour meeting during which topics are examined more thoroughly is led by my brother and myself. As regards Iso, two management reviews a year are submitted and taken very earnestly. In addition, we’ve been used for seven years to relocating our team of pilots twice a year in order to debate the points we find crucial for the company’s future.

All the subtle touch of the management consists in guiding, motivating, having things done, keeping the backward and upward position needed for a global vision. I am most concerned in letting go everyone’s talent and energy, while watching not to appear heavily hierarchical. This requires some flexibility, insight and watchfulness in order to maintain a high level of trust with all the participants. The twenty seven years I have spent with the company have made my understanding facts and events much easier.

What about your recipes ?
You’ve just been given them. I will add ideas, movement, it means you avoid getting bored and it’s really unifying. Financially, you should not obviously live above your means because the wheel turns, times are transient, so let’s be prudent and humble.

4/ You’ve been working close together with your brother Thierry for 25 years, what is your secret ?

To trust each other and know each other very well. In order to remain a strength, « brotherhood » must be braced daily through watchfulness, precaution and listening. We have developed a strong osmosis on objectives. Our constant communication allows us to react quickly in case of unexpected situations.

5/ Is a managing director a high level sportsman ?

I do believe your behaviour has got to be top level and even if I often allude to sport, I would rather have here the metaphor of a conductor. Just like a managing director, he selects his musicians, sets them into beat and harmony authoritatively but flexibly, with an aim at quality and efficiency. And when there is pleasure, it’s even better. But everyone behaves according to his own nature !

6/ What are your major concerns today ?

Let our strengths remain our strengths on what we said before. The economy is in dire straits, let’s not get less vigilant and cautious. The leap in the prices of raw materials for about a year because of globalization. It’s the law of supply and demand, never has the supplier relationship been so important. But on this point, Thierry is outstanding and I know his concept of lasting relationship is an asset for the company.

7/ What is your dearest wish ?

Let things get ahead « earnestly and professionally », let my envy remain intact and let’s stay aware of all that makes us number one on a coveted market.