France Telecom is reported to be on the verge of a “full-blown leadership crisis,” according to the Financial Times.
Seems Stéphane Richard, the COO and designated successor to CEO Didier Lombard, is pushing for Lombard to step aside so France Telecom – where 34 employees have committed suicide since January 2008 – can “turn a new leaf,” as the Times put it.
And even though Richard said after the 24th suicide last year that he supports Lombard, he now wants his boss to leave the CEO post, while staying on as a non-executive director. But Lombard’s post is good until June 2011 and he says Richard isn’t ready to take over the embattled service provider. France Telecom’s board, however, could oust Lombard in late February, if rumor picked up by Financial Times is accurate.
“The question the board members of France Telecom must ask themselves is whether the management and governance structure is well suited to the projects facing the group in 2010,” Richard told Reuters last week. “I am not asking for anything in particular.”
Such a leadership crisis comes at a terrible time for France Telecom. The carrier has undergone major restructuring since becoming privatized after being a state-owned company for decades. The organizational changes underway are common among American corporations but something to which few Europeans are accustomed. Pressure from the restructuring has caused a spate of unfortunate deaths as more than two dozen employees could not cope with the revamping. Lombard has taken most of the blame for the suicides, since the reorganization has happened under his watch. But Richard believes it’s time for Lombard to depart as CEO so Richard can “be the architect of the renewal of the company,” a company insider told the Financial Times.
