Jean-François Zobrist
One of our favorite Quantum Heroes is Jean-Francois Zobrist, CEO of FAVI, a highly successful, 600-person French auto components manufacturer. Zobrist not only guided the transformation of FAVI through 30 years of quantum leadership, but has also become a highly effective evangelist for what he calls “managing with confidence.” When Zobrist talks about confidence, he’s referring not to self-confidence, but confidence in his people. His book, FAVI: The Company That Believes That People Are Good, explains his underlying philosophy:
- Happiness can’t exist without performance
- The unhappiness of an unproductive man poisons the productivity of others
- The happy employee makes the customer happy, and the happy customer makes the shareholder happy – trust brings more than control
Putting Trust in People
Zobrist believes that bosslessness and self-organization result in a far more productive and valuable system for FAVI. He frequently describes himself as a “stupid and lazy manager who has no idea of what people are doing.” Odd language to hear from a CEO, but Zobrist’s point is that he doesn’t know how to do the actual work, so he shouldn’t have input into it, but rather, have trust in those who do. He sees his job as providing vision and enabling his teams to do what they do best.
Zobrist believed that having no hierarchy was best for FAVI. It has not had a centralized human resources department in over 30 years. It has 20 teams, each dedicated to a particular client. Zobrist explains that he came into work the day after he became the CEO and “told everyone, you do not work for me or for a boss. You work for your customer. I don’t pay you. They do. Every customer has its own factory now. The customer is king. You do what is needed for them.”
Mathew May, who has written extensively about FAVI, explains that “Zobrist basically flattened FAVI and moved it from being one big plant to being 20 mini-plants housed under one roof. Performance soared because job titles and promotions became irrelevant, no longer a distraction, and all that energy was channeled into the work itself, which at FAVI is of the highest quality.”
Zobrist’s confidence and the willingness of his employees to embrace change have paid off. FAVI has achieved a 50% market share — at a time when its competitors have either gone out of business or severely diminished.
The Customer is King
FAVI leadership encourages employees to innovate and empowers them to directly resolve any problem their customer might encounter. Each team is responsible for its own HR, purchasing, product development and customer service. The control has moved from the top of an arbitrary hierarchy to the people on the front lines, where it is much more valuable and effective. Zobrist’s wisdom in implementing the cornerstones of a quantum approach – open communication, a collaborative environment, and mutual trust between management and employees – has resulted in a happy, productive company that has yielded impressive margins for over 30 years
