Sodebo Group: when a family-owned company builds resilience by developing people throughout the value chain.

Session presentation: 

Founded in 1973 by Simone and Joseph Bougro, pork butchers and caterers in Saint-Georges de Montaigu, the family business Sodebo, which specializes in fresh catering products, has made it its mission to do good for everyone and to do it well. Since 2000, Marie-Laurence Gouraud, Bénédicte Mercier and Patricia Brochard have been at the head of the French company, continuing their parents' project. Favoring integration since the beginning, the company manufactures a large part of the ingredients that go into the composition of its products (salads, pizzas, boxes, sandwiches...). These products are carefully cooked on site at a unique location in the Vendée region, with a focus on responsible and sustainable quality.

Sodebo's project has always been based on paying attention to the men and women in the company, whatever their role and hierarchical position, by helping them grow personally and professionally. The three co-presidents are committed to developing a form of continuous learning that allows each person to solve problems at his or her own level, as suggested by the subsidiarity model. They also insist on the fact that the autonomy of employees must be exercised within a defined framework to allow the company to be collectively more resilient, as the recent experience of the pandemic has shown.

Sodebo's three co-Chairmen, Marie-Laurence Gouraud, Bénédicte Mercier and Patricia Brochard, will be interviewed by Charles-Henri Besseyre des Horts, Professor Emeritus at HEC Paris, on issues related to (1) the development of individuals, (2) the emergence of a form of subsidiarity, (3) the mastery of autonomy and (4) the construction of collective resilience.

Presentation of the seminar:

The Chair for the Future of Industry and Work at Mines - Paris Sciences et Lettres organizes a monthly seminar on the rise of autonomy in organizations. The objective of this seminar is to discuss concrete experiences of setting up an organization that favors employee autonomy by analyzing the difficulties encountered, the impact on operational performance and on employee satisfaction, the construction of "words to say it"... During the first year, we will be interested in companies where different national or professional traditions coexist and in the support of middle management

*Those wishing to attend in person must have a health pass and wear a mask.

Thursday, November 18, 2021 from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm - at Mines-Paristech in the Salle Chevalier* or by videoconference.

In case of questions, please contact: chaire-fit2@mines-paristech.fr