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A book which slams the French education system by a Brit.....


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[quote user="Quillan"]

I think that people in business in the UK should not throw stones as they also live in a greenhouse. Every country operates differently and has it's own idiosyncrasies, I think Italy is possibly the worst. As for the UK I can think of a few.

  • Never taking ownership of problems. Ooh, Quillan....HOW long have you been in France?? I would have said that the French score far higher for that one!

  • Passing 'the buck' i.e. not my problem it's the other fella. Ditto, I'm afraid!!

  • Assumption that everyone in the world speaks English. I was asked to run a training session in France for a CAC 40 company where, by edict, the company language was supposed to be English. After a 5 minute intro in English, I was obliged to conduct the training in French for the rest of the day, as 90% of the delegates couldn't understand enough to be operationally competent. Luckily, as I never subscribed to the "everyone in the world speaks English" club, I was equipped to oblige.

  • Bad communication skills. Woohoo! Well, we all know what great communicators the French are!! No-one tells you anything they don't HAVE to....

  • Lack of proceedures. Now here, the French positively excel. Their problem mostly lies in following them.

  • Middle and upper management not making decisions or very slow making decisions. I worked for the CAC 40 company mentioned above for five years, and I can assure you they couldn't make a decision quickly  to save their lives.

  • Bad contract tendering processes and writing. Now here I can't really comment

  • Always buying the cheapest and not the best (you get 'brownie points for saving money) which often results bad product delivery. Ever looked at the number of product recalls on the average Renault model??

  • Unrealistic delivery times of product. Ever tried to BUY a new Renault???

  • Massive overspend on projects (normally because they bought the cheapest and it takes longer and costs more to put it right). qf. the two previous points.

There are a few others to be added but its gong off subject really.

[/quote]

Let's face it, no-one (and no one Nation) is perfect, or even close...but having spent most of my working life either working in or with French (or Francophone) companies, I can assure you that not only did they display most of the traits you listed above, but I encountered many people of other nationalities who singled out the French for special mention when it came to problems and frustrations related to doing business.

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[quote user="You can call me Betty"][quote user="Quillan"]

I think that people in business in the UK should not throw stones as they also live in a greenhouse. Every country operates differently and has it's own idiosyncrasies, I think Italy is possibly the worst. As for the UK I can think of a few.

  • Never taking ownership of problems. Ooh, Quillan....HOW long have you been in France?? I would have said that the French score far higher for that one!

  • Passing 'the buck' i.e. not my problem it's the other fella. Ditto, I'm afraid!!

  • Assumption that everyone in the world speaks English. I was asked to run a training session in France for a CAC 40 company where, by edict, the company language was supposed to be English. After a 5 minute intro in English, I was obliged to conduct the training in French for the rest of the day, as 90% of the delegates couldn't understand enough to be operationally competent. Luckily, as I never subscribed to the "everyone in the world speaks English" club, I was equipped to oblige.

  • Bad communication skills. Woohoo! Well, we all know what great communicators the French are!! No-one tells you anything they don't HAVE to....

  • Lack of proceedures. Now here, the French positively excel. Their problem mostly lies in following them.

  • Middle and upper management not making decisions or very slow making decisions. I worked for the CAC 40 company mentioned above for five years, and I can assure you they couldn't make a decision quickly  to save their lives.

  • Bad contract tendering processes and writing. Now here I can't really comment

  • Always buying the cheapest and not the best (you get 'brownie points for saving money) which often results bad product delivery. Ever looked at the number of product recalls on the average Renault model??

  • Unrealistic delivery times of product. Ever tried to BUY a new Renault???

  • Massive overspend on projects (normally because they bought the cheapest and it takes longer and costs more to put it right). qf. the two previous points.

There are a few others to be added but its gong off subject really.

[/quote]

Let's face it, no-one (and no one Nation) is perfect, or even close...but having spent most of my working life either working in or with French (or Francophone) companies, I can assure you that not only did they display most of the traits you listed above, but I encountered many people of other nationalities who singled out the French for special mention when it came to problems and frustrations related to doing business.
[/quote]

Concur 1,000,000%. The worst place on the planet to do business. Nightmare. Probably why many foreign multinationals are getting out ASAP?

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