Questions And Suggested Answers Club Med
Case: Cultural Turnaround at Club Med
Questions
1. Analyse Club Med’s culture before 2000.
2. Explain the reasons for Club Med’s success between the 1950s and the 1990s.
3. How do you explain Club Med’s difficulties in the early 1990s?
4. Why did Bourguignon’s plan fail? Do you think that Giscard d’Estaing’s plan will be more successful?
This case example enables students to explore the impact of culture and history on an organisation’s strategy.
1. Club Med’s cultural web before 2000 should highlight the following points:
Power structures. Very decentralised. Village General Managers are highly empowered and highly autonomous. Their personal relationship with the founders (Trigano and Blitz), based on trust, is a key.
Organisational structure. Very informal, structurally paternalistic, progressively built. Village General Managers directly report to the Executive Committee.
Control systems. Very loose control and few profit pressure. Career management is very informal. Accounting and sales management are done manually.
Rituals and routines. Numerous rituals in the villages signifying the abandonment of social norms and ‘hippy’ equality: pearl necklaces instead of money, songs and dances, shows, sports events with medals and so on.
Stories. The origins (Blitz and Trigano), the first tent village in Alcúdia, former GOs who became artists or television hosts. The 1978 motion picture French Fried Vacation, even if it was not located in a Club Med village, typified the Club Med spirit. Its soundtrack, ‘Sea, Sex & Sun’, written and performed by Serge Gainsbourg, encapsulated most of Club Med’s beliefs.
Symbols. The trident, ‘GO’, ‘GM’, the Mediterranean Sea.
Paradigm. A bubble of conviviality, isolated from modern civilisation and violence, the ‘antidote to civilisation’.
The cultural web depicts a paternalistic and informal organisation, based on affects, conviviality and a community life ideology.
2. The reasons of Club Med’s success between the 1950s and the
Questions
1. Analyse Club Med’s culture before 2000.
2. Explain the reasons for Club Med’s success between the 1950s and the 1990s.
3. How do you explain Club Med’s difficulties in the early 1990s?
4. Why did Bourguignon’s plan fail? Do you think that Giscard d’Estaing’s plan will be more successful?
This case example enables students to explore the impact of culture and history on an organisation’s strategy.
1. Club Med’s cultural web before 2000 should highlight the following points:
Power structures. Very decentralised. Village General Managers are highly empowered and highly autonomous. Their personal relationship with the founders (Trigano and Blitz), based on trust, is a key.
Organisational structure. Very informal, structurally paternalistic, progressively built. Village General Managers directly report to the Executive Committee.
Control systems. Very loose control and few profit pressure. Career management is very informal. Accounting and sales management are done manually.
Rituals and routines. Numerous rituals in the villages signifying the abandonment of social norms and ‘hippy’ equality: pearl necklaces instead of money, songs and dances, shows, sports events with medals and so on.
Stories. The origins (Blitz and Trigano), the first tent village in Alcúdia, former GOs who became artists or television hosts. The 1978 motion picture French Fried Vacation, even if it was not located in a Club Med village, typified the Club Med spirit. Its soundtrack, ‘Sea, Sex & Sun’, written and performed by Serge Gainsbourg, encapsulated most of Club Med’s beliefs.
Symbols. The trident, ‘GO’, ‘GM’, the Mediterranean Sea.
Paradigm. A bubble of conviviality, isolated from modern civilisation and violence, the ‘antidote to civilisation’.
The cultural web depicts a paternalistic and informal organisation, based on affects, conviviality and a community life ideology.
2. The reasons of Club Med’s success between the 1950s and the