Conference: The Workman-Whisperer for Managers

A Day Dedicated to Raising Awareness and Improving Management Practices Among Students…
This will be followed by conference led by Jean-Christophe Guérin, former Manufacturing Director of the Michelin Group, and Jean-Michel Frixon, a retired Michelin employee who has published two books on his experience of management.

From Retired Worker to Management Lecturer…

In his first book, “Michelin Matricule F276710”, Jean-Michel Frixon, then a retired worker of the famous Clermont-Ferrand factory, retraces his career and experiences. He talks about hard work and sometimes respectful, but all too often painful, relationships with “petty bosses”. It was this “unfiltered” account of management in the company that caught the attention of Jean-Christophe Guérin, then Manufacturing Director of the Michelin Group.

Aware of the challenges he would be facing to make progress and improve working conditions for everyone, Jean-Christophe Guérin asked the author to go on a tour of factories throughout France to meet with managers, share his past experiences, and follow through with exchanges on the importance of taking better account of people in management. This ‘Tour de France’ (15 plants visited) enabled him to reverse the roles and publish a second book entitled “L’ouvrier qui murmurait à l’oreille des cadres” (“The Workman-Whisperer for Managers).

It is this dual experience that will be at the heart of the conference hosted by Jean-Michel Frixon and Jean-Christophe Guérin on Thursday 16 November.

A New Vision of Management

Together, they will review the needs of workers and, more generally, employees in relation to their management (greater recognition of their work and human consideration). They will also discuss the reasons why Jean-Christophe Guérin and Michelin decided to listen to Jean-Michel Frixon and embark on a transformation of the Group’s management practices.

Evening Programme:

• 6:00 pm: Welcome of participants
• 18:30: Conference with Jean-Michel Frixon and Jean-Christophe Guérin
• 7.30pm: Question and answer session
• 8.40pm: Cocktail Reception

About Jean-Michel Frixon :

Jean-Michel Frixon, now retired, spent 43 years with Michelin. He joined the company in 1976 at the age of 17, working first as a courier, then joining the workshops and changing departments several times before ending his career as a HGV tyre inspector on X-ray machines.

On retirement, he took advantage of his confinement in 2020 to write his first book, “Michelin, matricule F276710”. The book retraces his life as a worker and his relationships with his successive managers, which were at times respectful and considerate of his work and his person, and at other times toxic.

About Jean-Christophe Guérin:

Jean-Christophe Guérin joined the Michelin Group in 1985 and has spent a large part of his career at the heart of Industry, holding a variety of positions. Throughout his career, he has supervised various departments: Supply Chain, Quality, Purchasing and HSE. Jean-Christophe Guérin was also a member of the Group’s Executive Committee from 2007 to 2022, most recently as Michelin Group Manufacturing Director.