by Real Business - Thursday, 30th August 2007

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It takes guts to tell your father that you think that the currently profitable family business faces long-term decline - and that you want to start up afresh. It then takes remarkable stamina and skill to build the new business into one of the world’s largest 500 companies. Meet Pierre Bellon, founder and chairman of Sodexho, the world leader in catering and support services.

He joined the family ship chandlery business in his native Marseilles in the fifties. In 1966, he told his father - who agreed with his prediction - and made the break. “It was what I wanted,” he says, “to be my own boss.” He was quick to adapt. His first food delivery venture suffered from traffic and old-fashioned storage technology. “I was delivering over-cooked beefsteak and soft French fries,” he chuckles. He changed tack and began providing catering for companies. The contracts totted up and the business grew gradually; Bordeaux, Toulouse, Annecy, Lyon. Eventually, Paris. “For a native of Marseilles, that was very important!” he grins.

Then in 1970, Bellon received a phone call. It was from the chairman of ARA, the American firm that was then the global leader in institutional catering. “I was surprised,” Bellon remarks. “I had thought that this was a business invented by the French!” ARA wanted to buy the business. Bellon asked to be invited to the US, so that he could learn more about the company.

“I came back with three things,” he says. “Immediately, I had a briefcase full of ideas, checklists, designs, you name it. I saw that the business I was in had great potential. I didn’t need to do any more market studies; I just had to go as fast as possible. And, if I was going to expand my business internationally, I had better expand in those countries where the Americans weren’t present.” Sodexho has never looked back. It now operates in roughly 70 countries, with over 270,000 employees looking after nearly 100,000 client contracts. And he’s no longer so worried about the Americans. Through its acquisition of Marriott Management Services in 1998, it is now one of the biggest operators in the US.

Of course, it hasn’t been that easy. The word “entrepreneur” may be a French one, but the soil of that nation hasn’t been a fruitful one for them to thrive in. Marseilles in 1966 was run by the Communists. Nationalisation was the policy du jour.

“Enterprise,” Bellon understates, “was not well recognised.”
Then there were the banks. Bellon has his salutary story to tell. “I started with 100,000 French francs,” he explains. (That’s about £10,000.) “I was always careful not to spend too much and I was always working out ways of expanding the business without using a lot of capital. But in 1973, I decided that the company should enter the public sector, such as hospitals and schools. Now in January of that year I had talked to my bankers about this. They said it would be no problem. But when in October I went to them to ask for a loan of 15m francs, they said it was impossible because no more credit was being issued. So I said that I would open 40 separate accounts at different banks and that I would always remember that they were the ones who never gave me money. I must admit, that month I slept badly. But finally they agreed. I decided then that I would never depend upon bankers. From that month on, I put profit before sales.” Foreseeing the demise of his family business and fighting the hostile political and cultural environment forged a philosophy in Bellon. From the outset, he says, he asked himself: “what is the use of a company? What is its raison d’etre?” In these days of short-life companies, early exits and swift material gain, he acknowledges that he sounds as though he is swimming against the tide. But his company was built to last. Having worked out his philosophical position, Bellon set three “values” for his company. They are, he believes, the glue that has held the company together as it has become a global corporation.

He calls the first “service spirit.” This is about looking after the customer. After all, he says, Sodexho’s work is about “contributing to the health and pleasure of children, parents, patients and the elderly. This requires very human qualities.” The second is “team spirit.” A quick reference to the World Cup is helpful here. “Whatever is successful and durable comes about because of a close team, working in one direction,” he says. “Look at Aimé Jacquet and his team that won the World Cup. He never chose David Ginola or Eric Cantona. Those were difficult decisions. Why did he not choose them? Not because they weren’t good players, but because he was choosing a team. He took a big risk. But it would have been a big risk not to keep the team spirit.” The third element is “progress spirit,” by which he means constant improvement. There are no absolutes. No company reaches a state of excellence. It can always learn. And he leads by example. Now a sprightly 70, he only got serious about his English when he was 65.

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