The Humanist Business? On Bertrand Collomb and Michel Drancourt’s Plaidoyer pour l’entreprise

In a book published in late 2010, Bertrand Collomb and Michel Drancourt set out a “defence of business” (Plaidoyer pour l’entreprise. Paris: François Bourin, 2010). The authors share a passion for business, the first as a director for almost 20 years of the Lafarge Group (a leading player in the building materials sector), the second through a great many activities, including the writing of various books on that peculiar entity that is the business enterprise. In this Defence of Business, they describe the new challenges facing enterprise and enterprises in these early years of the 21st century. They go on to outline the fundamental aspects of the business enterprise – the basis of its substance and the way it functions today – and, lastly, propose a number of choices that have to be made if it is to be part of a prosperous future. Bernard de Montmorillon, a professor specializing in organization theory and strategic decision-making, has read this work for Futuribles and lays out in this review the key elements and major lessons to be drawn from it.