Acknowledgements

The present work forms part of a broader initiative that I head together with the Gestion et Societé (Management and Society) team at the CNRS, and which aims to promote business practices and economic policies that are better tailored to different cultures. In the work presented here, we have sought to apply this approach to the field of development. Our approach owes much on several counts to the work of Alain Henry, one of the directors of the Agence Française de Développement. Almost from the outset, he played an active role in the intellectual undertaking that gave shape to the project. For this, he drew extensively on a great many field studies carried out in some ten African countries. Linking these studies to his own responsibilities in furthering development, he was particularly concerned that they help shed light on the actions of business managers. His contribution to this work is highlighted by his chapter outlining the successful transformation of the Société d'électricité du Cameroun, in which his advice and analysis played an important role.

I should also like to thank the companies whose successes form the subject of our studies here. Far too often, success stories are constructed exclusively on what company directors or corporate communications departments have to say. They are usually 'success stories' in which company directors are cast as demigods able to [10] surmount all obstacles with ease, with any difficulties along the way having disappeared. In the four cases examined in this book, the companies involved gave us access to something entirely different from the official view of events. We were permitted, under excellent conditions of confidentiality, to interview the actors involved. While some of them were especially enthusiastic, others took a more critical view and stressed what still remained to be done. Undoubtedly, the companies themselves (Danone in Mexico, STMicroelectronics in Morocco, the Société d'électricité in Cameroon, and a large industrial conglomerate that did not wish to be named in Argentina) were the first to benefit from this openness. We were thus able to provide them with a more useful view of the situation than could have been gained using a more accommodating account. That said, we are no less grateful for the confidence they placed in us. Equally, I would like to thank all those we interviewed both for the time they gave to us and for the willingness with which they shared their personal experience.