AccorHotels Has A Unique Way To Develop Young Talents

The company has created a shadow board of directors composed of under-35 promising employees.

This initiative allows AccorHotels to groom and shape its young talents. It also helps the company listen to new generations who are both its future customers and the driving force behind its digital competitors, first and foremost Airbnb.

Of course, AccorHotels will also make sure not to let its older employees think that they are disqualified.

AccorHotels CEO Sébastien Bazin explained that

“These young people will have access to the same information as the other board members. They will meet before the Board takes place and make recommendations. Maybe they will not agree with us 50% of the time but this should be a breath of fresh air.

Today, large companies have a pyramid structure: The status and power of employees depend on their ability to access information. The corporation of the future will not rely on balance of power but on free flow of information.“

This comment is consistent with what I wrote a few months ago when I introduced the concept of “total communications”:

“In the era of global communications, communications moved generally downward, from corporate leaders – who held access to most of the information within their organizations – toward their employees and external stakeholders (including the media and financial community).

In the era of total communications, most of the information is equally accessible to every executive and employee. Therefore, managers are more successful when they engage their teams in a horizontal relationship rather than when they instruct them in a vertical one.“