View source for Template:Claude Bébéar/random quote

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| On building and renewing leadership teams in a fast growing group: "The problem when you build groups, especially in periods of very rapid growth, is that you have people who are well suited at one point in time and then later are out of their depth. Around you there is therefore a team that, in my view, has to change over time; it is a variable geometry team, because at some point you need new skills or because some people no longer have the skills that are needed. There are people who move from the first circle to the second, then to the third, and so on; some understand that perfectly and others, obviously, are frustrated."<ref name="GC2002">Claude Bébéar, interview in "AXA, une croissance exponentielle (1975-1999)", Gérer et Comprendre, no. 69, September 2002, interview conducted by Michel Villette, section "Question de méthode".</ref>
| On strategy as relentless adaptation rather than glamorous innovation: "At AXA we are not great innovators, that is true, even though we have often tried; but we are in permanent evolution. We believe that you must constantly change, adapt, transform yourself, that is the strategy. You must never sink into routine and the mere management of day to day business. From the beginning I tried to create the feeling that we always had to renew what we were doing and that we could not simply copy what had been done before."<ref name="GC2002" />
| On choosing a small mutual insurer, learning power and seeing globalization early: "What amused me was joining that small company at all, when I had a job offer from Schlumberger. If it were today, I would probably create a start up. I had an entrepreneurial mindset and what appealed to me was entering straight into the holy of holies, taking part in decisions, seeing how people decided and learning to form judgments on how the business was run. My years in Canada were decisive: even then I understood that France was a small country, that globalization was bound to happen, and that to take part in it you had to be strong in your domestic market."<ref name="GC2002" />
| On openness, sovereignty and why countries cannot retreat from globalization: "In general you can see that countries which close in on themselves become poorer. History shows, conversely, that opening borders, welcoming foreign investment and migration is what makes countries take off, whether you look at the rise of the United States and Canada, post Meiji Japan or the Europe of the Marshall Plan. All of that argues in favor of the free circulation of people and capital, not only so that some countries can survive but also so that others can maintain their standard of living."<ref name="HEC2006">Claude Bébéar, "L'investissement international et la souveraineté des États", Conférences Gérard-Parizeau, HEC Montréal, public lecture delivered 5 April 2006, published text, section "La mondialisation: une nécessité".</ref>
| On why he did not try to become one of the richest men in the world: "I am the son of civil servants, my parents were teachers, and I was more attracted to business and to power in the company than to personal enrichment. When we bought Drouot I could have pulled off a big personal financial coup. It was not risky, it would have been easy, but it simply did not occur to me, because I felt that money should go back to the company rather than to me; I would have experienced it as an improper capture, even though it would have been technically and legally possible."<ref name="GC2002" />
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