He is probably the boss best known to hypermarket customers in France. Michel-Édouard Leclerc gave an interview to “Journal des Femmes” to lift the veil behind the scenes of the daily life of a businessman of his stature.
He is a key figure in mass distribution, a media boss and appreciated by consumers; Almost 20 million households will have visited a Leclerc store in 2023 to do their shopping, jostling with big rival Carrefour. Michel-Edouard Leclerc was kind enough to detail his daily life as CEO, not evading any questions about money, competition or purchasing power. Exclusive interview for The Women’s Journal with the one whose name is displayed on the fronts of hundreds of department stores across the country.
What does the “classic” day of the boss of the E.Leclerc group look like?
It’s not classic. It’s pretty punk! I lead, a bit like an orchestra conductor, a network of 700 business leaders, men and women, and their teams. They represent 180,000 employees and each of them would like to play their part. I have to respect that because they are each on their territory. So, my role, in one day, goes from upstream production at the Leclerc centers to downstream, the relationship with consumers and even in the media, to be a bit of an ‘evangelist’ for Leclerc. My main role today is that I am an internal influencer of the brand’s strategy. As an extension of that, I represent the brand in the media, in controversies or in expressing what I think…
It’s not classic. It moves a lot. It’s never the same day but I spend time constantly, I’m in the field a lot. I’m in stores or businesses every other day! I can go to a store 2 or 3 hours from Paris. I’m going to visit stores that have just opened. I look at what is good, what is beautiful. I will greet the colleagues. And then, there are more specific meetings where projects are presented to me, where we discuss new projects, artificial intelligence, new intelligent trolleys, payment methods, new applications…
Do you ever play the incognito boss role in stores?
There are 180,000 employees in the Leclerc centers, I don’t know them all but they all recognize me. I love people and I think I’m a generous guy. I have not forgotten where I come from and therefore, I give. I pay attention but for example, sometimes selfies take a lot of time…
“I don’t behave like someone privileged“
And then I’m a customer myself, I have my Leclerc card! I am a client at the Leclerc Center in Landerneau (in Brittany on family land, editor’s note), the one in Levallois-Perret, and also in Montparnasse. Now that we can no longer go through the center of Paris, I go through Montparnasse. I don’t behave like someone privileged. If I’m asked for ID, I take it out and it can happen. There are a lot of people who believe that I do theater by paying for it myself at the box office because they imagine that it’s my home… This is not my place, we are an association of independent businesses.
And are you going to visit your competitors?
I very often visit competitors, both in their stores and on their site to carry out concrete monitoring of what others are doing. I believe that there are no small or large competitors, so I go to Carrefour City to see if they have changed anything in the stores. I look at what is the added value or the difference between two brands. It’s interesting to see products from around the world, French products, to look at French brands and brands from around the world. Because when you don’t put yourself in “observation mode” you don’t understand what happens to you afterwards.
What is your opinion on AI?
Leclerc made an agreement with Google and we have Gemini. From a professional point of view, it is very well done because Google guarantees not to commercialize our own data and even though we can draw from a common pot, everything I put there does not go anonymously elsewhere.
Personally I use it, I have 4 or 5 ChatGPT accounts. I, for example, write. I’ve had memorization problems since I was little, so I’m someone who cuts up newspapers, uses Stabilo Bosses and grows up with it. I must have about 200 or 300 notebooks but in fact, if I scan them today, if I have my own AI, I will have the library that I am in the process of outsourcing.
Do you know the reasons for these memory problems?
Yes, I keep saying it’s genetic and, when I remember it, I didn’t listen to my teachers at school. On the other hand, I read after my classes, I read a lot on the beach or at home. I don’t remember any lessons from the lowest grade to college! I am hyperactive and in these cases we tend to disperse, write, stick as if to make craft books (he has several, editor’s note). I do this with my Stabilo and I have color codes. I always wanted to remain an unfinished student.
“I have a very cosmopolitan family“
Where everyone says to their children: ‘Be an adult’, I understand that from the point of view of responsibility, but from the point of view of creation, of availability, of the joy of living… I do not deny or run away from responsibility. I have four children, I have seven grandchildren, I’m hesitant because one is actually coming, and I have a very cosmopolitan family. I have an Indian daughter-in-law, I have a French-Moroccan daughter-in-law, I have a French-American son-in-law, I have a Russian-Mongolian wife. So, I don’t run away from anything in the world.
When we have a salary like yours, do we still look at prices?
I am against waste, I am not a strict consumer, but I do not waste and I have not forgotten where I come from. And even, morally… For example, I have major floods at home. Dare I say that it’s more my children’s friends and my children who whistle at them than me? (laughs). I like to discover things, so I don’t have class behavior, I don’t have category behavior.
I like people, I don’t only hang out with my people, in fact I don’t hang out with my people. My friends are my collaborators, but my friends are also people who do many other jobs.
How are you going to help the French have a good Christmas?
I’m going to offer them price reductions on as many toys, decorative items and everything as possible. We had dozens of meetings, I can tell you that I put pressure on the Leclerc centers so that they could please families from Black Friday and until Christmas. I didn’t see it just as a trader looking for sales. I was motivated by the idea that we are in a society today that is sad, fragmented and without fraternity. I’m staying where I am, but at least lots of things are accessible.
