⚫ Club Med: The Summer Everything Shifted

This isn’t just a change of CEO.

It’s a signal. A shock. A silent lesson in power.

Henri Giscard d’Estaing, a historic figure and president of Club Med for over twenty years, walks away.

Officially: a strategic conflict with the Chinese shareholder, Fosun.

In reality: a brutal ousting, with no transition, no concessions.

Why? Because the rules of the game have changed.

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Behind the façade, the real forces at play

An iconic leader, too deeply rooted in a French network, too symbolically powerful to remain under control.

A Chinese shareholder tightening governance and imposing strict discipline.

A key market—China—where ambitions didn’t live up to expectations.

The result: a new CEO appointed in the shadows, Stéphane Maquaire.

A discreet profile, former head of Monoprix and Carrefour Brazil, chosen to execute without hesitation. His departure from Carrefour, announced just before, reveals a carefully prepared and locked-down operation.

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HUMINT: what the weak signals reveal

The brutality of the move is an internal message: no one is untouchable.

French teams were caught off guard, stunned by the manner.

Inside voices already speak of a “Chinese-style summer”: dry, fast, leaving no room for emotion.

This departure marks the end of an era, when Club Med was still a French bastion under foreign ownership.

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More than a governance shift, an erased vision

It’s the collision of two logics:

– a French culture attached to the brand, to its premium DNA, to long-term thinking

– a Chinese logic, relentless, focused on immediate efficiency and control

This is not just replacing a man.

It’s erasing a vision, in favor of a pure performance machine.

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What comes next?

A refocus on an asset-light model, more profitability, less legacy.

Internal reforms that will shake historical balances.

Perhaps, in time, a partial sale or a global repositioning orchestrated from Shanghai.

And a major risk: losing the very soul of Club Med in the process.

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The story behind the story in one sentence

The summer of 2025 at Club Med reveals a universal truth: when the logic of power changes hands, historic figures become adjustment variables. Behind every high-profile exit, there’s always an invisible struggle for control of the narrative.

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And you? Do you see this as a simple strategic realignment—or the prelude to a deeper transformation of Western companies under foreign governance?

#ClubMed #Governance #Leadership #Strategy #HUMINT