By Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE, Décideurs Magazine
The firm specialises in recruitment for general management, legal affairs, compliance and risk management. BCP Partners has extended its offering to include advice to governance bodies. The aim is to offer clients a more comprehensive solution.
Décideurs. Could you tell us about your firm BCP Partners?
Blandine Cordier-Palasse. BCP Partners is an executive search and board advisory firm. We specialise in direct recruitment for corporate secretariats, legal, ethics and compliance, finance and risk departments, and boards of directors. Since 2020, we have also developed a range of governance consultancy and assessment services for governance bodies (board of directors or supervisory board, executive committee, management committee). The aim is to meet our customers' needs. This extension of our business makes a lot of sense given our values, operational experience and expertise.
The firm's development is organised around two areas: recruitment and governance strategy consulting. How do these two activities complement each other?
I have regular discussions with CEOs, particularly in connection with the recruitment of their legal and finance directors and their chief compliance officers, and with board chairmen when they are looking for new directors. As well as discussing the management of their human capital and their need for new skills and talent, we talk about the role of the board of directors and the comex, and the changing role of the company secretary and the general counsel. We often talk about the link between compliance and governance. Then there are the interactions between the Board and the Executive Committee, and the importance of evaluating the Board's performance. I've been involved in these issues for a very long time. I was secretary to boards of directors and head of legal affairs in listed groups for over fifteen years. And that's why I co-founded the Cercle de la Compliance in 2011.
There is a real complementarity between these areas of the firm's activity. Both require an understanding of human dynamics, organisational issues and corporate governance. The aim is to anticipate changes in order to provide solutions that are also based on people. In this sense, it's an extension of our talent 'hunting' mission. That's why the clients for whom we regularly recruit have naturally entrusted us with assignments involving board advisory.
They also want to capitalise on the experience and perspective we bring to the table. This enables us to contribute to the implementation of solutions - whether individual or collective. It also enables us to strengthen the role and added value of governance bodies in the long term. The aim is to support the development and even the transformation of the company.
"Advice is at the heart of sustainability
Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE
of the company.
What type of customer do you serve in each of these two activities?
We work with executive committees, boards of directors, company secretaries or board members, and the legal departments of groups and SMEs on governance strategy consultancy assignments.
As for our executive search business, it's aimed at all types of clients who want to develop their business on a long-term basis. This means protecting their strategy by recruiting high-calibre talent. We work in particular with French and foreign clients, including American, Japanese, Chinese, British and European groups. The latter want to develop their business on our continent by building dedicated teams. The firm also works with lawyers and notaries. For example, we have recruited partners, associates and even recently a managing director for a fast-growing firm with over 100 staff. We also work alongside companies and consultancies that need to strengthen their teams, particularly in compliance.
How do you differentiate yourself in a market like yours, which seems highly competitive?
The fact that we are two partners who had extensive operational experience before turning to recruitment means that we can innovate to better meet our clients' needs. On the one hand, we have a pragmatic and informed vision of our clients' challenges and speak the same language; on the other, our precise and global knowledge of the market and our expertise in these professions enable us to propose suitable candidates rather than clones.
What's more, our dual perspective helps us to identify candidates' professional skills. It also helps us to assess their potential, their ability to adapt to the client's culture, to uncertainties, to changing management styles... Finally, my clients appreciate the vision I bring to the table. For example, I anticipated the rise of compliance ten years ago. More recently, I anticipated the resizing of the legal department. My vision helps me to advise them on their human resources strategy so that they can stay one step ahead.
Has the Covid-19 crisis had a significant impact on your work?
Yes, it has been an accelerator of opportunities and growth. Customers who liked us have been using our services even more. Their aim is to strengthen their support functions and integrate talent, or even complementary skills, to support their change of operating model. They plan to better integrate the risks of a rapidly changing world of work. Others, realising that certain profiles had reached their skills threshold or no longer had the leadership or interpersonal skills to meet today's challenges, have called on us more often. Finally, many of our customers have not hesitated to recommend us to their contacts facing similar challenges. We have been able to increase our portfolio of clients. Our aim now is to build customer loyalty by delivering excellent service in 2022.
From an organisational point of view, we were already used to working remotely, with offices in Paris and Lyon. So we quickly adapted to the context and developed videoconference interviews, just like our customers.
How do you see the recruitment market developing, particularly in the legal, compliance, ethics and CSR functions? ?
A very positive view, because these functions have taken on an increasingly important role. These functions are also moving up the corporate ladder. And this is as much because of the quality of the people who run these departments as because of the expertise they bring to the table. This know-how has become essential in a more complex, regulated and international world. What's more, I've noticed that they are developing an appetite for risk management and an ability to manage risk from a cross-functional and operational perspective, de factoThey have become the strategic advisers to their senior management. In fact, these functions - long seen as costs - are now seen as contributing to the deployment of strategy, the efficiency of the organisation and the strategic protection of the company, its managers and its stakeholders.
"We often talk about the link between compliance and governance, the interactions between the board and the comex, and the importance of evaluating the board's performance."
Blandine CORDIER-PALASSE
Would you say that the Covid-19 crisis has also had an effect on corporate governance?
Yes, clearly. In fact, it was against this backdrop of the changing role of the board and increasing risks that I contributed to a book entitled Breathing new life into your governance. Consulting is at the heart of a company's long-term viability. Increasing its efficiency strengthens the company's performance. We cover topics such as the role and responsibility of a board, the duties and powers of directors, the challenges of CSR and compliance, the logic of powers and actions, the interaction between the board and comex, the evaluation of board performance, and the questions and challenges of chairmen, which are essential both for a chairman and for board members. Faced with these issues, I hope to convince directors and shareholders of the importance and benefits of robust, integrated and transparent governance.
Can you also tell us about your commitment to society?
During the crisis, we chose to form a partnership with the NQT association. Our neighbourhoods have talent to support young people in difficult situations. We give them useful advice on how to get through job interviews. Our commitment also lies in the fact that we contribute free of charge to training courses for directors on governance issues at the Cercle des administrateurs and at Essec. We also give lectures on compliance, particularly at Assas University, Dauphine and Sciences Po.
You have offices in Paris and Lyon. Do you plan to expand further in France and internationally?
We have offices in Paris and Lyon for strategic reasons. While the majority of support function managers to be recruited or headhunted are located in the Paris region, the Rhône-Alpes region is very dynamic. Developing a close, personalised relationship with board and comex members is a real asset for our governance offering.
Internationally, we have created a partnership with the American firm DSML. It is unique in that it is run by a formidable Franco-American working for French and European groups. These groups are setting up or expanding in the United States. This merger is part of our strategy to further strengthen our international talent base and to keep abreast of the latest trends coming out of America, so as to bring ever greater value to our clients. Conversely, we are delighted to be able to share our business and sector experience with our partners across the Atlantic - a perfect fit for our clients. "win win.
Key figures :
- 3 offices: Paris, Lyon and Chicago
- Team: 2 partners and 5 associates
- 13 years of existence
- 90 % of very loyal customers
