Organizational Restructuring at AXA: Adopting (and Dropping) a New Business Model

The company was planning to make some more radical changes in its traditional structure. Axa knew that like Axa Re, AGR and Axa Cessions, there were, in all probability, many more affiliate companies fighting it out among themselves for the same clients in different parts of the world. In the new set up, there was no question of a prospect being looked at as a client by more than one unit of the company. A client of a single unit became the client of the entire group. Axa's top management formulated a new rule, according to which, no other group company could solicit a client that Axa Corporate Solutions dealt with or planned to deal with. Axa Corporate Solutions prepared a list of such prospects/clients, which was circulated among all the group companies...

While Nessi was the CEO of the new outfit, AGR's erstwhile head, Charles-François Walckenaer, was made a member of the management team. After spending one year fine-tuning the group's corporate structure and defining the roles and responsibilities of the newly-created entities, Axa finally introduced Axa Corporate Solutions to the world at the '2000 Les Rendez-Vous de Septembre.' Axa announced that the company would be headquartered in Paris with regional offices across the world. By January 2001, all the legal formalities (within France and the other countries) were completed and Axa Corporate Solutions became operational. However, from the very start, the prospects of Axa Corporate Solutions were viewed with concern by industry observers...