Sébastien Bazin, Accor: "I am here to stay!”

Augsburg. Does a financial or real estate expert sit on the CEO seat of your company? And is the CEO fired every two years? Then your hotel group is hip. Or does your CEO still have their own financial board of directors and the time to consult with them? Then your hotel group belongs to the old guard! The fact that Accor's shareholders sent someone from their own ranks to the CEO seat last week is the culmination of an extreme development all around the globe. Will it lead the hospitality industry to the edge of the abyss? Over recent years, almost every new CEO who has been appointed to the top of the "Global Players" has not been a hotelier. The new hospitality leaders are coming from the financial and real estate or brands world. They have only rolled figures, grilled the other burger, sold the Nike shoes.... They are engaged because they are to be considered as creative, unconventional thinkers and bring fresh input. Stockholders have them called them in – and thrown them out again. What are these external leaders able to supposedly do better than hoteliers, what worse? How long will this change persist and what will the hotel CEO of the future look like? hospitalityInside.com has asked former CEOs, executives and headhunters.

Paris. From a comfortable shareholder's armchair to a CEO seat: How uncomfortable will Sébastien Bazin, Accor's new CEO, find it? This Tuesday, one day earlier than expected by insiders, and driven by the enormous speed behind the scenes, the name of the one who is meant to do things better than the four people before him was announced. The irony: he himself helped to undermine their positions. The 51-year old Frenchman and new CEO and Chairman of Accor, the biggest European hotel chain, represented the American Colony Capital investment company in France exercising pressure on the CEOs. Together, Colony and fellow shareholder Eurazeo are the two main shareholders holding 21 percent of Accor's shares. Now Sébastien Bazin is sitting on the "hot chair" of his own accord. At the same time, French media are painting his picture: he is considered unscrupulous and rigorous. Where is Accor drifting to?