“It remains a fairly masculine world, the hotel industry!” says Maud Bailly, a mischievous smile on her lips. The lively general director of Sofitel and MGallery has made it a personal crusade: to increase the number of women, but also of more diverse profiles, in top management positions in the hotels she manages. “There are a lot of women at the head of economic and mid-range establishments, but as soon as there is operational responsibility, and a lot of money at stake, they are less present,” she regrets. If things have progressed under the leadership of Sébastien Bazin, general director of the group, with an increase from 2 to 8 women on the Comex (Executive Committee) in 7 years, things remain more difficult in the luxury segment for women, particularly in positions of operational responsibility.
The accession of women to important positions, hotel management or management committee, requires the activation of “soft” and “hard” levers, assures the forty-year-old with communicative energy. She cites the importance of mentoring, coaching, inspiring conferences, with testimonies from the field: “We must break down the barriers more or less integrated by women, who do not dare to take power, for example in contexts countries where access to responsibilities means giving up family life.” Among the more structural levers, Maud Bailly underlines the importance of quotas: the Accor group aims to have 40% women in 2025, including 45% in management committees, commitments indexed to executive bonuses, an essential condition for their implementation. Developments also require a good dose ofempowerment : “Women have difficulty asking for power. But for a woman, power is taken, not asked for.”
Modernize the Sofitel brand
Joining Accor in 2017 as Chief Digital Officer, this normalienne and enarque became director for Southern Europe in October 2020 – 1,900 hotels in her charge, in the midst of the Covid pandemic – before being appointed to her current position in January 2023. Its mission is clear: modernize the Sofitel brand, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and assume a French luxury positioning on a global scale. In two years at the head of this sector, we have had to accelerate change, with many trade-offs to make. “I never see the decision as something unfair, brittle. Deciding, in itself, is the prerogative of the leader.” His time as director of the Matignon economic center from 2015 to 2016, under the direction of Manuel Valls, also taught him to move quickly: “All the ministries came to see me and I spent a very large part of my life refereeing. “
Starting out in auditing in 2007 as a financial inspector, Maud Bailly developed a taste for management by becoming deputy director and then director of Montparnasse station in the early 2010s. Intense modernization work awaited her. The manager then felt the need to have an anchor in reality and to develop a real understanding of the different professions: “For six months, I was trained in total anonymity in the railway professions. I learned hooking up, unhooking wagons, driving trains, I passed my safety certification, I knew how to start a train, sell tickets.”
She is general director of Sofitel, MGallery and Emblems, she breathes her inventiveness into the luxury hotel industry.
© / Léa Crespi / Accor
Reduce the levels in management
For the hotel industry, the same approach: she knows the taste of chocolate cakes, she cares about the furniture, and she strives to understand the directors’ problems. To do this, she wanted to reduce the levels between her and so-called middle management. “If we really want to carry out a cultural transformation, we must provide it with all the necessary skills. Otherwise this level of middle management can quickly become the biggest enemy of decision-makers.”
His definition of a manager? “As little arrogance as possible. We are not heart surgeons. I am a conductor and what I like most is identifying people. Beyond their intrinsic qualities of content, form and personality, I love seeing where I can take them.” A method that can also take her far: at the end of November she was part of the Next 40 list, which designates women likely to lead a CAC 40 company.
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