Patrick Errard is the president of the French Pharmaceutical Industry Association (LEEM) and the chief executive of the French subsidiary of Astellas. A gastroenterologist, he worked in a hospital for four years before joining the pharmaceutical industry.

How can philosophy be of assistance to managers? How do you switch from ‘me’ to the collective ‘us’ of business enterprises? The answer is that aspiring managers, driven by ambition, must learn to abandon a certain form of ego. Philosophy rests on constructive self-doubt and reservations about perfectibility: these are the foundations of humanistic management.
Drawing on his dual career, Patrick Errard demonstrates that an encounter with the Other is both central to management and grounded in the present. It’s in the here and now that the three basic components of management can be realised: empathy, which enables us to understand another’s viewpoint; inspiration, the spur of business; communication, which must recover its human dimension through shared time.
This book deals with management-related topics in the light of philosophy (the individual’s place in the enterprise, power and justice, managerial courage, the value of work, etc.). Young managers who follow the book’s initiatory process will learn to identify their own motivation and they will develop their ‘savoir-être’ (knowing how to be), which will enable them to embark successfully on the human adventure of management.

• Spinoza, Descartes, Kant (among others) are made to examine management’s main issues: what is management? Does justice exist in businesses? Why are sanctions necessary? How should power be exercised? Is hierarchy-free management possible? What is the value of work?
• A skilful blend of philosophical analyses, specific managerial experiences and the author’s own career.