Failures No Obstacle To Success

One should not let failures get in the way of success. Failures are part of life and if anything we should learn valuable lessons from them so we can do better in the future.  Failures should inspire us to try harder. One person had early failures but it did not stop him from eventually heading one of the largest banks in the world.

Jean-Paul Chifflet was born in 1949, in Tourn-sur-Rhône, Adréche, France. He spent his childhood growing up in a farm. Chifflet early on could not be said to be academically gifted.  In fact he failed his Baccalauréat not once, but twice. Fortunately he passed it the third time.  Now this could discourage many people about their prospects in life but not Chifflet. He went on to graduate from the Institut des Haustes Finances de Paris and prior to his banking career played ruby union for FC Tournon-Tain.

He joined Crédit Agricole du Sud-Est Regional Bank as the head of sales promotion in 1973 and moved up the ranks. Chifflet became corporate secretary of Crédit Agricole de la Drôme Regional Bank in 1980 and became corporate secretary of Crédit Agricole du Sud-Est Regional Bank in 1986. He was appointed head of development and credit at Crédit Agricole du Sud-Est Regional Bank in 1990.

Chifflet moved to different units with increasing responsibilities over the years. He finally got the top post in March 2010 when he became Chief Executive Officer of Crédit Agricole S.A.

Many outside of France or Europe may not be aware of the structure of Crédit Agricole S.A. It has subsidiaries specializing in all area of finance, serving the Regional Banks (where it has 25 percent ownerships) and its banking networks in France and abroad. This bank is listed on Euronext Paris.

The Regional Banks of Crédit Agricole are cooperative entities and fully-pledged banks. There are 2,531 Local Banks that form the foundation of Crédit Agricole. These Local Banks in turn own most of the capital of the Regional Banks. The local banks have more than 6.2 million members who appoint 32,227 directors.

Crédit Agricole boasts of being the number one bancassurance in France and being the number two in asset management in Europe. It has 150,000 employees worldwide. The firm has €71 billion shareholder’s equity (group share). 

Chifflet leads this very large organization and his early failures were no obstacles.