By John Authers
Financial Times, August 26 '06

According to the management consultancy Marakon Associates, which conducts regular surveys on their performance, the three conglomerates with the best returns over the last decade are all French … and none has a market value of more than Dollars 5bn.

Marakon ventures that the more successful groups are managed with a view to financial discipline rather than empire-building, exercising price discipline and allowing autonomy for the different businesses.