How can businesses combine growth and performance with social and environmental responsibility? Interview with Louis-Mathieu Perrin
In this interview from our 2025 Social and Environmental Performance Report, Louis-Mathieu Perrin, Chairman of the Management Board of Groupe Adéquat, shares his perspective on the Group’s development and the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in its strategy.
How would you describe Groupe Adéquat’s approach to growth?
Groupe Adéquat has built its success on customer satisfaction, with a strong commitment to service and performance. That commitment remains unchanged, but above all, our management approach puts people first. In our business, it is the people who make up the Group who create most of our value. Our ambition is to bring together our employees, temporary workers and the talent we support to deliver lasting results and become our clients’ staffing partner of choice.
What are the main challenges facing the Group as it grows?
Our results are strong, but we face several challenges.
We still rely heavily on the French market, while many of our competitors began expanding internationally earlier. We also need to strengthen our presence in certain regions and broaden our areas of expertise so we can meet the full range of our clients’ HR needs.
How does CSR contribute to this growth strategy?
CSR encourages us to rethink how we manage the business and how we define performance. Improving employee wellbeing, reducing staff turnover, building lasting relationships with our temporary workers and managing our environmental impact more effectively all create both economic and social value.
People are at the heart of our business, while our family ownership supports a long-term outlook and a commitment to sustainable growth. Lasting business success depends on addressing social and environmental issues.
How do you view the new requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)?
Putting these requirements into practice is an opportunity. It requires us to rethink our processes, make our reporting more rigorous and improve how we manage our data. It can drive changes that strengthen the way the Group is managed as a whole.
How do you build support for CSR across a decentralised group?
Building support starts with helping people understand the issues and why they matter. Many changes are initially seen as burdens before their benefits become clear.
We therefore need to make these issues tangible and demonstrate the value of the steps we take to address them, whether through financial benefits, organisational improvements or better employee wellbeing. Change also means challenging perceptions, as these issues are still too often seen purely as regulatory obligations.
This is also a personal conviction. I recognise the environmental challenges ahead, but I believe businesses have the power to act. Even if our initial steps are modest, they help us build a more sustainable business model.
