Thierry Breton is a French entrepreneur, former Harvard Business School professor and also a former finance minister of France. Since 2008 he has been the CEO of the IT company Atos Origin, which employs over 70,000 people in more than 40 offices around the world. He is also one of the pioneers of the opinion that e-mail is destroying the productivity of organisations and employees should stop using it. After not using internal e-mail himself for five years, he decided to make this a company-wide practice. This story was recently covered on the Harvard Business Review website.
In 2011 Thierry Breton announced Atos was saying goodbye to e-mail. In a statement to employees and the public he wrote that he wanted the company to do away completely with e-mail in the next few years. He is of the opinion that e-mail pollutes workplaces with huge amounts of data and interferes in the personal lives of employees. He is not alone in his efforts: the number of businesses doing the same is growing. And they are achieving better results.
Work goes better without e-mail
Initially it might seem that an organisation as large as Atos can't stop using e-mail. In fact, however, it was precisely the size of the company which Breton considered the biggest problem in communication and the reason to stop using e-mail as an internal communication channel.
E-mail has not yet vanished completely from the company but about 7,500 online communities focused on individual projects have been created; here employees can discuss work-related issues without incoming messages constantly popping up on their screens. They themselves choose when to enter discussions; at the same time, they communicate more face-to-face and by phone.
Results are measurable
The total volume of e-mails within the company was reduced by 60%. While previously employees received an average of 100 e-mails a week, now it is no more than 40 messages. In 2013 the company's operating profit grew from 6.5% to 7.5%. Earnings per share rose by more than 50% and administrative costs declined from 13% to 10%.
The positive impact of limiting the use of e-mail on performance is confirmed by scientific studies too. Even though you can't stop using e-mail, you can try checking it only a few times a day. You will see that even such a small step can greatly improve your performance.
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