Date
2008
Dewey
Contrôle de gestion Comptabilité
Sujet
Tableau de bord; Crédit Lyonnais
JEL code
M4; L32
Conference name
Annual Accounting & Business History (ABFH) Twentieth Annual Conference
Conference date
09-2008
Conference city
Cardiff
Conference country
Royaume-Uni
Author
Sponem, Samuel
Pezet, Anne
Type
Communication / Conférence
Item number of pages
17
Abstract (EN)
Most of the research work concerning the French tableau de bord tends to locate its birth in industrial
companies with engineers as lead roles and the State as supporting role (Lebas, 1996). Yet, a study in the
Crédit Lyonnais archives shows that banks are not unequipped with this kind of managerial device. We
have studied the period of birth and first development of the Crédit Lyonnais that is from 1870 to 1890.
This period is characterized by the expansion of local branches, by the internationalisation of the bank
and by the diversification of activities (Bouvier, 1961; Dagneau, 2003). Corporate managers then needed
more information to control and compare their branches and activities. At the same time, and as a
consequence of this quick growth, overhead expenses exploded. Therefore, the top management asked for
more information, not only accounting information but also data concerning the number of clients per
day, the number of complaints and the number of letters written to answer them, the number of market
orders, etc. At the beginning, this form of tableau de bord was not very well formalised but, gradually,
the management asked for more data in the shape of tables or cards. Comparisons year by year were also
expected from branches. Furthermore, the Crédit Lyonnais corporate managers claimed for obtaining the
same data than other French banks such as the Société Générale. In this paper, we will relate the
apparition and progress of non accounting data as a precocious hint of the French tableau de bord. We
will also describe the external and internal conditions of this apparition and progress.