GO departments in Paris, each headed by a person known as un parrain–
a “godfather”.
Under the direction of Michel Perchet, director of human resources for
Club Mediterranee, and his two assistants, the four “godfathers” served as
functional area heads. Each “godfather” was responsible for those GOs
(and chiefs of service) throughout the world who fell into one of four func-
tional areas: sports; entertainment; maintenance; and administration. The
new organizational setup improved the process of assigning GOs to new
villages and gave GOs in each of the four functional areas the feeling that
they had a special connection to Paris.
Although the new structure was judged to be an improvement, rapid
growth in the number of American GOs created new pressures on Paris;
this ultimately led, in September 1985, to the formation of a New York-
based, American zone “GO Village” at Club Med’s headquarters on 57th
Street in New York City. Jacky Amzallag, a French Moroccan who had
joined the Club in 1966 and risen through the ranks, was chosen to head
this new department, which was responsible for recruitment, hiring, ori-
entation, placement, and performance appraisal of GOs in the American
zone.
The Club wanted to increase the number of American chiefs of service,
both in the American zone and in the rest of the world. Therefore, after
three or four seasons, Jacky recommended promising American GOs to
Michel Perchet and the functional “godfather” for promotion. These
American GOs were given language goals, among others, as hurdles to
jump before being promoted. Once promoted, a new American chief of
service was eligible to be assigned to any Club Med village throughout the
world.
Village organization
Each Club Med village was organized similarly. As shown in Figure 5.1.2,
the chief of the village had overall responsibility for village operations.
Reporting to the village chief were seven chiefs of service, each of whom
was in charge of a different functional area. The 80 or so GOs in a village
reported to their respective chiefs of service. Such back-of-the-house activ-
ities as housekeeping and groundskeeping were handled by non-GO
workers who lived in the local area.
Chief of the village
The title “chief of the village” accurately described the position. Because of
the remoteness of many villages and the Club’s culture, the “chief of the
village” position had evolved as the key leadership position in the organi-
zation. Although largely a formality, even the chairman of the board
340 Relationship Marketing