“They need fellowship”: Business leaders turn from employer groups to informal networks

French business leaders are increasingly leaving formal professional organizations in favor of smaller, more informal networks. Over the past decade, participation in a professional organization or trade union among SME and mid-sized company leaders has fallen from 28 percent to 19 percent.

Bao-Tran Nguyen, head of strategic studies at Bpifrance Le Lab, called the decline striking. The organization compared the situation in 2026 with its earlier study from 2016, examining how company leaders seek support and connections while dealing with growing professional isolation.

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It is quite a striking decline.

The shift reflects distrust of structures that leaders see as too hierarchical or too political. “Leaders show a form of distrust toward anything vertical and sometimes associated with closeness to politics, which is quite ambivalent,” Nguyen said.

Political engagement can be unavoidable when professional organizations defend the interests of a sector. But the study says that relationship is now criticized when leaders feel those organizations are not listening closely enough to conditions on the ground. Smaller groups offer a more direct setting for exchanges and fellowship.

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Leaders show a form of distrust toward anything vertical and sometimes associated with closeness to politics, which is quite ambivalent.