Did the French tableau de bord appear in banks?
Author InfoSponem, Samuel Pezet, Anne Abstract 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 complai
