Thanks for that Racedo. It's interesting when you take a step back and look at it analytically like that. The system certainly has it's advantages, and seeing as common sense is becoming more and more rare, taking the responsibility away from junior and middle management might be the way forward for other companies too
It takes out freedom of individuals to make a decision BUT if you think the different cultures across EU that FR operate then getting everybody to follow one policy means you avoid having a big management team who try and figure out what was done where.