Decentralize but Demand Results

“For Bernard Arnault, in life, everything can be learned. This initial deficit will quickly be compensated by the arrival of a new management team that will implement modern management methods based on decentralized management by objectives and direct motivation of managers to their results.”

“"From a small family business, the creation of an international conglomerate is based on a number of simple but profitable ideas: • - choosing external growth by purchasing struggling companies at low prices that hold latent resources; • - diversification focused on the textile origin of the group and also the distribution sector; • - restructuring and making profitable the acquired companies through decentralized management and the search for productive niches; • - liquidation of dormant and unnecessary real estate assets. The originality of the system was to develop without any equity from the Willot brothers, by drawing the necessary financial resources for this expansion from the internal resources of affiliated companies... and thus the Willot brothers increased their personal fortune by increasing the value of their stakes, their dividends channeled by SFFAW and the salaries they allocated to themselves in the various subsidiaries."”