Loyalty Through Generosity Not Hierarchy

“One evening in 1973, Hubert Guidai, his first deputy in Rennes, apologized for having to leave him to pick up his daughter from nursery. The next morning, François Pinault asked him where his wife worked and what she earned. He immediately increased his colleague's salary by the announced amount so that his wife could stop working.”

“have always been uncompromising towards those who, having claimed responsibilities, subsequently proved incapable of assuming them, whether through incompetence or lack of work"”

“He had not, for the most part, built businesses from the ground up. He was not a creator of new enterprises. Rather, he had done deals, cultivated relationships, capitalised on booms and aggregated money-earning assets. His great talent was that he could see ways of structuring a deal or a business enterprise that looked obvious in hindsight, yet which nobody had hit on before. He sensed a boom well before others. He had weaknesses, both in capacity and in emotions. Particularly, there was a lack where most of us have a sense of identity and place. He was a hoarder, a gatherer around himself of objects. He liked acquisition. Yet he also had an ability to reconfigure, and to move on when self- or business interest required. He was unlike Murdoch and Packer in that, when it came to business, he was mostly unsentimental. He saved sentiment for the art collection. Which is not to say he was unemotional. There was a chip on his shoulder, an abiding sense, despite his wealth and power, of being hard done by, and a determination to take it up to the establishment. But with all that he was good fun – laconic and outwardly even tempered. His employees liked him, and most were steadfastly loyal and well looked after. He was a dealer, rather than a manager, but he made up for any lack by the quality of the people he hired as his closest assistants, and the manner in which he kept them close.”

“Stokes had managed to ingratiate himself with Caterpillar management in Illinois, convincing them that he was the kind of ethical, principled businessman their company required. The relationship has only deepened over the years, making WesTrac, the Stokes company that owns the Caterpillar franchises, the most reliable contributor to his wealth.”

“Azcárraga knew not only what a few personal remarks meant to certain employees, but how effective they proved if spoken rarely but with emphasis. In the course of some conversation he might comment to an actor that such-and-such new venture was causing problems, or to a sales agent that a certain program was a disaster. He could reveal vulnerable details; he could even sound depressed or say: “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” The employee, flattered to have earned Don Emilio’s trust in a matter about which he knew little, would reiterate absolute confidence in Azcárraga’s leadership. Then the boss would drop a brief but memorable compliment like: “You know what? No one had told me what you’re telling me,” and the result of the brief conversation was the employee’s admiration and loyalty strengthened.”

“Emilio Jr. made other loyal friends among the TSM executives, learning from his father what was required to establish himself as “the boss.” There was, for example, Aurelio Pérez, who came to TSM in 1955 after having been head of production at Channel 4. That year Pérez got married and felt flattered when Emilio, who was seven years younger, agreed to be his best man. When Pérez returned from his honeymoon, Emilio told him that he was aware that, since his father had died, Aurelio now had to support two households, his mother’s and his own. Therefore, Emilio had decided to grant him a raise. Anticipating his employees’ needs and showing them gestures of generosity, in private, was a gift that the young Azcárraga inherited and that he would practice throughout his life.”