Perfectionist Demand on Human and Machine

“The production tool will soon attest to the extraordinary productivity of methods that have the originality of combining modernization with the spirit of the small business. Since there has been a textile industry, performance there has depended on the skill of its workforce. Boussac wanted to go further by giving the human gesture a quality, an almost scientific precision. He succeeded in rationalizing that indefinable talent that is know-how. At the same time, against the grain of an era that pushes towards the fragmentation of tasks and the decline of responsibility in work, he managed to instill in his staff a taste for a job well done, the demand for perfection. Reviving the spirit of companionship—honor of fine craftsmanship—the young entrepreneur knew how to transplant craftsmanship to the scale of large industry.”

“Thus Boussac undertakes a task that over the years he will tirelessly pursue, to endow his products with an undisputed reputation for quality. The goal he had set for himself was known: the best product at the lowest possible price. The methods he was going to implement to adjust his production apparatus were still unknown: draconian. It was a real war against inattention and nonchalance that he was going to wage, with the determination and stubbornness that characterized him, to instill in his staff a sense of perfection.”