Sell the Castle Before the Walls Crack

“"So, Jean Leprince explained to me, François Pinault had to arrange things to anticipate the arrival of the ship.” As he sees me wince at his repetition of the word anticipate, he adds: "You can really highlight the word anticipation, his ability to anticipate greatly helped what we might call his luck. He sells the wood that is still on the ship before it has docked and which he has therefore not yet paid for, in order to be able to mobilize the drafts that will allow him to pay for the wood on its arrival."”

“Coniferous trees are used for structural timber. When they are of the best quality, they are used for joinery and decoration. François Pinault hires to organise his storage and equips himself with a representative, and then a second one who will approach the joiner-carpenters in order to expand his sector and create a network of transactions with the obsession of reaching the size that will allow him to obtain the best wholesale prices. When his clientele has become large enough, as he still doesn't have any cash flow, he comes up with the idea of taking pre-orders, in order to group them together and be able to buy more in bulk, which is naturally also in the interest of his customers. In 1964, with such methods, he reaches a turnover of one million (to be multiplied by seven to get the figure in 1997 francs).”