Adidas

"In the spring of 1992, Crédit Lyonnais was practically printing money. They had advanced 500 million francs to Tapie to buy Adidas, 600 million to Bolloré, taken 20% of one of Arnault's leading holdings for 520 million, and, among other generous acts, came to the aid of Pinault by buying the former headquarters of CFAO for 1.3 billion."

"For all of Adi Dassler’s disdain, clothing promptly made up nearly half of Adidas sales in Germany. The explosion occurred at a time when the distinction between leisure and sports clothing was be- coming increasingly blurred. There was such huge demand for Adidas clothing that the company’s managers hardly bothered to take orders; the retailers would have accepted almost anything. Unencumbered by his father’s hang-ups, Horst eagerly delved into the clothing market. Just like their neighbors in Germany, the French managers sold millions of three-striped shorts and tracksuits. But this was merely the skeleton of a bustling apparel business that beat the German equivalent many times over. The French clothing operation owed its edge largely to Ventex, a former supplier that Adidas France had gobbled up. Previ- ously owned by a chemical company, the Ventex laboratory soon became the envy of the industry. “When German managers asked to be shown around at Ventex,” said Jean Wendling, then textile manager at Adidas France, “I made sure that the lab remained tightly sealed.”"

"Jacky. While the hotel bar officially closed at midnight, Jacky kept a backroom with a bar open for the Adidas crew and their guests. He would turn away other potential customers while continuing to serve drinks until Horst Dassler had finished his meetings—often in the early hours of the morning. Con- veniently, the Terrasse Hotel was located a stone’s throw from several temples of adult entertainment in Paris, particularly Le Moulin Rouge."

"The bid was rejected most firmly by Mireille Gousserey- Camuset, the founder’s daughter, who controlled just over half of the company’s shares. Pointing to her activities in the Resis- tance during the Second World War, she balked at the thought that Le Cog Sportif would fall into German hands. Her brother, Roland Camuset promptly committed his 49 percent package to the Adidas bid. But Mireille stubbornly refused to surrender her shares to “the Krauts.”"

"But most of the youthful Adidas managers were entranced by Horst. They were in awe of his drive and mesmerized by his stamina, his persuasive powers, and the incessant activity of his mind. Horst was surprisingly a shy person, a weak orator who avoided the limelight. Yet he oozed a charm that captivated most of the people he met. His followers felt that he had embarked on an extraordinary adventure, and they would do almost any- thing to stay on board. “It was exhilarating,” said Johan van den Bossche, a company lawyer at the time. “We all wanted to be a part of it, even if that meant that we had to run like hell.”"

"The move that proved most devastating for Le Coq Sportif, however, was orchestrated by the Camusets themselves. Weak- ened by heightened competition from the early seventies, they still decided to invest massively to expand their production. They acquired one plant and started constructing another one in Romilly. But under attack from Adidas, Le Cog Sportif contin- ued to lose ground in the market. They were up to their necks in debt and stock, as the thousands of products turned out by the new factories remained unsold. By March 1974, Le Cog Sportif was besieged by anxious creditors. One month later the Camusets were expelled from the company, and a court-appointed manager led the search for takeover candidates."

"Therefore, people often talk about how Wang Chuanfu still lives in a two-bedroom, one-living room apartment in Kuiyong Town, Longgang District, Shenzhen, drives an old Lexus, and his only valuable possession is an Adidas sports watch, which accurately tells him whether BYD's global institutions are operating during the day or night. Wang Chuanfu is a low-profile person in the auto circle. For most people, the satisfaction derived from self-actualization far exceeds the modest personal enjoyment of "eating well and using good." This former farm boy from Wuwei County, Chaohu, Anhui, fears nothing more than mediocrity."

"As Knox recalls it, he and Stokes worked on diluting the costly problem of making golf clubs (in a market swamped with cheap imports) by buying into other businesses that distributed Adidas sports gear and Prince tennis racquets. Bundled together, the three businesses made one strong one, a combination that eventually snagged the attention of the Singapore Government, which backed a local firm (the makers of Tiger Balm) to invest in the dominant sporting goods distributor in Asia."