C.I.C.

"Boussac controls 93.39% of the Comptoir de l’industrie cotonnière and its 40 manufacturing subsidiaries; he holds 95% of the capital of Manufactures de Senones with their 30 subsidiaries, which are more focused on real estate and property. In contrast to a simple commercial structure — the C.I.C.-fabric department, the garment “subsidiaries” (Rousseau, Blainville, Tremblot-Matheron) and “Romanex” and “Jalla” — the legal maze of the 70 companies resembles a termite mound. Through its corridors and shafts transit accounting elements and a lot of money. The tax inspectors who were ordered to venture there have always admitted they got lost there {{id_0000}}{{id_00001}} And with them, the administrative attempts at “adjustments”! Starting in 1954, Boussac pushed concentration of decision-making to the maximum by removing the financial autonomy from all subsidiaries. Their liquid assets are “deposited” to the C.I.C. Alone at the top, Marcel Boussac sets and knows the costs and sale prices: “The balance sheets,” he said, “are for the bankers, the operating accounts are for the accountants, the cash flow is for the business leader!” And to call his chief accountant: “Make me a kitchen account: what’s in my cash drawer?”⁠"

"“Mr. Boussac trusted me, he gave me freedom, he provided me with the means. He only asked me twice for the budget report. When I exceeded a billion centimes, he looked at me and said: ‘I leave that to the judgment of your conscience,’” recounts Jean-Marie Compas. The most beautiful factories, the most beautiful social achievements, those were the best days: the grand officiant of the ‘Boussac’ religion, inviting the family around the holy table, celebrated the miracle of help that comes from above. Thanks to his vicar, ‘Saint Marcel’ watched over everyone. Thus, he ensured the loyalty of this peaceful little world centered on its school, its nursery, the castle and the pond, where the noises of the city reach only muffled and which joins in the calm of the Vosges countryside the marvelous paradise of the Fortune of Gaspard by the Countess of Ségur. Confident in the solidity of the human instrument, Boussac has free hands to strengthen his power in the financial field, increasing his control and independence according to the same principles, and adding a specific objective: to remain invisible from the outside. To get rid of the oversight rights of both the staff, the public, and the state over his management, he will set up a mechanism that will make him the solitary holder of the secret of his accounts. He undertakes an operation probably unique in the history of companies. On January 20, 1947, in an extraordinary general meeting, the C.I.C., a public limited company, parent of the group, created in 1917, abandons the status of PLC for that of a limited liability company."