France

"THE HIDDEN FACE OF THE MULLIEZ EMPIRE The true story of the clan behind the first fortune of France"

"Until World War I, the Bank primarily engaged in discounting trade drafts between France and the United States. It also profited from what would be called today foreign exchange and what was then known as the "gold points," a system that prevailed until the establishment of the Gold Exchange Standard, in other words, the universal acceptance of the gold standard. Another source of profits for Lazard house: managing a few private portfolios, few in number but well-chosen. Finally, it is probable that it was in these years 1900-1910 that it took its first stakes in industrial companie"

"Early on we were predominantly European, with two thirds of our profits coming from this large, sophisticated market. Germany, Belgium, Norway and France led the way. We struggled with competitiveness in Italy and withdrew. The UK has been a disappointment. Skills are not what they were, energy is expensive, unions have been aggressive (unlike Germany, where the unions focus on encouraging employers to invest for future growth), although to be fair they have been much more constructive and willing to engage in proper discussions about the genuine health of our businesses over the last ten years, and the government has been uninterested or lacklustre at best. America has been resurgent on the back of world-beating energy costs and frankly fine management. Whereas Europe has slowly squeezed the life from much of its manufacturing base with carbon taxes, complex legislation, high labour and social costs, America has gone into overdrive."

"He enters negotiations with the government Neither Madelin nor Séguin, and even less Balladur, are willing to block the agreement with Môlnlycke. They simply want guarantees on how Arnault will use his loot. Everyone has their own ideas on this. Séguin, elected in the Vosges, wants him to devote part of the 2 billion to modernizing the Boussac factories in his region. Balladur, for his part, wants him to place under sequestration the 338 million francs that the European Union is claiming from France. The Ministry of Finance also demands a guarantee on the 270 million francs of participatory loans that he had received in early 1985. By the way, Arnault is reminded of his promise to give the State a "return to better fortune" clause of up to 300 million francs starting in 1991. Madelin seeks assurances about the future of Boussac's textile industry, which still employs 5,300 people. It is on the eve of the presidential election and it is better to guard against a possible social drama."

"You know, whereas if I buy a home all that’s going to happen is I’m going to spend my two weeks holiday in France trying to work out what the French is for: “my septic tank has exploded” or working out stupid repairs and bits of crap like that. But instinctively we like owning things and we’ve actually got to teach ourselves not to."

"At the start of the attack on France, the Germans had no advantage in numbers and lagged in technology. Yet they won and won easily, and they did it through the application of strategy. Their strategy was so powerful that in one two-week period, it set aside 300 years of military history."

"The contrary occurs with kingdoms governed like France, because you can easily enter there, having won over to yourself some baron of the kingdom; for malcontents and those who desire to innovate are always to be found. For the reasons given, they can open the way for you into that state and facilitate victory for you. Then your wish to maintain that victory for yourself brings in its wake infinite difficulties both from those who have helped you and from those you have oppressed. Nor is it enough for you to eliminate the bloodline of the prince, because lords remain there who put themselves at the head of new changes; and since you can neither content them nor eliminate them, you lose that state whenever their opportunity comes."

"Our parent company would be based in Holland because of that country’s attractive tax environment. An Irish company would hold boo’s intellectual property rights, while a string of companies in France, Germany, Sweden, the US and Britain would hold our assets in each of those countries. Patrik loved this sort of work, but Kajsa"

"In France, with the same fever that, ten years earlier, had driven the automobile, aero clubs, municipalities, chambers of commerce, and newspapers organize competitions, distribute trophies, and push the challenges ever further. And the sporting public—very receptive to advertising campaigns—is enthralled by the exhibitions offered to them."

"From the first cannon shots, Michelin offers its assistance. On August 6, the two brothers offer one million francs “to honor at the end of the war the services rendered to the country by the heroism and skill of military aviators” (the committee responsible for awarding it will be dissolved in 1917). On August 20, they write to the Minister of War to “offer France one hundred Breguet bomber aircraft frames that they will manufacture,” with the State providing the engines, and furthermore, they commit to building at cost all aircraft that could be produced in their factories for the needs of national defense."

"Michelin’s complaint: In France, people too easily indulge in the delights of the “café du Commerce” to chat, without having any say or the elements to discuss, the general policy of a business and its strategy. Public authorities, in particular, give trade unionists who do not bear, do not want to bear, and cannot bear any responsibility in the “management of companies” and even more “wish to destroy the market economy,” exorbitant prerogatives. As a result, dialogue is impossible (the legal structure of the Michelin group does not allow staff representatives to sit on the governing bodies)."

"“It needs: fifty million per year, sixty if necessary! And we are certain that France will not shrink from the sacrifices that will be demanded of it. “We ask for enough money for useless things so that we have the courage to ask for it when the security and future of the country are at stake. “The people of France must demand this from their representatives, remembering that henceforth the future of France is in the air.” The brochure was distributed in one million copies."

"Thanks to countless industrialists from all backgrounds, obscure or famous inventors multiplying mechanical, electrical, aerodynamic improvements, the automotive boom continues. France is the leading car producer on the European continent and — by far — the largest exporter. In 1907, French manufacturers produced more than twenty-five thousand cars (they quintupled their production since 1900), twice as many as Great Britain (twelve thousand), nearly five times as many as Germany (five thousand one hundred fifty), ten times as many as Italy (two thousand five hundred)."

"This is not enough, on February 1er, 1912, Michelin published a brochure under a tricolor cover titled: “Our future is in the air.” Forty pages of testimonials, opinions, and recommendations from military and civilian experts on the importance of the “fourth weapon” in future combat. With this conclusion: “France needs five thousand airplanes, and when we ask for five thousand airplanes, we are also asking for hangars, flying workshops, replacements, trucks, all the elements that will make these devices not cumbersome and useless impediments, but birds always ready to take flight. “It needs: five thousand military aviators, and when we ask for these five thousand aviators, we demand that they not be an unorganized crowd, without status, not knowing where to go or what to do, but a true weapon with its leaders, its pilots, its mechanics, its helpers, all working with the same drive and under the same discipline for the country."

"Without a word, the “engineer-builder” who had introduced modern automobile industry to Europe, allowing France to maintain its technical leadership in this cutting-edge field, gathers his personal belongings and leaves. “A very great industrialist but a debatable administrator,” said a former governor of the Bank of France about him."

"When in 1919, André and Edouard Michelin published a brochure on their efforts before and during the First World War to provide France with a bombing aviation, they denounced “a few men in power, of whom three were particularly harmful.”"

"‘I returned to France at a fortunate moment, when the existing government was so bad it could not continue. I became its chief; everything else followed of course – there’s my story in a few words.’ Napoleon on St Helena"

"the Rhine to France; France took the Ionian"

"His heir, Ulisse Cargnel, was the first to also make lenses in Cadore, and in 1900 the company he led was the only one in all of Italy to manufacture the complete glasses of any type of lens. Disguised as a journalist, Cargnel visited lens factories in Germany, in Munich and Nuremberg, and in France, in Ligny, where he studied the most advanced methods for production. He made the secrets of foreign competitors his own, massively increasing production thanks to a technological breakthrough."

"They start with the grinding of lenses imported from France, to be inserted into metal frames produced in Vienna. Water is the driving force that moves the mechanisms in a rudimentary way, especially the grinding wheel, to produce the first metal spectacles. A small mill in the middle of the woods, far from railways, from inhabited centers, and from industrial ones."

"France, in the picturesque Marais district of Paris, the Société des Lunetiers was born in 1849 from the association of local opticians, the original nucleus of what would become Essilor in the following century."

"Angelo was born into a family of "pettener," as the peasants from Belluno who spent the long winter days, free from work in the woods, making combs from the horns of cattle were called, artifacts that they would go down to sell in the city squares of the plains. Ancient rituals handed down through generations, skilled work performed by men in front of the hearth. Precision work, where it takes time, patience, and perseverance. Like making frames. Perhaps it is no coincidence that in Italy, as in France and also in Japan, the optical industry was born in mountain countries, where time expands and distractions are reduced, allowing craftsmen to become masters of the technique."

"The expansion of the tricolor eyewear does not go unnoticed overseas. Local workers in the sector protest, calling for measures to curb the dominance of European competitors, asking for customs duties and restrictive measures to limit the import of lenses and frames from Europe. By the end of the sixties, Italy has reached the level of France and aims at the continental primacy of Germany. Every year, Italian factories produce no less than twenty-five million pairs of glasses, with over a third of them being exported for a value of 18 billion lire."

"Alex Balkansky, a partner at Benchmark Capital from France, was the same type as Douglas. When he came for lunch and ordered sashimi, among other things, the plate would be empty as soon as it was served. His movements seemed graceful and slow, yet the food on the plate would disappear in no time. It was the same during kaiseki meals. Waiters and waitresses explain each dish during kaiseki. While his wife would listen carefully to the explanations, Alex seemed impatient, starting to eat during the explanation, so by the time it was over, the plate was empty."

"Rupert’s conviction that such people had no respect for wine was a major reason why he started promoting estate wines, and why he wanted the wine farmers to receive the honour due to them. His first estate wines were from the farms Montpellier, Theuniskraal and Alto. He also introduced the French and German custom of appellation contrôlée in South Africa, that is, labelling wines as products of a specific estate and its vineyards."

"The old man’s strategy worked better than he could have imagined. At the suggestion of his friend Gerardo Rodríguez, with whom he used to go horseback riding every morning, Emilio traveled to San Sebastián, Spain. There, through Gerardo’s friends, he joined a circle of friends that included several expatriate French. At a party he met a young and wealthy Parisian girl, who would surely meet Don Emilio’s approval. Her name was Pamella de Surmont, and she would be the next Mrs. Azcárraga."

"In December 1984, he and Jenny took the family to Mexico, where they had many adventures in an old van driven by a hairy old local the girls dubbed ‘Catweasel’. He also rediscovered the joys of skiing. Warren and Sally Paine were frequent partners in mountain excursions. A typical adventure, in Paine’s memory, started with an exclamation from a wrung-out Gibbs: ‘For heaven’s sake, Jenny, let’s have some fun.’ She’d arrange a ski trip to Aspen in Colorado or Courchevel in France with the Paines and the Reynolds. Gibbs found his release through competition. ‘There was only one speed with Alan,’ says Paine, ‘flat out. Being in front of him was like being in front of a freight train, he was always trying to pass, arms and legs were flying and he was yelling and cursing; it was great fun.’ As it was with business, so it was with entertainment: Gibbs threw himself into whatever he was doing as if the fate of the world hinged on the result and by the end of the day he was spent."