Peugeot
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"In 1906, Michelin, presenting itself as “the king of tires and the tire of kings,” set up a factory in Turin where the Fiat group was beginning to grow in influence and where French manufacturers Clément and Peugeot had created subsidiaries. Alphonse Daubrée, a great-grandson of the founder of the factory, an engineer from the École Centrale who began his career at the Belgian chemist Solvay, took over as the director of the factory. From generation to generation, the Daubrées would henceforth reign as masters on the other side of the Alps at the direction of the Società per Azioni Michelin Italiana[10](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn10)."
"In December, Citroën is absorbed purely and simply. And Michelin becomes a shareholder with about ten percent of the Peugeot-Citroën group. François Rollier and Jean-Claude Tournand return to Clermont-Ferrand. This time, definitively, François Michelin cuts ties. The manufacturer no longer carries the automotive burden while remaining Citroën’s exclusive supplier. And for Peugeot, a majority supplier (about sixty percent of its supplies). Michelin can finally concentrate its efforts on what it knows and what it is made for: tires[41](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn41)."
"On March 7, 1911, three years to the day after the creation of the prize, Eugène Renaux (a Peugeot dealer) and his passenger Albert Senouque tried their luck on a military-type “Maurice Farman” equipped with a robust 50 HP Renault engine. Departure from Bue, a stopover of about twenty minutes in Nevers, navigation by compass, the spires of the Clermont-Ferrand cathedral, the summit of the puy de Dôme. A trouble-free flight. The feat is timed at five hours ten minutes forty-six seconds."
"One thing is certain: the jovial figure with plump shapes, who would change silhouette with the pencils of Poulbot, Philibert, Fabiano, Mich—the official poster artist for Peugeot—and a few others, found his name on a day in July 1898 after the Paris-Amsterdam-Paris race where the automotive champion Léon Théry greeted André Michelin with a cheeky “Look, there’s Bibendum.” The onlookers present found it amusing, and Michelin, always on the lookout, immediately came up with the brilliant formula."
"By 1948, the bottlenecks are clearing, and automobile manufacturing resumes its momentum. Citroën that year produces thirty-four thousand one hundred sixty-five cars, surpassing Renault (twenty-nine thousand nine hundred twenty cars), Peugeot (nineteen thousand three hundred ten), Simca (nine thousand nine hundred seventy), and the distant outsiders such as Talbot, Salmson, Panhard, Delahaye, or Ford."
"On his turf, most of the work is done. Bibendum, popular and dynamic, reigns supreme. One by one, he managed to convince car manufacturers to pay more for their tires by guaranteeing them, in return, quality and longevity. Michelin is the number 1 at Renault (which stopped tire manufacturing in 1955), at Peugeot, and of course, still one hundred percent at Citroën. Despite its higher prices and imperial commercial methods — you have to comply with its conditions or risk not being delivered[37](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn37) — it already represents more than half of replacement sales."
"All the engine tests were successful. The French govern- ment also purchased a licence and arranged for production by Peugeot. This engine was a 16-cylinder double-bank 400 HP design, with a reduction gear and layout enabling a 37 mm. cannon to be fired through the propeller shaft; the whole was covered by patents until 1935. This type of*aero- engine was later adapted and produced by Bréguet in France, Napier in England, and Mann in Germany. Many other aeroengines in U-form or H-form are also derived from it."
"The idea of “paternalism from baptism to the grave” was, long before him, the work of great French industrial families, of Protestant belief, such as the Schneider and Wendel, or Catholic, like Peugeot and Michelin, who relied on Christian faith to practice an active social policy. Boussac’s social work takes a different path, in the sense that it is not inspired by religious ethics, but solely by the generosity of the boss."