Pierre Bercot
Strategic Concepts & Mechanics
Primary Evidence
"In 1944, Boulanger is listed by the Gestapo among the personalities dangerous to the security of the Reich. In the event of an Allied troop landing, he is to be immediately brought before the firing squad. Pierre Bercot, who opposes the requisition of the large presses from the Saint-Ouen factory and their transfer to an unknown destination, is questioned by the Gestapo and then imprisoned in Fresnes prison (after managing, with the complicity of a SNCF resistance network, to redirect the convoy to Burgundy)."
"The entire organization from one end of the hierarchy to the other is imbued with a somewhat sordid penny-pinching spirit that contributes to Bibendum’s thriving health. Boulanger grants full authority to a spending control body—the dreaded “service des économes”—composed of about twenty inquisitors who constantly clash with the “spendthrift” initiatives of department heads in all areas. Despite the occasional bouts of bad temper caused by the pettiness of these rule-obsessed fanatics, no one would think of challenging the authority of the “Boss”—always capitalized as in Clermont—put in place by the mysterious and distant head office. Nor that of his two deputies, Antoine Brueder, who handles organization and personnel selection, and Pierre Bercot, who is in charge of the firm’s general secretariat, production planning, and financial and commercial management."