Legend of Xiangjiang Tycoon - Chapter 519

L’Oréal may be the first company to put such emphasis on the media. As early as 1909, Eugène Schueller was editor of a magazine called “La Coiffure de Paris”, which he acquired in 1911.

LaCoiffure de Paris means “Paris hairstyle” in Chinese. It is an exchange forum for doctors, hair stylists, and chemists. Eugène Schuyler was originally a chemist.

But it wasn’t the magazine that actually made L’Oreal, or Eugène Schuler himself, a household name.

L’Oreal gradually expanded the market in the 1930s, but for Eugène Schueller himself, perhaps starting a company was far less attractive to him than being a politician, and he used his knowledge of various media frequently and skillfully. His power to spread his political and economic ideas, and his more extreme and nationalistic ideals, made him popular with many young patriots.

In 1871, after the failure of the Paris Commune, the Thiers government restored the parliamentary system of the French Third Republic, but for a devastated France, the liberal system did not bring stability and prosperity, but continued conflict and debate.

The Great Depression of 1933 swept the global capital markets, and the country, riddled with strikes, unemployment and political turmoil, was finally on the verge of collapse. But Eugène Schuler saw that Germany and Italy next door were still rapidly increasing their productivity under the CCP order, and their countries were still full of enthusiastic working atmosphere.

In the eyes of Eugene Schuler, these results point to a truth, “We must deprive people of the naive idea of ​​liberty, equality and even fraternity, because this will only ‘lead to disaster’.

He began to believe that the rule of communism might really be the final answer of this era.

Eugène Schuyler began to show his media influence at this time.

Between 1938 and 1955, he published at least six books and more than ten pamphlets. In addition to this, there is also the magazine “Entrepreneurs Action”, which he founded in December 1936, as well as his articles published in other journals, such as “Working France”, “National Revolution”, etc. Admiration for authoritarian rule.

At the same time, he also likes to participate in radio, speech, seminars and other activities. In Eugène Schuyler’s own words, between 1934 and 1937 alone, he gave hundreds of speeches, and even because he was worried about his performance, he even set up a small living room for practice and preparation for speeches.

He promoted his economic theories and established a more professional image for himself and L’Oreal in both academia and industry, such as his idea of ​​”proportional wages” (a method similar to distribution according to work), which was also Many companies have tried it, and although the specific implementation method is not mature, it still affects many management researchers.

Soon Eugene Schuler personally experienced the ** system, because if you don’t go, the ** will come.

In September 1939, World War II broke out, and in June the following year, Paris fell and France surrendered.

Although the German butcher knife seemed to be only interested in the Jews, and the life of the Parisians was not devastated, the German-occupied areas during the war soon began to implement a rationing system, not to mention the development of consumer goods, even the consumption of this Things are basically gone.

However, when a number of consumer goods factories were forcibly converted into war material production factories or directly destroyed by war, L’Oreal’s revenue rose surprisingly.

Although Eugène Schueller repeatedly claimed that he had not developed any relationship with the German military during the post-war liquidation process, some people believe that even in order to maintain the basic operation of the factory during the war, the supply of raw materials must rely on the cooperation with the southern Vichy. The government (the pseudo-regime led by Marshal Pétain after the surrender of France) or the Germans, not to mention L’Oréal, which is still on the rise.

The accuser then produced more convincing evidence.

Statistics show that during the German occupation period from July 1940 to August 1944, of the total business volume sold by Eugène Scheller’s company to Germans, L’Oreal’s own brand accounted for only 2.37%; Dream Soap was 13.86%; Valentine’s It is 39% (Valentin is a company in the bag of Eugene Schuler in 1925, engaged in the production of quick-drying paint).

Many people suspect that Eugène Schueller is selling military paint to the German army through Valentine’s channels, and L’Oreal, which belongs to the chemical industry, is fully capable of doing this. It seems that L’Oreal and Eugène Schueller should be doomed this time.

In the trial of a French political organization in 1948, it was generally believed that Eugène Schueller was associated with the organization. This organization once advocated authoritarian politics and engaged in assassinations in France, but after the outbreak of World War II, some of them were also reorganized into the French Resistance Organization.

But the ensuing reversal made everyone stunned. At the trial scene, Eugene Schuler’s image instantly became a patriot who protected Jews and helped the French resistance.

The first is the records in the French army-related archives, from August 1940 to March 1941, Eugène Schuler and his two main partners, with a stolen pass to fugitive French soldiers and messaging opened A secret passage, through which a large number of French names are guaranteed, and information is continuously passed on.

It was not until 1941 that the L’Oreal headquarters was raided by the Gestapo and the two partners were arrested, and this passage was forced to be cancelled.

There is also testimony about the protection of the Jews. Valentine’s original boss was a Jew. In his testimony, it was Eugene Schuler who hid him and his wife in his villa, and later helped him and many Jewish colleagues in the company escape to Switzerland. Eugene Schuler Lyle gained the support of a large number of Jews in this way.

The testimony to protect the French is even more moving. In this document, which was jointly signed and testified by representatives of the French General Trade Union and the Catholic Labor Union in 1946, Eugène Schuler had repeatedly negotiated with German officials and even bought them to protect many of the victims. The French expropriated were spared the hardships of servitude, and soon the court received many letters from these Frenchmen proving that they were protected from doom by Eugène Schuler.

This is not over yet. The former guerrilla captain of the French Dom Mountains finally stood up. He said that Eugène Schueller had always been in contact with the resistance organization. From 1941 to the end of the war, Eugène Schueller provided the guerrillas with at least 500,000 yuan. With the financial support of francs, with the help of this aid, more than 200 concentration camp prisoners were rescued, tens of thousands of weapons and ammunition were continuously transported to the resistance camps, and even Eugene Schuler himself joined the resistance army. organization.

Eugène Schuler’s counterattack against the accusers staged a realistic version of “Schindler’s List”. The post-war liquidation not only did not hurt L’Oreal, but instead allowed L’Oreal to complete the redemption in the eyes of the French.

Although the media criticizing him can still find reasons to explain that Eugene Schuleer is just a shrewd speculator and two-faced, because most of what he did happened in the later period of the war, if we look at his entire life in three dimensions, in fact Eugene Schuleer Lyle is still a patriot in the end.

At the end of his 1941 book, The Economic Revolution, he wrote, “We need to have a goal, the prosperity and strength of France, the happiness of all French people, to be connected with the new Europe, to change The spirit of France…”

This politically radical, yet slightly naive man is still just the son of a baker from Alsace, a simple and pure nationalist youth.

The humiliating defeat of the motherland in the Franco-Prussian War made him anxiously seek a way to save the country in confusion, even if this method came from their mortal enemy Germany, even if this method required them to give up the freedom and fraternity they believed in, as long as To make France stronger again, he is willing to publicize and practice.

But fortunately, his final recognition in his heart is still inclined towards France, and France won the final victory, and Alsace will also return to France. L’Oreal can finally enter the next stage of development.

In 1957, Eugène Schuyler ended his legendary and controversial life at the age of seventy-six. His daughter, Liliana Bettencourt, inherited the legacy of her father, Eugène Schleier, and officially started the journey of L’Oreal’s imperialization.

Liliana Bettencourt, who was born with a golden key, has never had any formal work experience. From her own words, maybe the only job she can do is labeling bottles (internship at the age of 15).

But that doesn’t mean she’s an illiterate heir, but what Liliana Bettencourt actually learned from her father, probably the most important thing is to master the world.

This successor, dubbed by the media as L’Oreal’s “Guardian Goddess of the Temple”, is simply synonymous with luxury in the eyes of the outside world, and her fondness for banquets and luxury continues to the end of her life.

In her villa by the lakeside of the Seine, there is always a lot of fun and feasting, and there will always be many business, media and political elites among those toasting and celebrating. When it came time to do charity, Liliana Bettencourt donated an island directly. Her life is not so much a luxury, it is better to use a more exaggerated word: “the stars hold the moon”.

Behind all this and the confidence is naturally the rapid development and growth of L’Oreal. Liliana Bettencourt meets every day with various elites and high-level people, and the actual managers of the company are conscientiously handling every step of the plan they make, and what has propelled L’Oreal to take off in these three decades is this. Three big things.

The first thing is the professional manager system: a non-family business belonging to the Betancourt family

In fact, L’Oreal’s achievements at this stage were not created by Liliana Bettencourt like her father.

In fact, Liliana Bettencourt and her father are very clear that everyone should find the most suitable position for themselves, and the power of management should also be handed over to the most capable and trustworthy person.

These words are similar to Li Zhiwen’s belief that professional people do professional things.

Eugène Schleier said in his will that “the children of generals may not be able to become generals”, and Liliana Bettencourt, who was in control of the entire L’Oreal at the time, did not make a wrong move at the crossroads, she agreed to transfer the decision-making power of the company To Francois, his father’s right-hand man.

At her father’s funeral, Liliana Bettencourt took the initiative to ask Francois to stand by her side, and the two held their hands tightly together, in Francois’ own words, “From that day on, we two The fate of the individual and L’Oréal merged.”

What L’Oreal embarked on was a path that only a concept existed at the time, and few companies tried it. This path was the professional manager system and the successor training plan.

Facts have proved that the French have successfully applied the idea of ​​constitutional monarchy to start a company. From 1957, Liliana Bettencourt took over L’Oreal. So far, Francois is responsible for controlling the direction of L’Oreal, while Liliana Betten Gu is in charge of eating, drinking and befriending powerful people.

As a result, during Francois’ tenure, L’Oreal’s annual revenue rose from 1.2 billion francs to 2 billion francs.

Of course, letting go of power and trusting an external CEO is not a simple matter. An example that is the opposite of L’Oreal is Estee Lauder. Although they are also the top cosmetics groups in the world, Estee Lauder is an out-and-out family business. The Lauder family holds more than 87% of the shares of Estée Lauder Group~www.mtlnovel.com~ The executives of the group are almost entirely composed of family members. control.

Former CEO Leonard Lauder once recalled that when he stepped down as CEO and tried to hire executives from the outside, he often quarreled with the new CEO, “It used to be the same when my mother was in charge of the company, and she worked hard just to make us Do what she wants, but those efforts don’t always work.”

From this point of view, Liliana Bettencourt not only let go of power, but also a burden.

But not participating in group decision-making does not mean that Liliana Betancourt is just a pampered hedonist. In fact, her activities with her husband will greatly affect the development of L’Oreal.

In 1950 Liliana Bettencourt married the politician Andre Bettencourt, who served in the cabinets of two French presidents and one prime minister from 1954 to 1973, and in 1954 and 1970. On behalf of the French government, Du visited mainland China and was received by Chinese leaders, which laid a certain foundation for L’Oreal to take the lead in entering the Chinese market.

Liliana Bettencourt is also the same. Her mastery of the world and the principles of dealing with things has brought L’Oreal the harmony she has had over the years since she took over L’Oreal. Friendship and trust have always been maintained between them, which has also made this giant always united in the subsequent market actions.