Chapter 10 Chapter Nine French Liliane Bettencourt: Only a low-key woman

I need retreat, quiet, distance. In France, which has a reputation as a romantic capital, people have long seen a lot of luxury life: the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Champs Elysees Avenue, as well as modern girls and fashionable clothing...France has such a The impression of prosperity remains in the hearts of everyone who is familiar or unfamiliar with him. But luxury is not the whole connotation of this country, there are always some people who live their lives in their own way. Once a year in France, the eyes of the whole country turn on one woman.Although discussions about her will focus on the huge assets she owns, she has always lived with a simple and low-key attitude, and she remains the same despite the turmoil in the world.There will always be some photographers behind her, most of the photos are snapshots, but she always smiles politely and elegantly in the photos, her cheeks are protruding, her hair is combed back, showing a wide forehead and deep eyes, the corners of which are Slightly wrinkled.She is slender, slender and harmonious and classical; except for a pair of earrings on her ears, she never wears jewelry, but always has a scarf or shawl tied around her neck or thrown behind her back.

Such a weak woman has shouldered the prosperity of an empire. She is the richest man in France: Liliane Betancourt.The "L'Oreal Cosmetics Empire" owned by her has become a multinational brand that has attracted worldwide attention in the past few years; Wealthy women are worth another roughly $4 billion.In the 2004 Forbes Global Rich List, Liliane Betancourt ranked 11th with a net worth of US$18.8 billion. In 2005, her net worth dropped slightly to $17.2 billion, dropping one spot. In 1922, the first traffic light in France was placed at the intersection of Livoli and Sevastopol in Paris; that year, Citroen launched a new generation of five-horsepower cars; Martin Dugal has published the first two volumes of his novel series "The Tippos"...

On October 21 of the same year, Liliane was born in the seventh arrondissement of Paris, when her father, Eugène Schueller, named her: Liliane Henriette Charlotte Schueller.Liliana's father was the son of a baker who fought with pride in World War I in 1914. In 1919 Eugène Schuler retired from the field as a Lieutenant of Artillery. After retiring, Eugène Schuler continued to work in his pre-war work - as early as 1907, he had become an excellent pharmacist and established a company, of course, at that time it was not It is called "L'Oreal" company, because "L'Oreal" was thought up when he came to sell his own hair dye later. It was the first brand he created - LAureole, which means "Hello".

By the time Liliana was born, the "L'Oreal" company founded by his father had become quite large.But when little Liliana was less than five years old, her mother left them because of a liver cyst. Since then, little Liliana has lived with her father.However, his father's career was not affected. In 1928, his father successfully acquired Monsavon, which enabled L'Oreal to start the most prosperous period of development since its establishment, and Monsavon also entered the In those days, it gradually became one of the well-known brands in France. As Liliana grew, so did L'Oreal, and by the mid-1930s, L'Oreal had more than 300 agents in France.

Despite the great success of his business, Eugène Schueller, the founder of L'Oreal, still maintains his habit of being a baker's son: he insists on getting up at four o'clock every morning.And his habit was almost completely passed on to Liliana: Eugene established a set of strict rules of life for his daughter, worked hard and conscientiously, and was meticulous... His father was very strict, sometimes even very harsh, and even introduced her to her daughter. When I read a certain book, I was also talking about work.And Liliana has kept these habits to this day.She is never late, and the timing is down to the minute.

In addition to making strict regulations on Liliana's life, Eugene also began to let Liliana get in touch with L'Oreal. However, although she was the boss' daughter, she had to start from the lowest level: the first job Eugene asked her to do It is to label L'Oreal-this is still a commendable thing today, but the effect is outstanding.Many people later pointed out when studying L'Oreal and Liliana: Focusing on grassroots exercise is something that many French companies do not have, but L'Oreal is born with such qualities, so it does better than most companies .Coincidentally, Owen Jones, the current president of L'Oreal, also started as a salesperson.It seems that this will definitely not be accidental.

However, Liliana, who spent her childhood in this way, still maintains these good habits developed since she was an adult and even in her old age. Now she still wakes up early, does things in an orderly manner, and arranges a very precise schedule.She and her husband love to have family fun, even if it means having a meal face-to-face with one of the grandchildren.Both are addicted to books, reading classical authors, modern authors and historical works. Although they are the focus of the media and public attention at any time now, just like any period in their history, they always try their best to defuse the pressure of the public and the media, and they prefer to live their own life. simple life.

Liliana is habitually called "Mrs. Betancourt" because her husband is named André Betancourt, and the combination of the two of them is due to a strange love affair. At the age of 25, Liliana went to the beautiful Switzerland to recuperate because of tuberculosis.There, she met a young Frenchman, André Betancourt, and they fell in love at first sight, and they got married in 1950.André Bettencourt later became active in French politics, served as a member of the French Senate for a long time, and served as a French government minister and other important positions for many times.During his more than 20 years of political career, Liliana has been by his side. She is very accustomed to being called "Mrs. Betancourt". Although she has much more wealth than her husband, she is willing to be her husband. The woman behind: During Betancourt’s political career, she accompanied him to participate in various official trips and social activities; in his later years, the Betancourt couple lived a warm and ordinary life, and tourism and socializing accounted for a large proportion of their lives .They own large villas in the wealthy areas of France, and they also own a large number of properties throughout France, which provide them with a good hiding place to avoid everyone's attention.

Although the huge wealth that shines on them can lead them to all kinds of luxury, they still maintain a simple life attitude in this era of impetuous commercial atmosphere. Liliana rarely accepts interviews from the media. Once she had to conduct an interview with the female editor-in-chief of the famous magazine "The Selfish". In the interview, Liliana said: "I need retreat, quietness, and a sense of distance." , people should understand: no fancy dress parties, much less decadent soirees; no stud farms, and no private jets (sometimes rented); There is no showy person in it.Apart from silence, what this family pursues is simplicity and wisdom in life.Their wedding took place among the strictest of family members, and their holidays were well hidden from curious eyes.

What else should they be proud of? In people's eyes, $17.2 billion is Liliana's greatest wealth, but Liliana often tells her friends that a happy marriage that lasted 50 years is the greatest wealth in her life.Compared with wealth, marriage is more meaningful to a woman, this is what Liliana has always known. But after all, her father left her a huge amount of wealth, so Liliana had to take on the responsibility of protecting it, but she always chose a low-key attitude towards L'Oreal.She always keeps in mind her role as a major shareholder and there is no need to focus on administration.She cleverly stayed behind the scenes, allowing the public to focus on L'Oréal rather than herself.Of course, she has a decisive influence on L'Oreal, which can be clearly seen from two things: First, when the British Owen Jones was appointed as the president in 1998, many people opposed it at that time, thinking that it was It was a "huge" risk, but Liliana finally decided to appoint Owen as the president; another thing was that on the eve of the acquisition of Maybelline by L'Oreal Group, the leaders at that time were very hesitant, because it was only possible to buy it with a high price. "We may lose everything." One of them said so, but Liliana immediately gave him a pass: "If it's a good choice, then don't hesitate..."

Although both things ended with Liliana being right, what people really admire is Liliana's style of dealing with this kind of thing: she is low-key, but she is not without her own opinion, nor is she hands-off.It is said that in Owen's office, there is still a photo of Mrs. Betancourt's inscription. The inscription on it is: trust and friendship.Owen said that he and Mrs. Betancourt often exchange views on the company's affairs. "I would show her some new products and related advertisements. Her insight is invaluable to me." Referring to Mrs. Bettencourt's relationship with the company's management, he said: "Whenever we work for some When we decided to stop, she always gave us strong support and advice.” Liliana Betancourt does not like publicity and has no desire for power, but she is enthusiastic about public welfare and sponsors as much as 4 million to 8 million US dollars a year through intermediaries.Since she basically retired from the background in 1995 and no longer personally handled L'Oreal's affairs, she spent most of her time and energy on the "Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation" named after her husband and father. Founded on December 22, 1987, this foundation is one of the foundations with the largest donations in France. Its purpose is to "provide help to the unfortunate people in the world".The foundation is located in Place Vendôme, and its office is located in Clichy, on the Paris ring highway.Similar to Liliana's usual style, the foundation also kept a low profile: the operator of France Telecom couldn't find any trace of the foundation at all! But with the unremitting support of Mrs. Bettencourt, this foundation is the most active foundation in France, and its annual relief grants are between 3 million and 6 million US dollars.In previous years, the foundation has provided millions of dollars in aid to war-torn victims in Bosnia and Kosovo.Now, the foundation devotes its main force to the prevention of diseases that endanger human health, such as the prevention and treatment of cancer and AIDS.The Foundation is also active in saving cultural heritage and protecting historical sites, such as the maintenance of abbeys in Normandy.For popular cultural activities such as literacy, the Bettencourt-Schueller Foundation has always provided generous funding. In 1990, Liliana and her husband jointly funded the establishment of the "Liliana Betancourt Chorus Award".The prize, worth approximately $50,000, is awarded on a rotating basis to the choirs of Paris and the provinces of France, and the winning choirs are invited to sing at the annual Academy de France award ceremony. In 2002, Liliane was awarded the highest French medal by the President - the Legion of Honor of the French Republic.This elegant, generous, and almost perfect woman has become an immortal legend in the hearts of the French.As they say: "She loved life and was loved by it." Since its birth in 1907, the development of L'Oreal has experienced two world wars and several economic fluctuations, but L'Oreal has always stood firm.The secret of this, on the one hand, is that L'Oreal has always had an excellent "helmsman", from Eugène Schueller to Liliane Betancourt, from François Dale to Owen Jones, L'Oreal is growing steadily. In the process of staff turnover, it is about to pass the 100-year mark; on the other hand, the low-key and steady work style of Eugène Schuler and Liliane Bettencourt also brought a lot of subtle influences to L'Oreal. The key to more than 90 years of history. Today's L'Oreal is a modern multinational enterprise. After more than 90 years of accumulation, it has accumulated a unique corporate culture and business philosophy of L'Oreal.The following are some important experiences of L'Oreal's success. Today, L'Oreal has become a model of French globalization, which is unmatched in France.For a while, people generally believed that high-tech and information companies such as France Telecom, Alcatel and Vivendi Global could become the benchmark companies of the French economy, but in the long-term development, L'Oreal has exerted stronger vitality and development power .Judging from the figures of the past three years, the French blue chip index has fallen by 24%, while L'Oreal's stock has outperformed the index by 65%.Others such as France Telecom, Alcatel and Vivendi Global all fell by more than 70%.During this period, the Dow Jones European non-cyclical commodity stock index fell by 10%, while L'Oreal increased by 44%.In the eyes of many investors, L'Oreal's stock is the most reassuring. It has never made a big mistake. It is the French brand with the highest international reputation and a safe island for investment. L'Oreal's outstanding performance is closely related to the corporate culture and business philosophy that Liliane Betancourt and her three managers have worked hard to create. The corporate culture of L'Oreal is permeated with a relaxed, harmonious and international atmosphere, which you can experience from the flow of people going to work at its headquarters and from the clothes and conversations of its employees.In the coffee shop on the first floor, you can not only hear French and English, but even German and Asian languages ​​will float into your ears from time to time.It is said that L'Oreal's employees come from 45 nationalities, and among the 48,000 employees, 36,000 are outside France.Among the 400 top managers, there are 40 Spaniards, 70 Italians, 40 Germans and 35 British.Among L'Oreal's 8,000 managers, 2,000 have stock options.It is not difficult to understand why L'Oreal's turnover rate is quite low: the average service time of employees is 14 years. Although global companies always give people the impression of black and mechanical integrated production lines, you can hardly smell this feeling from L'Oreal. L'Oreal is a different multinational company. This reason may only be explained as : L'Oreal is a company born in a romantic country. L'Oreal's factories generally pay attention to humanization: in a L'Oreal factory in Germany, the ceiling and surrounding walls are made of glass panels, so that workers can enjoy the beautiful sunshine.There is no busy assembly line here, but separate workshops, so that the workshop manager can communicate with each employee cordially. The first thing he does every day is to shake hands with the employees.When the shop needs to add new equipment, frontline workers have the final say, he said. At the same time, L'Oreal is also one of the most successful and thorough transnational corporations in reforming professional managers. Since 1957, Liliana officially inherited her father's business. She was only 35 years old at the time, and she did not want to take over her father's business, but obeyed her father's decision calmly and reasonably.Therefore, Liliana personally appointed three presidents of L'Oreal Group, and maintained close working relationship and deep friendship with them.And these three presidents also repaid Liliana's trust in them with excellent results. After the death of the old Eugene Schuleer, his loyal assistant Francois Dalle (Francois Dalle) was the first to take over L'Oreal. Dalle's biggest contribution during his tenure was a major transformation of L'Oreal's shareholding structure. After L'Oréal went public in 1963, because French left-wing politicians liked to interfere or even control the management of large French companies, Dale began to consider how to transform the company's ownership structure internationally. In 1973, Dale persuaded Liliane Bettencourt to dilute her shareholding.In a rather complicated deal, Swiss food giant Nestlé has a 51% stake in a holding company called Gesparal, while Bettencourt owns the remaining 49%.Through Gesparal, Nestlé in turn purchased more than 50% of L'Oreal's shares, and the rest was listed and circulated. This shareholding structure has been retained to this day.The separation of ownership and management rights allowed L'Oreal's management to operate freely and ensured the continuity of corporate development. This made Liliane Bettencourt, who holds 27.3% of L'Oreal's shares, the richest man in France in the end, but her wealth is mainly Again from current president Owen Jones. Different from Dalle's appointment, Owen Jones has gone through a lot of ups and downs as the president, because Owen Jones is an Englishman, and it is unique in the history of French companies to let a foreigner take charge of a large French company. But L'Oreal did it.When Jones was appointed chairman in 1988, public opinion generally believed that it was an adventure, but this outstanding young British man made all predictions fail. During his more than ten years of leadership, he led L'Oreal to create The most perfect period of development since its birth. Owen's successful experience is the acquisition. He often likes to do things that people don't think of.In 2000 he bought Kiehl, a small, popular cosmetics company in New York City that was a far cry from L'Oréal's usual branding.“That’s why we bought it because we saw how interesting it was for a brand to do the exact opposite of what we did and still be successful,” Jones explained. Of course, most of the time, L'Oreal's acquisitions are quite cautious, and only when it is determined that a certain meal can be digested, L'Oreal will wait for an opportunity to act.It is precisely because of this that the two successful cases of Maybelline and Soft Sheen/Carson have been created. In 1996, L'Oreal acquired Maybelline for $758 million and set out to revamp the brand.Owen believes that if Maybelline wants to enter the international market, it must first go out of its own box.So in 1996, L'Oreal moved the headquarters of Maybelline from Memphis to New York. Since then, in overseas markets, the word "New York" has been added to the back of the Maybelline trademark. "L'Oreal Paris".Because in the eyes of consumers in many parts of the world, New York is a symbol of the Western flamboyant world, and its products should represent the latest fashion.After L'Oreal changed the face of Maybelline, its sales also jumped from 350 million US dollars in 1996 to 1.1 billion US dollars in 2004, becoming the largest cosmetics company in the United States, with a global market share of 19%, and it is likely to become the world's largest sales volume. Cosmetics brand.Subsequently, Maybelline became L'Oreal's sharp weapon to knock on the door of the Japanese market. In July 1999, L'Oreal took back the controlling stake in Maybelline (Japan), and quickly transformed the formula of ondercurl mascara to make it more suitable for the needs of Asians. In 1998 and 2000, L'Oreal acquired Soft Sheen and Carson successively, and then merged. Soft Sheen/Carson, a maker of shampoo for African-Americans, has no international presence at all, while Soft Sheen/Carson, which has established itself in South Africa, is mired in debt.L'Oreal first set its sights on the African market, and behind it, the African immigrants who spread to all parts of the world with the population flow contain a huge potential gold mine.In response to this market, L'Oreal first set up a research laboratory in Chicago, specializing in the study of black hair, and directly set up camp in South Africa to train local hairdressers. In 2003, Soft Sheen/Carson already accounted for 41% of Africa's $90 million annual sales of hairdressing supplies, an 11% increase from before the acquisition.L'Oreal took advantage of the victory and pushed northward, not only coveting Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire, which were former French colonies, but also setting its sights on some communities in Europe where black descendants live, such as Paris and London. L'Oreal's success today largely reflects the effectiveness of L'Oreal's unique strategy of brand acquisition and repackaging, which has transformed L'Oreal from a French company into a global beauty industry empire. The 1980s and 1990s are considered to be the beginning of the era of human globalization. A large number of multinational companies, especially American companies, started their global layout development at that time; Among them, American companies are the representatives of globalization - in all walks of life, you can almost find the shadow of American companies, including the cosmetics industry. At that time, Estee Lauder and Revlon in the United States were the two most well-known brands in the international cosmetics market, especially in the United States, their old home. These two brands completely controlled the high-end cosmetics market. It was considered impossible to enter the United States. task. Liliane Bettencourt and her company L'Oréal decided to push the envelope.With the efforts of the company, L'Oreal persuaded Macy's, one of the largest department stores in the United States at that time, to obtain the same sales area as Estee Lauder in its main cosmetics counter area. With its extraordinary momentum and excellent quality With the brand, in the first year, Lancôme achieved a 25% sales increase, thus opening up the US market in one fell swoop. But an American market is not all that L'Oreal wants. L'Oreal's eyes are on the whole world, and this goal is even more evident in the 21st century.Now, L'Oreal has been able to skillfully grasp the global development trend. For example, L'Oreal has shown strong interest in emerging markets like China.In China, Lancôme and L'Oreal are well-known brands, and their sales revenue has increased by more than 60% every year.In order to maintain its leading position, L'Oreal has invested heavily in China.The first phase of the company's US$50 million Suzhou Shangmei factory has been completed.At the same time, it is ready to invest another 100 million US dollars to carry out the construction of the second and third phases of the project. On the streets of Moscow, Russia, you can also see large advertisements of Maybelline's crystal lipstick everywhere. The L'Oreal brand has penetrated into the hearts of many Russians.In addition, Jones also aimed at the African women's market, and established a research and development center in Chicago specializing in African hairstyles. Today, L'Oreal has agencies in 150 countries around the world, 85% of its products are sold abroad, and 44% are sold outside Europe.Its turnover in 2001 reached 13.7 billion euros, and its net profit reached 229 million euros.L'Oreal now has 48,000 employees, including 2,500 researchers, distributed in 283 branches and 46 factories around the world-all data show that today's L'Oreal has become one of the largest companies in the world . And if you still can't imagine the degree of globalization of L'Oreal, some of the following data may help you: Today, L'Oréal sells 85 beauty products every second.In addition to L'Oreal, its main trademarks include Lancome, Maybelline, Garnier, Vichy, Ralph Lauren or Giorgio Armani fragrances, Biotherm, Redken, Helena... In the world, no matter which family you are in, as long as you go to the bathroom or A glance at the medicine cabinet reveals a bunch of products from this family: hairspray, lotion, dye, balm, deodorant, face powder, perfume, shampoo, skin cream... This is L'Oreal! Will she be the second richest woman in the world next year? Now 83-year-old Liliana Betancourt has become the second richest woman in the world, ahead of her is Alice Walton, the eldest daughter of the famous American Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, The latter occupies the position of the richest woman on this year's "Forbes" Global Rich List with assets of 18 billion US dollars. But the ranking, or whether it can become the richest man, has no meaning for Liliana Betancourt. It was the same yesterday, and it is still the same today.For her, perhaps the most important thing now is the Betancourt Schuler Foundation, which she is the chairman of. Especially when her husband left before her, the foundation has become an important spiritual pillar for her. . Liliane Betancourt has only one daughter, Françoise, who is now on the board of L'Oreal, and she will be the best successor to her mother's career.Perhaps because of the same origin, Françoise still maintains the low-key tradition of the Betancourt family. Even her relatives described Françoise as a "lonely person", but this is also worth looking forward to One of the places, after all someone who has a lot of money and acts like a showman is not respected anywhere.L'Oreal is by no means that kind of business. It is precisely because of this that the development of L'Oreal has been closely watched by many people, and people have predicted that its performance will have a steady increase, especially in the environment where L'Oreal implements a global strategy and pays more attention to emerging markets like China. The stock has been strong, which is evident. And if this is the case, the position of the second richest woman in the world in 2006 will undoubtedly belong to Liliane Betancourt, although she has long turned a blind eye to all this!