Legend of Xiangjiang Tycoon

In 1957, Francois officially took the helm of L'Oreal. In the first four years, François was committed to further enhancing the influence of L'Oreal's existing business in France, but at the same time, François has also been thinking about L'Oreal's future development strategy.

During the period when Eugène Schreler was in charge of the company, the scientist-turned-founder preferred to pour a lot of resources into the R&D department every year, constantly introducing new ones.

François believes that this is an affirmation of the fine tradition of L'Oreal, and has formulated a plan that the company will invest 3.5% of the annual turnover in product research and development every year.

However, it is obviously unrealistic for L'Oreal to stand out in the highly competitive European market by relying only on its core brands "Dream Soap", "Dopp" and "Sun Amber". Francois believes that L'Oreal's strategy must be To make a major adjustment, they must combine more forces if they want to establish a higher position in the world.

Before launching this protracted merger war, Francois first made three layouts at L'Oreal.

First, upgrade the company's original technology research and development department structure.

In 1960, Francois, in collaboration with Zwiak, head of R&D at L'Oréal, launched a new R&D path: applied chemistry research based on fundamental chemistry.

Compared with the completely autonomous design from the bottom to the top in the era of Eugène Schuler, the academic research work in Europe in the 1960s had completely recovered from the war. François believed that corporate R&D should make more efficient use of basic science. Theoretical results, transfer R&D investment to application.

So L'Oreal's Applied Chemistry Laboratory was finally built in 1963 and played a crucial role in the subsequent development. At the same time, applied chemistry gradually entered most university campuses and became a new and important discipline.

Second, it gave up some of the sub-brands that hindered the development of L'Oreal, including the "Dream Soap", which has devoted half of Eugène Schueller's life to the brand.

François was actually one of the earliest employees of Dream Soap. However, Francois believes that there are too many top brands in the French soap market. L'Oreal spends a lot of money every year to compete for the market with other brands in dream soap, but the benefits of bath soap are not very impressive. , which is obviously dragging down the pace of L'Oreal.

Although Liliana Bettencourt was saddened to hear the decision, François insists that it must have been Eugène Schuler's job to bring L'Oreal to its glory, rather than the preservation of his father's work. A bigger wish, and in the end Liliana Betancourt chose to believe him.

Third, plan to go public. It should be noted here that, from today's perspective, listing seems to be a necessary operation for a company to enter the expansion stage from the growth stage.

But the specific problem is that the listing of a family business not only means the weakening of the family's control, but also means that the trust mechanism based on the blood relationship will become weak, which is what many core family members do not want to see. .

The worries of these families are not unreasonable. After all, they may not benefit from the listing.

But Francois is not a person who only sees interests and speculation. He also knows that although Liliana Bettencourt trusts herself, L'Oreal is always her child, and no one can take L'Oreal from her.

Therefore, when he presented Liliana Bettencourt the plan of listing, François assured her that the largest shareholder of L'Oreal after the reorganization will always be herself, and that L'Oreal will always belong to the Bettencourt family.

In 1963, L'Oreal was listed on the Paris Stock Exchange.

After completing these three points, a new and ready-to-go L'Oreal appeared in front of the world. Francois believes that the height of the start determines the height that L'Oreal can finally reach, so he set the first stop on the road of merger at Lancome.

However, L'Oreal's first large-scale acquisition is not a simple one-handed delivery, but full of tricks and calculations.

The decision to acquire Lancôme surprised everyone at first, because Lancôme, which focuses on high-end fragrances, has become synonymous with elegance in many countries, including France. Its product line, international influence, and technical level are not under L'Oreal.

But François's confidence and determination are not groundless. He believes that Lancome seems to be growing strongly, but in fact it has become the end of the gun. They just need to wait carefully.

Lancôme’s founder, Amanda Pardijean, was born in 1884 (only one year younger than L’Oreal’s founder, Eugène Schuyler), and was over half a hundred years old when he founded Lancôme in 1935.

And Amanda's son has a cold relationship with him, and aspires to be a writer, vowing not to enter Lancome, the gray-haired Amanda has only one trusted helper, his grandson Marcel Padijant.

However, the good times did not last long. When Lancome's business reached its peak in 1955, Amanda's wife with hair suddenly died, which made Amanda heartbroken, while grandson Marcel said at this time that he preferred to create his own He also did not want to take over this "old and beautiful" enterprise.

Almost in an instant, Amanda went through the pain of going from the peak of her life to the separation of her wife and children. He could only sit alone in the castle he built by himself, at a loss.

Francois would never believe that this 80-year-old and lonely old man can still support the company's operating system and research and development power with ease, so the acquisition proposals with strong attitudes were sent one after another, and tabloids were passed on the streets and alleys. The news that Lancôme is about to be acquired puts pressure on Amanda.

Sure enough, in 1961 Lancôme began to experience a decline in growth, with a backlog of goods, and Amanda's credit rating at the bank was also downgraded, resulting in a significant reduction in corporate loan lines.

Marcel, who originally said he would not take over Lancome, had to replace Amanda, who was in bed, as president. Going low, the embattled Lancome had to consider transferring shares.

In 1964, the second year of L'Oreal's listing, Lancome became the first high-end perfume and cosmetics company to join the L'Oreal Group. Francois solved the debt problem for them, and they would also become the vanguard of L'Oreal's entry into the world. , Marcel can also put down the burden and start a new business, and the result is also very good, the combination of L'Oreal and Lancome really complements each other.

Lancome's business was back on the right track, and Amanda passed away in 1970 with the last trace of relief, but L'Oreal's road to empire is obviously not over yet.

In fact, the last big challenge L'Oréal faced in the twentieth century was still political.

After the war, France relied on a solid industrial base and the unified deployment of President Charles de Gaulle, and the national economy took off rapidly in the past three decades.

But with this "glorious thirty years", there is a gradually worsening gap between the rich and the poor and rising unemployment.

In 1969, the "May Storm" broke out in Paris. 200,000 people poured into the streets to protest and demonstrate against social problems such as capital monopoly. President Charles de Gaulle was unable to fundamentally solve social conflicts and eventually resigned.

and died the following year. In 1972, the newly elected leftist Republican Party unanimously adopted the "Common Government Program", an important part of which was the "nationalization" of capital giants.

Although L'Oreal was not mentioned in the first list of Republicans.

Valley </span> But as a leading company in French cosmetics, Francois obviously needs to take precautions before it happens. "It is necessary to find teammates while maintaining independence", Francois thought of a way, "to find a non-French enterprise to cooperate with", and this enterprise is Nestle, which is trying to break the circle.

The combination of L'Oreal and Nestlé is not a merger, but a free association.

The two groups are financially linked, but each controls their own businesses. Liliana Bettencourt will jointly own a shell company, Gesparal, with Nestlé, with them holding 51% of the shares, leaving the remaining 49% to Nestlé.

In exchange, Liliana Betancourt received approximately 4.06% of Nestlé's total capital.

In this way, she became the largest individual shareholder of Nestlé.

This method proved to be very effective in the end. By the end of the 1970s, there were more than 150 state-owned enterprises in France, and more than 1,000 companies participated in state-owned business. State-owned assets accounted for more than 20% of the country's total assets.

I think Peugeot and Citroen before Li Zhiwen are among them.

And if L'Oreal joins it, then L'Oreal's global expansion will be in tatters.

In fact, the negotiation between L'Oreal and Nestle was not difficult, and all the pressure points actually came from the French government.

In the 1970s, after the death of its leader, a top French pharmaceutical research company named Roussel was eventually controlled by the German Hoechst company because its successor was unable to solve problems such as power transfer and debt. It involves the development of the national welfare system, which in turn will affect the support rate of the party.

The French government has lost a lot of interests in this matter, and has been cautious in the alliance of multinational enterprises since then.

Therefore, after this alliance, the interests of the government are also bound up with L'Oreal. In order to ensure the stability of L'Oreal Capital, the government froze part of the stock. "Within ten years" the newly formed consortium was to ensure that "the shares in Gesparal shall not be sold, lost, transferred or mortgaged in any way".

Judging from the results, this alliance finally satisfies the common pursuit of three parties. L'Oreal avoided the fate of being nationalized or forced to split. The French government not only kept this "symbol of French romanticism", but also served as a national asset for France. Have ten years of insurance.

Nestlé relied on L’Oréal to open up the consumer market in the non-food sector, and L’Oréal relied on Nestlé’s channels in Asia-Pacific and North America to rapidly expand its territory.

And this ten-year contract will expire in 1984, so Nelson Tabbia dared to take L'Oreal's idea.

More importantly, in 1982, Nestle was the first to say that "controlling L'Oreal is part of their plan," but then L'Oreal expressed scorn for Nestlé's statement.

So at this time, Nestle and L'Oreal are not as close as they used to be, but they are suspicious of each other.

At this time, Liliana Betancourt held 29% of L'Oreal's shares, Nestlé held 23% of L'Oreal's shares, and the French government froze 10% of L'Oreal's shares.

The so-called freezing here is that when L'Oreal is acquired by a company outside France, the French government will unfreeze the 10% of the shares and return it to Liliana Bettencourt, before Liliana Bettencourt will be defeated. companies to acquire.

This is also to ensure the purity of L'Oreal's French origin.

Of course, the ten-year contract between L'Oreal and Nestle is about to end, and the 10% of the frozen shares will be returned to Liliana Betancourt immediately, or returned to shareholders through the Paris Stock Exchange.

But it is definitely not a good choice to move L'Oreal at this time, because Liliana Betancourt holds 29% of L'Oreal's shares, and the French government freezes 10% of L'Oreal's shares.

Such a share composition makes the entire market sigh at L'Oreal, not to mention Li Zhiwen.

Li Zhiwen put down Nelson Tabiya's report, rubbed his eyes and asked, "Nelson, tell me what you think?"

"Boss, first of all, I think we should acquire a part of L'Oreal's shares on the Paris stock exchange, and this part of the shares must not be less than 10%," Nelson Tabbia said.

"It's not too difficult, I already hold 6% of L'Oreal shares in UU Reading www.uukanshu.com, as long as I buy another 4% of the shares!" Li Zhiwen said.

"I didn't expect the boss to have an idea for L'Oreal, amazing!" Nelson Tabia said.

"Don't be flattering, even if it reaches 10%, what's the use? In front of Liliana Bettencourt and Nestle, it's not worth mentioning," Li Zhiwen said.

"What if we buy out Nestlé's shares?" Nelson Tabbia said.

"Don't think about it, it's impossible, it's impossible for Nestlé to give up the shares of L'Oreal!" Li Zhiwen shook his head.

"What if we control Nestlé or have a big say in Nestlé's board of directors?" Nelson Tabbia said a crazy plan.

"Don't think about holding it. It's a very difficult issue. The right to speak can be considered, but what's the use of the problem? Nestle has only 23% of the shares, and we hold 10% of the shares. It's only 33%. %, you must know that Liliana Bettencourt holds 39% of L'Oreal's shares, so there is no way for us to succeed!" Li Zhiwen shook his head.

"Boss, this is not right, Liliana Bettencourt only has 29% of the shares, and the remaining 10% of the shares have been frozen!" Nelson Tabia said.

"So what?" Li Zhiwen said.

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