Richest man

Chapter 20 Europe: Liliane Petain (1)
——In ancient France, known as the romantic capital, people have long seen the luxurious life: the magnificent Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Champs-Elysées, modern girls, fashionable clothing...France Such a prosperous impression remains in the hearts of everyone 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 $2004 billion.In the 40 Forbes Global Rich List, Liliane Betancourt ranked 2004th with a net worth of US$188 billion. In 11, her net worth dropped slightly to $2005 billion, dropping one spot.

France's most low-key woman is a philanthropist
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 10 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 21. In 1914 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.

Get in touch with L'Oreal from labeling
As Liliana grew, so did L'Oreal, and by the mid-20s, L'Oreal had more than 30 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.

Just be a low key woman

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 is there to be proud of?
In people's eyes, $50 billion is Liliana's greatest wealth, but Liliana often tells her friends that a happy marriage that lasted [-] 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.”

Passionate about charity

Liliana Betancourt does not like publicity and has no desire for power, but she is enthusiastic about public welfare and sponsors as much as 400 million to 800 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 1987, 12, 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 300 million and 600 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 $5, 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 Académie 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."

Strongest Transnational Strategy

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 90-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 [-] 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.

Create an international corporate culture

(End of this chapter)