Today, it is difficult to imagine that in 1948 L’Oréal was just another small business. In 35 years its turnover went from 200 million to 20 billion francs.

This book reveals that factors such as money or classic management techniques played a minor role in L’Oréal’s growth. For François Dalle, such expansion was due primarily to the adherence of the entire L’Oréal staff to what he called the “L’Oréal Spirit:” an infusion into the company’s “psyche” of a passionate will for conquest and development, associated with indisputable quality and an unquenchable desire to be the first to “seize new opportunities.”

This is what enabled L’Oréal to diversify its activities, and to expand them throughout Europe, Japan, and both North and South America, and to endure and overcome the crises of the 1970s and 80s.

In 1942, François Dalle began working at Monsavon, a small soap-making company that belonged to Eugène Schueller, the founder of L’Oréal. He was made director of L’Oréal in 1948,first working alongside Eugène Schueller, and became president of the company from 1957 to 1985. 

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Copyright Page
4. Preface - by Jean-Paul Agon
5. Foreword
6. Part I - The Monsavon – L'Oréal years
   1. Chapter I - The Dark Years
      1. First Steps in Business with Monsavon
      2. Secretary to a secretary
      3. A spark in the greyness
      4. A “leader of men” out of necessity
      5. Primum vivere
      6. Resistant to forced labor
      7. The parentheses are closed
   2. Chapter II - France is Liberated
      1. What to do with this newfound freedom?
      2. I make a date with consumerism
      3. Monsavon's hopes rested upon its technological performance
      4. Competition runs wild
      5. The Suez promotion
      6. Looking for new customers
      7. We create the Secodip panel, the father of Audimat
      8. Great publicity campaigns for Monsavon
      9. The crowds sing Monsavon, but they buy Cadum
      10. In search of new products
      11. We are forced to expand the factory
   3. Chapter III - At L'Oréal Alongside Eugène Schueller
      1. Eugène Schueller summons me to L'Oréal
      2. Loyal and courteous
      3. I discover the métier of hair care
      4. I find out that L'Oréal is under attack in its hair-color market
      5. We counter-attack
      6. We invent color with highlights for natural hair
      7. The Internationale of hair care
      8. Quitte ou double – Dop
      9. The cleanliness campaign
      10. Eugène Schueller dies
7. Part II - The 1960s
   1. Chapter IV - Eugène Schueller's Successor
      1. Alone at the helm
      2. We sell Monsavon and acquire Cadoricin
   2. Chapter V - The 1960s
      1. Elnett, our first big success
      2. We turn Elnett into an international brand
      3. With Printil we open up the French deodorant market
      4. The acquisition of the Garnier humus to expand the shampoo market
      5. With Kérastase, hairdressers also become retailers
      6. Colorelle expands the color market
      7. Hygiene and comfort, a wonderful field to harvest
      8. The expected surge in large-scale retail
      9. We fight against excessive discounting and the effects of its announcement
      10. We equip ourselves for mass production
      11. New prospects for growth with Lancôme
      12. The Bienfait du Matin cream shakes up a Malthusian market
      13. L'Oréal goes public
      14. May ‘68: it all begins with student protests
      15. The country is paralyzed
      16. The party is over
8. Part III - Toward new growth
   1. Chapter VI - During the turbulent ‘70s and ‘80s
      1. The years of easy growth are gone
      2. One foot on the brake, the other on the accelerator
   2. Chapter VII - New and Effective Structures
   3. Chapter VIII - New Methods for Data Management and Production
      1. Decentralizing data management
      2. Challenging Taylorism in the factories
   4. Chapter IX - Despite the Crises, Continued Growth
      1. We increase acquisitions
      2. We increase our launches
      3. And our initiatives go beyond cosmetics
   5. Chapter X - We Expand Our International Business
      1. We help our Italian subsidiary during a difficult period
      2. Germany becomes our most important European subsidiary
      3. Our success in Japan: a lesson in humility and patience
      4. The slow development of our British subsidiary
      5. We break into the United States' market after twenty years of disorganization
   6. Chapter XI - Our Agreements with Nestlé
   7. Chapter XII - I Say Goodbye
9. Part IV - The L'Oréal spirit
   1.  
   2. Chapter XIII - Saisir ce qui commence
      1. Fashion is that which is out of style; it is also that which is restyled
      2. We discover the disciplines of marketing
      3. An obsession with superior quality
      4. Eyes to see, ears to hear
      5. An obsession with the shopping basket
      6. Be proud of your job
      7. The individuating note, or the attraction of the unusual
      8. Create and use the humus
      9. In praise of the aphorism
      10. One finds in a market only what one has put on it
      11. The cow gives birth to its calf
      12. Stay on the boulevards
      13. The breakthrough, or the determinism of success
      14. On edge
      15. The compensation fund
      16. The right to make mistakes
      17. A good use of the 80-20 Law
   3. Chapter XIV - Ordering the Disorder
   4. Chapter XV - Research – Motor of Growth
      1. I discovered the disciplines of research out of necessity
      2. Proposition and induction
      3. Reducing tensions
      4. A proliferation of innovations
      5. We create biology laboratories
      6. The quality of researchers is more important than the quantity
   5. Chapter XVI - Advertising in the Service of Performance
      1. The time of the slogan
      2. At Robert Guérin's school
      3. Against the ill effects of art for art's sake
      4. Advertising that sticks to the product
      5. An obsession with performance
   6. Chapter XVII - Hiring to Train
      1. In praise of detail
      2. Initiation through tutoring
      3. The road, the great training ground
      4. With CEDEP, we create our own business school
      5. Against the syndrome of management
      6. The three key notions taught at CEDEP
      7. In-house seminars
   7. Chapter XVIII - Social Relationships Based on Solidarity
      1. Solidarity is formed through good manners
      2. Our sales representatives
      3. “Have a nice day!”
      4. Giving with one hand and taking with another
      5. Social problems must be solved at the source
      6. Consideration for the affectio societatis of long-term employees
      7. Creative confidence, the source of productivity and jobs
   8. Chapter XIX - Entrepreneur and Citizen
      1. The crisis in the French automobile industry
      2. “You're not going to make us work in kimonos, Monsieur Dalle!”
      3. “Dalle's excess staff”
      4. In Mitterrand's office with Fabius
      5. The most useful reports are the ones you don't publish
      6. In search of “new data on the unemployment problem”
      7. America was inventing another type of growth
      8. Stopped in my tracks
10. Skills: the foundation of authority in companies and civil society
11. Index
12. Contents