Summary of Tom Sancton's The Bettencourt Affair

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

Sample Book Insights:

#1 Charles Schueller, the son of a shoemaker, was a French patriot who would rather die than live under German occupation. The Franco-German war of 1871 resulted in the unification of Germany under Prussian leadership.

#2 Eugène Schueller, the man who would found L’Oréal, was a graduate of the Institute of Applied Chemistry in Paris, where he had excelled in his studies. He began experimenting with hair dyes in a rented space near the Tuileries Gardens. His first efforts were disappointing, but he persisted, changing formulas, and eventually selling his products to hairdressers.

#3 Schueller was a restless thinker who was always probing new ideas about the organization of industry and the economy. In 1914, he was assigned auxiliary status in the French army, and he fought in the First World War.

#4 Schueller was a success at L’Oréal, but he also had many failures outside of the company. He took over a soap manufacturer in 1928, Monsavon, but the French soap market was already saturated with competitors. He had to spend hundreds of thousands of francs a month out of his own pocket to keep the company afloat.