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.