Helsinki Congress of the International Economic History Association, 21-25 August 2006: Session 93 Equipment goods and mass brands American business spreading modernity into France? Strategies

Ibidem.

280 Guy Thomas, « Après le Yalta de la construction électrique française », L’Expansion, 7 August 1959, p. 76. Cf. also: “Westinghouse-Europe will not be”, in Tristan de la Broise & Félix Torres, Schneider. L’Histoire en force, Paris, Jean-Pierre de Monza, 1996, pp.227-229.

281 In 1965, Richard-Continental realised a turnover of 180 million francs with 1,500 employees, while Caterpillar attained 8.5 billion francs, with 600 million in profit…. The other major French company, Poclain, specialists in mechanical shovels, managed a turnover of 355 million francs.

282 Robert Franc, « La bataille des ordinateurs » (The computer war), L’Express, 21 March 1966, pp. 46-47.

283 Jean-Michel Quatrepoint & Jacques Jublin, French ordinateurs. De l’affaire Bull à l’assassinat du Plan Calcul, Paris, Alain Moreau, 1976. Synbolically, Cii’s headquarters were located on the very grounds which had been liberated by Nato’s Shape at Louveciennes, to the West of Paris…. The creation of Cii took two years (1967 and 1968) and the first computer was delivered in September 1968. Cf. also Robert Lattes & Adrien Duffau (eds.), « Livre blanc : Les ordinateurs », L’Expansion, July-August 1968, pp. 73-103.

284 In 1968, the turnover of the French electrical engineering companies Cge and Thomson-Brandt was minuscule compared to those of the two leaders: General Electric (41.9 billion francs), Westinghouse (16.5), Philips (13.3), Siemens (10.8), Gec-Aei (Uk, 10.2), Aeg-Telefunken (7.2), Matsushita (6.6), Cge (5.5), Thomson-Brandt (5.5), Brown Boveri (4.2) (source: L’Expansion, 1969).

285 Jacques Marseille (ed.), Alcatel-Alsthom. Histoire de la Compagnie générale d’électricité, Paris, Larousse, 1992.

286 Robert Serravalle, « Comment l’Oncle Sam achète l’Europe » (How Uncle Sam bought over Europe), L’Expansion, December 1969, pp. 111-118.

287 L’Expansion, December 1969. Dupont de Nemours (turnover of 17.4 billion francs in 1968), Ici (Uk, 14.6), Union Carbide (13.4), Monsanto (11.3), ahead of the Germans Hoechst (9.4), Bayer (9.1), Basf (9) dominated Rhône-Poulenc (9).

288 Le Nouvel Économiste, 22 September 1980, page 75.

289 Article in Monde in May 1982.

290 Truly speaking, it was first and foremost a pro-French policy and not really an anti-American stand because, in 1976, Thomson simultaneously bought over Itt’s subsidiary Lmt as well as a subsidiary of the Swedish group Ericsson.

291 Jacques Morisset, « Les géants se battent pour l’Airbus » (The giants fight over Airbus), L’Expansion, June 1968, pp. 83-87.

292 Hervé Jannic, L’Expansion, June 1974, page 77. The turnover of the American aeronautic industry rose to 135 billion francs in 1973, that of the French at 10.5 billion, ahead of the English who posted 9 billion in that same year.

293 The worst part of it was that the French group Rhône-Poulenc was a stakeholder in this petrochemical factory at Anvers.

294 « General Motors à l’assaut », L’Express, 8 February 1965, pp. 34-35. “Strasbourg was considered for a while, but it proved too difficult to get the required manpower”, wrote the journalist, who neglected to take into account the power of the French manufacturers’ lobby….

295 Mira Wilkins, The Maturing of Multinational Business, p. 350.

296 Robert Franc, “Comment Strasbourg a séduit la General Motors” (How Strasbourg seduced General Motors), L’Express, 17 April 1967. “The French auto manufacturers were not too happy to see General Motors and Opel arrive in France.” The announcement of an investment of 375 million francs and the creation of 3 000 jobs for the manufacture of gearboxes had been made on 26 December 1966.

297 Proceedings of the inter-Cabinet council of 16 January 1970, to prepare the inter-Ministerial committees and the cabinet of 29 January 1970 and of 10 and 12 February 1970. Simon Nora files, private archives consulted at Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po Paris in 2006.

298 « Edf découvre l’Amérique » (Edf discovers America), L’Express, 3 November 1969. The first orders were for the power plants of Fessenheim I and Bugey III. Though the Westinghouse technology had already been used for the Franco-Belgian plant of Chooz and for the Belgian power station of Tihange.

299 Sixteen nuclear power plants were ordered from Framatome and eight from Cge in March 1974.

300 The Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (Cea), a public sector undertaking, did have some knowledge regarding the pwr technology used in nuclear submarines, and began a process to try and Frenchify the Westinghouse pwr technology. Little by little, Westinghouse’s share in Framatome came down: in 1975, the Cea bought 30 % from Westinghouse, then in January 1981, Creusot-Loire, a Schneider subsidiary, took over the rest of the 15 per cent still held by Westinghouse. There were constant negotiations with Westinghouse, in 1972, in 1975 and in 1980. Finally, the Frenchification process was completed on 22 January 1981.

301 Report of 29 January 1970, proceedings of the inter-Cabinet council of 11 March 1971 (to prepare the inter-Ministerial committees of 16 and 25 March 1971), Simon Nora files, private archives deposited at the Centre d’histoire de Sciences Po Paris.

302 The journal, Le Monde, June 1977.

303 For the history behind this agreement and the growth of Snecma, which then had some 13,000 employees, see the website [www.safran-group.com]. The jet engine was ready for its first flight tests in February 1977. The first order was received in March 1979 for refitting thirty United Airlines DC8 s. In fact, the engine was first used as a replacement engine for Dc8, etc. and for the American and French Kc135 military tanker aircraft in 1981, before bagging its first orders for a new aircraft, the Boeing 737, and then, the Airbus 320. In the 1980s, a whole range of jet engines was developed: the Cfm56-2 (12 tons of thrust), the Cfm56-3 (for 100-200 seater aircraft), the Cfm56-5A and 5B for the Airbus A320, etc. Cf. the website [www.snecma-moteurs.com]. This program enjoyed considerable success and ensured the continuation of this French industry. In 1999, the respective turnovers of aircraft engine manufacturers in the West were : 10,600 million dollars for Ge, 8 200 for Pratt & Whitney, 7,000 for Rolls-Royce and 4,550 for Snecma. It must be noted that the letters “Cf” stood for “commercial fan”, the name given to an innovative technology which was used in what then grew to form a whole new family of jet engines. Snecma manufactured low pressure units: fans, compressors, turbines, as well as accessory gearboxes and thrust reversers. Some 4 500 of its employees were engaged in this program.

304 Le Nouvel Économiste, 26 August 1988, page 54. Textron and Dowty were two other important suppliers.

305 While Bull held 41.5 per cent of the French market in the punch-card controlled electromechanical machine sector in 1964, it only held 2 % of the world market. In the electronic computer sector, it was ranked nineteenth in Europe. It had to lay off 500 workers in April 1965 (source: L’Express).

306 L’Express, 9 October 1964. Ge controlled 49 % of the Études & recherches (Studies & Research) subsidiary (Machines Bull held 51 %), 51 % of the filiale commerciale (commercial subsidiary) (Machines Bull 49 %), and 49 % of the Développement et production (Development and production) subsidiary (Machines Bull 49 %).

307 Source: L’Express, 1966. These are approximate figures which exclude the very large computers (Cdc, etc.).

308 L’Express, 28 August 1967.

309 Maurice Roy, « Le cauchemar de M. Debré : Bull », L’Express, 2 January 1967, pp. 8-10. We must remember that at that time Ge had a massive computer network. In 1964 it even bought over Olivetti’s electronic department.

310 The Bull Ge 50, 53 and 58 computers, which in 1971, accounted for a fifth of the group’s entire turnover.

311 “With the Gamma 10, L’Alsacienne’s biscuits will always retain their freshness.” Advertisement in L’Express, 17 May 1965. L’Alsacienne was then one of the leaders of the French biscuit industry.

312 Infomercial in L’Express, 18 May 1970, pp. 99-103.

313 Cf. the advertisement in L’Expansion, March 1965.

314 Advertisement in L’Express, 26 October 1970.

315 Advertisement in L’Express, 1^st April 1968 and 18 March 1968. Honeywell was till then mainly a specialist in automatisms. It offered its H110 and 200 computers.

316 Advertisement in L’Expansion, March 1971.

317 Title in the (leftist) daily Le Monde, 8 May 1975.

318 In September 1970, Honeywell-Bull held 11 % of the European computer population, behind Ibm (58 %), but ahead of Icl and Univac (9 % each), Siemens (3.5 %), Cdc (2 %) ; Ncr (1.5 %) and Cii (1 %).

319 Advertisement in L’Express, 20 September 1971.

320 Honeywell-Bull published a 3-page advertisement in L’Express of 26 October 1970, (pp. 31-33): « Les retombées françaises » (“The French repercussions”).

321 After a string of negotiations which lasted from May to September, the official agreement was conlcuded on 25 November 1975 and signed on 23 December. The Cii-Honeywell-Bull corporation was officially created on the 1^st of July 1976.

322 The “bunch” brought together Ibm’s five biggest competitors: Burroughs, Univac-Sperry-Rand, Ncr, Control-Data, Honeywell. Cf. Jacques Baron, « Plan Calcul : l’ambition de Giscard », Les Informations, 14 April 1975, n°1561, pp. 52-58.

323 26th Esso saf (941 million francs); 85th Kodak (218); 100th Mobil (180); 104th Control Data (164); 114th Esso Chimie (147) ; 120th Diebold Computer Leasing (134).

324 That said, Cii-Honeywell-Bull was not really consolidated as the year 1981 ended with it showing a deficit of 449 million francs.

325 Jean-Michel Quatrepoint & Jacques Jublin, French ordinateurs. De l’affaire Bull à l’assassinat du Plan Calcul, Paris, Alain Moreau, 1976.

326 « Vue des États-Unis, la France fait un peu figure de nain » (Seen from the United States, France looked like a little midget), in Jean-Michel Quatrepoint, « Composants électroniques : peut-on encore sauver l’industrie française ? », (Electronic components: can we still save the French industry ?) Le Monde, 19 April 1977. At that time, the principal French manufacturer of components was Philips’ (a Dutch group) subsidiary, La Radiotechnique-Compelec.

327 « Composants électroniques : une prise de conscience tardive », Le Nouvel Économiste, 19 September 1977, pp. 70-72.

328 Claude Bunodière & Alain Jemain, « Investissements étrangers en France : ’’Wait and see’’ », (Foreign investments in France : ‘Wait and see’), Le Nouvel Économiste, n°315, 14 December 1981, pp. 46-49.

329 The American firms created 1,683 jobs with the help of government subsidies (behind the Japanese who had 4,378 jobs and ahead of the Germans: 1,099 jobs) and 3,141 jobs unaided, which added up to a total of 4,824 jobs (ahead of the Japanese: 4,731, the Germans: 1,374 and the English: 1,127) out of a grand total of 13,394 jobs created by foreign companies in 1984 (source: Datar).

330 De Gaulle used to use this expression to refer derogatorily to pro-American Great Britain which he suspected always preferred “the great big” Atlantic to a European political integration.

331 15 per cent of the French production, with 350,000 cars in 1969.

332 « Chrysler sous le capot Simca », (Chrysler under the Simca bonnet), title in L’Express 18 May 1970. Simca became Chrysler France and merged into the European group. The mid-high range model sported the Chrysler name and was a failure in France regarding both style and brand identity.

333 Advertisement in L’Expansion, March 1971.

334 Created in 1954, Feralco was the first to specialize in stocking material, especially the manufacture of perforated angles. L’Express, 24 May 1965.

335 In L’Express, November 1969.

336 Advertisement in L’Expansion, 1968. That being said, Tahiti was still a French territory…. Cf. also the advertisement in L’Express, 26 June 1967.

337 In 1968, 84.5 million of its total turnover of 363 million francs came from exports and, in 1971, 95 of its 498 million. Cgct mainly exported its telephone exchanges to Latin America: to Costa Rica and Mexico in 1967, bagging its tenth contract with Mexico in 1971, etc.

338 Otis France’s website, p. 1.

339 Michel Herblay, « La fin de l’évangile selon Itt », L’Expansion, September 1972, pp. 120-126.

340 With the Ibm 650, 704, 1401, 1410, 7071, 1620, 1710, etc.

341 L’Expansion, July-August 1968, p.90.

342 Including two in Germany, one in Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, and two in the United Kingdom.

343 Ibm’s Annual Report for the year 1960, p. 25.

344 Ibm’s Annual Report for the year 1965. The 360 were used mainly by insurance companies.

345 Cf. the advertisement: “When the Ibm 360 surpasses itself, we call it the 370.”, advertisement in L’Express, 6 July 1970.

346 Advertisement in L’Express, 23 December 1969.

347 A double page ad inserted by the group, L’Expansion, 1982, pp.208-209.

348 Ibidem.

349 Advertisement in L’Express, 19 January 1970.

350 We would like to thank Eric Auvray, General Manager Igs France/Nwa and Edward Walsh, director of Communications, Ibm France North Africa, as well as his assistant Anne-Marie Huré, for all their help regarding the collection of data on the history of Ibm in France, especially Ibm World’s Annual Reports and a booklet which retraced Ibm’s evolution in France. Cf. the website [www.ibm.com/annual report]. Cf. also the website [www.ibm.com/fr/90ans].

351 Ibm’s Annual Report for the year 1970.

352 Advertisement in L’Expansion, 1968.

353 Advertisement in L’Expansion, September 1969.

354 L’Express, 5 April 1965, p.42.

355 Advertisement in L’Expansion, April 1969.

356 Advertisement in L’Expansion, 197x.

357 Advertisement in L’Expansion, June 1968.

358 Advertisement in L’Expansion, November 1969.

359 Advertisement in L’Express, November 1969.

360 Ibidem, p. 92. It was the law of 3 January 1972. Earlier, Manpower France had negotiated an agreement with Cgt (the accord of 9 October 1969) which, though limited to the company, constituted a major step forward in the organization of temping. On the other hand, the Syndicat national des entreprises de travail temporaire had excluded Manpower because it had refused to accept the contents of this accord till 1982..

361 A communiqué at around the same time that Michaël Grunelius’s book, Du travail et des hommes, 2003, first appeared, in Les ressources humaines sur internet, [www.ressources-web.com/article.php3 ?id_article=66]. “In his book, M. Grunelius explains how Manpower, convinced that its growth depended on giving its interim workers a social status which came as close as possible to that of the regular employees, was at the forefront in the struggle to improve their social status with measures which included: the creation of the first secretarial training school (1965), granting of ‘project completion’ bonuses (1966), eligibility for paid leave right from the very first hour worked (1967), etc. In 1969, Manpower signed an agreement with Cgt which recognized temping and legitimized the social advantages given to its temporary workers [...]. This agreement was the only one of its kind to have been signed for temporary employment in this branch of activity till 1982”, Ibidem, pp. 3-4.

362 David Packard, The Hp Way. How Bill Hewlett and I Built our Company, HarperBusiness, 1995.

363 Infomercial in L’Expansion, 1982, pp.88-89.

364 Christian Bownnelaer, « A qui rêvent les grosses têtes ? » (what are these egg-heads dreaming of ?) , L’Expansion, July 1970, p. 103. The classification especially mentioned the companies: Arthur Andersen, Ibm, MacKinsey, Peat Marwick, Young & Rubicam, Procter & Gamble, Dupuy Compton, etc.

365 Interview with Eugène Descamps, general secretary of the Cfdt, which appeared in L’Express of 13 April 1970. It was about À armes égales, his conversation with Jacques Maisonrouge, the boss of Ibm International which was to be broadcast on television on 28 April 1970.

366 Michaël Grunelius, Du travail et des hommes, op.cit., p. 168.

367 William Rose, president of Armco Steel’s International division, in Jack Star’s Ce que l’Europe enseigne aux Américains. Une enquête auprès des managers qui sont venus travailler chez nous, p. 134.

368 Marion Dietrich, marketing director of Moteurs Cummins, after having spent three years in Europe, Ibidem.

369 Michaël Grunelius, Du travail et des hommes, op.cit., p. 170.