Le Deal: How a Young American, in Business, in Love, and in Over His Head, Kick-Started a Multi-Billion Dollar industry in Europe by J. Byrne Murphy

Author:J. Byrne Murphy
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2014-10-02T14:00:00+00:00

The actual presentation went off without incident. We were well pre- pared, and so were the members of the commission. They had clearly read the briefs in advance, and we were able to move quickly through the basic points of our argument. But I had something new to offer them, some- thing that hadn’t been in those briefs. Something I had been working out with Monsieur Caton.

In addition to all the restrictions I had agreed to accept at the Troyes hearing, I now offered a new and even more potent pledge. I unveiled a “McArthurGlen Charter,” which I promised would become part of the legally binding lease document between McArthurGlen and all of the ten- ants who opened a store with us. In the charter, I committed to working with only manufacturers or brand owners. I committed to offering only end-of-season stock from those manufacturers, or slight seconds from the factory production. I was guaranteeing there would be no gray-market goods or cheap Asian imports. I would certify to the shopping public— and my tenants would also certify—that we would abide by a series of rules, which the charter articulated and which no other shopping center or outlet center had theretofore committed to.

In addition, each tenant and I would sign a framed copy of this charter and display it in the windows of each store in the outlet center. The cumulative effect of all this was to legally define a new retail concept that had never before existed in France, and which clearly differentiated the McArthurGlen concept not only from hypermarkets but from all other forms of shopping centers. It also exposed us to punitive measures that could be imposed upon us by the government agencies responsible for policing the “rules of commerce” applicable to shopping centers. In other words, I was putting my company’s money and reputation where my mouth was.

When I finished, the president of the commission, one of the esteemed justices of the French Supreme Court, posed a question to me. By the time he finished his highly articulate query couched in an arcane, polysyllabic, and incredibly legalistic French vocabulary, completely foreign to me, I could only respond with a blank face, a weak smile, and raised eyebrows while I tried to decipher what in the hell he had just said.

Well now, I thought to myself, this is an awkward moment.

In those weekly Tuesday-morning sessions we had succeeded in deciding which tactics to employ when appearing before the commission. But we had never considered that I could end up speechless with confusion once there.

For a second, as I looked around the table from Supreme Court Justice to Inspector General of Public Funds to the esteemed Appointee of the President of the French Senate, and to all the others there looking back down the polished mahogany table at me—“the American with a new idea”—I could only think, “Oh God, this time I am really in over my head. . . .”

Thankfully, Maître Tavernier gracefully stepped in and responded to the question with vocabulary just as arcane and polysyllabic.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.