U.S. CEO to France: ‘How Stupid Do You Think We Are?’

Wow, what a total jerk. Regardless of the differences between US, Chinese, Indian and French work ethics the least you could do as a CEO is to learn how to write a polite refusal.<p>When you don't <i>have</i> to insult someone it is probably better not to. Because those pesky French just might publish your less than elegant letters, your stockholders might read those letters and could very well think: "This guy runs the company I invest in? I'd better move my money out before his loud mouth causes him to lose business.".<p>Stockholders are fickle, and some stockholders actually care about more than just the numbers (of course, that is a minority).<p>Also, if you communicate you negative interest when a foreign representative has thought to offer you a chance at some deal you may want to think of the future. Effectively you are saying 'if you are so kind as to think of me I will repay you with trash'. That will likely not be repeated again and likely the effect will be much further spread than just this one country and just this one official.<p>That bulk deal for Tires for all the vehicles of the French armed forces (Michelin?), the police force or their connections with the ministry of labour and their counterparts in other countries. Piss off politicians in enough places and it will backfire.<p>Maybe there is some hidden upside but I don't see any.<p>Finally, you are also representing your country when you do business abroad. Every other American CEO lost a little bit of respect today by re-inforcing certain stereo types that we could all do without.<p>If you are ever in a position like this, please say 'no' with some grace.

&#62; Titan had to pay millions to Washington lawyers to sue the Chinese tire companies because of their subsidizing. Titan won. The government collects the duties. We don't get the duties, the government does.<p>This is how tariffs work. You don't tax imports to fork over free money to domestic companies. The point is to increase the cost of the imported good to compensate for illegal (from the WTO's point of view) Chinese subsidies.<p>I'm confused as to why he thinks those taxes should go to Titan.

What's amusing about the letter is that it shows how even executives buy into cultural stereotypes to justify their activities.<p>The substance of the letter is this: we'd rather buy an Indian or Chinese tire company to get the government subsidies and take advantage of the low cost of labor.<p>The stuff about French workers only working three hours a day is fluff, and on top of that almost certainly exaggerated out of context and/or apocryphal.<p>See: <a href="http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/work-life-balance/" rel="nofollow">http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/work-life-balance/</a><p>The French work on average 1,554 hours per year, about 10% lower than the OECD average of 1,749. Is that 10% breaking the backs of French tire manufacturing? Of course not. Consider that South Koreans work on average 2,193 hours per year, a staggering 25% higher than the OECD average. Why doesn't Titan manufacture tires in South Korea?<p>The answer is that relatively small differences in the number of hours people worked aren't driving the economics here. The French work somewhat less than say Americans, but also make somewhat less money than say Americans (last I checked, manufacturing jobs paid on an hourly basis). To be accurate, the letter could have said: "we won't manufacture tires in France because the French work 6.5 hours per day on average versus 7.5 per day for Americans." But that would have sounded stupid. Hence the need to exaggerate and say: "the French only work 3 hours per day!"<p>What's driving the economics is, as the letter points out, $1/hour wages in China or India, where people are happy to get so little money because those countries are poor and have low standards of living relative to western countries. The rest is just handwaving and fluff.

I have an idea that the differences in work ethic across Europe may be partly to do with climate and partly to do with language.<p>In France, the verb 'work' is <i>travailler</i>. Traditionally this meant literally to toil, a chore, an obligation. In Germany, the word werken means to build, create, do. The German word more aligned with travailler is arbeit. This lack of correlation in the word work I believe may explain the differences in the approach and cultural views towards work that I see across Europe, particularly with latin root romance languages.<p>The second factor I've seen is climate. In the more productive northern European countries, it's generally colder. There's been a historical need for produce and for people to work (not endure or arbeit) to trade in order to get everything you need in terms of food and shelter.<p>South of the Olive line something strange happens. If you look at Spain you'll see that there's a long siesta during the day. This is because for a large part of the year Spain's too hot to work in during most of the afternoon. While we have air conditioning now, hundreds of years of cultural differences I feel may have led us with ingrained ideas about what work is and what it means, with those differences reinforced by climate.<p>For example, in Turkey there's no such thing as a siesta (there's no time in Istanbul for one anyway). Culturally it doesn't really exist, yet it's as hot as parts of Spain that do.<p>I could be completely wrong about this, but it's just something I've noticed. I do believe that the unions are crippling France's productivity, but France is as likely to change in the short term as the rest of Europe to France's view IMHO.<p><i></i> EDIT <i></i>: I'm not saying that Germans, Brits or whoever are harder working, or that the French, Spanish, Moomins are lazy, far from it. I'm pointing out some differences in how people perceive work (i.e. neutrally or with negative connotations) based on language and culture, based solely on my own experience. For what it's worth I've worked with lazy Brits and Germans and hard working French and Spanish people. The Moomins I've never worked with, sorry if you're a Moomin and my ignorance upset you.<p>raverbashing makes a good point here: <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5252446" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5252446</a>

I don't get why you'd ever send a letter like this (except anonymously, or if you were a politician). There is no upside beyond just "Sorry, we're not interested -- our new investments are focused on Asia, where demand for tires is growing 200%/yr. Sincerely, CEO." There is downside -- you might provoke some tariffs in EU/France, or disinvestment from the pension fund, or whatever.

Quite the flame, I share others surprise that he would be quite so flagrant in his discussion. It is something of an art, and perhaps a bit of fun, to tell people 'no freaking way' with language that reads nicely. Clearly the guys at Titan have no interest in that :-).<p>It would have been more effective perhaps if he had shared with the people of Amien the context of the discussion. Something along the lines of "this is what we can pay per worked hour if we want to sell tires to your neighbors. More than that, and they will buy them from Chinese factories." And let the unions be the ones who get to decide that the jobs go out of the country.

&#62; Insulting the French doesn’t seem to be rewarded by the stock market, and Titan is down about 1% so far today.<p>Journalists should be forced to say "correlation is not causation" ten times before writing each article.

One of Mr. Taylor's Titan commercials is pretty interesting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exFF_2Eh9Ec" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exFF_2Eh9Ec</a>

Talk about a financial blowout. Sounds like his intent is to waste Titan's time writing negative remarks and being disrespectful. I agree they shouldn't do business with France, but to be so rude is, well...rude.

The CEO is Maurice Taylor, and he's used to say the same bullshit to US politicians.<p>That guy is pretty crazy.

Is there somewhere already a translation of the French response?<p><a href="http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/france/actu/0202578488071-exclusif-goodyear-la-reponse-de-montebourg-a-titan-540536.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.lesechos.fr/economie-politique/france/actu/020257...</a>

Summary: "I'd rather pay slave wages."<p>Of course he would. Of course, the French union workers might be a bit too far on the other end of the spectrum.

So he's going to buy a Chinese tire factory and pocket Chinese government subsidies? /s

He makes some great points. People don't care where their good come from, they just want them to be cheap and high quality. # hour workday? Unbelievable.

The letter should include a p.s.: "We don't have a public relations department and I am marginally literate."

The letter is a good example of the cognitive dissonance so prevalent amongst the privileged elite. In the same paragraph where he laments that the French government "does nothing" while the Chinese ship tires to France, he predicts French industrial degradation because "its government is more government." Which is it, is it too much government or not enough?<p>It's this deafness to the meaning of your own words that would allow a loudmouthed industrialist-type to shout "class warfare!" the moment new taxes are proposed on the wealthy. This letter is an unprovoked attack on French working people. And if French working people decide to non-violently retaliate against the company by petitioning for import restrictions, organizing a boycott, etc, it would be wholly justified.

I find it somewhat odd that he rails against workers earning too much, when what they earn is but a fraction of his own salary. I doubt they work any less harder than him either.

I can't see how taunting government leaders ends well for a company. You may not agree with them, but what good comes from taunting? Will this really be productive to getting France to ease up on union laws?

He could have got his point across in a more civil way.<p>I understand he felt the urge to vent his spleen at someone, but now they are going to be blackballed should they ever need anything from the French government.

The best part is "best regards" at the very end of a fairly insulting letter. I long for the day when letters are signed honestly.

Don't forget this a member of the GOP talking to a member of the Socialist Party. It might just be a posture.

&#62;&#62;Alas, America isn’t what it used to be: Insulting the French doesn’t seem to be rewarded by the stock market, and Titan is down about 1% so far today.<p>As if. Correlation is not causation.