motions to Hubert to sit in one of the metal chairs by the small table, and takes a seat opposite him. He looks overwhelmed, and Héloïse gives him her undivided attention as he continues.
“This is very bad news. But, to be honest, it doesn’t surprise me. As you know, we have three product lines. The first is the ‘Catamer’ line, consisting of chairs, tables, and armchairs for luxury pleasure craft like the ones built in the shipyards at Saint-Nazaire. These are the upscale products we have always produced. They have made the company’s reputation due to their consistent high quality. We design and make them ‘to order’ based on the customer’s design and schedule. We have several customers in Saint-Nazaire, and they all know each other, as they meet in the shipyards. Our competitive advantage was largely due to the talents of your father and Roger to choose just the right type of wood to make our creations unique, even if the designs are more or less the same over the years. But more and more customers lose patience when we don’t deliver on time and charge us a penalty since they have to pay for the dry dock time. This product line is our most important in terms of revenue and margin.”
Hubert stops for a moment to let Héloïse absorb this information. She just sits there, impassively. He carries on.
“Then we have chairs, tables, and desks for community-use buildings like schools, cafeterias, and students’ and seniors’ residences. This product line, called ‘Collectivité,’ is high-volume, with inexpensive products. We make them ‘to stock’ because the customer lead time—I mean the time the customer is willing to wait—is shorter than our cumulative lead time—the time needed to get the material and make the products. The prices are practically set in advance because these are institutional customers. We don’t make a great deal of money on this product line because of our distribution costs. Our competitive advantage is the agility of a small company. We are able to meet very short last-minute deadlines for very diverse volume requests. In this product line, our customer service level is better than our competitors’—even though, to be frank, it is not very good. We do intense and expensive firefighting to react to those orders. I made a copy of the summary of these competitive advantages by product line for you. Thierry asked me to do this for him since it has something to do with how he organizes the supply chain.” Hubert pushes a paper toward Héloïse and continues.
“Finally, your father developed the ‘Boutique’ line. These metal-and-wood products are custom-made for boutiques selling ready-to-wear, ecologically sustainable clothing. We were able to break through in this market thanks to our reputation for high quality, and we were able to gain a substantial market share by undercutting our competition, without even intending to do so. However, these customers really care more about our delivery time and reliability than they do about price. We design and make this furniture ‘to order,’ based partly on standardized sub-assemblies that we combine with elements—such as airconditioning and sound systems—furnished by the customer. We install the whole thing in the customer’s store only when the boutique is completely ready.
“Your father was proud of this product line, because it was he who had opened up this new market, thanks to Thierry, I suppose. Thierry convinced us all that we could expand in this market, especially in retail chains. We could produce some sub-assemblies ‘to stock’ in order to shorten the customer lead time. Customized assemblies could then be done ‘to order’—and in record time, since we would be able to break down the process into two independent steps.”
Héloïse looks surprised. Hubert carries on, with a wave of his hand, as if to push the whole idea aside for the time being.
“Anyway, I’m not sure how this would really work since we didn’t reach that stage. Your father first met Thierry Ambi at a furniture trade show. The problem is that we don’t really know the boutique market. We lose a great deal of time when installing on-site. The architects’ drawings use approximate measures that are difficult for our shop people to read and translate into part specifications. We’ve lost money on all Boutique orders up to now. As a consequence, your father wanted to cut corners on the Catamer line to balance the loss on the Boutique line—as though the Catamer orders would continue to stream in all by themselves, no matter what the quality.”
There is bitterness in Hubert’s voice, and it makes Héloïse feel ill at ease to hear it. She knows full well that it was Hubert who had won the orders for the Catamer line during the early years of his collaboration with her father. It had certainly been easy enough for him to come into contact with potential customers, since most of his wealthy relatives and friends owned yachts. All Hubert had to do was spend a Sunday hunting with one or another of them. After an excellent meal, it was rare for someone to not let himself be convinced to buy something from this young socialite who was actually involved with a business start-up. Much of Henri’s rise from son of a craftsman to successful businessman was due in large measure to Hubert’s skills as a salesman.
Hubert presses on. It clearly does him good to talk. He leans forward as he speaks, and his words come faster and faster. Héloïse doesn’t dare interrupt him.
“Anyway, the workers started to work on the Catamer line as they would on the Collectivité line—that is, as quickly as possible, and with the least expensive components. Three times in a row they sent attachments for the straight chairs in place of the ones for the armchairs. Of course they didn’t fit. But I know it wasn’t the workers’ fault. Your father wanted to reduce inventory by any means, because he thought that carrying inventory was the root of all our problems.”
Hubert’s face, normally so serene, becomes flushed. Héloïse has never seen him like this before.
“Let me say that selling our products at lower prices does not entitle us to disrespect our customers, whoever they may be. ‘Quality is free.’1 ‘Done quickly, done correctly’ has never cost more than ‘done quickly, done poorly.’ And just because we’ve named one of the supervisors ‘head of quality control’ doesn’t mean that all managers shouldn’t be involved in quality management. Our strong suit seems to be finding a scapegoat when things go wrong.”
Hubert suddenly stops, sensing he has gone too far. This is certainly the first time he has ever allowed himself to speak so critically of Henri Rami. And in front of his daughter, no less! Héloïse seems stupefied, as if taking measure of the transgression. There is an awkward silence. Then she just dives in.
“You know, Hubert, I’ve been thinking. While we’re waiting for Thierry Ambi to come back—or, for that matter, if he doesn’t come back ...” Her stomach knots as she tries to find a tactful way to put it. “Look, Hubert, you’re clearly the one who is the most capable of taking over the company. I don’t understand any of it myself ... and besides, I’m due to start teaching again next week.”
Hubert looks at her, stunned. “You can’t be serious, my dear.”
“Why not? You’re the obvious choice.”
“But Héloïse, I don’t want to.”
Héloïse grows wide-eyed. “What do you mean you don’t want to?”
“Look. I’m not a pawn in this game. As you can imagine, I’ve built another life for myself over the past few years. That’s the life that interests me now. Your father never thought to make me a shareholder in his company, despite our agreements at the beginning ...” Hubert trails off before continuing with great caution. “You’ll forgive me if I’m telling you things that you’d rather not hear, but you need to understand me. I’ve always done my work to the best of my abilities, but when I realized that your father only wanted one thing, namely to ensure his succession by you—or, more accurately, by the company’s future CEO that he dreamed you would marry ...”
Héloïse
