Interesting, Irritating, and Ingenious in France (Long Post)

Having now spent some good time in France (in the Fontainebleu area south of Paris about one hour), I thought I would write down some business and cultural things I’ve run into as it compares to life in the U.S. This is my second time to France, and I think I am more in tune with absorbing some of the differences. I may have known some of these things before, but “living” in France for a longer period of time has made some of the things hit closer to home for me.

On my “interesting” list:

• McDonald’s has a quite regional offering compared to what I remember in places like Hong Kong and Indonesia. It looks like you can get things like Croque McDos (a.k.a. McDonald’s version of croque monsieurs - basically ham and melted cheese sandwiches made with French toast) and poisson nuggets (fish nuggets). In the U.S., you can only get the Big Mac and the standard chicken nuggets whereas you can get these other options in France. Note that the french fries taste pretty universal to me. Note that the Big Mac is so ubiquitous that magazines like the Economist even have their tongue-in-cheek fun with purchasing power parity for hamburgers.
• The INSEAD business school currently has information technology (IT) as a required course as part of its MBA degree. Faculty at INSEAD tell me, however, that satisfaction with the course is somewhat negatively correlated with whether it is a required course or an elective. Not unusual in that regard methinks. But I found it interesting that the course is a separate course as opposed to being integrated with operations, managerial accounting, or technology strategy courses (not that satisfaction with IT courses would go up by alignment in this manner). I personally thing IT has always had some trouble taking hold in business schools – probably an area for further innovation and improvement by the b-schools.
• The INSEAD business school has some push to emphasize design skills as part of training. For those that follow Tom Peters or Seth Godin, you may have sensed a fundamental shift and common thread about emphasizing design skills as part of the new wave of business. I am going to work to keep my knowledge current in the design skills area. It is at the top of my list along with watching outsourcing. If anyone runs into any good books or practical ways to stay current on this subject, please feel free to let me know. I am going to investigate the new book called, “Blue Ocean Strategy” written by an INSEAD professors, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
• The French system is much more of a socialist system compared to the U.S., but there are also some unique redistribution of wealth mechanisms I have not seen before. The highest marginal tax rate is about 50%. Another 24% is taken out for the social security system. Leaves about 25% in take home in pay for some. The government covers cost of education through the university level, plus the government provides healthcare insurance. Roughly speaking, the French have some interesting pro-family benefits such as the fact that each parent in a family can get paid half their pre-leave work salary until their child is three years old (wow cool – wonder what the cost is though!). Little odd though that, in some cases, families need to produce income statements for the schools. Based on one’s income level, a family may need to pay more for their children to eat in the canteen (i.e., cafeteria) on a per meal basis (say $10/meal versus $5/meal). Seems like it may a bit administratively burdensome, plus it also reflects fringes where the governmental system may not be efficient in redistributing taxes already collected. Unemployment at 10% or so with some areas as high as 30% (yikes!).
• The passenger train system from the neighboring cities into Paris seems like it could be subject to a substantial annual revenue loss (guesstimate millions to tens of millions of dollars) literally because of “free-rider” problems. There’s infrequently a conductor to punch verify tickets. Nor are there ticket control gates. Effectively an honor system at approx. $10 fare per person. Perhaps the culture prevents actual losses from being great, but risk of leakage seems pretty steep.
• Paris hasn’t changed much in the past 7 years. It probably hasn’t changed much in 100 years. It’s an awesome city. One of my favorite in the world.
• I understand one can get raw mussels in Northern France. Perhaps the only place in the world. Sounds very unappetizing to me. Even some French my wife and I met thought it was gross.
• It’s no wonder the French eat escargot. Practically every evening and morning snails are crawling all around outside the house. I’m surprised the Chinese never made moves to have these critters in the countryside areas and as part of the diet. Snails are fed rice as part of the cleansing process for eating, plus it would provide another food source for the Chinese.
• We only get German television where we are living. Movies like “Groundhog Day” are as hillarious in a  language that you don’t understand as in one’s native language. Would have loved to have learned more through local TV about the French culture though. That said, it’s interesting to note that mobile phone advertising in Germany is very fashion conscious. You can get flashing and glowing ring screens 24 hours per day on some of the TV shopping networks.

On my “irritating” list:

• Gasoline seems to be about 2 to 2.5 times higher than in the U.S., whereas golfing greens fees in Cely were about half of what it was for a comparable course in Chicago. Filling a tank of gasoline for a mid-sized vehicle is $50 to $75! Took about $50 in gasoline to get to a golf course to play a round of golf where greens fees were $50. Pretty hard energy burden to those who may depend heavily on gasoline. I’m sensitive to some of this as my mother-in-law drives expedited freight, and wildly fluctuating fuel costs pose a direct threat to her livelihood and income flow.
• Road navigation is ridiculous because interchange signage is overwhelming. Instead of simply having to know directions like East, West, South, or North for a particular road, one has to be familiar with the surrounding towns at each interchange point. Your geography better be real good in France – it’s one of my weakest subjects, and I can get by in the States. The French method  creates a bit of an operational issue as signage on the roads has to be much more extensive at each interchange point (not unusual to have 6-12 towns listed for a road going in one direction, say West).
• Typically you have to bring your own shopping bag to the grocery store. Cuts down on waste disposal I’m sure, but it is not very customer-friendly when you are given four complementary bags, and the cashier gives you hard time for the fifth bag. How much can one of those cheap, plastic bags cost as part of sales for a $200 grocery visit?
• Parking spots are even smaller than they are in Dallas, Texas (Note: parking spots in Dallas are the one exception to the general belief that everything is bigger in Texas). Of course cars are smaller in France too, but the spots seem disproportionately smaller. It’s no wonder that they have Smart Cars in Europe (even though these have not been as successful as originally hoped for).
• I can’t find iTunes songs for most of the top 10 songs. Guess that Apple has some different licensing and software arrangement to support different areas of the world. Too bad. I have no clue what some of the French songs are about (I don’t speak the  language), but the language for some of the German and French songs is simply beautiful sounding. It’s like discovering a new musical instrument for me for some songs.

On my “ingenious” list:

• One of the large supermarkets in France called Carrefour has an interesting mechanical device and coin collection gizmo clamped directly onto the handles of shopping carts to improve shopping cart operations from (presumably) two perspectives: to minimize both theft and labor to collect carts. Never saw this mechanism (Systec Variloc, perhaps no longer I think) in the States (although one could argue that the airports have something similar for their carts). The shopping carts are all chained together in the parking lot, and one needs to insert one Euro to release a shopping cart. When you return your cart and link your chainlink mechanism into the  daisy chain of other carts, you get your Euro back. In the States, the trend is to use return bays in the parking lot to encourage people to return their shopping carts. Other methods I have seen in some city areas of Chicago (e.g., off of Roosevelt in the South Loop) are to use wheel locking mechanisms that are somehow triggered by a magnetic or other mechanisms around the parking lot perimeter. The wheels basically lock into place and won’t turn anymore if shopping carts are brought beyond the perimeter. What Carrefour has sourced as a shopping cart device seems pretty effective as an alternative.
• The INSEAD business school was venture by a Harvard Business School grad to fill the hole of a Harvard-style case school in Europe. Original classes were held at the castle in Fontainebleu. Coordinating the incubation of the venture from Boston was tough when ship travel was still predominant. Same guy that founded  Fontainebleu was involved with directing venture money that amounted to something like 70% in the original equity money for Olsen at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Interesting to note that market timing and conditions were as important for a venture like INSEAD as it seems to be for many cases where viral spread of ideas are desired. There is a pretty lengthly book on the establishment of INSEAD for those interested in the subject. Too much for me to read the whole thing, but it is a very impressive work.
• The French wine market is fascinating. A prior post by me on wines is here. Very historical and influenced by regulation. A lot of romance to it too. The cheese market is probably also fascinating, but I may have too sensitive of a nose to appreciate.

Comments

[Andy]

The University of St. Thomas also requires its MBA students to take an IT course in the second year fall semester. Since I haven't taken the course, I cannot give a personal viewpoint. However, most second year students I've talked to feel that the course would be better if given as an elective or if integrated into the core classes more. Kind of maps to the negative correlation you are speaking of.

[chaichat]

Having IT as a requirement might be a good idea for students with non-technical backgrounds. However, for students with backgrounds in engineering,CS, or IT, it seems like a waste of time.

[Mary-Ann Horley]

I thought it was just me having trouble navigating in France!

WRT the plastic bags though, are you sure they don't have a tax on them? They do that in Ireland for environmental reasons.

[Steve Shu]

Andy and chaichat ... Re: IT stuff ... good points. I suppose at some schools there are some 30% of people that may have engineering or CS degrees. But then, there are also people that have had accounting before going to b-school. Accounting is a required course (although sometimes perhaps people can pass out of the course). I dunno - I suppose the elective route is better as there's not necessarily many b-school courses that build on IT material.

Mary-Ann, I really missed having any GPS in France (In the US, I use a laptop dongle by Delorme that costs between $100 and $150). As for the plastic bags, they could very well have a tax on them. It is a custom for people to bring their own bags to the grocery stores. Many of them will even sell a permanent bag to you. I guess the stores have to draw the line somewhere on the plastic bags. I can't imagine that the marginal cost between 4 bags and 5 is that big. Nevertheless, I got a marginal bonus of having a 5th bag flung at me along with a dirty look. Was about the only rude thing I perceived in France (one other possible exception occurred on the golf course, but I'm not sure if there's different golf etiquitte so I'm reserving judgement there) ...

[Mary-Ann Horley]

I just looked at that Delorme dongle; I'd love something like that if I can find software that covers continental Europe. TomTom are big here for GPS but they only do standalone and PDA solutions, and I can't justify a PDA as well as a laptop & BlackBerry.

WRT the required IT module at INSEAD: I don't know what the class involves, but I think a technology strategy/context/laymans explanation of new technologies type class definitely should be a part of an MBA, as opposed to a more nuts and bolts type class. That is just the €0.02 of someone who wants to do an MBA in the next ten years though.