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Le Deal: How a Young American, in Business, in Love, and in Over His Head, Kick-Started a Multibillion Dollar Industry in Europe ReviewIn LE DEAL, real-estate developer Bynre Murphy relates his struggle to extend an American retail innovation -- outlet malls offering iconic apparel brands at deep discounts -- to a skeptical and change-averse Old World.Murphy's saga is set in motion by the savings and loan crisis that devastated the US commercial real-estate market in 1992. His small but successful Washington, DC-based development company was wiped out, and Murphy and his boss find themselves clinging to the only asset their company retains -- licensing rights to open McArthur Glen retail outlet centers in Europe.
As Murphy explains to a long succession of French mayors, councilmen, administrators, and permit-granters, McArthur Glen has a stellar track record in the US, and its concept will be "win-win-win" in France:
- French shoppers will get 40-60% discounts on sought-after brands like Versace, Nike, Gucci, and Calvin Klein;
- the brands will be able to monetize their end-of-season inventory instead of writing it off; and
- the downtown merchants and restaurants will benefit from shoppers visiting from afar who need a place to refuel and buy what they couldn't find at the outlet. It's a no-brainer, right?
Umm... non.
As the presentations, setbacks, hearings, and appeals drag on for months, Murphy begins to understand the true nature of what he and McArthur Glen are up against as they try to gain a foothold in France. Any new business concept is viewed first and foremost as a threat to the established commercial order, and only vaguely and secondarily as an opportunity. As the author explains, in France it's all about job preservation, not job creation.
Murphy's key insight is that if he can move forward at exactly the right moment -- when he's won a regional victory that will inevitably trigger a backlash from Paris and a conclusive defeat -- he can use the French obsession with job preservation to outmaneuver his opponents and launch McArthur Glen in Europe. And as Murphy relates with a series of entertaining anecdotes and a self-effacing touch, nothing succeeds like success.
The crux of the story unfolds in France, but Murphy also describes McArthur Glen's simultaneous effort to open outlets in England, and the ensuing efforts to establish the company in Germany and Italy. Along the way we're treated to entertaining cameos from Mickey Mouse, Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, soon-to-be German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, and Italian dynastic heirs and petty mafiosos.
It's hard not to root for this 30-something American who relocates his young family to Paris and then realizes he's jumped off the deep end into the inscrutable waters of Continental politics and rivalries. But the author's determination to "never, never, ever give up" -- along with a little luck and a growing appreciation for the importance of local culture -- ultimately allow him and McArthur Glen to prevail, and then surpass all of the goals they'd originally set for Europe.
LE DEAL is a light-hearted, fast-paced read that also provides useful insights into how European culture manifests itself in the commercial sector, and why American business instincts can be at turns effective and counter-productive when applied on the Continent. I recommend it highly for Americans who interact with colleagues or customers across The Pond.
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