Platform (11 page)
Authors: Michel Houellebecq
Tags: #Social life and customs, #1986-, #20th century, #Sex tourism, #Fiction, #Literary, #Social conditions, #France, #France - Social life and customs - 20th century, #Psychological, #Fiction - General, #Humorous fiction, #Thailand, #Erotica, #General, #Thailand - Social conditions - 1986
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Being able to understand a customer's behavior in order to categorize him more effectively, offering him the right product at the right time, but above all persuading him that the product he is offered is adapted to his needs: that is what all companies dream of.—JEAN-LOUIS BARMA,What Companies Dream Of
Jean-Yves woke at five in the morning and looked over at his wife, who was still sleeping. They had spent a terrible weekend with his parents— his wife couldn't stand the countryside. Nicolas, his ten-year-old son, loathed the Loiret too, as he couldn't bring his computer there: and he didn't like his grandparents, he thought they smelled. It was true that Jean-Yves's father was slipping. Increasingly, it seemed he was unable to look after himself, scarcely interested in anything apart from his rabbits. The only tolerable aspect of these weekends was his daughter, Angelique. At three, she was still capable of going into raptures over cows or chickens; but she was sick at the moment and had spent the greater part of the nights wailing. Once they got back, after three hours stuck in traffic jams, Audrey had decided to go out with some friends. Me had heated up something from the freezer while he watched some mediocre American film about an autistic serial killer —it was apparently based on a true story. The man had been the first mentally ill person to be executed in the state of Nebraska for more than sixty years. His son hadn't wanted any dinner, he had immediately launched himself into a game of Total Annihilation —or maybe it was Mortal Kombat II; he got them mixed up. From time to time, he went into his daughter's room to try and quiet her howls. She fell asleep around one o'clock; Audrey still wasn't home.
She had come home in the end, he thought, making himself a coffee at the espresso machine; this time, at least. The law firm she worked for numbered
Lib
é
ration
and
Le Monde
among its clients; one way or another, she had started hanging out with a group of journalists, television personalities, and politicians. They went out quite a lot, sometimes to strange places —once, leafing through one of her books, he came across a card for a fetish bar. Jean-Yves suspected that she slept with some guy once in a while; in any case, she and Jean-Yves didn't sleep together anymore. Curiously, for his part, lie didn't have affairs. Although he was aware he was handsome in a blond, blue-eyed, rather American way, he never really felt like taking advantage of the opportunities that might have presented themselves, and that were in any case pretty rare: he worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, and at his level of seniority, you didn't really meet many women. Of course there was Valérie, he suddenly remembered. He had never thought of her other than as a colleague before. It was odd to think of her in a new light; but he knew it was an unimportant daydream. They had been working together for five years now and in situations like that, things happened right away or they didn't happen at all. He admired Valérie a lot, her astonishing organizational abilities, her infallible memory; without her, he realized, he would never have gotten to where he was —or at least not as quickly as he had. And today, he might well be about to take a decisive step. He brushed his teeth, shaved carefully, before picking out a rather sober suit. Then he pushed open the door to his daughter's room; she was asleep, blonde like he was, in a pair of pajamas decorated with chicks.
Lib
é
ration
and
Le Monde
among its clients; one way or another, she had started hanging out with a group of journalists, television personalities, and politicians. They went out quite a lot, sometimes to strange places —once, leafing through one of her books, he came across a card for a fetish bar. Jean-Yves suspected that she slept with some guy once in a while; in any case, she and Jean-Yves didn't sleep together anymore. Curiously, for his part, lie didn't have affairs. Although he was aware he was handsome in a blond, blue-eyed, rather American way, he never really felt like taking advantage of the opportunities that might have presented themselves, and that were in any case pretty rare: he worked twelve to fourteen hours a day, and at his level of seniority, you didn't really meet many women. Of course there was Valérie, he suddenly remembered. He had never thought of her other than as a colleague before. It was odd to think of her in a new light; but he knew it was an unimportant daydream. They had been working together for five years now and in situations like that, things happened right away or they didn't happen at all. He admired Valérie a lot, her astonishing organizational abilities, her infallible memory; without her, he realized, he would never have gotten to where he was —or at least not as quickly as he had. And today, he might well be about to take a decisive step. He brushed his teeth, shaved carefully, before picking out a rather sober suit. Then he pushed open the door to his daughter's room; she was asleep, blonde like he was, in a pair of pajamas decorated with chicks.
He walked to the République Fitness Club, which opened at seven. He and Audrey lived on the Rue du Faubourg-du-Temple, a rather trendy area that he hated. His meeting at the head office of the Aurore group was not until ten o'clock. Audrey could take care of getting the children dressed and driving them to school for once. He knew that when he got home tonight he would have a half-hour of nagging coming to him, and as he walked along the wet pavement among the empty boxes and the vegetable peelings, he realized that he couldn't care less. He realized, also, for the first time with absolute clarity, that his marriage had been a mistake. This kind of realization, he knew, usually precedes divorce by about two or three years —it's never an easy decision to make.
The big black guy at reception gave him a not very convincing "How's things, boss?" He handed him his membership card, nodded, and accepted a towel. When he met Audrey, he had been only twentythree. Two years later they got married, partly—but only partly— because she was pregnant. She was pretty, stylish, she dressed well—and she could be very sexy when she wanted to. Besides, she had ideas. The emergence of American-style judicial proceedings in France did not seem to her to be a regression; on the contrary, she thought it was progress, a step toward better protection for citizens and civil liberties. She was capable of expounding fairly lengthily on the subject, she was just back from an internship in the United States. In a nutshell, she had conned him. It was strange, he thought, how he had always felt the need to be impressed intellectually by women.
He started off with half an hour working through different levels on the StairMaster, then twenty laps in the pool. In the sauna, which was deserted at this time of day, he started to relax—and took the opportunity to run through in his mind what he knew about the Aurore group. Novotel-SIEH had been founded in 1966 by Gerard Pélisson and Paid Dubrule — one a graduate of the École Centrale, the other completely self-taught—using capital borrowed entirely from family and friends. In August 1967, the first Novotel opened its doors in Lille. It already included many of the characteristics that were to emerge as the hallmarks of the group: the rooms highly standardized, locations on the outskirts of cities—to be more precise, off the highway, at the last exit before the city itself—and above-average standards of comfort for the time (Novotel was one of the first chains to routinely offer en-suite bathrooms). It was an immediate success with business travelers: by 1972, the chain already numbered thirty-five hotels. This was followed in '73 by the creation of Ibis, the takeover of Mercure in '75 and of Sofitel in '81. During the same period, the group prudently diversified into catering, acquiring the Courtepaille chain and the Jacques Borel International group, already well established in the group-catering and self-service restaurant sectors. In 1983, the company changed its name to become the Aurore group. Then, in '85, they created the Formules 1 —the first hotels with absolutely no personnel and one of the greatest successes in the history of the hotel business. Already well-established in Africa and the Middle East, the company got a foothold in Asia and set up its own training center: the Aurore Academy. In 1990, the acquisition of Motel 6, comprising 650 locations throughout the United States, made the group the largest in the world: it was followed in '91 by a successful takeover bid for the Wagons-Lits group. These acquisitions were costly, and in '93, Aurore faced a crisis: the shareholders considered the company's debts to be too high, and the buyout of the Meridien chain fell through. Thanks to the transfer of a number of assets and a recovery plan for Europcar, Lenotre, and the Societe des Casinos Lucien Barriere, the situation was turned around by fiscal year 1995. In January '97, Paul Dubrule and Gerard Pelisson resigned the presidency of the group, to be succeeded by Jean-Luc Espitalier, a graduate of the Ecole Normale d'Administration, whose career was described by the financial magazines as "atypical." However, the two founders remained members of the board of directors. The transition went well and, by the end of 2000, the group had reinforced its position as world leader, consolidating its lead over Marriott and Hyatt, numbers two and three, respectively. Of the ten largest hotel chains in the world, nine were American and one French —the Aurore group.
At nine-thirty, Jean-Yves parked his car in the lot of the group's head office at Évry. He walked for a while in the frosty air, in order to unwind while waiting for the appointed time. At ten o'clock precisely, he was shown into the office of Éric Leguen, executive vice president in charge of hotels and a member of the board of directors. He was forty-five, a graduate of the École Centrale, with a degree from Stanford. Tall and sturdy, with blond hair and blue eyes, he looked a little like Jean-Yves — though ten years older and with something more confident in his attitude.
"Monsieur Espitalier, our president, will meet with you in fifteen minutes," he began. "In the meantime, I'll explain why you're here. Two months ago, we bought the Eldorador chain from Jet Tours. It's a little chain of about a dozen beach hotel/holiday clubs spread over the Maghreb, black Africa, and the West Indies."
"It's showing a loss, I believe."
''No more than the sector as a whole." He smiled briefly. "Well, yes, actually, a bit more than the sector as a whole. To be quite frank, the purchase price was reasonable, but it wasn't peanuts. There were a number of other groups in the running, and there are still a lot of people in the industry who believe that the sector will pick up again. It's true that, at the moment, Club Med is the only one managing to hold its own; strictly confidentially, we had actually thought of making a takeover bid for Club Med. But the prey was a little too large; the shareholders would never have approved it. In any case, it wouldn't have been a very friendly thing to do to Philippe Bourguignon, who is a former employee." He gave a rather phony smile, as though he was trying to suggest that this was perhaps —but not definitely—a joke. "Anyway," he went on, "what we are proposing is that you take over the management of all of the Eldorador resorts. Your objective, obviously, being to make them break even quickly and then to make them profitable."
"That's not an easy task."
"We're very aware of that: we feel that the level of remuneration offered is sufficiently attractive. Not to mention the career prospects within the group, which are huge. We have offices in 142 countries; we employ more than a hundred and thirty thousand people. On top of that, most of our senior executives quickly become shareholders in the group. It's a system we firmly believe in. I've written up some details for you with some sample calculations."
"I would also need more detailed information on the circumstances of the hotels in the group."
"Of course; I'll give you a detailed dossier a little later. This is not simply a tactical acquisition. We believe in the potential of the organization. Geographically the resorts are well sited, the general condition excellent—there's very little in the way of improvements to be made. At least, that's my opinion, but I don't have any experience of the leisure sector. We'll be working together, obviously, but you will make the decisions on these matters. If you want to get rid of a hotel or acquire another, the final decision in the matter is yours. That's how we work at Aurore."
He thought for a moment before going on: "Of course, it's no accident that you're here. The industry has carefully followed your career at Nouvelles Frontières; you might even say you have something of a following. You haven't sought to systematically offer the lowest prices, or the highest level of service; in each case, you've matched a price that is acceptable to the clientele very closely with a certain level of service; that's exactly the philosophy we follow within every chain in our group. And something equally important, you've had a hand in creating a brand with a very strong image; that's something we haven't always been able to do at Aurore."
The telephone on Leguen's desk rang. The conversation was very brief. He got up and led Jean-Yves along the beige-tiled corridor. Jean-Luc Espitalier's office was vast, it must have been at least twenty meters wide; the left-hand side was taken up by a large conference table with about fifteen chairs. As they approached, Espitalier stood and welcomed them with a smile. He was a small man, quite young—certainly no older than forty-five. His hair receding at the front, he looked oddly unobtrusive, almost retiring, as though he was trying to soften the importance of his role with irony. You probably shouldn't trust it, thought Jean-Yves; ENA graduates are often like that, they cultivate a comic veneer that turns out to be deceptive. They settled themselves in armchairs around a low table in front of his desk. Espitalier looked at him for a long time with his curious, shy smile before beginning to speak.
"I have a lot of respect for Jacques Maillot," he said eventually. "He's built up a first-rate company, very original and with a real ethos. It doesn't happen often. That said —and I don't want to play the prophet of doom here —I think French tour operators need to prepare themselves for a rough ride. Very soon —it's inevitable at this stage, and in my opinion it's only a matter of months —British and German tour operators are going to make inroads into the market. They have two to three times the level of financial backing, and their tours are 20 to 30 percent cheaper, for a comparable or a better standard of service. Competition will be tough, very tough. To be blunt, there will be casualties. I'm not saying Nouvelles Frontières will be one of them; it's a group with a strong identity and level-headed shareholders, it can weather this. Nevertheless, the years ahead are going to be tough for everyone.
"At Aurore, we don't have that problem at all," he went on with a little sigh. "We are the uncontested world leader in the business hotel sector, which fluctuates very little; but we are still poorly established in the leisure hotel sector, which is more volatile, more sensitive to economic and political fluctuations."
"As a matter of fact," interrupted Jean-Yves, "I was rather surprised by your acquisition. I thought your main development priority was still business hotels, particularly in Asia."
"That is still our main priority," replied Espitalier calmly. "In China alone, for example, there is extraordinary potential in the business hotel sector. We have the experience, we have the know-how: imagine concepts like Ibis and Formule 1 rolled out across the country. That said . .. How should I put this?" He thought for a moment, looked at the ceiling, at the conference table to his right before looking back at Jean-Yves. "Aurore is a discreet group," he said at length. "Paul Dubrule used to say that the sole secret of success in the market was to be timely. Timely means not too early: it's very rare for true innovators to reap the full profits of their innovation—that's the story of Apple and Microsoft. But obviously, it also means not too late. That's where our discretion has served us well. If you do your development work in the shadows, without making waves, by the time your competitors wake up and decide to move on to your patch, it's too late: you have your territory sewn up, you have acquired a crucial competitive advantage. Our reputation has not kept pace with our actual significance; for the most part, this has been done deliberately.
"That time is gone," he went on with another sigh. "Everyone now knows that we are number one in the world. At that point it becomes useless—even dangerous —to count on our discretion. It's essential for a group of Aurore's size to have a public image. The business hotel sector is a dependable market, which generates guaranteed regular, substantial, revenues. But it's not, how shall I put it, it's not really
fun
.* People rarely talk about their business trips, there's no pleasure in telling people about them. To build a positive image with the general public there are two possibilities open to us: tour operating or resorts aimed at the 18-30 age group. Becoming a tour operator is further from our core business, but there are a number of very healthy businesses likely to change hands in the near future —we very nearly went down that road. And when Eldorador presented itself, we decided to seize the opportunity.''
fun
.* People rarely talk about their business trips, there's no pleasure in telling people about them. To build a positive image with the general public there are two possibilities open to us: tour operating or resorts aimed at the 18-30 age group. Becoming a tour operator is further from our core business, but there are a number of very healthy businesses likely to change hands in the near future —we very nearly went down that road. And when Eldorador presented itself, we decided to seize the opportunity.''
"I'm just trying to understand your objectives," said Jean-Yves. "Are you more focused on profit or public image?"
"That's a complex issue,'' Espitalier hesitated, shifting slightly in his chair. "Aurore's problem is that it has a very weak shareholder base. That, in fact, is what started the rumors of a takeover bid in 1994—I can tell you now," he went on with a confident gesture, "that they were completely unfounded. That would be even more true now: we have no debt whatever, and no international company, even outside the hotel business, is large enough to mount a bid. What remains true is that, unlike Nouvelles Frontières for example, we do not have a coherent shareholder base. At heart, Paul Dubrule and Gérard Pélisson were less capitalists than they were entrepreneurs —and great entrepreneurs in my opinion, among the greatest the century has produced. But they did not seek to keep a controlling share in their business; it is this which puts us in a delicate position today. You know as well as I do that it is occasionally necessary to sanction prestige spending, something that will improve the strategic position of the group without making a positive impact on revenues in the short term. We also know that it is sometimes necessary to temporarily shore up a loss-making sector because the market hasn't matured or because it is going through a short-term crisis. This is something that the new generation of shareholders finds difficult to accept: the focus on rapid returns on investment has been deeply unconstructive and damaging."
He raised his hand discreetly, seeing that Jean-Yves was about to interrupt. "Mind you," he went on, "our shareholders are not imbeciles. They are perfectly aware that in the current climate it would not be possible to bring a chain like Eldorador back to equilibrium in the first year —probably not even in two years. But come the third year they'll want to look very hard at the figures—and they won't be long in coming to their conclusions. At that point, even if you have a magnificent plan, even if the potential is vast, I won't be able to do anything."
There was a long silence. Leguen sat motionless, he had lowered his head. Espitalier stroked his chin skeptically. "I see," Jean-Yves said at last. After a couple of seconds he added calmly: "I'll give you my answer in three days."
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