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mantled at high speed and they
had about 10,000 diplomats too
many. They didn't need one
more," he said.
So instead of going to the For-
') eign Office, he attended the pres-
tigious business school INSEAD
(Institut Superieur d'Adminis-
tration des Affaires) at
Fontainebleau in'France. At age
23, he was offered a job at L'Ore-
al.
He had never considered going
into the cosmetics world, but he
quickly became enthusiastic.
"I discovered there were peo-
ple who were actually getting
paid for choosing models in swim-
suits to advertise sunburn cream.
I said, 'You actually get paid for
doing this?' " he says.
His first assignment was, dis-
appointingly, far less glamorous
than he had hoped. He sold pack-
ets of shampoo to small stores in
"a very northern, wet, cold" part
of France. He wasn't to stay there
long, however, and he moved
rapidly up the L'Oreal ladder.
His career is typical in a com-
pany which tends to hire its ex-
ecutives at a young age and send
them around the world.
Mr. Owen-Jones worked in
France, Belgium, Italy and the
United States before coming back
to Paris to become the company's
president. In 1988, he was ap-
pointed chairman and CEO.
When asked how an English-
man managed to reach such
heights in the often hard to nav-
igate territory of the French busi-
ness world and French culture,
Mr. Owen-Jones laughs.
His key to survival in France:
"You just have to understand that
there are two possible ways to do
everything in life: the right way
and the wrong way and the right
way is the French way. As long
as you accept that, it is extreme-
ly easy to get along with French
people."
On a more serious note, Mr.
Owen-Jones says the French
"have the courage of their beliefs.
They are independent thinkers.
They don't just go along with the
crowd. So perhaps they have
some things in common with Is-
raeli people. I think the Israelis
can relate to French pride."
Mr. Owen-Jones says that
L'Oreal is truly multinational,
thriving on diversity among its
executives. He believes the ap-
pointment of an Englishman to
the top position in such a classi-
cally French company is a sym-
bol of that openness.
"It's an encouragement to
many people. If I go to one of the
many companies that work with
us around the world, I can say
`Hey, perhaps the future chair-
man of our company is sitting
here in the room,' and it's true,"
he says.
"We believe that the multicul-
tural shock has a dividend of cre-
ativity and dynamism. The result
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