Introduction: The Deal Nobody Wanted

• In 1984, Christian Dior was not the glamorous luxury powerhouse that we know today.

Behind the iconic fashion shows, expensive handbags, and celebrity endorsements, the company was trapped inside a collapsing business empire called the Boussac Group.

• The group was losing nearly $20 million every year.
  Its textile factories were bleeding money, debts were piling up, and thousands of workers were at risk of losing their jobs.

Any normal company in this condition would have gone bankrupt.

But France could not allow that to happen.

Why?

• Because the collapse of Boussac Group would throw nearly 20,000 workers onto the streets, creating a massive political crisis for the French government.

So the French government decided to sell the company.

However, there were two strict conditions:

• The buyer could not fire the workers.