Édouard Michelin

“The first necessity was for me to learn my trade. I can only learn it by questioning the workers. So I had to have a conversation with them where I was their inferior. And the best way to get them to talk was to openly and completely admit my ignorance.”

“There are things that the man who handles the material for eight hours a day knows while his boss, who is necessarily occupied with multiple issues. Maybe unaware of them.”

“Slowness is the special defect of large companies and a cause of their ruin.”

“The brother that's the artist is going on to be, is going to come, go on to become one of the greatest European industrialists in history. While the engineer may be the greatest marketer in history.”