The leader of North American operations for French multi-national Saint-Gobain Corp., soon to settle into its new Frazier headquarters, was a little surprised by a particular tradition at the parent company headquarters in Paris — namely the exodus of 95 percent of its workforce for a simultaneous extended vacation.

“It’s not right or wrong. It’s what France does,” John Crowe told Philly.com during a recent interview.  “It’s good for them, and they recharge.”

France also differs significantly in its educational emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math.

“In the French society, when you are a kid, the way your parents try to raise you, they just pound math and science into the kids with the aspiration that they are going to get into the [main universities] to study engineering,” he said in the article.

Crowe himself wavered from engineering to finance in college and then took his MBA into an engineering job first.

“I wanted to get a foundation on the manufacturing side and then move into finance. They said, ‘John, you are our poster child. This is what we aspire to find, people who understand the manufacturing side of the business and want to be in finance.’”

Read more about Crowe and his experiences on Philly.com here, and refer back to previous Chesco Business Today coverage of the construction of Saint-Gobain’s new U.S. headquarters in Frazier here.

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Top image courtesy of Philly.com