BULL Folklore
The purpose of this page id to tell the folklore stories gathered by ex-employees that are translatable, or that can be approximated, in English. Other folklore stories specifically relative to products are recorded in product pages.
Mr. Bourin
Bourin is French slang for a old horse. Marc Bourin was a division
manager in the 1960s, he became later Medium Systems Department manager.
A young engineer recently hired in its division was told that Bourin was the nickname of
the manager and that his real name was Mr. Cheval (horse). When, he was presented to his manager,
he said respectfully "Bonjour, Mister Cheval" and his fellow workers smiled
cautiously. Marc Bourin answered "Bonjour, mais vous ne pouvez pas m'appeler Bourin
comme tout le monde" [Hi , but can you call me Bourin, as everybody]
CII and Fujitsu ( a story by Emmanuel de
Robien)
When E. de Robien once met the Fujitsu management, he was asked what means CII see
for destabilizing American industry and establishing a European supremacy in the industry.
After sake drinking, he proposed an answer. Continents drifting is the real solution:
eventually, the drift of the Pacific plate towards North-East will make the sea invading
the Silicon Valley...and shake Japan East coast.
After an instant of silent thinking, the Fujitsu manager answered "Yes, that
should be the reason why we set up our plants in the western coast of Kyushu".
The most difficult task for a Bull (you
may substitute the name of your company) manager
Once upon a time, a tired overworked
manager picked some vacation in a farm in the French country side and asked the farmer,
his host, if he could help. The farmer showed him the
manure pit and asked him to empty it. After just a few hours, the engineer came back and
say "it's finished, have you something else". The farmer said it "you may
be tired, let's take a non exhausting task, why not sorting the lot of potatoes in the
loft". Late, in the evening, the Bull manager did not come back and the farmer climb
upstairs and he saw the manager with one potato in the right hand and another in the left
hand considering each without deciding what to select. The farmer asked "what is the
matter?". And the manager said "you know in Bull, moving the shit, we do it
every day, but making a decision is something we are not used to do"
-not completed- there is another task before the manure .(couper le bois mort dans
le verger?)
CII-HB traffic jams (a real story)
On the highway in front of Louveciennes campus, many people going to work at CII
had to turn left and before there was a traffic light, that was the cause of big
traffic jams. So Bull management called the police station and asked for a policeman to
direct the traffic. The local police obligingly agreed and asked for the
working
hours and was answered by the book (entry between 8 to 9). The traffic was significantly
improved by the attendance of a policeman who stopped momentarily incoming cars. After 2
weeks, however, the police called back the personal department in Louveciennes saying
"You said to us that the peak of traffic stood between 8 and 9, but we had observed
that it was actually between 9:30 and 10!"
A submarine sailboat (a real 1979 story)
Christian Joly, in charge of
micro packaging engineering in Angers, decided
to launch in advance from the Paris agreement, a bootlegged
micro packaged version of the
level 64. He said to his team: "Vous foncez en sous-marin, toutes voiles dehors"
("You have to charge at this submarine project, with full sails open out").
Revision : 19 février 2002.