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- By Charles Miller
I was amused when thieves used a furniture removal cherry picker to steal from the Louvre art museum in Paris, France, in broad daylight last October.
Then Böcker, the lift manufacturer, seized the moment and posted an ad with the perfect tongue-in-cheek tagline: “When you need to move fast”.
Hilarious. The company playfully noted their Agilo lift “transports your treasures … quiet as a whisper”.
The thieves had even stolen the lift by attending a rental demonstration and simply driving away.
This humour highlights a sobering reality. Wearing high-visibility vests and posing as workers during museum hours, they looked like they belonged.
A clipboard, vest, and confidence created an invisibility cloak more effective than any stealth technology.
The same threats lurk inside our organisations. Risks hide in plain sight precisely because they’ve become normalised and embedded in daily operations.
To avoid this trap, question the routine, audit recurring exceptions and seek out unchallenged ‘work arounds’.
The Böcker ad reminds us that someone will always capitalise on our systemic failures, sometimes from within.
But here’s the deeper lesson. Thomas Edison declared genius is one per cent inspiration and 99 per cent perspiration.
Execution is everything, and theirs was tragic. What initially looked like a slick, professional operation has since unravelled spectacularly.
In their chaotic haste, the thieves left behind over 150 DNA samples and fingerprints scattered across the scene, on a circular saw, a reflective vest, a motorcycle helmet, a gas canister, gloves, and a walkie-talkie.
They abandoned the stolen cherry picker and failed to set it alight as planned because the Louvre staff intervened.
Most remarkably, as they fled the building, they dropped the single most valuable item, the crown of Empress Eugénie.
Within days, police had identified the suspects. Why? Because they were already in the criminal database. One was arrested at Charles de Gaulle Airport, 40 minutes before his flight to Algeria.
His accomplice was picked up in the Paris suburbs. All four members of the ‘commando team’ have been charged.
The jewels remain missing, but so does any hope of spending the proceeds in the short term.
The audacious concept was brilliant. The planning was poor. The execution was appalling.
The business lessons are clear. Sustainable success demands fanatical discipline, meticulous planning, and exhausting effort and energy, leaving no stone unturned, no scenario ignored.
So, question what’s hiding in plain sight in your organisation, then remember: even finding the vulnerability – or spotting the opportunity – is just the one per cent.
The 99 per cent is doing the hard, unglamorous work of getting it right. The Louvre thieves had the inspiration. What they lacked was the perspiration.
