'A book with great impact is Semmelweis by Louis-Ferdinand Céline and Jean-Pierre Dauphin. Semmelweis (1818-65) was a Hungarian physician who identified that by cleaning their hands doctors could reduce the risk of death by infection for their patients. He observed that patients examined by medical students who had previously undertaken postmortem examinations suffered a high rate of often fatal infection. Despite the support of some senior colleagues, this passionate, but not at all diplomatic, character couldn't convince his colleagues to change their habits. Unable to overcome the conservatism of his fellow practitioners, he lost his nerves, became paranoid, lost his job and eventually committed suicide, deliberately infecting himself with a spoiled scalpel. Céline wrote this biography in 1924 as an end-of-study thesis at medical school. This short but very well written book reminds us how it can be difficult tothe eyes of a self-confident corporation to an innovative idea. I guess that's why I like to meditate on it.'
David Azéma is chairman and CEO of Eurostar Group.
