At 29, François Michelin took over in 1955 and bet the firm on the radial tire

Michelin was founded in 1889 by Édouard Michelin and stayed a secretive, family-run company based in Clermont-Ferrand. When François Michelin, his grandson, became co-managing partner in 1955, Michelin ranked only 10th among the world's tire makers. He was less than 30 and had grown up inside the firm.

François made a single big bet: the radial tyre. His 'Michelin X' redefined the market — it lasted longer and gripped better, and was dismissed as a fad by rivals committed to the bias-ply. He refused to trim the firm's ambitions to its regional roots and instead expanded globally.

Over his 47 years at the helm, 1955 to 2002, the tyre maker expanded rapidly on the back of the radial. In 1976 he sold Citroën to Peugeot to get out of cars, and in 1990 he bought America's Uniroyal Goodrich, cementing Michelin in the industry's 'Big Three' alongside Goodyear and Bridgestone.

Michelin went from 10th among the world's tire makers in 1955 to one of the 'Big Three' by 1990, after the radial built the brand and the 1990 Uniroyal Goodrich buy.

He bet the company's future on a technology competitors refused to adopt, creating a durable edge.

He was willing to sell unrelated assets (Citroën) to focus the firm on what it actually mastered.

He kept the family firm independent and growing rather than selling out to a bigger rival.

A next-generation leader can win by betting on a technology competitors dismiss instead of following the pack — the heir's conviction, not the founder's size, changed the trajectory.

François Michelin handed the company to his son Édouard, continuing the family line until his death in 2006; Michelin later turned to Jean-Dominique Senard, its first non-family boss. France's president called him 'one of the greatest French industrialists of the postwar years,' crediting the radial with turning a regional family firm into one of France's biggest groups.