Since the young chief never learned the ways of his ancestors, he tells them to collect firewood, then he goes off and calls the National Weather Service. "Will the winter be bad?" he asks.

Microsoft may soon be joining the fray, and in fact is steadily building out its Web-based service business under the direction of Chief Software Architect ray Ozzie.

His new knowledge helped him transform the TGV service when he returned to SNCF in 1997, and he was rewarded with the chief executive's job in 2003.