Bernard Jean Étienne Arnault / b. 1949 / Roubaix, France / Businessman, Investor, Art Collector, Founder and CEO of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton
Arnault on Arnault
I’ve never sought success in order to get fame and money; it’s the talent and the passion that count in success.
Interview with Forbes magazine, 2014.
I have no doubt that the success of the Louis Vuitton brand is linked to the fact that we have always remained faithful to our heritage while keeping an eye on the future.
Interview with the New York Times, 2018.
I have always believed that the best way to predict the future is to invent it.
Interview with the New York Times, 2018.
Re: a trip to Mongolia:
I like to see the reaction of the people in the shops. I also like to see the competition. I am quite competitive. I want to stay ahead and increase our advance.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
I see myself as an ambassador of French heritage and French culture. What we create is emblematic. It’s linked to Versailles, to Marie Antoinette.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
I remember precisely the first time I met [John Galliano] in my office. My assistant said, “There is a very strange guy in the lobby with rasta hair and a T-shirt.”
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
Not long ago, I said to one of our designers, “Why don’t you take a trip to Japan and see what the teenage girls are wearing on the streets at night?” These girls are very leading-edge in fashion; they create trends years before they hit the mainstream, like with those very high shoes, and it makes very good sense to watch them. I did not say to the designer, “Go and see what kinds of shoes they are wearing and copy them,” although I was hoping he would notice their shoes. I just suggested, “Go look.” And in fact, he came home very inspired. That’s all a manager can hope to do, or should do, in my opinion.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Business Philosophy
My definition of luxury is not necessarily about price, it’s about the rarity, the quality, and the uniqueness of a product.
Interview with the New York Times, 2018.
A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well.
Interview with the Financial Times, 2007.
The luxury business is about creating desire. Desire for a product, desire for a brand, desire for a lifestyle.
Interview with the Financial Times, 2017.
Q: So, is heritage the main characteristic of a star brand?
A: I would say that there are four characteristics required. A star brand is timeless, modern, fast-growing, and highly profitable.
Q: Can a brand be all four at once?
A: It is rare. In my opinion, there are fewer than ten star brands in the luxury world. It is very hard to balance all four characteristics at once—after all, fast growth is often at odds with high profitability—but that is what makes them stars. If you have a star brand, then basically you can be sure you have mastered a paradox.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
The key to success is this duality—timelessness and the utmost modernity.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
Mastering the paradox of star brands is very difficult and rare. Fortunately.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
One key element of management of a group like this is decentralization. You need the right team of inspired managers.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
The responsibility of the manager in a company dependent on innovation, then, very much becomes picking the right creative people—the ones who want to see their designs on the street.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
And just as important, to allow creativity to happen, a company has to be filled with managers who have a certain love of artists and designers—or whatever kind of creative person you have in your company. If you deeply appreciate and love what creative people do and how they think, which is usually in unpredictable and irrational ways, then you can start to understand them. And finally, you can see inside their minds and DNA.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Leadership
Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.
Interview with Forbes magazine, 2014.
My job is not to be easy on people. My job is to make them better.
Interview with Harvard Business Review, October 1, 2010.
LVMH
Our goal for the group is to remain a family company.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
Today it’s clear that the world is driven by the growth of Asia and emerging countries. Vuitton has always been a pioneer. We were the first to arrive in China. There were only bicycles when we opened there, no cars.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
So, [LVMH] keeps spending in emerging markets, which are on the forefront of growth.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
Louis Vuitton should be run as if [CEO] Yves Carcelle owns the brand.
Reported in “Master of the Brand: Bernard Arnault,” Forbes magazine, November 4, 2010; accessible at forbes.com.
Re: John Galliano’s dresses made of newspaper:
So, you see, with certain techniques, everyone can win, the company, the designer, and the customer.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
I don’t have alarm bells when it comes to creativity. If you think and act like a typical manager around creative people—with rules, policies, data on customer preferences, and so forth—you will quickly kill their talent. Our whole business is based on giving our artists and designers complete freedom to invent without limits.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Our philosophy is quite simple, really. If you look over a creative person’s shoulder, he will stop doing great work. Wouldn’t you, if some manager were watching your every move, clutching a calculator in his hand? So that is why LVMH is, as a company, so decentralized. Each brand very much runs itself, headed by its own artistic director. Central headquarters in Paris is very small, especially for a company with 54,000 employees and 1,300 stores around the world. There are only 250 of us, and I assure you, we do not lurk around every corner, questioning every creative decision.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Some companies are very marketing-driven; they follow the consumer. And they succeed with that strategy. They go out, they test what people want, and then they make it. But that approach has nothing to do with innovation, which is the ultimate driver, we believe, of growth and profitability. You can’t charge a premium price for giving people what they expect, and you won’t ever have break-out products that way—the kinds of products that people line up around the block for. We have those, but only because we give our artists freedom.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Our strategy is to trust the creators. You have to give them leeway. When a creative team believes in a product, you have to trust the team’s gut instinct.
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
The fact is, star brands take time to grow. Take some of the small makeup companies we have acquired recently, like Bliss and Urban Decay. When we bought them, they were little start-ups run by their founders—very simple businesses, but with a lot of originality in the products. So now we know we must nurture them until they have some history. But even if it takes ten or 15 years for them to become stars, that has been an amazing investment, right?
Reported by Suzy Wetlaufer in “The Perfect Paradox of Star Brands: An Interview with Bernard Arnault of LVMH,” Harvard Business Review, October, 2001; accessible at hbr.org.
Personal Philosophy
When you’re a creative person, you constantly need to be challenged, and as you have more and more success, it becomes harder to find those challenges.
Interview with the Wall Street Journal, 2012.
I believe that in life, you have to give before you can receive.
Interview with the Wall Street Journal, 2012.