‘To succeed in economic life, it is not enough to be intelligent. What is necessary is to combine intellectual abilities with solid common sense, a taste for the concrete, and above all a sense of leadership, the ability to lead high-level teams. As one of my professors told me,…
‘Success, for an entrepreneur, is leading a company that develops, that gains market share, that manages to bring together a team. This is what has always stimulated me, more than the strictly material aspect.’
- Bernard Arnault
#obliquity
- Bernard Arnault
#obliquity
‘Money has never been, in my eyes, an objective or even an indicator of any significance.. Investing in a company has a meaning for me that completely transcends the material, it means investing in a team & doing everything so that this team comes out on top.’
- Bernard Arnault
- Bernard Arnault
‘The brands created in the US are, for some, very strong. Their success took 20 yrs, that is to say a generation. Certainly, some of them are fantastic brands. But they do not have the mythical dimension that Dior or Louis Vuitton - these have a history the Americans don't have.’
‘The formation of (our) group makes it possible to rely on classic operational synergies which offer significant economies of scale (legal services, accounting services, logistics problems, etc.) to manage the whole in an economical & rational manner in order to lower costs.’
‘… Synergies also work upstream on purchases of certain products, as well as on advertising. Our group has become the world's leading buyer of advertising in the luxury sector, which allows us to obtain preferential rates.’
‘What seems perfectly useless to me, is what certain large industrial groups have done for years - strategic plans, developed at central level which are imposed on the subsidiaries. That's not how we operate at all. This centralizing approach destroys the entrepreneurial spirit.’
‘American companies have other flaws. The main thing, when they are listed on the stock exchange, is to be too tied to quarterly results. However, it is difficult, for a business like ours, to be permanently focused on the current quarter while we are building a brand for the…
‘In a company like ours, which is both a large group and a federation of medium-sized companies, executives must not only be interested in the progress of business at the consolidated level, but also in the results of the brands whose they are responsible for. When you join LVMH,…
‘High level executives have the right to make mistakes, they don't have the right to fail. Mistakes are inevitable, everyone makes them. You have to accept them. These are often very formative experiences. What is not acceptable are repeated mistakes that turn into failure.’
‘Precisely, the fact that we are not centralized but rather a federation of SMEs does not set a limit to our size. The real problem is talent. It is vital to recruit men & women of great talent. Finding them, motivating them, retaining them, working for a long time with men and…
‘Today, we have a total of forty-one companies, each independent. If we have forty-five or fifty tomorrow, it will make no difference in our system since each company lives independently of the others. Our control method does not risk saturation.’
‘The element of uncertainty always exists in a large-scale undertaking like (buying Dior parent). But we had studied, as we always do, the “worst case scenario”. We had invested a very important sum for us, 100 million, but if we had lost it, we would still have survived. This…
‘We saw straight away LVMH was unique in the world with “absolute star" brands from which we could build the first luxury group on the planet, capable of going through all conditions. Create high-quality items, sell them worldwide through a constantly evolving network of stores.’
‘At LVMH, we have a philosophy. A certain number of fundamental axes which govern the general strategy of all of our houses and which I can summarize. There are five: product quality, creativity, image, entrepreneurial spirit and, finally, the desire to constantly challenge…
‘Let's start with the quality. A company like ours, listed, transparent and large, gives us all the means necessary to ensure the very high quality of our products. It is a constant priority, no matter what. The fact that a family business one day joins the LVMH group does not…
‘In each of its businesses, LVMH embodies innovation. In cosmetics, for example, 20% of turnover is achieved thanks to products that did not exist the previous year. It is therefore necessary to create, but also to register the novelty in line with a given brand. Louis Vuitton is…
‘The creativity of Galliano, who expresses himself for Dior, is sometimes shocking, it's true. But if it did not shock, it would be because this creativity would be sanitized. It is not the goal. On the contrary, it is about pushing ideas to the extreme, revealing them, and then…
‘All modes of communication between the brand and its customers are important, whether advertising, the press or the presentation of products. The boutique plays a key role in this, as does the way in which the sales assistants are in contact with the customers. All this…
‘We want to federate a team of entrepreneurs, which includes all managers. With a permanent concern for dynamism, efficiency, motivation and complete attachment to a brand as if these companies were individual and not part of a larger group. This is part of the group's philosophy…
‘The entrepreneurial spirit, as opposed to the bureaucratic spirit that reigns in certain groups, is really present. It is a group of entrepreneurs.’
- Bernard Arnault
- Bernard Arnault
‘There is nothing worse than taking a situation for granted. It is from this constant questioning that progress is born. Which sometimes leads to difficult discussions. The temptation to be complacent always exists, especially when you are a world leader. But you have to improve…
‘We cannot be satisfied with simple style exercises! This is where the main difficulty lay, for a time. Lacroix sometimes said: “It’s wonderful, I work for a patron.” But LVMH does not aim to be just a patron! To ensure sustainability, economic results must be there. I think that…
‘Christian Lacroix was also, for years, not sufficiently interested in the sale of his products. Since then it has evolved. He now knows that true success is necessarily commercial and that success with fashion critics is good, but it's not enough. To meet the support of…
‘Indeed, building a luxury group, in my opinion, can only be done around companies that are “real economic luxury stars”. For a brand to have this status, it needs three characteristics: timelessness, exceptional cash flow, solid growth over a very long period. The number of…
‘The group's star brands, the strongest and which have substantial and recurring cash flow, make it possible to finance those which are growing. It is this notion of shared benefits that provides the key to our success.’
‘I can assure you that we will be drinking Dom Pérignon in a century; I will not say the same of certain brands of fashion, even if they are in vogue today. This stability allows our group to get through periods of crisis better than others.’
‘Our group likes to sell its products without intermediaries.’
- Bernard Arnault
- Bernard Arnault
‘Our corporate values, our global project, “creativity and quality”, will remain the basis of our action and our success. The “creative passion” will be intact in twenty years.’
‘I find the short-term recommendations of analysts or banks extremely presumptuous and often very inaccurate.’
- Bernard Arnault
- Bernard Arnault
Bernard Arnault on stock market investing….
‘I fundamentally believe that, to succeed in stock market investments, you have to have a long-term vision, be interested in companies and not in business sectors, invest in a company because you believe in its management and because…
‘I fundamentally believe that, to succeed in stock market investments, you have to have a long-term vision, be interested in companies and not in business sectors, invest in a company because you believe in its management and because…
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