4 Business Lessons From The Man Who Made Louis Vuitton An Empire
Bernard Arnault’s way to keep a 160-year-old company lives on.
In 2018, I had the pleasure to get hired at Louis Vuitton as a Docent for their Time Capsule event and that’s where I became familiar with the name Bernard Arnault and what he had done for the company.
I was a tomboy back then, so the fact that I was hired into a fashion and luxury company is insane. I learned so many things there, like how the company was capable to work together with other industries such as video games and sports blew my mind.
Just how were they able to break that rule of the stick with your industry? I find that that’s how LVMH managed to become a strong company.
So I wanted to know what Bernard Arnault did that made him the man he is today, a powerful figure and, it seems, a great leader. I began following the company’s news and watched a Q&A he did at Oxford. This is what I learned from the billionaire himself.
Note: I am no longer an employee of Louis Vuitton as I resigned after my contract ended. So these are my speculation as a former employee of Louis Vuitton.
1) Allow Creators To Run The Inventions
What I have fun with is trying to transform creativity into business reality all over the world. To do this, you have to be connected to innovators and designers, but also make their ideas livable and concrete.
I’ve been working on the Louis Vuitton Foundation for the past decade. I worked with Frank Gehry on this fantastic building dedicated to the arts. We have a very good relationship. I told him you can do anything you want on the outside, but on the inside, I want something that is usable. — Bernard Arnault about giving creative freedom to his artists.
When we look at Louis Vuitton’s creators, it’s as if they are the ones running the business. It’s rare I find any statements from Bernard Arnault himself about the products that they are launching, it’s always the creators doing it instead.
This showed that Bernard Arnault gave so much freedom to the creators. We see it so much in the designs released every time there is a fashion show event. He allowed the designers to be as wild as possible and let them do the final decision.
This leadership is called laissez-faire, where the leaders allow their employees to run the business, create the decision, and are okay when facing mistakes. It’s not usually common in the business world, since the most common one is democratic leadership.
However, Bernard Arnault seemed to believe in the creative directors and designers the company hired. Therefore, he allowed them to take over the departments and be innovative. I’m sure that he probably said a few words to them, but the bottom line is, the designers are the ones in control when creating new products, not him.
Thus, giving them no limits on the canvas to paint.
2) Quality Before Marketing
“If you do marketing like consumer goods, I don’t think that’s possible (for LVMH). But if you produce something that is really unique, I think that’s possible” — Bernard Arnault at Oxford Union, 2016.
Most companies that involve art in their business are always approaching quality first. We’ve seen this a lot in Disney, Apple, Youtube videos, and books. Businesses like Louis Vuitton are no exception.
If you notice, Louis Vuitton’s marketing is mostly just from Social Media. They don’t do massive advertisements the way grocery stores/consumer goods do. They just announce one thing on Instagram, and that’s it. Sometimes they’ll call the product back to the internet, but they don’t do massive marketing.
And yet, when I worked at Louis Vuitton, every day was always a busy day in stores. Clients keep coming to buy their luxury products.
Bernard Arnault said that they don’t do marketing. He believed that marketing is against what LVMH must do, which is quality. For them, marketing is product creation. In other words, he let quality speaks and let word of mouth from their clients do the marketing.
Therefore, the quality will always exceed everyone’s expectations, so the phrase quality over quantity is very true.
3) Create Timeless/Evergreen Products/Contents
“When I see a product of some of our best brands, it has to be timeless but also it has to have in it something of the utmost modernity in it. That is the key to success.” — Bernard Arnault, 2017.
This is why Bernard Arnault allows his creative designers to go wild. Whether it’s in writing, stocks, or fashion, always aim for the long-term, which is timeless.
Timeless, according to the CEO of LVMH himself, is a brand that lasts forever. That means no matter the generations to come, even when the culture change in time, the company can still adapt and live on.
Louis Vuitton was created in 1837 by Louis Vuitton himself when he was 16 years old. This means that the brand is already more than 165 years old and today, it’s still as good as new. They made sure that the company keeps innovating and lasts.
Bernard Arnault made sure that the products his companies produce are crafted to their best. He mentioned how his team sets a Louis Vuitton suitcase in a ‘torture’ machine where the bag would be opened and closed every five minutes, thrown around, and even dropped with a loud bang. This is their way to test its quality and see how long it lasts (though I’m certain that they had more ways of doing that).
Today, Louis Vuitton is still selling the same bags since the 19th century such as the speedy bag launched in the 1930s. Over the years, the designers made sure that the bag can still fit into the modern world as a classy bag and people are still loving them.
We can also apply this in our own lives. No matter how many products we create, make sure we innovate and be creative on how to make the product long-lasting, ultimately how to make your business long-lasting.
4) Always Treat Your Company Like A StartUp
“I often say to my team we should behave as if we’re still a startup. Don’t go to the offices too much. Stay on the ground with the customer or with the designers as they work. I visit stores every week. I always look for the store managers. I want to see them on the ground, not in their offices doing paperwork.” — Bernard Arnault, 2017.
I agree with this quote very much. If a company thinks that they are good enough already, one day, someone else will catch up with them. Plus, I find that people who treat themselves as startups are very humble.
A startup's main purpose is to grow its business. This includes their product, people, and systems.
When I worked at Louis Vuitton, when my trainer identified one of my weaknesses in public speaking, which is speaking in my own native language, he drilled me and worked harder to help me surpass my weakness. This is why out of all the companies I worked at, Louis Vuitton was the place where I grew the most.
Today, Louis Vuitton grows tremendously beautiful and powerful. It’s so powerful that they managed to acquire 75 different brands, some that are not even related to their main industry, and today, Bernard Arnault is the third billionaire in the world.
I don’t know about the people there but as a former employee, but I learned so much from the company. Public speaking, the fashion world, its businesses, and so many more. It was one of the biggest highlights of my whole career.
Conclusion
Bernard Arnault is not an inventor, but he’s a great businessman. LVMH has been growing tremendously since he became CEO in 1989, today it is the number one top luxury company in the world, and just recently it acquired the biggest jewelry store Tiffany & Co despite hard times during Covid for $15.8 billion.
The best actions he shared for us to learn is:
- Allow creators to run their inventions
- Quality before marketing
- Create Timeless/Evergreen Products/Contents
- Always Treat Your Company Like A StartUp
