“I take time to get close to, and I don’t immediately throw my arms round someone.”

What we do in our group is the opposite of the bad effects of globalization. We produce in Italy and in France and we sell to China, when usually it’s the opposite.

Louis Vuitton, the world’s biggest luxury brand in terms of sales, is planning to dampen its expansion worldwide and focus on high-end products to preserve its exclusive image.

Working in the context of ultra-famous brands like Dior and Vuitton, creative spirits are always going to feel reined in. It’s important that they are free to develop ideas. And rather than detracting from the principal job, it reinforces it. I think of that money as venture capital. It’s not a big investment.

Affordable luxury – these are two words that don’t go together.

China is clearly going to be the number one economic power and it is already full of potential.. with lots of population and the buying power increasing by the day. .

It is not enough to have a talented designer; the management must be inspired too. The creative process is very disorganised; the production process has to be very rational.

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.

When I was working in my first job engineering construction, what I liked the most was working with architects and making buildings that had this creative side coming from the architect and that were making them a big success.

I meet the designers very often, we discuss the products, they show me their ideas, we discuss the ad campaigns and every new invention that we can find for the future.

I’ve always been pleased with the investments I’ve made with my friend Albert Frere and I regret not having followed him more, because I would have been a lot richer.

When you are on the management side, you still have to understand the artistic sensibility so that there is a dialogue with the creative side.

If you control your distribution, you control your image.

In the luxury business, you have to build on heritage.

Once we decided to do a tower in New York, it had to say something about our group, reflecting the mix of modernity and creativity in our organization. It’s a symbol.

From time to time, the Vienna Philharmonic could play without a conductor because they are so good.

Oh, I was brought up in the north of France, and I had a very enjoyable childhood with my family working as entrepreneur.