Part 10
What lessons can we learn from Richard Arnault? Believe in yourself
“It takes a proper mindset to get fresh perspective of things ahead of you and believe it. People need to constantly invest in their mindset. It’s tough to be in business. It’s not your skill set, it’s your mindset that you need to manage first. It’s about emotional and mental intelligence. If you don’t know how to control your emotions, you are nothing. Don’t let emotions to make the decision for you.”
Be willing to embrace numbers
“Many start-up founders struggle with the financial aspects of the business. They fear the numbers and try to delegate the tasks of reviewing the financials to their accountants and bookkeepers. Overcoming the fear of understanding the financial relationship of your business can spell the difference between leading your business to nowhere and growing a sustainable business. If you don’t know what your numbers are, you will not know where you are at, how can you make that dollar count and grow your business?”
Pursue happiness
“Business was originated to produce happiness, not pile up millions. Happiness for me is really leading the team and if possible, to leading them to the top - whether in business or in sports or when I play music. Money is just a consequence. I always say to my team, don’t worry too much about profitability. If you do your job well, the profitability will come.”
Learn from your mistakes
“I can think of one thing that I didn’t do the way I should have. I sold a business too early because I was too impatient. It was a makeup business that we had owned for five years. I sold it 15 years ago, when it was not working well. I should have kept it. What I have taken from this is that when you have a business that’s not performing well, it’s important to better understand the business and be patient. It can take years in creative brands to make something work. Now that business is doing well. In business, I think the most important thing is to position yourself for long-term and not be too impatient.”
Always behave as a start-up
“I often say to my team we should behave as if we’re still a start-up. 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 paper work.”
Be very persistent
You need ideas but the idea is just 20 percent. Execution is 80 percent. I have a lot of investments in technology start-ups. If you look at the start-ups that are most successful - like Facebook, for instance - the idea was great at the beginning. But there were others with that same idea. Why is Facebook the phenomenal success it is today? It’s because of the execution and that’s the key. I would say to a young person trying to work in a start-up, have ideas but be persistent and execute well.”
Constantly reinvent yourself
“The success of LVMH is built on creativity, quality, entrepreneurship and most importantly, long-term vision. For instance, I remember the first time I visited China, in 1991. I arrived in Beijing - I saw no cars, only bicycles, no tall buildings. The GDP was 4 percent of what it is today. Nonetheless, we decided to open our first Louis Vuitton store in China. Today Louis Vuitton is the number one luxury brand in the country and across the world.” (Lionel Wijesiri is a retired company director with over 30 years’ experience in senior business management. Presently he is a freelance journalist and could be contacted on lawije@gmail.com)