In the luxury business, you have to build on heritage.
Steve Jobs once asked me for some advice about retail, but I said, 'I am not sure at all we are in the same business.'
What made Louis Vuitton famous was the quality. We don't do marketing; we just create products which are exceptional in their design and craftsmanship.
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.'
You have to be just as mistrustful of straightforward rationality in business as you do of a uniquely gut approach.
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.
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.
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.
Can you say that in 20 years people would still use the iPhone? Maybe not. Maybe we'd have a new product or something more innovative. What I can say today is that, in 20 years, I'm quite convinced that people will still drink Dom Perignon.
It's very important that when you have a designer like Marc Jacobs, who is a genius, you give him complete freedom.
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.
We are really very lucky to have so many fantastic brands. But to grow them we should not be too much in a hurry. They are growing fast, but they have to grow accordingly to the market and to the capacity we have to deliver good products.
In business, I think the most important thing is to position yourself for long-term and not be too impatient, which I am by nature, and I have to control myself.
What I love is to win. What I love is being number one.
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.
The person who I admire most in business is Warren Buffett. He is a long-term investor and has brilliant ideas, and he sticks to them.
It's true that I am not from the south and I have a certain reserve. I take time to get close to, and I don't immediately throw my arms round someone. But it is more a question of style.
From time to time, the Vienna Philharmonic could play without a conductor because they are so good.
I am and will remain a tax resident in France and in this regard I will, like all French people, fulfill my fiscal obligations.
I would never diminish the quality of Hermes. Hermes can be an even rarer and greater quality business, if they ever wanted to work with us.
