Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…Even look at the kids, the Arnault children now, they've all done this. They've all gone around through so many different brands and roles within the group, and they're learning the business. They're not the only ones there. Outside executives are doing the same thing, too. Yup. We should give credit to Arnault also for pushing the vertical integration much further than Henri Racamier did. Racamier figured out the vertical integration with distribution to stores, but Bernard gets credit for vertically integrating the upstream side of the business. I think he really gets where the power of a luxury brand stems from in the design and manufacturing having a sense of place, origin, and story. Louis Vuitton had started doing a little bit down the path of what Dior did in diluting its brand. They had outsourced 70% of their production. While they didn't do the licensing that Dior did, they were having it manufactured in a bunch of different countries with varying levels of quality. If you're trying to sell $20,000 handbags, that ain't going to work.…

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