Ben Gilbert: belief

Transcript context

…On the other hand, this is the CEO of Hermes. Right. I think it's important to realize, these individual craftsmen are entirely non competitive with Hermes. It's a completely different value proposition to the customer. When you're buying Hermes today, you don't start from a place of, you know, I think I want some of the very best sewn leather goods I can find. Let me evaluate the whole landscape of people who could deliver that for me, and then I'll decide which maker to go with. Either A, you're doing that, and you are a person who knows about a bunch of individual leather craftsmen, which is rare. Or B, you actually just want to buy something from Hermes, and there's not any evaluation going on. Maybe there is between big luxury brands, but probably not, the value proposition is not you have a need for a leather good, and you can bake off all the competitors. It's you either want something from Hermes, or you're a different type of customer. Yup. Okay, Jean-Louis story. How did he turn this thing around and save Hermes from the consultants? Like we said, he'd apprenticed just like every other generation. But unlike any other generation, or I guess maybe like Emile back in the day going and meeting Henry Ford, he comes to America. Specifically, he came to America to follow his wife, Rena, who became a world famous architect. Rena was interning with IM Pei in New York.…

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