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The owner of the first fortune of France receives Challenges in a small salon adjoining his Paris office. Not far, in the corridor, a magnificent Rothko, "bought twenty years ago" specifies Bernard Arnault. And to begin this exclusive interview with a joke: "You could not take away from this ranking?"
Challenges. Last year, LVMH became the first market capitalization of the Paris market. Is it a consecration?
Bernard Arnault . No, it's not really my concern. This is only a consequence of the soundness of our strategy. We must keep in perspective with respect to all of this. The stock market values depend a lot on the psychological feeling of the players in the financial markets.
But the day LVMH pbaded Total, you did not even have a cup of Dom Pérignon?
No. This is all the less important as it is relative. It would be enough for oil prices to go back up to $ 100 for that to change. When I am asked about this, I say: if we compare our capitalization with that of the big American multinational corporations, the new economy in particular, 140 or 150 billion euros, that remains very modest. There is no point in pushing cocoricos!
Does the stock market not reveal the value of a company?
For me, the value of the company stems from its performance, and its profits are the consequence of our long-term vision. What counts is to have a fair and shared vision that can be summarized as: to increase the desirability of our brands and to succeed in the long term to make dream by their timeless side as well as their modernity. [19659003Youareworldleader:whatdrivesyounow?
Being first, for us, it means that our brands must have a presence in the world by being the most desirable. It's not that they are the most profitable or the fastest growing that motivates us. Our job, our engine, is to create desire. That's why we fight, that's what pushes us and amuses us. The rest are consequences, and besides, I have always refused to give numerical objectives. That does not matter to me.
Is the luxury industry's current craze exceptional?
The question is, are we going to stay in a crisis-free world? major economic development, as we have been doing for ten years, with money that costs nothing and flows freely. My answer is no, we will meet a crisis in the coming years, which will affect all sectors of the economy, but we do not know when or what its origin will be.
What can this crisis look like? [19659006]I can not say it. But today, the notion of gravity has disappeared. Interest rates are sometimes negative and stock values are high, badet prices are too high. All this can not last indefinitely. The day when the trend will be reversed, all markets will be driven, and all values will be affected.
It is also possible to take advantage of a crisis situation …
If there is to be this crisis there will certainly be opportunities. This is what Warren Buffett often says: the day when the sea recedes we see those who swam without a shirt!
You claim the French roots of LVMH. Why is this important?
We sell, for the most part, products made in France and therefore LVMH represents the know-how of France. When traveling, I feel like an ambbadador of the French way of life, and our brands are among the best known French names in the world. In fifty years, Dom Pérignon or Christian Dior will always be among the names that radiate on the planet. But who will remember the names of the former French rulers, apart from Napoleon or perhaps General de Gaulle?
Does this give you responsibilities towards France?
When territories in Cognac or Champagne, we have a social responsibility. This responsibility is first to hire in France. We recruited 3,000 people last year, and it will be even more this year. We will open new workshops this year and next year. It fills us with pride. Our second responsibility is that we are one of the biggest taxpayers in the country, the LVMH group pays more than one billion euros of taxes per year in France.
Do you practice a form of tax optimization?
We will not refuse to use the law to pay more taxes than we owe! But going to other European countries to pay no taxes is something we refuse to do. It is unhealthy to use other European countries, as some technology companies do, to avoid taxes in France.
"Cultivating entrepreneurship", write the report LVMH: what does it mean?
First of all, it is important to note that this group is above all family-oriented. When you enter LVMH, you do not go into a public limited company but into a family. Most of the time, there is a person and a family at the origin of our homes, as is the case at Vuitton, Loro Piana or Guerlain. We want to keep in each of them a family spirit and entrepreneurship. What is interesting is to think long term, and that's exactly what you can do when you're in a family structure.
This family structure, the acquisition of Christian Dior last year allowed you to strengthen it …
Bernard Arnault. This is an operation that the market has insisted on for years. The idea of bringing Dior together in LVMH made sense, but the conditions had to be met. And this has strengthened the family control of the group, which allows not to focus on the results of each quarter, even if ours are not bad …
Do you feel more the soul of an entrepreneur, d? an artist or an engineer?
I am an entrepreneur. I have always lived in an entrepreneurial environment. My grandfather and my father were. I went with them on Thursday, when I did not have school, to visit the building sites. We lived next to the headquarters of the company. Today, I try to transmit this taste of entrepreneurship to my children and I take them in my many trips to visit our shops around the world.
Your sensitivity to art – we remember the concert given to the side of your female pianist – does it help you to direct LVMH?
Playing the piano helps me to develop an essential artistic fiber in our trades: it allows me to have a particular contact with the creators. I am very concerned about constantly balancing my left brain and my right brain. Creativity and rationality, this permanent mix of water and fire is one of the keys to the success of our company. It is this ambivalence that explains the success of LVMH.
To what do you recognize a good creative?
Has his talent. The most creative are those who break the codes: Picbado in his day, Rothko, Frank Gehry … In architecture, nobody had done that before him. In fashion too. Look, John Galliano had a crazy talent, the same for Virgil Abloh and Nicolas Ghesquière today at Vuitton, and soon Hedi Slimane at Celine or JW Anderson at Loewe, to mention only them. We have the world's most talented group of designers in our homes.
Why invest so much in building the Louis Vuitton Foundation?
Working with my friend Frank Gehry was exciting. I sometimes gave him my opinion on certain aesthetic choices. And he followed me from time to time …
Are you a patron or philanthropist?
It's a bit the same, right? But it's true that from the beginning of the LVMH adventure, I wanted to do some sponsorship. The success of the group is based on the talent of our creatives and their proximity to the art world. It seemed essential to give a little to the artistic environment of what he could bring us. This culture of closeness to the artistic world has also fed the minds of the managers of the house with more transcendence than business-oriented meetings.
In your speech to Polytechnique in 2017, you paid tribute to your former teachers. Are you ready to invest in education?
We are thinking about a major project with Polytechnique, but it is too early to talk about it. In addition, we have developed a learning pathway that recruits young people in situations of failure, such as Montfermeil in Seine-Saint-Denis, particularly in difficult suburbs. In 95% of the cases, it is a successful course. This training of apprentices will be housed, near the Vuitton Foundation, in the former museum of Arts and Popular Tradition currently in full construction, which will also be a place open to craftsmanship.
Why not have Welcomes the American Crusade of the Giving Pledge initiated by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who pledge to donate half of their fortune?
The American Foundation System has nothing to do with ours. It offers huge tax benefits to its beneficiaries, which partly justify their action. By investing in a foundation, we do not pay a cent of taxes until the end of his days … Moreover, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have not at all, like me, the concern that their company remains family. My double requirement, the driving force of my daily action, is that the LVMH group stays in France and that it remains the property of my family as long as possible. A will that prevents me from meeting the requirements of the Giving Pledge
How can we have fun, when, like you, we can offer everything?
By playing, for example, tennis with my friend Roger Federer … and taking a point … in a set!
Interview by Vincent Beaufils, Thiébault Dromard and Anne-Marie Rocco
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