Dark jacket and black turtleneck sweater, Bernard Arnault, very comfortable, took place in the virtual apartment of LVMH (shareholder of Challenges), recognizable by its decor: a grand piano sits in the middle of the room and a Bulgari connected watch hangs on the wall, while a lipstick in the colors of Sephora structures this fake environment. He dialogues with Livi, the avatar of LVMH. Recalling that the group has identified 950 start-ups and selects around twenty of them every year to join the group’s incubator at Station F. “I come from a family of entrepreneurs and our luxury houses were founded by creators of particularly innovative company”, he recalls. The discussion continues on the vision of Bernard Arnault. “A lot of people imagine that I am my own boss with no one above me, but that’s not true , insists the founder of the world number one in luxury, I have a boss, it’s the customer, it’s he is the one who inspires me and challenges me every day.” The stage of VivaTech, the Innovation and New Technologies Exhibition, created six years ago by Bernard Arnault and Maurice Lévy, is an opportunity for LVMH and its CEO to demonstrate how far the luxury group is ahead. in Web 3.0 technology and the metaverse.
At the service of luxury
The first fortune of France has always explained that the success of his group was based on a subtle balance between the left brain and the right brain. Bringing out talent, unleashing creativity is one thing, relying on fundamental research and putting technology at the service of luxury is another. A Polytechnician, the CEO of LVMH has always been sensitive to the fact that technology and innovation permeate part of the decisions. In the crowded alleys of VivaTech, Bernard Arnault is explained this innovation developed by Vuitton, which allows to imagine a unique and personified digital universe for a customer. “We recreate a virtual store and bring it to the screen of the customer who can discover, from his armchair, the universe of the brand and, ultimately, buy products sublimated by a digital staging”, reveals Franck Le Moal, director of digital and technology for the group. Further on, the boss experiences the new Tag Heuer watch, which offers the possibility of exhibiting a gallery of NFT works, while the Dior stand presents its omnichannel solution which allows from a simple iPhone tablet to personalize a bag, to pay and have it delivered to your home. Bernard Arnault questions, tests, experiences each of these innovations. The crowd surrounding him does not seem to distract him. “Our organization gives each of the houses significant latitude to innovate, but also, possibly, to make mistakes and start again, it is essential for entrepreneurs to also be able to experience failure and bounce back”, he confides. The failure of [email protected] in the 2000s thus enabled LVMH to better understand its e-commerce strategy. Like the failed experience of e-luxury in the United States in 2005, which finally served as a springboard, two years later, for Vuitton, which took advantage of the infrastructure and was able to take off faster than the competition. “We know that there is a tolerance for failure in the group and that changes everything,” says Franck Le Moal.
Battery of robots
However, the group is moving forward. No way to be late. For the past two years, a new innovation strategy has been in place. It is no longer a question of piling up start-up competitions. “We must have received no less than 8,000 proposals from start-ups, our vocation is not to make catalogs but rather that these initiatives are fully integrated into the dynamics of a brand”, clarifies Franck Le Moal. Research and new technologies must serve the product and the customer. Vuitton is arguably the only luxury house in the world to have created its own handbag laboratory. The idea? The product must be tested from every angle before marketing it. On the 2nd floor of the Pont-Neuf, Vuitton’s headquarters, a battery of robots is thus activated at a very rhythmic pace: an articulated gripper opens and closes a zipper more than 36,000 times and tests its resistance, while the robot Louise simulates in a hyperrealistic way the friction between a bag and a coat. Sold all over the world, Vuitton also tests all the climatic realities and makes its bag “travel” in a box in which the heat of a desert or the salinity of a seaside is reproduced. “LVMH is a subtle mixture which combines the irrational creative with a great rigor of execution”, summarizes Bernard Arnault.
Business school and data
This culture of innovation and engineering is the basis of Bernard Arnault’s training. It is also that of his youngest children: Alexandre, Frédéric and Jean, all three engineers and passionate about new technologies. “My children are very familiar with the world of NFTs and the metaverse”, confirms Bernard Arnault. They also inherited a taste for risk and entrepreneurship from their father. Frédéric has thus launched, with his friend Grégoire Genest, a Neos mobile payment application, which allows you to scan products without having to go to the checkout. In order to transmit his passion for business and data, he created, again with his friend, Albert School, “the first business school anchored in data”. Bernard Arnault, Delphine Arnault and Xavier Niel joined them in the adventure.
For now, Bernard Arnault is concentrating on a project close to his heart. The polytechnician engineer wishes to provide his group with a global research center dedicated to sustainable luxury. It is in Saclay that Gaïa should see the light of day, this temple of fundamental research which will bring together in 2026-2027 no less than 300 researchers who will work on concrete projects of innovative materials or on the perfume of the future. Very far from the virtual world of Livi.
Fortunes of France 1st
With an estimated professional fortune of 149 billion euros in 2022, Bernard Arnault is by far the richest man in France. And the second in the world.
Bernard Arnault with his sons Frédéric and Jean (left), at Roland-Garros, in 2016. Both engineers and passionate about new technologies, they also inherited a taste for risk and entrepreneurship from their father. (M. Bureau/AFP)
LVMH strengthens its connection with Gafa
We seek to cooperate in a pragmatic and intelligent way. This is how Bernard Arnault sums up the relationship that his group has with the Gafa. LVMH signed a technical partnership with Google Cloud in 2021. This project will speed up the processing of data for some twenty of the group’s houses and the possibility of further personalizing purchases. One thousand employees have been trained. Bernard Arnault knows the Gafa and the big tech companies well as a shareholder of Apple, Netflix or Aibnb. But relationships have not always been easy. Especially with Amazon, which LVMH has often pointed the finger at for marketing counterfeit products. “There has been progress, Amazon is making efforts to fight against this scourge”, concedes Bernard Arnault today.
In 2008, with the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition. The luxury giant was already positioning itself against the tech giants. (Ch. Lambiotte/European Community 2008)