Leading Luxury Brands

global business is not what it used to be: 'global' now demands that businesses focus on every major continent in terms of customers, market trends and new or emerging competitors. Then, too, the pace of business has quickened, requiring both strategic planning and tactical finesse. Companies tied to luxury brands are being run by a generation that quite possibly is not attuned to these new realities. To research these issues, we have found some sobering facts about the state of luxury brand leadership. One need only look at the status of those who serve on the boards of firms in this sector; these board members include key players inside firms such as the CEO, artistic director, sales director and finance director:

65 per cent have spent most of their careers dealing with luxury lines and 70 per cent of luxury board members are Europeans: is their view of global business potentially myopic? 10 per cent of luxury board members are sons or daughters of the family company founder: do they have the qualifications to deal with new global realities? 20 per cent of luxury board members are female: is that a sufficient representation for a market in which women could easily represent a growing base of customers? Less than 15 per cent of the top 100 luxury board members have an MBA degree: will competitors with more business savvy overtake them? 52 is the average age of luxury board members: who will replace them as they retire, which could occur sooner rather than later? There are no Asian nationals among the board members nor in senior leadership positions: how can companies that hope to operate in countries such as China and India grasp the importance of understanding such different cultures?