logo News
  • Home
  • Management
    Management Show More
    Is it True That Chinese Family Businesses Are "Only Three Generations Richer"?
    May 09, 2025
    How Does Huawei's "Learning Organization" Come About?
    May 08, 2025
    Note to managers: Management is not just about managing subordinates
    May 07, 2025
    Management Story: Different Destiny of Three Birds
    May 06, 2025
    Management practice: five temptations that leaders must resist
    May 05, 2025
  • Marketing
    Marketing Show More
    Why does Sony set up an internal creative organization?
    May 09, 2025
    What Is Event Marketing
    May 08, 2025
    What Is Internet Marketing?
    May 07, 2025
    Why Is Selling Something Just Constant Repetition?
    May 06, 2025
    The Difference And Relationship Between Sales And Marketing
    May 05, 2025
  • Entrepreneurship
    Entrepreneurship Show More
    8 Of The Best Directions For Starting a Business
    May 09, 2025
    The Best Business Projects For Women
    May 08, 2025
    5 lessons from startup failures for today's new entrepreneurs
    May 07, 2025
    Three Steps To Making Money And Getting Rich From Your Business What Are You Waiting For?
    May 06, 2025
    What Are The Encountered By First-Time Entrepreneurs?
    May 05, 2025
  • Company
    Company Show More
    Electronics Giant Philips
    May 09, 2025
    The pillars of the Korean economy - the Samsung empire
    May 07, 2025
    Nike, one of the top ten brands in the world
    May 06, 2025
    Disney, one of the world's top ten brands
    May 05, 2025
    Mercedes Benz, one of the world's top ten brands
    May 04, 2025
  • Entrepreneur
    Entrepreneur Show More
    Steve Jobs Founder of Apple
    May 09, 2025
    Aeroplane King - Howard Hughes
    May 08, 2025
    The Father Of Coca-Cola - Asa Candler
    May 07, 2025
    The Queen Of World Fashion - Gabrielle Chanel
    May 06, 2025
    Bill Gates, former CEO of Microsoft
    May 05, 2025
Search
Share via
Reading: LV boss Bernard Arnault Tops France's Richest Man
logo logo
  • Home
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Company
  • Entrepreneur
Search
  • Home
  • Management
  • Marketing
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Company
  • Entrepreneur
Home > Entrepreneur > LV boss Bernard Arnault Tops France's Richest Man
Entrepreneur

LV boss Bernard Arnault Tops France's Richest Man

As one of the world's top brands, LV has also created immeasurable business value, which has made the head of LV, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, so let's take a look at his path to building a luxury empire.

Last updated: Apr 10, 2025

As one of the world's top brands, LV has also created immeasurable business value, which has made the head of LV, Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France, so let's take a look at his path to building a luxury empire.

First appearances
Bernard Arnault's hometown is the industrial city of Roubaix in northern France. His mother's family ran a small and prestigious construction company in the area and Bernard grew up under the care of his maternal grandparents. After graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris as a young man, Bernard briefly worked for a consultancy firm before joining his family's construction company. His strong personality, his tendency to seek absolute decision-making power over things, was already showing its first signs at this time.


Shortly after entering the family business, Bernard and his father soon disagreed on the direction of the company. Bernard proposed to get rid of all of the company's industrial construction business and to focus on developing individual properties, mainly in the construction and sale of flats and holiday homes.
After Bernard was overruled by his father, he set out to lobby the other executives of the company. Things eventually ended in Bernard's favour and, under collective pressure from the company's executives, his father finally gave the go-ahead to sell the company's industrial construction business and public affairs division to Guillery, a French company owned by the Rothschild family. This restructuring of the business dramatically reduced overall operating costs and greatly improved the company's financial position.
A few years later, at the age of 28, Bernard took over the sceptre of the company's CEO from his still-young father and soon afterwards successfully became chairman of the company.
The absolute control of the family business, and the fully convincing image he established, became the solid foundation on which he would later take over Dior and build his luxury empire.

The Dior complex
In 1981, the real estate development business of Bernard's family construction company, which focused on small boutique homes, never opened up a market in the United States. Bernard closely monitored the movements of his homeland until three years later, when the French economic policy began to turn and regulation began to gradually untie capital, Bernard did not hesitate to set off for home as the wave of French capital began to return. Although the family business did not grow as much in the US, those three years were invaluable to Bernard. He was able to look at his home country from a different perspective, outside of his usual environment, and this had a profound impact on Bernard's life later on.
Bernard himself once mentioned an anecdote in an interview about a taxi driver in the US with whom he had a chat, and when he mentioned France, the taxi driver jokingly said: "I don't know Georges Pompidou, "but I know Christian Dior".


The power of art and branding, completely rooted in Bernard's heart
In 1984, Bernard returned to France from the United States. The first target he set his sights on was Dior. Arnott borrowed $80 million against his family's assets and then, in conjunction with Lazard Bank, succeeded in acquiring Boussac on the terms of a personal contribution of 150 million francs, for a total of 400 million francs in subscription capital, thanks to a capital commitment given by him and the support of two oil industry investors. It was a classic snake swallowing an elephant takeover, with Busac more than doubling the size of the Arnott family business, and by then the rival to Arnott to the end was his later bag, the LV Group.
For the next three years, Arnott devoted all his energy to restructuring the assets and debts of Bussac. There is no doubt that for a business that was to make money, these restructurings were useful. Bernard spun off Dior and eventually sold the group as a whole for four times the price he paid when he bought it, for a considerable cash gain. This gentleman, who appears ever so gentle in front of the camera, has been named the winner of Best Dressed Man on several occasions, but he acts in an extremely tough manner and is never shy about stirring up one bloodbath after another with his own hands.
With Dior, Arnault is officially a rising star in the luxury industry. But his Dior love affair still profoundly influences the direction of the story later on.

Not just a capitalist, but also an entrepreneur
If mergers and acquisitions make a company bigger and its brands more numerous, it does not necessarily mean that it becomes stronger. Many people who specialize in capital operations only move assets around and play market value management or valuation games, without really helping to increase the internal value of the business, which is typical of capitalists and managers.
But Arnott is not. The name Bernard Arnault represents not only an iron hand, but also the soul of the brand, with its outstanding artistic mastery. He also gives a masterful performance in the management and creation of luxury brands.
Bernard has confided the secret of his success: "Luxury brands are much more difficult to establish than other businesses, they require the creation of a consumer demand that simply does not exist, and shaping a fashion luxury brand must follow a formula: define the brand identity by digging into its history and interpreting it with the right designers."
Unlike the absolute control sought at the level of the company's shareholding, Bernard is rather less of a proponent of centralism with regard to the day-to-day running of the business.
In the case of LVMH, for example, after a major purge and an overhaul of its business structure, the organization has not become more hierarchical, but more flexible and dynamic. All of its internal unit brands are independently run, independently managed and independently developed into brand management strategies. And it was Bernard himself who became the staunchest defender of this diversified organizational structure and independent operating mechanism.
He ensures his control over the direction of the company with a controlling stake, and ensures the vitality and creativity of the brand with a diversified, loosely flat structure. In this sense, Bernard has become not only a capitalist and a professional manager, but also a highly successful entrepreneur.

TAGGED: LV, Luxury brands, Art
Previous Article Koch Industries Group
Next Article Why does Sony set up an internal creative organization?

Most Popular

Notes On Running An Organisation: From Family Business To Corporate Family
Management Apr 20, 2025
The Queen Of World Fashion - Gabrielle Chanel
Entrepreneur May 06, 2025
Essential Factors For Entrepreneurial Success
Entrepreneurship Apr 07, 2025
The principle of getting rich: how to create sustainable income
Entrepreneurship Apr 26, 2025
The Ten Golden Rules Of Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship Apr 15, 2025
The Famous American Animator - Walt Disney. Disney
Entrepreneur Apr 20, 2025

You Might Also Like

Entrepreneur

Steve Jobs Founder of Apple

May 09, 2025
Entrepreneur

Aeroplane King - Howard Hughes

May 08, 2025
Entrepreneur

The Father Of Coca-Cola - Asa Candler

May 07, 2025
Entrepreneur

The Queen Of World Fashion - Gabrielle Chanel

May 06, 2025

Copyright © 2025 ikaoo.com. All rights reserved. User Agreement | Privacy Policy