MASTER OF

THE BRAND
BERNARD
ARNAULT
LVMH is betting big on the
developing world.
Will Dior and Vuitton play in
Mongolia and Vietnam?
BY SUSAN ADAMS AND HANNAH ELLIOTT

In Brief: Fashion Fortunes

THESETUP

THE ACTION

THE OUTCOME

"The world s driven by the growth of Asia and

emerging countries." says Arnauit. So LVMH is
pushing into more remote corners of the globe.

What happens to LVMH if the hot economies of

developing nations start to cool? "If China has a
cold," says an analyst, "luxury goods get pneumonia."

Arnault has a strategy to exploit even the most

mature markets of Europe and the Americas. His
investment in Herms seems a part of that plan.

62 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22.2010

NOVEMBER 22,2010

FORBES I 63

FORBES

MASTER OF THE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

ON A CRISP LATE OCTOBER AFTERNOON IN PARIS

BERNARD ARNAULT, Europe's richest man, is talking
about his upcoming trip to one of the fa.stest-growing
outposts of his LVMH empire: Mongolia, of all places.
"I like to see the reaction of the people in the shops," says
the 61-year-old mogul in lighdy accented but supple English.
Dapper and slim, he wears a navy suit and matching tie made
by hisflagshipfashion label, Christian Dior, and handmade
black loafers by Berluti, one of the lesser knowm but most
exclusive of the 60-plus brands in his stable. "I also like to
see the competition," he adds. "I am quite competitive. I want
to stay ahead and increase our advance."
Ahead he is by a long shot, not just in numbersLVMH
stock rose 60% in the last year, vaulting his net worth to
$39 billionbut also in global reach. Arnault has long made a
crusade of bringing haute couture to the developing world, to
places like China, where the first Louis Vuitton store opened
in 1992, and India. Now he is staking a claim in central Asia,
better known for yurts, nomads and yak milk than Fendi bags
and Guerlain perfume. But last year LVMH Mot Hennessy
Louis Vuitton, as it is formally known, opened a store in
Mongolia's capital Ulaanbaatar, a metropolis of 1.1 million,
120 milesfi-omthe Russian border; weeks ago it set up shop
in Inner Mongolia's Hohhot, within the borders of China.
The first store is already profitable.
In early November Arnault visited six Asian cities in seven
days in his private jet, accompanied by two close advisers:
daughter Delphine, 35, number three at Dior, who oversees
the stores; and Dior chief and longtime consigliere Sidney
Toledano. At the end of the month Arnault will return to Asia
with his son Antoine, 33, communications head of Louis Vuitton. The days will be long and focused on details. "Sometimes
he adjusts a bag on a store shelf by 5 centimeters," says
Antoine. "At 10 p.m. he's still going. He's got an energy that's
just amazing."
He will need it. To maintain LVMH's blistering
growthand its perch as the world's largest purveyor of luxury goodsArnault must continue to push into more remote
regions of the globe. Among its 2,468 retail stores there are
now outposts in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Phnom Penh,
Cambodia; Yekaterinburg, Russia; Macao; and Abu Dhabi.
(Under consideration: Lhasa, Tibet.) "Today it's clear that the
world is driven by the growth of Asia and emerging countries," says Arnault. "Vuitton has always been a pioneer. We
were the first to arrive in China. There were only bicycles
when we opened there, no cars." Now there are 35 stores in
China. While Asia (excluding Japan) has accounted for 25%
of total revenue this year, its growth rate outstrips every other
geographic area. Operating profits in places like Brazil, China,
India and die Middle East hover between 20% and 25%.
That's less than in Europe and the Americas, where spending
power is mightier. But "saturation rates are higher" in the
64 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22.2010

"HE SAID, IF YOU

WANT TO WORK
WITH ME, YOU HAVE
TO WORK HARDER
THAN THE OTHERS
AND DO WELL
INSCHOOLr

FORBES

MASTER OFTHE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

"Vuitton has always been a pioneer in

developing countries," says Arnault. "We were
thefirstto arrive in China. There were only
bicycles when we opened there, no cars."

West, points out Allegra Perry, who covers luxury goods for
Nomura in London. "So [LVMH] keeps spending in emerging
markets, which are on the forefront of growth."
But they're also risk'y territory. Luxury goods follow
cycles, and tbe industiy has been in an upswing, despite the
worldwide blues. Tbat's partly because tbe economies of
developing countriesMongolia, Lebanon, Poland and
Vietnam among tbemhave been on fire. LVMH bas been a
pioneer in such markets, "starting witb tbe millionaires and
going down and down and down," says Luca Solea, a retail
analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in Zurich. Arnault has
enjoyed the fruits of first-mover advantage, planting his
brands in the best retail locations at relatively low costs.
Scalding economies cool. As its GDP galloped along at 9%
or 10%, the People's Bank of China recently raised interest
rates to calm inflationr)' fears; a jolting pullback in consumer spending could hurt LVMH. "If China bas a cold,"
opines Solea, "luxury goods get pneumonia."
Arnault is well prepared. He has survived recessions and
the consequences of terrorist attacks and SARS scares. He is
battle-hardened from many corporate fights. He has put in
place a creative management group tbat tbinks long term.
Capturing developing countries is just one piece of
LVMH's strategy. Arnault sees unexploited possibilities in
richer countries, too. That insigbt is driving new store openings or expansions this year in Paris, London and Dusseldorf,
in Santa Monica and New York. "They look at pockets of
wealth," says Antoine Belge, wbo covers LVMH for HSBC in
Paris. Tbe company is also keeping its eye on tbe U.S. immigrant population. Beige says, because "people of Hispanic and
Cbinese origin spend more on luxury' goods." So, apparently,
does the population at large. During the worst of tbe downtum last year, he adds, "some American women decided they
would spend less on food or travel and buy a Louis Vuitton
handbag." Proof: Wbile sales slipped 0.8% from 2008 to 2009,
to $23.5 billion, and profits dropped 7.6% to $2.7 billion, net
profits and revenue in the first half of 2010 have snapped back
66 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22.2010

53% and 16%, respectively, as LVMH eamed $1.4 billion on

sales of $12.6 billion.
Capitalizing on familiar territory, LVMH recently announced it bad paid $2 billion for a 17.1% stake in Hemis
Internationa], tbe highly profitable maker of silk scarves, ties
and the top-selling Birkin bagand long a target of Arnault's
acquisitive desires. The investment (at a bargain-basement
$112.50 per share, thanks to a derivative contract called an
equity swap) is a coup for LVMH; as one of tbe few remaining stand-alone luxury brands not owned by a conglomerate,
Herms would have been tlie golden fleece for competitors
Ricbemont and Gucci. Though LVMH quickly denied it
would try to take control of tbe 173-year-old Herms, tbe
stage is clearly set. It may be a long drama: Three-quarters of
tbe company is still in tbe bands of 200 Herms family members. Winning them over could take decades.
Tbat's okay; LVMH is built to endure. Its dozens of iconic
wines and spirits (including Mot & Chandon and Veuve
Clicquot), fashion and leatber goods (Vuitton and Dior), perfumes and cosmetics (Givencby and Guerlain), jewelry and
watcbes (including TAG Heuer) and duty-free sbops span
mid- and bigh-priced goods, mass and class. Prices range
from $12 for lipstick at Sephora to around $2,800 for the pop- 1

FORBES

MASTER OF THE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

ular Lady Dior handbag and $21,000 for a Hublot watch. All
divisions have performed well since January, especially the
fashion and leather group, where sales popped 20%, and
watches and jewelry 29%.
For Arnault these are not just products with plump profit
margins (50% for Dom Prignon, 40% for Vuitton). They are
living aitifacts of a great nation. "I see myself as an ambassador of French heritage and French culture," he proclaims.
"What we create is emblematic. It's linked to Versailles, to
Mai-ie Antoinette." And beyond. Among his massive collections are a hat worn by Napoleon and a 1951 fashion sketch
by Christian Dior. At the same time Arnault infuses many of
his brands with a cutting-edge hipness.
He transformed Louis Vuitton, known as a sturdy, if hopelessly staid, tninkmaker. When Arnaultfinallytook charge of
LVMH in 1990, after an acrimonious, three-year-long struggle, he brought in American fashion designer Marc Jacobs,
who introduced a ready-to-wear Louis Vuitton fashion collection and collaborated with high-profile contemporary
artists like Takashi Murakami. The Japanese artist redid the

museum complex will also have an auditorium and restaurant and will serve as a monument to Arnault's role as global
arbiter of taste, while telegraphing his corporate brands'
commitment to art and high culture.
How to keep all this going, controlling LVMH's image and
quality along with hundreds of products moving through the
vast circulatory system of suppliers, manufacturers, retailers
and marketers, keeping 76,000 employees focused on and
proud of their work? Force of characterthere is a superabundance of thatdrives a lot of it. But that's clearly not
enough. "One key element of management of a group like this
is decentralization," says Arnault dryly. "You need the right
team of inspired managers."
For Arnault that means a small group of a half-dozen
trusted generals, most of whom head up his flagship brands,
augmented by two of his children. They include Yves Carcelle, chief of Louis Vuitton; Toledano, who leads Dior; Pierre
God, LVMH's vice chairman; Philippe Pascal, in charge of
watches and jewelry; Christophe Navarre, who ains wines
and spirits; and Nicolas Bazire, chief of development and

"THE KEY TO SUCCESS IS THIS DUALITYTIMELESSNESS AND THE UTMOST MODERNITY.

brown-and-tan LV logo in bright colors and manga cartoon
figures, in a special line of bags that scampered off the
shelves. At Dior Arnault hired bad-boy Brit John Galliano to
shake up the grandmotherly label.
Arnault is said to get along famously with the eccentrics
he hires to make over his brands.("I remember precisely the
first time I met [Galliano] in my office. My assistant said,
'There is a ver}' strange guy in the lobby with rasta hair and a
T-shirt.'") But in an intei-view he comes across as resei-ved,
preferring to sit in an antechamber rather than inside his
more comfortable, spacious comer office on the tony Avenue
Montaigne. "The key to success is this dualitytimelessness
and the utmost modernity," he says.
Another expression of Arnault's allegiance to modernity is
his vast corporate collection of more than 1,000 works of
modem and contemporary art, which he's decided to showcase in his audacious new museum designed by Frank Gehry
and built at a reported cost of more than $200 million. Set to
open in late 2012 in the middle of a fabled Paris gi-eenspace,
the Bois de Boulogne, the giant glass-encased structure will
look like "an iceberg dressed in a cloud," as Arnault cultural
adviser Jean-Paul Claverie has described it (seep. 72). Known
officially as the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation, the
68 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22.2010

acquisitions. All of them, besides Antoine and Delphine

Arnault, have worked with their boss since the mid-1990s,
some longer. Amault meets with each member of his inner
circle at least once a week, going over performance figures
and plotting strategy. It was Arnault who suggested to Carcelle that Vuitton hire Mark Jacobs in 1997 and who chose
Galliano for Dior, moving him from Givenchy in 1996.
Arnault likes to see the company "on the ground." He
constandy prowls LVMH retail stores, firing off memos when
he thinks the music is tumed up too loud or the thermostat is
set too low. The memos also include praise of employees he
finds especially helpful or solicitous.
"He's like a helicopter," says Toledano. "He has a very big
picture, but he can also go on the floor and see n product."
Less hands-on with the beverage group than he is with the
fashion and retail side of the business, Amault nevertheless
ti'acks the progress of all the Mot-Hennessy brands, which
include wineries in California and Australia. He has daily
contact with cultural adviser Claverie. Arnault says he wants
all his managers to take charge of their divisions as though
they were family enterprises. "Louis Vuitton should be run as
if Yves Carcelle owns the brand," he says.
Ownership certainly applies to kinship. "Our goal for the

FORBES

MASTER OF THE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

THE LVMH EMPIRE

MOT&CHANDON

Hennessy

C M A r/; t' A (

COGNAC

Founded: 1846
Clothing, Shoes, Bags

Founded: 1743
Champagne

FASHION / LEATHER

WINE/SPIRITS

Loewe

Founded: 1846

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Wenjun

Founded: 1765
Cognac
PERFUMES / COSMETICS
1573

WINE

Louis Viiitton

1854

Chateau d'Yquem

Berluti

1895

SHOES

Ruinart

1593

1925

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

MotetChandon

1729

1942

SHOES

Hennessy

1743

1945

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Vueve Clicquot

1765

1947

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Ardbeg

1947

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Chateau Cheval Blanc

1952

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Krug

1970

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Mender

1984

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Montaudon

1984

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Glenmorangie

1984

CLOTHING AND ACCESSORIES

DomPrignon

1991

SHOES

Domaine Chandon
WINE

2009

FASHION WEBSITE

Cape Mentelle
Newton Vineyards

1780

Cloudy Bay

1858

1860
1865

WATCHES

Chopin

1891
1893

Numanthia Termes

1975

Terrazas de los Andes

VODKA

1980

WATCHES

Parfums Kenzo
Fresh

Cheval des Andes

1960

RUM

1976

Sacks

2000

Emilio P u c d Parfums

200s

SELECTIVE RETAILING
Le Bon March

1852

DEPARTMENT STORE

1976

La Samaritaine

1870

DEPARTMENT STORE

1977

Franck et Fils

1897

DEPARTMENT STORE

1985

DFS

1960

DUTY-FREE SHOPS

1993

Miami Cruiseline

1963

CRUISE SERVICES

1996

Sephora

1969

COSMETICS

1998
1999
2003

WINE

10 Cane

i988
1991

Parfums Loewe

1936

WINE

WATCHES

i985

FRAGRANCE

VODKA

1936

JEWELRY

Hublot

Fendi Perfumes

FRAGRANCE, SKIN CARE

VODKA

Belvedere

i984

FRAGRANCE

WINE

WATCHES

1976

SKIN CARE

WINE

WATCHES, JEWELRY

Dior Watches

1843

WINE

WATCHES/JEWELRY

Fred

Make Up For Ever

CHAMPAGNE

Stefanobi

Zenith

Benefit Cosmetics

FRAGRANCE

WHISKEY

Thomas Pink

TAG Heuer

1832

CHAMPAGNE

Marc Jacobs

1957

FRAGRANCE

CHAMPAGNE

Donna Karan

Chaumet

1815

CHAMPAGNE

Kenzo

Parfums Givenchy

COSMETICS

WINE

Givenchy

Nowness

1772

WHISKEY

Dior

1947

COSMETICS

CHAMPAGNE

Emilio Pucd

Parfums Christian Dior

FRAGRANCE

COGNAC

Cline

I9i6

FRAGRANCE

CHAMPAGNE

Rossimoda

AcquaDi Parma
FRAGRANCE

CHAMPAGNE

Fendi

1828

FRAGRANCE, SKIN CARE

WINE

CLOTHING, SHOES, BAGS

Guerlain

OTHER BUSINESS
Royal Van Lent
SUPERYACHTS
Les Echos

i849
1908

NEWSPAPER

2005

Connaissance des Arts

1952

MAGAZINE

Investir

1974

MAGAZINE

Radio Classique

i983

RADIO

eLUXURY
70 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22,2010

WEBSITE

2000

FORBES

MASTER OFTHE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

group is to remain a family company," Arnault declares.

Though Delphine and Antoine say they were never pressured
to work for their father, they felt included in the business
from an early age. When Arnault was wrestling for control of
LVMH in 1989, Antoine, then 12, remembers, "He was always
explaining to me what was going on." Afrer he took over the
group Arnault spent Saturday mornings in Paris, taking his
son and daughter to visit LVMH-owned shops.
"He always said, 'If you want to work with me, you have to
work harder than the others and do well in school,'" recalls
Antoine, garrulous and model handsome and, like his father,
clad in a Dior suit, matching de and Berlud loafers. After earning his M.BA. at Insead, Antoine spent two years launching,
then selling, an Internet venture and toiled for three months as
a sales assistant at the huge Vuitton store on the Champs
Elyses selling handbags, before taking a management post
responsible for 13 stores outside Paris. Delphine also labored
in the LVMH retail trenches, as a perfume salesgirl at the Paris
Dior boudque. She studied at the London School of Economics
and worked at McKinsey before joining her father's company
in 2000. (She is married to Alessandro Vallarino Gancia, who
runs his ownfinancecompany and serves on Dior's board.)
Unsurprisingly, both young Arnaults express reverence for
their father. "I think he's a visionary, one ofthe most visionary ofhis generadon," says Delphine. A strikingly tall, slim
blonde, more shy than her brother, she was sdll in her office
at Dior headquarters at 7:45 p.m. on a Thursday evening. "I
feel very lucky to be part of what he is creadng."
Arnault has three other children from his second marriage, in 1991, to Hlne Mercier, a French Canadian pianist:
Alexandre, 18, Frdric, 15, and Jean, 12. These days Arnault
does his Saturday morning retail tour with Alexandre, who
has already expressed interest in joining LVMH.
Patrimony has deep roots. Arnault was raised to go into
the family business, a construcdon company called FerretSavinel in the northern industrial city of Roubaix. At age 7
he visited building sites with his grandfather, learning the
importance of hard work and giving Arnault "thefiavorof
entrepreneurship." Afrer earning an engineering degree at
Paris' presdgious Ecole Polytechnique in 1971, he joined his
father, taking charge ofthe company at age 25. In the early
1980s he spent three years in the U.S. trying to establish a
branch of the family business as a developer of Florida real
estate. The venture didn't work out, but Delphine and
Antoine learned flawless English. Arnault brought home an
a^ressively American approach to taking over and running
businesses. It has made him a terrifying compedtor.
In 1984, when the French government was looking for
someone to take over a bankrupt texdle and disposable-diaper business called Boussac, Arnault convinced Lazard
Frres to add $80 million to his $15 million of Arnault family
money. The bedraggled company included one jewel, fashion
72 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22,2010

After visiting the

site Frank Gehry
did his first sketch
of the museum on
the flight home
from Paris to Los
Angeles.

The Ultimate
Brand Extension
In 2002 Bernard Arnault and longtime adviser JeanPaul Claverie traveled to Bilbao, Spain to visit the
Guggenheim Museum, designed by Frank Gehry and
completed in 1997. As soon as they saw the building's
swooping waves of glittering steel, the two agreed:
They had found the architect for Arnault's dream
project, a bold new modern art museum in the
middle of Paris that would showcase both LVMH's
corporate collection of modern art and Arnault's
extensive personal art trove. Both include 20th-century classics by the likes of Picasso, Yves Klein, Henry
Moore and Andy Warhol, and contemporary creations
by living artists like American sculptor Frank Serra,
pop artist Jeff Koons, German photographer Andreas
Gursky and French film and installation artist Pierre
Huyghe.
A particular thrust of the museum, according to
Claverie: to demonstrate how the present evolves
from the past. An example might be an exhibit of
British artists Francis Bacon and Damien Hirst, who
says he has been heavily influenced by the late
Bacon's austere, emotionally raw canvases.
Right now the building site, next to a children's
park in the Bois de Boulogne, looks like a jumble of
rebar and cement, with a lone white glass and steel
panel that will eventually make up the Gehry design's
cloudlike exterior. The museum, called the Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation, is set to open in late
2012 and will be reachable by the Paris Metro.

house Dior, and Arnault quickly stripped away the other businesses. Dior had earlier sold its perfijme brand to Louis Vuitton Mot-Hennessy (the result of a 1987 merger). Arnault
coveted the label, so he used the $400 million from selling off
Boussac's assets and, backed by Lazard, took advantage of
dissent within the Louis Vuitton Mot-Hennessy ranks, siding with Vuitton Chief Henri Racamier to oust Mot-Hen-

FORBES

MASTER OF THE BRAND BERNARD ARNAULT

nessy's Alain Chevalier. Then, buying up sufficient shares

and exploiting the courts to amend corporate bylaws, Arnault
deposed Racamier and seized the entire company in 1990.
He took charge immediately, sweeping much of manufacturing and distribution under his control. In order to extend
LVMH's reach across a range of high-end brands, Amault
tumed into a binge acquirer. Throughout the 1990s he paid
billions of dollars for fashion labels that included Fendi, Kenzo
and Thomas Pink; jewelry and watchmakers Chaumet, Zenith
and TAG Heuer; and retail chains like DFS and Sephora. He
also bought a handful of ultrahaute boutique companies like
Berlud, which makes custom men's shoes.
There have been spectacular busts. After failing to bag
Sotheby's, Amault paid a reported $97 million for Phillips, a
distant number three auction house, in 1999. Hurt by the
plunge in business following Sept. 11, Amault dumped
Phillips in early 2002. His one attempt to create a fashion
brand ended badly. Founded in 1987, Christian Lacroixan
eponymous label whose strategy was to start with couture
items to grab attention, then introduce a ready-to-wear
linenever quite clicked. Arnault unloaded it in 2005; it filed
for bankruptcy last year. Most dramatically, Arnault tried and
failed to turn a minority stake in fashion house Gucci into
control of the company but lost to French billionaire Franois
Pinault's Pinault-Printemps-Redoutesetting up a rivalry
on several fronts (including fashion and art collecting) that
persists today.
Until his latest move on Hermes, Arnault contented himself with emphatic and creative brand extensions, infusing
classy labels with a sense of contemporary cool, carefully
controlling quality through his tnisted aides. At corporate
headquarters on Avenue Montaigne, which houses Paris'
biggest Dior boutique, Delphine oversees the haute couture
atelier on the topfloor,where three dozen seamstresses
stitch triple silk organza, hand-painted with purple flowers,
that will adom a one-of-a kind gown designed by John Galliano that might cost $35,000. Each dress is fitted to its own
custom-made white muslim dressmaker's dummy, labeled
with the client's name, many of them the wives of Middle
East oil barons.
Though the prices for these creations seem high, the labor
costs are astronomical. It can take several hundred hours to
produce a single garment. A loss leader for LVMH, haute couture underscores Dior's image as the ne plus ultra in French
fashion. It also supplies the costumes for the twice-a-year catwalks in Paris that generate excitement and new customers.
Antoine has made his own splash by convincing his father
to mn an arresting series of ads with luscious photographs
shot by Annie Liebovitz of such familiar but surprising faces
as Mikhail Gorbachev and Keith Richards. Amault pre resisted at first. After Antoine explained that Gorbachev would be
shown with the Berlin Wall, he won over his father. "When I
74 I FORBES

NOVEMBER 22.2010

Antoine has made his own

splash by convincing his father
to mn an anesting series of ads
with lusdous photographs shot
by Annie Liebovitz of such
faces as Mildiail Gorbachev,
Keith Richards and Bono
and his wife, Ali Hewsoa
said, 'It's almost an homage to what he did,' then he's like,
'It's your business,'" recalls Antoine. Keith Richards was a
tougher sell. "He didn't know who he was," Antoine smiles.
An accomplished classical pianist whose favorite composer is
Chopin, Arnault hadn't heard the name of the Rolling Stones'
guitarist. The latest campaign, featuring rock star (and Forbes
Media shareholder) Bono and wife, Ali Hewson, disembarking from a plane in the African bush, was also Antoine's idea.
LVMH's management team and family strategy are working well for now. One day, Amault hopes, his three younger
sons will step into the business. Who will succeed him?
Whoever turns out to be best suited for the job, he always
says. Don't look for Dynasty-like intrigue. "I think we're
smarter than that," says Antoine, leaning back in a leather
chair. "We have a good 20 to 25 years to think about our
future. He's not going to step down anytime soon."
The immediate future isn't quite as clear. While an October
Bain & Co. luxuiy market report forecasts continued growth in
the sector of 3% to 5% in 2011, so much depends on die global
economy. LVMH's expansionist approach in markets like
China holds huge prospectsand some peril. A significant
slowdown means fewer customers for Lady Dior bags (that
brand's bestseller in China). Other hurdles loom. While China
is the number one market for Hennessy cognac, Mot-Hennessy managers say they must contend with a feeble distribution system and prohibitive import taxes that can run as h i ^
as 50% in China and an astronomical 200% in India.
The puny recovery in Europe and the U.S. is another
worry. There will be no more stimulus plans to hand extra
dollars to consumers, as there were last year. The West .still
feeds LVMH two-thirds of its revenue. Arnault shrugs. "Right
now we have a good equilibrium," he says, referring to the
three-legged revenue stool of Europe, the Americas (Brazil
is a big growth market for the group) and Asia.
Economic calamity, corporate battles, self-made setbacksAmault has lived through them all before and
emerged .stronger than ever. As Vogue Editor in Chief Anna
Wintour puts it, "I think he's pretty much unstoppable." i>

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