Carla and Diana discuss what luxury brands can do to build a better tomorrow, how “thinking the unthinkable” can keep a business agile and guarantee success, and how five consumer demographics interacting with luxury – from Boomers right down to Alphas – is impacting the industry.
Defining luxury
“When I was writing my book, I had the pleasure of interviewing many luxury leaders. Chantal Gaemperle, who sits on the board of LVMH, defines luxury as a dance with paradoxes and I love that. On one side is the modernity and the actualisation of everything, and on the other side is of course the heritage. I love the idea of a dance with paradoxes, because if you think about it dance is a very timed, very organised and structured choreography to be beautiful. And that’s what luxury is about, this tension, this dance with modernity on one side and heritage on the other.”
The era of ‘sustainovation’
“We are entering this reimagining era where innovation will play a pivotal role in order to reimagine the world – everything, business models, manufacturing processes, the way that we treat people. I mean the pandemic started to force this new thinking but we are accelerating to this reimagining era where sustained sustainability and innovation with lead hand in hand. So it is the era of sustainovation.”
Think the unthinkable
“Dan Carter, probably one of the greatest All Blacks that ever lived, told me two incredible lessons from the All Blacks. The first one is, never look at the scoreboard, which is basically play every bit of the game and build towards success. And the second one is build that strength to think about the unthinkable. So almost like Alice in Wonderland, think six unthinkable things before breakfast, and play every game with ‘okay, what would happen if I have two players less, what would happen if my kicker got sent off, what would happen?‘ When you build a business thinking the unthinkable, you’re prepared.”
– Diana Verde Nieto
Head to Apple or Spotify to hear the full discussion on our Lives of Tomorrow podcast episode, Dancing into the Future of Luxury with Diana Verde Nieto