Patrice
Louvet says Ralph Lauren left about $1 billion in revenue on the table as it
pulled back from places where, “frankly, we weren’t proud of being.” When he
became CEO in 2017, the company had stretched its brand too far. His challenge
was to restore the brand without compromising the creative “magic” that made
Ralph Lauren distinctive.
After
nearly three decades at Procter & Gamble, Louvet came from a world of data,
structure, and business logic. At Ralph Lauren, he had to learn when the
numbers should lead and when they should follow the magic. Defining the company
as being in the “dreams business” became the foundation for deciding where the
brand belonged, what it should stop doing and how it could grow without losing
what made it special.
Today,
Ralph Lauren has no shortage of opportunities to expand — including into
hotels, Louvet says. The challenge is no longer finding new avenues for growth,
but knowing which ones to pursue without repeating the gradual dilution that
weakened the brand before.
For
Louvet, that comes down to a deceptively simple principle: knowing what you can
do is not the same as knowing what you should do.
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