The Inside Job: LVMH Keeps Promoting Its Own

PARIS — The latest executive appointment at LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — Maryse Malicet as chief financial officer of Moët Hennessy — perfectly reflects the French group’s HR philosophy: groom from within, promote more women to the top, and experiment now and then by shuttling executives between different business groups, which at LVMH span from fashion and leather goods to beauty and liquors.

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In fact, roughly 70 percent of all key positions at the luxury giant are now filled via internal promotion, according to Chantal Gaemperle, who has been spearheading the strategy since 2007 as the group’s executive vice president, human resources and synergies.

“That is something we are proud of, and it’s why I believe that we have probably the most talented talent pool in the industry,” she said.

What’s more, Gaemperle noted that women occupied only 22 percent of those key positions when she arrived, and “we are getting to 48 percent,” she enthused, pumping her fist for emphasis.

Those are big numbers when you consider that LVMH has grown from 65,000 employees when Gaemperle arrived from Nestlé to roughly 215,000 today.

Over the past 18 months alone, LVMH has promoted eight women to the corner suite, headlined by Delphine Arnault, who became chairman and chief executive officer of Christian Dior Couture.

The others were Sibylle Scherer to president and CEO of Maison Moët and Dom Perignon; Laura Burdese as deputy CEO at Bulgari, a newly created position at the Roman jeweler ; Véronique Courtois as CEO of Parfums Christian Dior; Gabrielle Saint-Genis Rodriguez as CEO of Guerlain; Nathalie Elbaz as CEO of Officine Universelle Buly 1803; Aline Burelier to CEO of Make Up For Ever, and Catherine Newey as managing director of DFS Europe.

Gaemperle noted that wines and spirits in particular is a “traditionally male-dominated field.”

Probably best known for marquee fashion brands including Dior, Louis Vuitton, Givenchy and Fendi, LVMH “has a lot of women customers, so having women feeling the brands, and having an affinity for the products, I believe is an additional strength,” she said. “And it’s not only women. It’s a greater push on inclusivity, which has been the motto.”

Malicet, who succeeds Mark Stead, is to start on Sept. 1 and report to Philippe Schaus, chairman and CEO of Moët Hennessy. She also becomes a member of the executive committee, and will oversee the purchasing and supply chain functions.

“Her deep and precise understanding of operations and finance, from the maison and the market’s perspectives, as well as her strategic mindset and ability to lead and drive organizational change, will be key for Moët Hennessy’s continuous growth,” Schaus said in an internal memo seen by WWD.

Malicet started her career at Ernst & Young and joined LVMH in 1994, spending her first 10 years working in perfumes and cosmetics before moving over to Moët Hennessy as CFO of its European operations.

She becomes the second female executive to take up a top finance role at LVMH in recent weeks. As reported, Cécile Cabanis joined LVMH as deputy finance director on June 10, and is to eventually succeed CFO Jean-Jacques Guiony.

Cabanis was a rare outside hire, joining LVMH from Paris-based asset management firm Tikehau Capital.

But she is far outnumbered by internal promotions, which in recent months included Louis Vuitton executives Alessandro Valenti and Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou being respectively named CEO of Givenchy and CEO of Fendi. (Angeloglou is also managing director of LVMH Fashion Group.)

In an exclusive interview on Wednesday at LVMH headquarters, Gaemperle elaborated on how all of its top brass, and not only human resources executives, are fully implicated in her “HR New Deal,” a detailed roadmap for better cultivating talents within the group, and for heightening its attractiveness as an employer in a scarce talent market.

Wearing a cream-colored macramé dress by Celine, the exuberant Swiss executive fired up an iPad to show highlights of LVMH’s three-day global HR summit last March at the Palais Brogniart, which resembled a TED Talk. The gathering brought together roughly 360 HR executives and top LVMH brass, who shared not only their wisdom but also weaknesses as the group strives to create a culture of trust where employees feel comfortable “revealing their vulnerability.”

“Dare to be more human, to be more authentic,” Gaemperle told the HR Summit.

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“How talents can feel supported, and able to be themselves at work is a very important part of the culture we are trying to work on,” she said in Wednesday’s interview.

LVMH is currently in the throes of an organizational diagnosis of key employees and roles, to help it answer a vital question: “Do we have the human capital that is going to support the business development of each brand?”

Gaemperle said the group is also experimenting with AI to surface profiles in its vast database by examining competencies and skill sets, rather than job titles, or past experiences.

“I think the role of HR is also one of a culture shaper, and a transformer of cultures and ways of working,” she said. “Important talents make the difference in a sector like ours.”

Indeed, Gaemperle coined a new term, “talent-eling” — a play on the practice of clienteling in luxury retail — to underscore how LVMH aims to optimize treatment of its employees, just as it does top spenders in its boutiques.

The goal is for LVMH to know its talents even better, “their expectations and their motivations in order to help them to shape their careers,” she said, flashing a red pamphlet dubbed a “Career Compass” that is designed to help employees “craft their dream journey in a unique ecosystem.”

One newer focus is facilitating moves across business divisions. Recent examples include Burdese, who initially moved to Bulgari from fragrance brand Acqua di Parma, and her successor Giulio Bergamaschi, who joined Acqua di Parma from Loro Piana, where he was strategic missions director.

Gaemperle stressed that attracting external talents remains crucial, since they still fill roughly 30 percent of key positions. “You still need new competencies, new blood,” she said. “We are opening up to other consumer-facing creative industries.”

Indeed, in recent years LVMH has welcomed a number of prominent executives from beauty giant L’Oréal, including Angeloglou and Stéphane Rinderknech, now head of the perfumes and cosmetics division in addition to LVMH Hospitality Excellence.

“We like to find people who are close to our universe, who understand brands, consumers, products, quality, excellence – and will fit within our very entrepreneurial, decentralized group,” Gaemperle said, stressing the importance of soft criteria to assure a fit with LVMH’s corporate culture, plus coaching.

She stressed that talents, like clients, control their own destiny.

“It would be an illusion to think that leaders or brands hold the destiny of any of our talents. They know what they want,” she said. “So obviously, proximity is important, to understand people’s needs and aspirations and to try to accompany them.”

LVMH is to recruit about 60,000 people this year.

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