Chapter 9
The luxury fashion
business strategy
model
‘A stand can be made against invasion by an army; no stand can be
made against invasion by an idea.’
Victor Hugo, French writer and poet (1802–85)It is perplexing to find out that when several practitioners in the luxury goods
management are questioned about their business strategies or business
models, they often look puzzled. The majority of these managers perceive
business models and strategy plans as documents drafted by consultants to be
filed away and reproduced during the annual reporting exercise. A senior
executive of a luxury brand once told me that if I were interested in evaluat-
ing their business strategy plan, he would not hesitate to send a copy of the
‘Strategy’ to me. When I asked him the main features of the strategy plan, he
replied, ‘How could I know? I am occupied everyday with managing the
company, I don’t have enough time to read the Strategy Report.’ It was my
turn to be puzzled. For this manager, the company’s strategy, (which by the
way is its lifeline), was represented by a pile of papers stored in a drawer to
be retrieved when a Consultant visited. This is part of the reality of the state
of luxury fashion management.
Despite the luxury industry’s aversion to business strategy development
and business modelling, the sector direly needs these tools to aid its strategic
direction.
The prospect of developing a business strategy model is often perceived as
daunting and intellectually tasking. For this reason business modelling seems
to be reserved for eyeglasses-wearing nerds who spend their lives behind a
computer in smart business consultancy firms. The task of crafting a business
model for the fashion industry is even more difficult to envision. This is
because of the wide credence that the creative and business development
aspects of fashion are incompatible.
This chapter aims to provide a simple view of business strategy devel-
opment as a complement to fashion designing. The business modelling
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