Career Club Live with Bob Goodwin
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Career Club Live with Bob Goodwin
Resilience and Passion in Career Advancement with Gena Smith
Gena Smith, CHRO at LVMH North America, shares her extraordinary journey from Texas to Greece and eventually to the vibrant corporate world of New York. Learn how Gena’s international exposure and unique educational path shaped her career, offering invaluable lessons on adaptability and seizing opportunities. Listen in as she recounts her transition from executive recruitment to a pivotal leadership role at LVMH, emphasizing the transformative power of diverse experiences in shaping a successful career.
Discover the intricacies of managing talent across LVMH’s 75 maisons, where brand desirability and structured career development plans attract and nurture top-tier talent. Gena explains the implementation of AI-driven talent marketplaces for better skill matching and the importance of humility, agility, and curiosity in high-potential employees. This episode provides a deep dive into the strategic processes that keep LVMH dynamic, balancing internal promotions with external recruitment.
Engage in a compelling discussion on sustaining brand relevance by balancing innovation with heritage, and how this dynamic is managed within decentralized, entrepreneurial structures. Gena also highlights LVMH’s comprehensive programs to enhance employee well-being, from mental health support to financial acumen. Gain insights from the Métiers d'Excellence program that trains apprentices in vital, rare crafts, and understand the importance of feedback and personal growth in professional development. This episode is packed with actionable advice and inspiring stories for anyone looking to navigate their career with resilience and passion.
Hi everybody, this is Bob Goodwin and welcome to another episode of Career Club Live. Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your day to join us. Today's episode is brought to you by Next Placement, which is Career Club's innovation in the outplacement category, where we're taking a more people-centric, empathetic approach to transitioning employees, where we believe these are people, not cells on a spreadsheet. Mental wellness, emotional intelligence, community are important. If that sounds like something of interest to you, we'd encourage you to check out Next Placement at careerclub. I am so excited about today's guest. This is about 60 days in the making. I had read an interview with our guest and was just really amazed by some of the work that she's doing, and I'm really pleased to have the opportunity to speak with her.
Speaker 1:Our guest today is Gina Smith, who's a CHRO at LVMH North America, where she oversees HR strategy and operations for a 40,000 person organization With extensive experience in the luxury and retail sectors. Gina's been instrumental in developing talent, implementing diversity initiatives and driving innovation at LVMH since joining in 2011. She also serves on several boards, including Tiffany Company, gabriella Hearst and the Fashion Scholarship Fund. Gina's a frequent speaker on HR topics, discussing upskilling, employee experience and talent development. With that, gina, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you, hi, bob. It's great to be here. Thank you for having me today. No, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:You're a busy lady and doing some very cool things, so we'll unpack here in a few minutes, so thank you for that. Now, where do we find you today? Where are you calling in from?
Speaker 2:I am in my office in New York City today.
Speaker 1:Yay, and then, as is our want, we usually ask a couple of icebreaker questions.
Speaker 2:So where were you? Born and raised. I was born in Lubbock, texas, and raised basically in Texas. I mean, I left Texas around 21, something like that, but I grew up in Texas. My whole family is still there.
Speaker 1:Can you fall back into a Texas straw pretty quickly? Oh?
Speaker 2:absolutely All I have to do is go home for the weekend and I come back with it. So, yes, it's very organic.
Speaker 1:As a Tennessee native, I always like to tease. Do you know what the plural of y'all is?
Speaker 2:Y'all, y'all.
Speaker 1:Y'all is a gay, all y'all yeah, so anyway, so maybe this would be a good way.
Speaker 2:Can you kind of just then paint a little bit of a picture of how you're, where you went to school, and then a little bit about your career arc that you know talking about having sort of a non-traditional, non-linear career? I definitely fall into that as well. I grew up in Texas, as I said, and I started school at a local university in Texas and then, through that, had the opportunity to do a study abroad study abroad and that took me to Greece. So I spent a summer in Greece, working at a five-star hotel on the island of Crete, which was a very transformative experience in a lot of ways. I mean, first of all, it was, of course, a very fun, exciting way to spend your summer, although we did work extremely hard. I'm not sure I've ever worked as hard as I did in that summer, but it was transformative because it was the first time I had really left Texas to be honest, not even forget about the US, but really leaving my home and I was in this very foreign country.
Speaker 2:Foreign, you know, you look at the alphabet, you're immediately confronted with a very different language, but I felt, in a way, more alive and more at home than I had ever felt before. I sort of found my purpose, which was people and culture. I knew that I needed to be in. I realized that there was this whole world out there and I needed to be a part of that. And I wanted to be a part of that. So I transformed my education. I decided to focus on international business. I ended up moving back to Greece and going to an American university in Greece. I graduated from the University of Indianapolis, but it's through Greece that that happened.
Speaker 2:I was out of campus in Athens and I wanted to continue my education and so I went to school in Athens and then I went to school in Indiana. So I always joke that I ended up there via Athens, which again not very traditional, but it was really the beginning of a very international career. The first five years of my career I focused on international education because I also supported myself through college and part of how I did that was working at the university. I continued to do that after graduation and then, when I moved to New York about 25 years ago, I wanted to go into. I knew that I wanted to be in the corporate side. I didn't really associate it with HR at that moment. Coming from academia, I didn't really know too much about the HR function, but I knew that I wanted to do something related to expats. I was working with international students in education, so I wanted to continue working with expats, international citizens. Thinking that I would move to the corporate world where you know, as much as I loved education, felt that it might be a little bit more financially lucrative to move to the business side. So I ended up in executive pet hunting and it was really accident, to be honest with you. But there was a search firm that was hiring in New York the partner that you know. At the time you found jobs like on monstercom, and I submitted my resume. It was contacted by this partner. She was an Australian woman and she was working with a lot of international clients in the US and that was, of course, very exciting to me, very appealing to me. So I ended up taking the plunge, not really knowing what I was exactly getting into, because I didn't really understand very much about the world of executive recruitment. But I ended up staying within that sector for almost 15 years, working for a couple of different search firms and helping to build the luxury and retail practice, starting at Russell Reynolds, where I had the opportunity to work with their global partners and did that with them, again, building this practice and finding my niche, because, of course, I was interested in the industry, but, again, all of these were international clients. So it really fed my passion around people and culture.
Speaker 2:And in 2011, I was recruited to join LVMH, starting as the head of HR for North America. It was a little bit of a risky move, probably, maybe for me and maybe for my boss who offered me the role, because, even though I had a very strong talent background executive recruitment background and so much of the role is focused on talent, there were other aspects of HR that I had zero experience. So you know we sort of jumped into this together and now you know I sort of jumped into this together and now you know it's I'm just getting ready to celebrate 13 years with LVMH. It's been an incredible ride. The company has grown tremendously, both in terms of revenue and sales, new acquisitions, headcount, all of the different programming. So it's just been an incredible journey. And you know, again, when I look back on being in Greece like 30 something years ago, having this epiphany, it's just sort of amazing to see that, without really having a plan, I ended up exactly where I should be in an international organization very much focused on people and culture.
Speaker 1:Okay, that is only super cool. So at Career Club we work a lot with people in job training and helping people find their kind of story and their narrative their brand, if you will is really a lot of what we spend time. And as you were talking, I'm like if Gina was my client, what would I what? And words that just like kind of immediately jumped in my mind. You're super curious, fearless, you're willing to go try stuff where you don't have a lot of information. It's like I don't know what's good. Athens and see what happened. Let's go to Crete and see what happens. I've never been on the client side in HR, but okay, let's see what happens. I've never been on the client side in HR, but okay, let's see what happens. And I think that this is where I think people sometimes get tangled.
Speaker 2:This may be a good place to riff on some talent stuff is.
Speaker 1:You know when people say, but we'll go figure out what you're passionate about. Well, sometimes we don't know, because we haven't seen what the buffet of options are and you just need to go try stuff. And particularly for young people, it's often just a test for negatives. Well, at least don't hate, like, if you know you don't like that, don't go do that, but go explore, go try stuff. You don't know where things might end up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exactly what I say. We, you know, we have a lot of interns right now, as you can imagine, during the summer, and so we're having a lot of discussions and talks, either at LVMH level, with the different brands, and that's exactly one of the sort of advice that I often offer them is part of how you determine what. I was lucky because, yes, I, when I went to Greece I had no idea. I was like I'm going to study business. I don't really know what that means or what I want to do with it, but then it became crystal clear for me what my passion was when I was there.
Speaker 2:Again, I didn't associate it with HR, but I knew people, culture, I knew that.
Speaker 2:But part of how you determine is by first it becomes very clear for you what you don't like either in terms of the culture, fit, the environment, the actual content of the role, and so it's easier almost to start excluding things, to say, okay, that's not for me, that's not, and then, hopefully, you figure out what really excites you and energize you, and then you make sure that for me, for example, I knew that I was never going to take a position if it didn't offer me the opportunity to really work with a lot of people, and it wasn't an international environment. There are some amazing you know purely American companies, but I knew that that wouldn't be the right environment for me because I would miss the dynamic of working with people from all over the world. That was something that I just received a lot of joy from. So I agree with you you have to experiment a little bit, you have to put yourself out there in even uncomfortable situations to test yourself, and you might and you're often very surprised to find the things that really resonate with you.
Speaker 1:So as a young professional and you can go as far into the current world. But what were some of the maybe people advice things that were influential to you, that helped sort of shape some of this for you, even sponsors or champions?
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been very fortunate, I think, in my career, because I have always been able to find people that you know either believed in me or saw something in me that maybe I didn't even see in myself at different periods. And there are probably three critical moments in my career. One, you know, very early on, when I was sort of struggling early in my career, I mean like right at the beginning of college and working sort of part-time in an office and this I was working for this very wealthy entrepreneur and he had this tiny small business now that he had started, and you know, frankly, he just saw something in me that I didn't even know that I had, and he and his wife sort of took me under their wing and really, you know, tried to give me advice and counsel and guide me and put me on a stronger path in terms of, okay, you're working to put yourself through college, because I had to do that, but how do we accelerate that? How do you make sure even this little tiny company that I own, gina, is not the future for you? Let's figure out something, let's think bigger than that. So that was an early stage in my career.
Speaker 2:I also had two really important moments when I was at Russell Reynolds. One of them was the partner that ran the luxury and retail practice around the world. She is just an incredible woman half Italian, half French. She studied in the US. She had these top European clients and I think what she saw again in me was my passion. I didn't know the sector when I first started working with her I'd never done any work in the sector but she saw my passion, she saw my curiosity and so, you know, kind of brought me under her wing again, and I worked with her for over six years to really help build this practice, and she was amazing at giving me exposure, giving me opportunities, always pushing me, challenging me and really making me feel that I could do it, even when I didn't know exactly what I was doing at certain points. And then, finally, I would say, my current boss, who recruited me in 2011,.
Speaker 2:Chantal Gamperlet, who's our global head of HR, has just been an incredible mentor and supporter, and I think what is also unique about all of these people and all of these moments in my career is that each of them gave me a chance.
Speaker 2:Not only was I willing to step into something where I didn't have the experience and I think, yes, that's important to be open, to be curious, but you also need to have people that are willing to give you a shot, because at Steps in our career, we all hope to be able to go to the next level, to do something that we've never done before, and I was very fortunate to have people that believed that I could and were also willing to support my development and willing to help set me up for success, so not just bringing me into a position and just sort of letting me try to master it on my own, but really supporting my development, giving me constant feedback and guiding me through the processes. So I think it was a combination of, yes, my openness and willingness and then again, frankly, being fortunate to have people take chances on me.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, let's use that as a segue to a topic that I know we wanted to explore a little bit, which is internal mobility. Right, so we start to see attributes in people, and sometimes, to your point, maybe more than they see in themselves at this juncture of their career. And how have you taken what you've sort of as an HR professional? You know kind of from the discipline, but also experientially from your own career? How have you guys woven some of these things into how you guys foster internal mobility at Elmink?
Speaker 2:It's. You know, it's probably one of our, the cornerstone of our HR philosophy. I mean, we believe that we're fortunate right Because we have. We're a group of 75 plus maisons across similar but also very different industries and we have this ability because we have very strong brands that are highly desirable both from a customer standpoint and from an employee standpoint, so we're able to attract a high caliber of people. People want to work for our company. Of course we're always trying to do everything we can to ensure that we're an employer of choice. We don want to work for our company. Of course we're always trying to do everything we can to ensure that we're an employer of choice. We don't take it for granted. It's very hard to maintain that desire.
Speaker 2:There are a lot of great companies out there, but one of the key elements that we can offer to somebody is hopefully a very diverse career because of the richness of the group. So, concretely, we have a lot of very structured processes in place that allow us to have clear visibility of all the different open positions, and I'm more focused, right now at least, on sort of executive manager and executive level position, which is still several thousand roles across the organization. We go very systematically and regularly through each of our organization charts, looking at people, talking about their career, their development, planning out sort of succession planning, different scenarios with them. But I think what is very unique to our group at least based on some other organizations I've seen is that we spend time with all of these people too, so we have regular and consistent meetings. It's not a theoretical exercise for us, so we're really sitting down with people going through, having the career discussions. Okay, what are their long-term ambitions, what are their strengths and flaws, where are they successful? Where are the gaps? How do we get them to the next level? So, you know, between the corporate group, between the different mesons, we're triangulating all this information and, of course, taking the input from the employees to understand also what their goals and objectives are.
Speaker 2:I think we try to look more and more and we probably, to be honest, have more room for improvement here but not just focusing on the experience that someone has had, but really looking at the skills, the capabilities, the potential right, and that's, like a lot of companies, that's where we're moving. So we're launching a talent marketplace. We're integrating more and more AI into the succession planning process to help us identify the skills and then match the skills with potential opportunities, either that people want to acquire for the next step or that they need to acquire to continue to advance in their roles. So you know, with a large population like us, it's a pretty complex exercise.
Speaker 2:But I would say that we systematically track, monitor the internal mobility, internal promotions. We look at it in multiple ways within the function, within the division, within the brand, outside the brand. And the last thing I'll say on that is, again, it's a core philosophy that we have and again, we have tools in place to support that. But we also want to be an organization where we never have probably more than two-thirds internal mobility, because we also know that we need to inject newness into the group as well. So we're constantly trying to arbitrate between when is it internal promotion? When do we need to bring that expertise outside to continue to grow and cultivate our existing organization and businesses.
Speaker 1:Okay, so just there's. There's tons to unpack there, one of the things if you thought about I know this is an arbitrary number, but but like the top three qualities, just generally speaking, you know three qualities that those tend to be the people that are on the you know, high potential or you potential or the next tier up in their own career. What are some of those traits or attributes that come to?
Speaker 2:mind. I mean, obviously there are some elements that are just baseline, right, you know, successful track record, things like that that are baseline. But outside of that, I would say humility, agility and curiosity, those are probably the three that are must-haves for us?
Speaker 1:And if I was interviewing with you, how would I demonstrate any of those?
Speaker 2:I think I mean that's where it's an interesting question, because we're really looking for we're interviewing people concrete examples of when you've been able to demonstrate how you've done that. So a lot of times I find when you interview people, it's easy that for the conversation to move into this theoretical well, I believe or I think or I feel and for us we're trying to, it's pulling it back to say, okay, but actually give me a very concrete example of when you were able to demonstrate this, when you were able to demonstrate curiosity. What was the problem? How did you address it? You know what was the mistake that you made?
Speaker 2:I think that's always an interesting way to assess somebody's humility, to see how open they are about any mistakes that they've made. We've all done that. I mean, we can't be successful and grow in our career without them. It's how do you adjust, how do you adapt? What are you learning from that? So I think we really try to make it very concrete in terms of what you've done. Obviously, we have an advantage if they're internal, because we have that information, we sort of know it. But for me, it's really having people pressing people to be very concrete and give explicit examples of when they have demonstrated these capabilities.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So a couple of things. One of the isms that I share with our clients is your resume might get you the interview, the stories you tell will get you the job. And then related to that is demonstrate, don't declare.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, I fully agree.
Speaker 1:You know and then relate to that as adjectives are not accomplishments, Right exactly. Agility is really interesting. I'd love for you to riff on that one for a minute, because the pace of change, the magnitude of change, is just all accelerating right. And you mentioned AI earlier, which is an easy example to pick on, but, but, but agility, can agility be taught?
Speaker 2:I think it can be. It's interesting, you know we asked the same question about things like emotional intelligence. Can that be taught? I think that it can be refined, it can be improved upon. But yes, I mean, I don't know, there are certain people again that are probably very structured, maybe even I don't want to use the word rigid, I don't mean that in a pejorative sense, but because in some environments, in some roles, that's really really important that you have that You're like a rigid accountant, like a rigid accountant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, but I think that what I see. What I would comment about agility is you can see when people are struggling because it's so uncomfortable for them that it's not even something that they. It's just too difficult for them to master because it's just so incredibly, it's so outside their comfort zone that it creates a very uncomfortable sort of situation and way of working. So do I think it can be taught? I don't know. I think it can be refined and improved upon, but I don't know if you can actually turn somebody into a highly agile person if that's not part of their natural predisposition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So you talked about, you know, injecting new talent into you know, the company and new perspectives and things like that. Maybe this is related, but one of the things as I was doing a little bit of research, you know, preparing for this conversation was this notion of innovation versus heritage. Right, you know, we've always done it this way. You know, you don't understand the essence of the brand. You can't do this to the brand, but we have to continue to innovate and be current. And you guys actually set brand. You can't do this to the brand, but we have to continue to innovate and be current.
Speaker 2:And you guys actually set trends.
Speaker 1:You don't follow trends. You guys set trends. You don't go to the mall and ask people what they want. You basically tell them what they want. You know because you guys are tastemakers. How do you do that balance of innovation and heritage? How do you do that balance of innovation and heritage.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think that's one of the probably the more you know certainly the most challenging aspects of an organization like ours, especially in an environment where the customer is so educated and informed and, you know, they're just so much more knowledgeable because of social media than they were 20 or 30 years ago, right, when those tools didn't exist. So now, how do you stay ahead of the customer, how do you keep ahead of the trends, how do you continue to establish the trends? It's, you know, as you were mentioning earlier, just the pace of change is so much faster than it's ever been. I think, for us, we, you know, we always want to make sure that our brands that you know in many cases have been around certainly for decades, sometimes even hundreds of years, that we never really lose the essence and the DNA of the heritage of that brand. What was the vision of the founder, the entrepreneur, at the moment that they created this product, this brand, launched it to the market? That's, it's really important to always sort of go back to the heritage. Then, how do you interpret that in today's environment in a way that is brand accretive, not just now but for the future, because it's not even making sure.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of things that you could do because it's the right thing for the moment. But what we have to also ask ourselves not only does that fit with the heritage of the brand, but is that also going to make sense? Are we going to look back in 10 years and think, why did we do that? That was a weird detour for the brand. And that's where the extra challenge is for us, because we're thinking about building brands into not just for today but also for tomorrow. So you need to make sure and part of how you do that is by you have this tension to make sure, and and how part of how you do that is why you have this tension.
Speaker 2:We. We have tension between the creatives, between the business, between the merchants. You know bringing different perspectives, um, you know having different, you know diverse opinions that are able to weigh in that and give you a perspective. What what's important is that we're able to be part of the culture, the conversations around culture that are happening in those moments of time. But it's it's. There's not a magic formula per se. It's a little bit of science, it's a little bit of art, it's a little bit of instinct sometimes and just like what you feel is the right thing to do for the brand and you do see clearly when it isn't right, the customer will also tell you like I'll tell you real quick or even the employee.
Speaker 2:But, um, this, this is probably the core again of how we think about building brands, and it's just getting. It's getting more and more difficult, especially as our brands also becoming larger. And you know, how do you continue to do that? How do you continue to do that? How do you continue to innovate? That's always the challenge that we all face. How do you?
Speaker 1:create a culture, gina, because I think about creatives and people that have very strong beliefs, very strong passions about what this brand is, what it's not, et cetera, and how you create an environment where we can respectfully disagree on something without people, you know, throwing a glass against the wall because you're going to trash a hundred-year-old brand. I mean, I can just see people getting really animated when we're talking about doing things with brands and culturally. How do we do that? People getting really animated when we're talking about doing things with brands and and culturally, how do we do that?
Speaker 2:I guess sherm's word today would be civilly yeah, you, I guess you've been in some of our meetings, you know, um, they're definitely. Look, we have a. We're fortunate because I think people that come into our industry and certainly people that come into our group they are extremely passionate about the work that they're doing and the brands that they represent. I don't think this is an industry and maybe there are some industries or maybe there are some functions. I would say it differently Maybe there are functions that you can be sort of industry agnostic when you go into. I don't think anybody that's in our ecosystem is industry agnostic. They're here because of a love and a passion. So when you're having these conversations, they can be very passionate conversations. To your point, people do have really strong opinions about what's right and what's not right.
Speaker 2:So I think what we try to do, like any organization, is create an environment where the culture of LVMH is centered around creativity and innovation. That's one of the core values of the company. That creating and innovating at every level, across every function, is embedded in the way that we work and it's an expectation of the group. We are a very, you know, multi-billion dollar company, but we're still a very entrepreneurial organization and that's part of the reason that we're a decentralized organization because we want to maintain independence, autonomy, empowerment with each and every business. So I think because of that structure, even in larger organizations you'd be surprised at how flat the organizations can be. We're not. We don't have a lot of bureaucracy and hierarchy, and I think that helps to not only cultivate creativity within those environments, within those unique teams, but also to allow creativity to really thrive.
Speaker 2:It's not easy to do. It is certainly challenging. I think that there are probably people that would certainly feel like they don't have enough of a voice to be able to contribute to that, but it's something that we are always trying to cultivate and we have a number of tools that we've launched that hopefully can help people not only understand the importance of creativity, but bringing concrete tools to show you actually how do you take an idea from concept all the way through ideation, including selling or convincing somebody to buy it or to support financially support or otherwise your idea.
Speaker 1:Okay, I want to go down business acumen for half of a second, but before I go there, we're sort of talking about people can get emotional.
Speaker 1:Speaking of emotions, you know we're in North America, so the political environment is what it is and we don't need to explain that to people. But there's, you know, things out by Sherm that say, you know, 44 percent of people are burned out. Mckinsey says 50 plus percent of employees are disengaged. We just know that these human beings not just work producing units, but human beings are stressed out on a number of levels. I know health and wellness is something that's important to you. How do you guys think about, you know, helping the human being who's doing the work kind of be their best self, and what kind of benefits or other things would you guys be providing to people?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I mean, listen, I think you know everything that we read and see, I think we feel it, we hear it from our employees, especially coming out of COVID. I think that the toll that that year has taken on everybody has been, you know, extremely difficult and we're still dealing with the residual impact of that and the impact and the feeling, the legacy of every it's that people still remember that experience and what they went through, and their families. We did a benefit survey in 2022 just to get a sense of how our employees regarded our benefit. What did they know about our benefits? We just sort of wanted to see how and what we could improve and the number one request that we had was more support around mental health and well-being, and we sort of anticipated that, but not necessarily.
Speaker 2:We had already started implementing programs. In 2020, we implemented a mental health first aid training program. We've continued to run that multiple times a year. We have a waiting list every time that we offer this program. The demand is huge for employees and it's not, of course, we're not training people to be mental health experts. What we're helping train you is to be able to identify when someone on your team or your leader here is in a crisis situation and really needs some additional support, and then what do you do to provide that support? So that's one thing that we implemented in 2022.
Speaker 2:We launched Headspace, which, of course, is a meditation tool and access to therapy. We launched that across the country. We just started working with Thrive Global, which is Ariana Huffington's company, which is an amazing tool, again, providing a variety of support to employees to support a variety of mental health and well-being topics. We also have launched I work very closely with our head of comp and benefits, of course and we have a number of programs around financial well-being, additional legal support that we can offer to employees, very low monthly cost, providing legal support on a number of topics. It could be estate planning, adoption, purchasing a home for, again, really minimal cost to these employees.
Speaker 2:And you know, we have a number of other programs that we want to offer to employees to, first of all, ensure that they know that this is a topic that we care about, that we want to make sure that we can support them in their work environment and even themselves and their families outside. We also have some amazing travel benefits that we've offered to all of our employees because we have corporate discounts and hotels and flights, and we've extended those corporate discounts to all of our employees and their families so that even when you're under personal time, you have some additional benefits offered by the group and we, of course, encourage that personal time off. So I think that, like a lot of companies, we're really trying to support our employees in as much of a 360 way as we can and I think, especially in organizations like ours that are very high performance, you know one of our values again is around excellence.
Speaker 2:You know, having a culture of excellence, you know, very demanding highly. We believe our brands, our customers deserve that, our employees. So there again more reason why we need to make sure that we have tools that can support our employees. So there again more reason why we need to make sure that we have tools that can support our employees. And you know we're always open to bringing in additional tools based on the feedback that we hear from our employees, if we think it also corresponds to the value and our mission of really providing the best work environment that we possibly can for our employees.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's quite a portfolio of resources and tools. It clearly indicates a commitment to that.
Speaker 1:I just want to touch very quickly we were talking about like building the business case for something I might be projecting here for a second, so you can not go there with me but the notion of financial acumen, in particular within the HR function, before executives, but more deeper in the organization often lack some financial acumen. Like what's actually on an income statement? What's actually on a balance sheet? How does the CFO see the business? So when you're trying to make the case for wellness programs, learning and development kinds of things, how have you personally kind of developed your own financial acumen?
Speaker 2:And what advice would you give to an HR professional who might be listening today? I think that for me I was probably a little bit fortunate again, because I don't have a traditional HR background and when you're a headhunter it's an interesting role because it's a business role. I mean you're responsible for generating revenue for your firm. You're doing that by building strong relationships, your ability to assess talent, to find the right fit. But one of the ways that you're able to basically win the search is because your ability to not only know the market and the talent to really understand what the business challenges are that you're trying to solve for your client right. So you spend a lot of time with the HR, with the CEO, with sometimes the board, talking about the business and the challenge. And I think that's where I was very immersed in the financial side. Financial side, looking at the P&L, looking at all of the annual releases, listening to the earnings calls. That's where I probably was able to become more exposed to the financial side of the business so that I would be capable of having those conversations with my clients and really understanding and also being able to have those conversations frankly with candidates about the business. So I think that was sort of a little bit. That certainly helped me.
Speaker 2:You know we work very closely with the finance. Obviously. I work closely with our CFO. We work closely with the finance of all of our different brands, and so LVMH is a unique organization because, on the one hand, we're extremely creative, all about innovation, but on the other hand, if you look at the background of a lot of our executives and especially in Paris, including our CEO they come from an engineering background, very analytical, very data driven, very financially oriented. It's very, very rigorous in terms of data analytics and also creativity. It's, in a way, we have terms of data analytics and also creativity. It's, in a way, we have many truly left brain, right brain type of people. So I think that it's sort of the expectation is that you're able to flex between both of those.
Speaker 2:On HR, I agree with you. Especially in our organization, that's really talent focused and it's again it's more about knowing the talent, meeting the talent, spending time with the talent, being super connected, not just about sitting behind and looking at everything on paper and doing all of the sort of analysis. That said, we have tons of KPIs that we monitor and track vis-a-vis what's happening within our talent in the US. So I would say, from an analytical standpoint, we probably have HR that are fairly strong analytically because of the tools and the expectation. If you talk specifically about financial acumen, that's probably something that is an opportunity for us to further develop, especially when you go down in the organization, because I don't even know, now that you mentioned that, I'm not sure how much visibility and access our early career professionals or sort of our mid managers would have to the finance teams, for example or how they're working with the finance team to help support their business or their functions.
Speaker 2:But I do think that that's an important aspect for HR, because the more that you can be conversant in all sort of all aspects of the business, the more legitimacy and credibility that you're going to have in terms of doing your role.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So you mentioned a couple of words and maybe we can bring something together here which is talent and creativity. And I discovered you I think it was Fortune an interview that you gave with them on a talent development program that you guys are doing. I was just like I have to talk to this lady. This is so cool, so it's the métier d'excellence. Do you mind kind of describing what that program is, how it came to be, and then maybe some lessons that appear listening to this might be able to transfer and apply to his or her business.
Speaker 2:Well, first of all, thank you for reading the article and thank you for acknowledging that. I mean, it's something that we're extremely proud of. The program was launched, it's the Métiers d'Excellence. We refer to it internally as the ME program, and not just because all of us don't have the best French accent, but obviously you know easy to talk about the ME, and it was first launched in 2004 in France. Today we have about 2,700 apprentices who have gone through this program or are currently in the program around the world, and creation, the manufacture of products are done literally by people that are trained in certain crafts and metiers as we refer to them, and this is the lifeblood of our business.
Speaker 2:Of course, there's technology in certain cases, but there are many roles where technology we don't think technology will ever be able to do the role the way a human being does. The challenge with some of these roles is that number one people aren't aware, increasingly. They're not aware that these positions exist and even if they are aware, it's not really clear how you get a job as a leather maker or potentially a watchmaker or a jewelry maker or a nose in the perfume industry. So a lot of people, even if they have an interest. There's no real. You know, schools aren't necessarily preparing you for a career path in that.
Speaker 2:So we decided to build this program, working with different schools that have an expertise in these different métiers around the world and working with the local governments and states to basically create these apprenticeship programs that would allow us to identify people that have the interest, that have the capability, that have maybe some similar type of experience that would lend itself well to that profession and then create a training program that puts them through the program, gives them the skills and hopefully a job if they want the job at the end, if they want a job with us or even with another organization, because these are roles that of course we want to need, but as an industry as a whole we want and need them. So it's been a really extraordinary program. You know we always have it's amazing to see the number of applicants that we have for all of these different programs. Again, we have two going on now in the United States, one with Tiffany. We have two different cohorts and then we have one with Ted Foyer.
Speaker 2:We just started earlier this year for watchmaking, which is another, believe it or not, this year for watchmaking, which is another, believe it or not, really a dying profession in art. And you know we have a number of new programs and initiatives that we're planning to launch in North America, so we're really excited. Just to end on your question regarding the learnings is it specific to the ME program or more broadly?
Speaker 1:No, I mean because I think that you know we talk a lot about skills-based diversifying, a talent pool, taking people from you know, it's not just about your pedigree of like where'd you go to school and how long have you been doing this? Right, and you guys are very singular in, as you said, you know, a lot of this is handmade and always will be. That's just the nature of it. Right, these are crafts, but but I think that you know, I think there's something like 700000 cybersecurity jobs open right now. There's just not enough talent to fill these roles. And or AI, or data science. I mean, there's like lots of stuff. And I like how you said. You know you've partnered with schools, you've partnered with local governments, right, so how can we kind of get existing resources and channel them towards what our needs are? And it seems to me that there would be transferability in that mindset.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Other functions, other industries in that mindset.
Speaker 2:Yes, other functions, other industries. I agree, I agree and again, I think what is our learning is that you know you have to be, we go into an open mind, the backgrounds of the participants, of the apprentices. They're extremely diverse in terms of their experience versus virtually none of them have any experience in what we're, what we're training them in today. Um, but there, but there are some similarities. For example, one of the apprentices for the tag lawyer program, uh, was a mechanic and he's very funny because he said you know, one of the things is he was tired of getting his hands dirty. You know he wants to work with his hands and use his hands, but he was tired. You know, I wanted to. I'm tired of.
Speaker 2:I think for us, the learning is, yes, it's important to work with the schools. It lends additional level of credibility. We know we want these to be certified programs, we want these to be recognized by different constituents. So we really invest. I think that's the other learning. I mean, you really have to invest. They're not, they're not inexpensive to run, even in the short term, but for the long term we really believe they pay off.
Speaker 2:I think, being creative in terms of 700,000 cybersecurity positions. I'm sure there are people that would love to get in that profession. We have to think more broadly about what type of characteristics or, again, skills or personality traits should that person have in order to be successful in that role. But really it's, how do we provide the right level of training and discipline and mentorship? So the commitment on our side is very, very serious. I mean, it's a small cohort because it is costly, because we want to make sure that they're successful, we want them to go through the program and so I mean I think you have to be all in.
Speaker 2:I think what I really appreciate about LVMH and whenever we do anything like the ME program or other initiatives that we've launched, we always incorporate the values of the group into the creation and execution of that. So you know, we built this bespoke program using, again, creativity, innovation. We set a bar of excellence in how we develop these talents, how we support them. It's very entrepreneurial Again, people coming from all different backgrounds. It's a great development tool also for our internal people to mentor and to pass their. They're so proud to be able to pass their skills on to another generation and fundamentally, we're putting people at the front end because our business isn't going to exist if we do not have people that are able to develop these products, develop these experiences. All of our jobs are successful and all of our companies are successful because of people and their work. So, yeah, we think it's really something you have to prioritize and invest in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I appreciate what you're saying too, that that, yes, you're investing heavily in the schools and the programs and all that stuff, but the onboarding and the integrating of people into the organization. So it's great that we planted the seeds. Now how do we nurture the seeds for success? And then, something else you just said that really resonates with me is this intergenerational dynamic, right, and that mentorship is a two-way street. I mean, yes, there's paying kind of homage and respect for the artisan that is an expert in his or her craft, right, and so thank you. But there's also, you know, innovation and technology and other just life experiences, right, that a younger generation brings to the party, right, I think about, like Fendi, by Rihanna, like I mean, she's coming from a completely different place, you know, artistically right. That resonates with a really significant part of the culture that you guys would like to be appealing to.
Speaker 1:So, I think that the point that you made, that really resonates. So it's not enough to have programs, it's not enough to just hire them into the organization, it's how do we really integrate them?
Speaker 2:Exactly and support them through the entire journey.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So let's start to put a little bit of a bow on this. As you kind of think about, you mentioned kind of covid and the pandemic is a touchstone right that's etched, you know, permanently on us as you think about maybe the next five years, how is hr evolving and how are you kind of personally thinking about what do I need to be kind of building and upskilling yourself, if you will? And then, more broadly, how does that sort of work its way across the organization?
Speaker 2:I mean, I definitely think that employee engagement is, you know, one of the key topics for employers and certainly those of us not just an HR topic, by the way, but it's one of the key aspects that we're working on. We know that the moment of COVID was also a reflection time for people to really sort of step back. And I heard it on one of your podcasts, you know somebody was saying that you know, before COVID the frame was work and after COVID, sort of the frame, what came about life? And I think there's some truth to that right. And people began to reflect on okay, wait, am I really enjoying the way I'm living my life and working and am I happy? And now I've seen that I can do things in a different way and still be very successful, productive. So it made people sort of reflect and question things and when they started coming back to the office and things began to get sort of normal again, we've seen, we hear, that employees have very different expectations in terms of what they're looking for from employer and I don't think that that is going to revert back to the pre-COVID way. So as an organization, we have to continue to be the same way. We are thinking about our brands. It's the same thing. How do we anticipate what employees need? How can we make sure that we're supporting employees so that they're highly engaged, passionate, curious and want to continue to come in and deliver their very best for us for now and into the future? So employee engagement remains a really critical topic.
Speaker 2:I think ways of working it's also changing dramatically. It's going to continue to evolve. The integration of more and more technology. At what point is technology additive? At what point does it diminish aspects of the culture, creativity, how do you think about what is the work? Is it totally hybrid? Is it remote? Does it depend on the function? So I think we's really about relationship. This is an important relationship between the employer and the employee. How do we make sure that we're maximizing that for both parties so that everyone can thrive and feel successful and feel that they're doing purposeful work together, let's say, and also driving the business, that they're doing purposeful work together, let's say and also driving the business. So I think those are things that I'm really focused on in terms of how can I sort of get ahead and make sure that we're not reacting to what's happening but yet we're kind of co-creating with our employees, the future of what we want to be. That's my hope that we can do that.
Speaker 1:No, I think that I love that and it certainly is in keeping with, as you said, sort of the values of the organization. I love that. Co-creating how do we co-create and not just sort of unilaterally cram down? This is what it's going to be On to one of my all-time favorite questions. I'd love to ask If you could give advice to 25-year-old Gina. What would it be?
Speaker 2:with the benefit of hindsight, I think you know again I guess I was thinking about this last night, maybe this is a strange answer I think in our career, you know, especially early in your career, you hope that you're getting feedback right. Feedback that's positive feedback, that's constructive feedback. Sometimes the feedback is not always presented in the right way. I and I definitely experienced that. I I think that even feedback, unless it's you know, mean or not presented, I mean you're a very personal attack. Unless it's you know, mean or not presented, I mean you're a very personal attack. It's such a gift and I, even if I think about some of the times when I received very harsh feedback, even some of those moments, the feedback was probably accurate, it was helpful and for me I was always like trying to, I wanted to improve, I wanted to do better. So even allowing ourself to, or even allowing myself back then to go through those difficult times and to really allow myself to even learn, even when it feels unfair sometimes or it feels difficult, to allow myself to push through that moment and see what can I learn, what can I take out of that, that's going to make me be better.
Speaker 2:And I think earlier in our career it's really it's it's very. It's hard to do that. You know you're building your confidence. You're not totally secure, but I think it's. I think it's and we wish that everybody knew how to deliver feedback in the right way. But, but I think it's, I think it's and we wish that everybody knew how to deliver feedback in the right way, but they don't. But I still look at some of those, some of those hardest conversations. I still reflect back on them and I'm grateful that people shared those, that feedback with me, even if it was not so pleasant maybe to go through. I don't know if that makes sense what I'm trying to say, but just being makes sense what I'm trying to say but just being no.
Speaker 1:It does because, as a former boss of mine and great friend, feedback is a gift. Now to your point. There are ways to deliver feedback that allow it to be received.
Speaker 2:you know, maybe a little bit better and not hurt somebody along the way, but you know as somebody who's personally kind of defensive, like feedback is hard, right, and you talked about humility earlier.
Speaker 1:I mean right, that really is the canvas for feedback. Is I have to have enough humility to? Accept it, you know and not all feedback, you know, has equal weight, right, but but at the same time, you know, being humble enough to say you know she had a good point. That doesn't feel very good in the moment, but I'm going to be better for it.
Speaker 2:Exactly, or what can I, you know, what can I learn from that? Okay, that wasn't exactly the best experience, but what can I learn from that? What can I take from that that's going to help me improve and be better and stronger. And, you know, I think that I think if I had had a little bit more confidence or belief in myself, maybe some of those moments wouldn't have been as hard. You know, I definitely had some moments where I was like calling my mom, crying, you know, like all the but. But on the other hand, I tried, I tried and maybe I could have done even more to still say what can I learn from that experience?
Speaker 2:To just, it's not about always improving, for I think sometimes people focus on oh, that's going to be good for the company, but feedback is also for us individually. It's like, at the end of the day, I want to be the best person that I can be, so that I feel proud about what I've achieved, what I've accomplished for me, that I've. That makes me feel strong, empowered as a person, regardless of lvmh right. I feel I want to be proud of that and I think that's really important, all of this you're doing for you at the end of the day, not necessarily for your company, for your boss. Ultimately, it comes down to doing it for yourself.
Speaker 1:As I reflected on some of the qualities that you identified earlier in our conversation around curiosity, humility and agility. I'm curious, I want to continue to learn. Right, I'm humble enough to accept the feedback. I'm agile enough to do something with it. Yes, right, so I think that kind of puts it all in a nice little package, maybe a little light blue box, how about?
Speaker 2:that Right, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Is there anything that we didn't talk about? As we kind of bring this to a close, that just any final thought, or just anything that you wanted to make sure that that we discussed or you shared?
Speaker 2:I mean, I guess I would just say that I think you know that the world is as we mentioned. You know we don't have to go into it. It's sort of a it's a challenging moment. I think it's also a moment for us to all step up and think about not only what we're experiencing but, you know, what other people in our orbit are experiencing.
Speaker 2:You know, I think maybe because I work in HR, I can never go anywhere without thinking about, oh I wonder, how that person you know feels about their job, like monitoring, you know, observing the interaction with customers or employees.
Speaker 2:And I think sometimes I just feel like we, especially lately, we don't, we sometimes don't even have enough compassion about thinking about the way that that person is, like showing up for their work. I mean, I guess I just feel like we have to, we have to start to be the ones you know, all of us as human beings that try to bring a little bit more humanity and kindness into our everyday interactions, because I think everybody is really tired, burnt out, all the things that we've said. This is applying everywhere, and so how can you know, how can each of us try to bring a little bit of improvement to that in the interactions that we have with our employees, with our customers, with people that we meet on the street and subway, at the airport, I think that's what we're trying to do as an organization, with our people and customers, and so maybe that's how I would leave. I think we all can really play an important role in lifting the mood, so to speak.
Speaker 1:Well, gina, LVMH is very lucky to have you there and it's clear to me that these are intrinsic things with you and this is who you are as a human and you've got a lot of influence, which is awesome to be a force for good. So I just appreciate you taking some time today. It's so nice kind of unpacking your story a little bit and some of your learning, so it's been great to have you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you, it was really a pleasure for me. I enjoyed meeting you, bob, and I love listening to your podcast and I just feel so honored to be on one of your podcasts.
Speaker 1:So thank you for inviting me. Well, thank you everybody with listeners and viewers. Thank you so much for taking a few minutes out of your day. We hope that you found this fun and interesting. I know I did, and we look forward to seeing you on the next episode. So thanks everyone, and we'll see you next time. So if you'll hang on for just a second,
