3 business success tips from the world’s richest person: Bernard Arnault of LVMH

Arnault first went to China in 1991. There were no immediate signs of prosperity. Yet he opened a Louis Vuitton store there.

“I remember the first time I visited China, in 1991,” Arnault once told Forbes. “I arrived in Beijing—I saw no cars, only bicycles, no tall buildings. The GDP was 4% of what it is today. Nonetheless, we decided to open our first Louis Vuitton store in China. Today Louis Vuitton is the number one luxury brand in the country and across the world. We have been seeing for the past 25 years a growing desire for high-quality products and an acceleration of buying power.”

2. Step out of the office and onto the shopfloor

“I often say to my team we should behave as if we’re still a startup,” Arnault told Forbes. “Don’t go to the office too much. Stay on the ground with the customer or with the designers as they work.”

Arnault practices what he preaches. “I visit stores every week,” he said. “I always look for the store managers. I want to see them on the ground, not in their offices doing paper work.”

3. Be patient

One of Arnault’s regrets is hastily selling a brand that wasn’t doing very well. He believes he should have given it time, because today the same label is doing well. But he is no longer its owner, and is left pondering what could have been.

“I should have kept it (the company),” Arnault said. “What I have taken from this is that when you have a business that’s not performing well, it’s important to better understand the business and be patient. It can take years in this universe of creative brands to make something work.”