Home>Interview with Laurent Martin
16.10.2025
Interview with Laurent Martin
Retail Training Director - Brand Education & Culture Christian Dior Couture

How would you define the word 'leadership'?
For me, leadership is not about intentions—it’s about transformation.
It’s the ability to turn vision into reality, to bridge the gap between what you planned and what actually happens.
A true leader doesn’t just share ambitious ideas or inspiring speeches; they create the conditions for those ideas to come to life.
Leadership is about guiding people toward a common goal, making decisions that move things forward, and ensuring that progress is real and measurable.
It’s strategy in motion—the art of turning direction into action, and action into change.
What message would you like to share with students aspiring to build a career in the luxury industry?
If I had one message to share with students, it would be this: don’t just dream of the industry—learn to understand it deeply.
Luxury is not only about products, it’s about culture, heritage, and emotions. From the outside it can look glamorous, but behind that image lies rigor, creativity, and hard work. The industry needs people who can connect tradition and modernity, who respect its roots while imagining its future.
My advice? Stay curious: read, travel, explore art, history, even science.
All of this will shape your perspective and help you bring something authentic and unique to the table.
In your view, what quality or skill is essential to succeed in this industry?
If I had to choose just one quality, I would say passion — because without it, you can’t sustain the effort this industry requires.
But equally important is intellectual curiosity: the ability to connect dots between art, history, culture, and business.
The people who truly thrive in luxury are those who never stop learning. This mix of passion and curiosity not only helps you grow and stand out, it also enables you to reinvent yourself, understand consumers more deeply, and bring forward ideas that are both authentic and innovative.
That, to me, is the real driver of success.

Interview by Cristofe Montabord, student in the Master's program in Marketing: New Luxury and Art de Vivre.
Photos : Margarita Kaloudi-Isari, student in the Master's program in Marketing: New Luxury and Art de Vivre.