>> when i started in this job, i often got the question, is ralph lauren still relevant? which is a painful. but we had lost touch with the younger generation. >> i speak about the company's founder and his plan to take the company back to its routes. >> thank you so much for joining us on bloomberg. >> very happy to be here. >> do you have the best job in the world? >> pretty close. >> what was the most surprising thing? >> there's so many things. probably the thing that attracted me to this tufrnt is the opportunity to work with

ralph. this man is visionary, incredible entrepreneur, an amazing success around the world and the opportunity to work with him is special and i cherish it every day. >> you have to get along because he's still such a figure. he has his name on the door. >> he does. >> how much is his vision? >> it starts with his vision. what's exciting is when you see where this company started you see what it's become, it's been driven by consistent vision. i talked about our purpose is to inspire of dream of a better life through authenticity and timeless style. now we are around the world, well beyond, we're in hospitality, restaurants, coffee shops, women's business, homes business, but all still driven by a very consistent vision ambition. and this is about trends and ralph actually says i hate fags because fashion -- fashion

because fashion comes and goes. we talk about -- that's served the company well. >> what was it like? >> there was a memo incredibly special. i got a chance to see him at his ranch in tell rooid. >> before or after you got the job? >> i can give you perspective on that first engagement that we were in this ranch, outside, chilly, 8:00 in the morning next to the cook yous and there's this beautiful mountain view. and we're talking about what business are we in. it was really important to be super clear to have a consistent ambition. and we landed on the dreams business. a lot of people say you're in the apparel business. you're a fashion company. we would disagree with that. >> is he easy to work with? >> he's wonderful to work with. there's this image challenging and complicated.

but ralph is an incredible partner both an amazing visionary and great business man. that's been the key part of his success. we have been super clear on our respective roles and although nothing is written on a piece of paper we're clear for who is responsible for what and where we come together and i couldn't be happier with the partnership. >> there was also a moment where you had to change the company to get away from the department stores that lowered the ambition for the company. how hard was that? >> it's, from the financial standpoint it's challenging but if you go back to the roots of the company, this company was founded as a luxury company and the first tie that ralph launched reminded me recently was two-and-a-half times of the christian is an incredible luxury company. so we had to pull back particularly in the u.s. because the brand had been overextended,

we reduced about two thirds of our whole sale doors but an hour we're two three years into that exercise,s our brand perception is much stronger, value is much stronger. >> so this ultra luxury was not necessarily a given. when you look at luxury companies, it's very clear that if you are in the ultra luxury space you can increase prices, you have a lot more of a market around the world instead of this moderate luxury. what makes you see that back then? >> i think it's back to what this company stood for historically. and already at the time i mean this phenomenon has mean going on for a while that you see this bifurcation of luxury brands that have pricing power that consumers see the value and therefore have the ability. others not engaging consumers, much more promotional. we felt as we go back to our roots that's where we wanted to

take the company. >> how do you create that for tune? those moments where people associate you with wimbledon or some of the shows that they watch on tv that elevates luxury? >> it's a very holistic exercise, so it's not just one thing. >> there one thing that you think works better than others? is it the flagship stores that have coffee shops and have a very distinct lifestyle that you think people are drawn to more than online? >> for us, the way we think about it is 30 key cities around the world. we don't look at markets, we look at key city. and each we want to have a balanced eco system. start with a flagship store that is going to project the image. our approach in china is driven by the city focus, established a strong flag ship and build the eco system around it. but i don't know that i can point to just one intervention. i think the transformation of our marketing and story telling has also been quite effective

particularly at recruiting a younger consumer one of our priorities. >> which is the hardest. >> which is the hardest. >> they change. >> exactly. and there's a lot of opportunities. and i remember when i started in this job i often got the question is ralph lawrence still relevant? which is a painful question to listen to. but we had to some extent lost touch with that younger generation, and this company is 56 years old and we expect to be here another 56 years from now so critical to rejuvenate our customer base. and we pivoted our marketing to be where that younger consumer is. gaming, the types of sports activation that resonates with them, styling the product differently was very interesting our white polo shirt, you have 80-year-old men, 40-year-old women, 16-year-old kids wearing it, the same product. but we style it differently. >> is your secret sauce, that

people don't go to couture events, they have a more relaxed approaching when they come to the office? >> hopefully more than just the small pause we want to be here for another 50 years. but what ralph and the teams have been able to create is the life tooil proposition. we're not hand bag experts. we offer a lifestyle and this range of protukt and as we've seen people still working from home, going back to social events, we have this ability to serve you with a more feature driven type of proposition. >> so are we going to hoodies now? >> maybe it depends which industry you're in. at ralph lauren i haven't seen many people in hoodies but ralph does come in with a polo hoodie but he makes it look beautiful as you can imagine.

>> up next, on raising prices, ambitions in asia. >> you can't expect to be timeless if we run out of resources so for me sustainability is not a side activity, it's not a reaction to external pressure. it's core to who we are and what we stand for. and to a very strong extent it's about future proofing our business.

>> ralph lauren has raised the average price about 80% since 2018 as it seeks to elevate its brand, something the executive is passionate about. >> when you look at pricing you've also mean able to really elevate the brand by increasing prices. is there a limit to how much you can increase prices by before it

hurts demand? >> our average is up close to 80% now since we started. the short answer is i don't think there's a limit as long as we do a good job on elevating the product, elevating story telling, the environment, making sure the consumer sees the value, and they have so far. our value perception are the highest we've been since we've been tracking it. but the onus is on us. then that will support the continued growth. >> talk to me about china. china has a huge potential but it's still quite a small market for you. >> it is still small. it's about 6% of the company today, double what it was three, four years ago but still quite small when you look at the penetration of the chinese business for some of the best luxury players, 20, 30, 40%. so i'm excited about the

opportunities. which is energizing for us is how the brand is connecting with the younger consumer and that more elevated consumer. we sell oddly enough, i think as a result of all the elevation work the teams have done, our most elevated products we sell best in china. we have the best gender balance as i believe you know most of our business historically has been more men. in china it's a good balance. and young consumer, late 20s, early 30s. we're very deliberate in our approach in china. we could grow faster but we want to do it in a quality way so we're building the brand so that serves us well five years, ten years from now. >> are you worried that you dilute the brand if you become too big in china too quickly? >> yes. i think the notion of desirability is critical and there's some element of

exclusivity to support it. i think that's why we pulled back in the u.s. where we felt we had overdistributed. and become to some extent ub quite can be a challenge in the luxury space. and you want to stay unique and special. that's where we're building in markets in china, and looking ahead to markets in india promising for the future, very deliberate on planting the right found yaths so we can build from there. >> so the world is changing we talk about ai, sustainability, and the need for fashion companies to do more. >> yes. >> how much time do you spend thinking about sustainability? >> a lot. i go back to our conversation on purpose earlier, it's part of the dream to timelessness and authentic style. timelessness and sustainability go together. you can't expect to be timeless if you run out of resources. for me sustainability is not a side activity, it's not a

reaction to external pressure. it's core to who we are, what we stand for. and to a very strong extent it's about future proofing our business. you need to focus on sustainability to recruit. more and more that younger consumer we're talking about, they want to work for companies that care about this planet that do more than just kind of generate revenue and profit. you need sustainability to attract consumers. more and more younger consumers care deeply about what are you doing differently? are you making a difference? investors particularly in europe place value on sustainability. many of our partners have expectations. >> what does that look like for a luxury lifestyle company? >> so for us it's multidimensional. right now we're putting a lot of emphasis on circularity. i think if we're able to shift the business model in fashion from linear to circular, that's probably one of the biggest changes we can make. obviously that's a total eco

system you have to impact but to give you examples, it's innovating how we design. so we've just launched the first cradle to cradle certified cashmire sweater. it's innovating with the processors. there's a company in italy that helps us with recycling cashmire. and then leveraging industry scale. we can't go it alone. >> do you sell differently to the chinese than to the american consumers in terms of lifestyle or is it still a similar lifestyle? >> i think the fundamentals, and the different stories that we tell are pretty consistent. if anything, just in the way the consumers kind of dress and engage with fashion brands. on average this is generalization but on average the chinese consumer just like the japanese consumer tends to be more elevated and sophisticated in the types of styles that they put together. so that informed part of our buy and our product.

but fundamentally -- >> more innovative, not necessarily more edgy. >> more luxurious. more elevated and more luxurious. >> what's amazing is there seems to be a trend, you may be one of the first ones to get chief executives from part of the industry that weren't luxury, that were consumer products. is there a parallel? do consumer products chief executives do better than luxury? >> that's a big statement. i'm not going to answer that question directly. this trend started in beauty where you saw the professional come in first. and now we're seeing that in the fashion world. ij at the end of the day success in this industry is getting the balance right between magic and logic. so obviously the fashion industry the creative leaders vt magic. there's an opportunity to bring a higher level of logic without

diluting the magic. i think what people from consumer goods industry bring are greater focus on the consumer, understanding the consumer. where you get success is designer vision, customer needs come together and then that's where things get exposed. so great understanding of consumer, more data and more experience, leveraging data and decision making. again, there's an element of intuition that needs to be protected but that can be supplemented. >> what's the idea algorithm? >> it's clinl, i can't tell you. >> you'd have to kill me. >> we do look at a number of metrics whether that's obviously consumer profile, whether that's competitive environment, whether that's the type of products being sold in the area. a lot of these are complex.

you learn how to run pretty rigorous and disciplined supply chains and just general operations, and a lot of these luxury companies now are five, ten, 15, $20 billion. the level of complexity requires expertise. >> how do you -- you said we used to rely on magazines. are consumers more influenced by influencers and celebrities? >> i think influencers have always been part of the business, whether it's the fashion industry or other spaces. >> but more controlled. is that the difference? >> i think it was more, you're right, it was less spokespeople and now you have a much broader pal lat. for us what's critical is authenticity. the concept of i'm going to write you a big check tated and you're going to talk about us and then tomorrow you're going to show up on a competitive brand because you got another big check.

we're not interested in that. we want people who have an authentic relationship. >> up next, on risk taking, gambling with the meta verse and the next 50 years. >> the only failure is a failure of learning. as long as we capture the learnings, it was a success.

you need to focus on sustainability to recruit. more and more that younger consumer we're talking about, they want to work for companies that care about this planet that do more than just kind of generate revenue and profit. you need sustainability to attract consumers. more and more that younger consumer care deeply about what are you doing differently? investors particularly in europe more and more place value. many of our partners have expectations on sustainability.

>> more than half of ralph lauren's customers are women yet represent less than a third of sales. it's an area of the business the chief executive sees as an opportunity as he bets on growth in women's merchandise. i continue the conversation. >> what's next for ralph lauren? sleep waer or other parts that uveng you can grow more? >> what's amazing with this brand is we can enter a lot of spaces with automatic credibility. we have one of the hottest restaurants in new york. we are looking for an opportunity to open one in london. but that's a part of our system, is not a core priority for us. next spaces for us are winning with women. as i mentioned earlier our business historically has been driven by men. today 56% of our customers are actually women. they represent less than 30% of our business. so that's a massive opportunity

for us and i think as we get to understand her better, develop the right products for her, present the products in a way that resonate with her which may not be the same way for men, that's a big opportunity. hand bags are an area as kind of completing the style for women. and we're looking into home. actually think if you reflect on ralph dz approach to this space, creates these environments. you can really picture how that translates into home. longer term but i am pretty excited. >> the meta verse. >> yes. >> i think now we talk about ai. >> the media headlines has moved on but the consumer has not. >> are you investing in the meta verse? >> it follows the principle i talked about earlier. that's where the younger population is. we want to play a leadership role there and i'm excited what we are doing we have a

partnership with fortnight. >> you play on fortnight you can actually dress your player in the ralph lauren skin and we've actually done some cool boots that you can dress your player with but we've done a physical version of them as well. >> was that quite a gamble going into -- >> yeah. >> it's brave but it paid off. it could have backfired. >> true, but here's where i go back to the roots of this company. ralph started with a tie. we could be here 56 years later. part of the company is innovating, expanding, so we're staying true to that. and i always talk about the fact that the only failure is a failure of learning. as long as we capture the learnings it was a success. >> what are you like as leader?

risk take center >> i think people if you ask them throughout my career how they would describe me they would say servant leader. i believe in the fact that my job is to set the team up for success and create the conditions for people to leverage their full potential. if i do that well i'll be fine. i think people would say listener. there's a great quote from a greek philosopher. we have two ears and one moth. and there's a reason for that. people constant learning. ralph is an incredible inspiration. where he is at this stage is constantly learning and i use that as inspiration. i am a measured risk taker i would say. i am not a swing for the fence risk taker but i believe in innovating and trying new things. i love that spirit of just try

things and again learning. >> what's a good day? how do you measure success? >> a good day for me, where i get the greatest excitement is time in the stores. >> do you change things around? >> no. i try to hold myself from doing that. i just listen to the stories that our teams tell me both in terms of how they're engaging with customers. what we could do better in terms of the prand and product, how they're building culture. >> you're committed to the u.k. >> second biggest market for the company. historical market for us and great source of inspiration for ralph. so this is very important to us. >> worst day in the office? >> i haven't had a lot. when the numbers aren't coming through, that never feels very good. but that's welcome to life in the business world. when we're not able to get the balance right between the magic and the logic and the groups are not communicating well and that

can be frustrating. the fashion industry one of the lovely things is it's very emotional. one of the challenging things is it's very emotional. so managing people's emotions. >> were you surprised that even in this cost of living crisis luxury does so well? >> i think people need to dream. when the environment is more challenging and people still need to dream. they need someone who is going to give them hope and bring optimism and i think that's what the best luxury companies do well. >> where will you be in five years? >> we are on an exciting journey as a firm both in terms of expansion geographiccly we'll be stronger in aaron -- asia. we'll be better distributed across europe. we'll be more present in the u.s. i think you'll see our women's business be more successful and larger than what it is today.

i hope i'm still working closely with ralph to bring dreams to life. >> thank you for joining us. >> thank you.