francine: gabrielle chanel was like a pioneer. and i feel like, when you talk about her, it's also maybe telling a little bit about your story. i mean, you have a unique story. you grew up in a town in india where not many females were educated to a higher level. leena: yes. francine: so what was that journey like? leena: it was a long journey. it is -- i grew up in a small town in the southwest of india called kolhapur. and the world of luxury, refinement, sophistication was very far away from where i grew up. it was a small town like any other. most of my memories of me running barefoot in the town, or having my little bike and riding around. women being ambitious was not the norm. in fact, i remember my mother constantly telling me, "who will marry you, you are so ambitious," and "do you really know what you're going to do with your life?" and so, very limited access to role models, to opportunities. i did engineering after sort of convincing everybody in my family that engineering was good for girls, which was great. it was el

francine: gabrielle chanel was like a pioneer. and i feel like, when you talk about her, it's also maybe telling a little bit about your story. you have a unique story. you grew up in a town in india where not many females were educated to a higher level. leena: yes. francine: so what was that journey like? leena: it was a long journey. it is -- i grew up in a small town in the southwest of india called kolhapur. and the world of luxury, refinement, sophistication was very far away from where i grew up. it was a small town like any other. most of my memories of me running barefoot in the town, or having my little bike and riding around. women being ambitious was not the norm. in fact, i remember my mother constantly telling me, "who will marry you, you are so ambitious," and "do you really know what you're going to do with your life?" and so, very limited access to role models, to opportunities. i did engineering after sort of convincing everybody in my family that engineering was good for girls, which was great. it was electronic

it has a certain thing that gabrielle chanel would have loved.hat have you learned about yourself as chief executive? you were in charge of hr at unilever. it's a massive company, hundreds, thousands of employees. is it different actually being in charge of a company than being in leena nair on transition from unilever to chanel? leena: when i was moved into chanel, a mentor told me you're doing a quadruple jump start. it's a change on so many dimensions. public to private. anglo-dutch to french heritage. i have weekly french classes. it has been a change on all dimensions. luxury is so different, all the preciousness, the rarity. it's not available everywhere, every time. it is the balance between timeless, a quest for new. it is all of that. to me, the principles of business and the principles of leadership are transferable across sectors. how to run business across multiple countries, multiple product categories, multiple geographies, multiple cultures how to galvanize and inspire teams across again, multiple cultures, there are principles whi

gabrielle chanel lived the life she wanted. courageously, passionately.e wanted courageously, passionately. and one of our values is audacity. you know, so for me, audacity is so important. you call it risk taking, i call it audacity. francine: i actually prefer audacity. it has a certain cachet that i'm sure gabrielle chanel would have loved. what have you learned about yourself as chief executive? so you were in charge of hr for unilever. it's a massive company. it's hundreds, thousands of employees. i mean, is it different actually being in charge of a company than being in charge of hr? leena: when i was moving to chanel, a mentor told me you're doing a quadruple jump start. so, it's change on so many dimensions. it's public to private. it's fmc to luxury. it's from anglo-dutch to french heritage. i have weekly french classes. so it's been change on all dimensions. luxury is very different for me. some sieges, you know, the preciousness, the rarity. it's not available everywhere. every time. it's the balance between timeless quest for new. it's all of