The Balancing Act of Luxury Industry Professionals

Alexander Calder’s mobile, Red Lily Pads (1956)

“When everything goes right, a mobile is a piece of poetry that dances with the joy of life.” — Alexander Calder (1898–1976)

Working with Luxury
When I work with stakeholders in the luxury industry, regardless of the specific nature of our collaboration, I always try to keep in mind and embrace the inherent tensions that drive luxury. By doing so, I aim to help my clients recognize, embrace and capitalize on these tensions as consciously as possible within the framework of their professional responsibilities.

The luxury sector is filled with numerous paradoxes: exclusivity and accessibility, technological innovation and artisanal tradition, heritage and modernity, local identity (“Swiss Made”) and global presence, sustainability and ephemerality, and many more. These tensions constitute and define luxury. They contribute to the unique emotional aura of luxury brands and to their fascinating complexity.

Consulting in Luxury
To help my clients express their sensitivity, strengths, and skills when faced with the challenges they encounter, I strive to be both rational and emotional in my approach, both factual and symbolic in my interventions. My role as a consultant, executive coach, or organizational psychologist — depending on the title that best suits my clients — is first and foremost to create a clear and rigorous framework. This framework supports action, maintains focus and continuity, while also allowing enough flexibility and space for creativity, spontaneity, and imagination to flourish, meet the unexpected, and inspire action and innovation.

At times, the focus is on reinforcing structure and rules, reminding of the framework, its reliability, and its boundaries, ensuring together that the rational consistency of practices is maintained. This prevents stagnation in habits and defensive beliefs and ensures that we stay on course and accomplish the ‘primary task’ that brought us together under our contract.

At other times, the aim is to stimulate reflective practice by creating, in the midst of action, a space where reflection on action can emerge. By listening to both oneself and the organization, thoughts, emotions, and actions can be assessed to uncover previously unrecognized opportunities that focus on producing meaningful outcomes for the future. At times, when the group feels confident enough, reflection may take the form of a shared ‘reverie,’ where free associations influence and resonate with each other, leading to new and unexpected metaphors that inspire action and shape its meaning. These metaphors may help reveal what had previously been unthought of: by welcoming and analyzing them, they can offer valuable insight into organizational dynamics and emotional challenges, ultimately helping to make more informed decisions.

Aspiring to Luxury Leadership
For those working in the luxury industry, who wish to not only survive but thrive, regardless of their personality, functional or hierarchical responsibilities, or the size of their teams, the task is always to navigate — with both discipline and creativity — the paradoxes of luxury in a permanent dynamic balance. Ultimately, the goal is to offer extraordinary experiences, mediated by an object or service, that resonate with the desires of the brand’s clients and those who aspire to join them. The challenge is both complex and emotional. While luxury inspires fantasies and dreams, it must also remain grounded in reality. Luxury must constantly strike a balance between staying rooted in the real world and inspiring almost unattainable dreams.

The more those who work in the luxury industry are able to integrate their own aspirations, ambivalences and contradictions, the more they are able to recognize and exploit the paradoxes that drive luxury. This enables them to explore new creative paths and give voice to new inspirations, pushing back the boundaries of what was imaginable, conceivable and achievable. The splendor of luxury can then also unfold in a leadership that is both rigorous and creative, embracing and embodying its complexity with coherence — a leadership that stands apart from the ordinary, and in which some might even find beauty.