Run your business like an old craft guild

If you were starting a luxury brand today and wanted it to last a hundred years, Hermès is the obvious one to study. The lesson is not what most people expect. To scale like a modern giant, you have to run the business like an 18th-century guild.

Most new brands start with the things you can see: design, marketing, the right people wearing it. Hermès starts with the workshop. Four things stand out.

Build around something that can't be rushed. A Hermès bag is made by one craftsperson, start to finish, in somewhere around 18 to 25 hours. You can't automate that, and you can't suddenly make twice as many. That limit is the point. It turns the product from something you buy into something you wait for, and it gives the brand pricing power that marketing alone never could. If you're starting out, tie your core product to a skill or material that doesn't scale easily, and keep the making close to home rather than handing it to a factory you've never visited.

Own what goes into it. Hermès has spent years buying tanneries and workshops. If you rely on the open market for your most important material, you're exposed to price rises, shortages, and a competitor with a bigger cheque. Owning, or locking in, your suppliers protects quality and keeps the margin in the business. You won't do this on day one. But it should be on the plan from day one.

Spend on the product, not the noise. Hermès spends far less on advertising than most fashion houses. No celebrity faces on every billboard, very little paid hype. The money goes into the product and the shops instead, and the waiting lists do the talking. Hype fades. Quiet confidence lasts. If you have to shout for attention, you're telling people the product can't speak for itself.

Don't be a one-product brand. Plenty of people walk into Hermès for a bag. Most walk out with something else: a scarf, a belt, something for the home. The bag gets you through the door, and everything around it is treated with the same care. A brand that lives on one "it" item is one trend away from trouble. Build the family of products around the hero, and make the smaller things feel just as special.

None of this is quick. That's rather the point. Most of what we've been taught about growing a brand is about going faster: more reach, more channels, more product. Hermès does the opposite and has some of the best margins in any industry.

It's also why I think craft is becoming something brands need to explain, not just practise. When someone asks an AI about a bag, the answer should know where the leather comes from, how it's made and by whom. With L.E.N. we map exactly that: the materials, the craft, the designer and where each piece is made. A brand like Hermès has spent nearly two centuries earning that story. It deserves to be told accurately.

I don't think every business should copy it. But it's worth asking which parts of yours you'd protect if growing slower meant lasting longer.