Leading Organizational Transformation with Stanislas de Quercize | S2 Ep5

In our fifth episode of season 2, we speak with Stanislas de Quercize, board member, mentor, founder and president of a family business.

Stanislas was born in France and graduated from the Neoma Business School. He worked first for Procter and Gamble before taking Senior Executive positions in the Richemont Group. His career took him all across the globe and he managed international teams.

To name a few of the prestigious roles he had had, Stanislas was President and CEO of Cartier North America, Global President of Van Clefs and Arpels and Global President and CEO of Cartier.

Stanislas shares his views about what it means build teams and to help them to find their purpose.

We were inspired to speak with Stanislas and learn how his international experience, his well-rounded background has helped him navigate through successful career transitions.  

Connect with us on LinkedIn:

· Vanessa Iloste (Host)

· Vanessa Teo (Host)

· Aaron Wu (Producer)

Transcript

[00:00:00] Vanessa I: Welcome everyone to the next episode of Career Transition. This week we speak with Stanislas de Quercize. Stanislas is a senior executive with over 25 years in luxury at Richemont in various capacities. For the people who do not know, Richemont is a luxury group with brands such as Cartier, Dunhill and Montblanc.

[00:00:26] His last role was president of Richemont France. While at Richemont, he has worked across continents and led several brands as CEO. He's now an entrepreneur, a mentor, and serves on several advisory boards. 

[00:00:41] Vanessa T: This week's conversation was a really inspiring one for us. It focuses on the importance of continuous improvement and visioning in your career.

[00:00:50] And Stanislas talks about how he leveraged teams to bring their creative vision to life, oftentimes beyond their expectation. He's a leader who walks the talk by continuing to reinvent himself every day. We hope that you enjoyed this week's episode and pick up some helpful nuggets of inspiration from this engaging discussion with Stanislas.

[00:01:16] Hi, everyone. Welcome to our new episode of Career Transitions. We're your hosts, Vanessa Iloste and Vanessa Teo. 

[00:01:24] Vanessa I: Today, we are very excited and privileged to introduce our guest, Stanislas de Quercize. Welcome Stanislas, it's great to have you here with us today. 

[00:01:34] Stanislas Q: Thank you very much. It's great to share, to exchange how we can together improve ourselves.

[00:01:39] Vanessa I: Let me introduce you to our audience. You are an entrepreneur. You started your career in marketing with Procter and Gamble. And after that, you have spent 25 years in luxury at Richemont in various capacities. You were a president and CEO of Montblanc in France and in America. You were a vice president of sales and marketing for Alfred Dunhill in London.

[00:02:02] And then you became the director of Cartier France. 

[00:02:06] Vanessa T: And then you moved on to become president and CEO of Cartier North America, and then president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels International. After seven years at Van Cleef & Arpels, you became CEO of Cartier Worldwide. And then president of Richemont, France.

[00:02:24] So today you are helping entrepreneurs in different capacities as a board member, a mentor, and a founder, and president of a family business. 

[00:02:36] Vanessa I: You have had a successful corporate career and you have moved all around the world. Can you share with us some of the key highlights of this journey and how you pivoted in each of these transitions?

[00:02:47] Stanislas Q: Well, the idea Vanessa is, we've got one life to welcome the world and to improve ourselves. We need to improve ourselves every year, every month, every week, every day. In America, we say new year, new you, but it's also new week, new day, new you. We need to improve. Bernard Arnault said we need to improve this desirability of our brands, of our maison every year.

[00:03:08] But we need to improve the desirability for ourselves, for our couples, for our companies every year. We need to improve, improve, improve. And for that, we receive from our parents four assets. We receive a body, a mind, a heart, soul. And we need to improve all of them, all the times. And to do that, what is fantastic is the ability to read again what happened to you yesterday, last week, last month, last year, last 10 years.

[00:03:34] We need to read that again. And there's several ways to do it. First, you need to read again what has been your success, what have been your failure. And what are the suggestions you're learning from your success and failure? And Winston Churchill said, you never lose. You win or you learn. So you're going to learn a lot.

[00:03:52] Second, you need to read regularly. What are your dreams? What are your wishes? What are your hopes? It's very important to visualize your dreams, your hopes, to be able to put them into motions and to realize them. Third, you need to have the success, the reading with a system of kiss. What do you keep? What do you improve?

[00:04:15] What do you stop? What do you start? And last, you need to read again. What are your values? What is your mission? And what is your vision? Your vision is what you're doing in 10 years from now, in 2033. So all that, it's very important. When I was president of Van Cleef & Arpels, I was doing that with the ComEx all the time.

[00:04:36] And I loved the dream we are doing. Every year I ask the ComEx, what is your dreams? Remove the constraints, what are the dreams? And we discuss that during an afternoon. And every year we read again our dreams compared to the reality. And what was fantastic, the reality was always higher than the dreams.

[00:04:52] So we said, let's be more ambitious because if the reality is higher than the dreams, we need to think and see higher. So that's fabulous. The ability to grow, grow, grow every year. Every year you need to improve. Look at your phone. If you've got a phone, your phone is going to tell you a new version. Oh, but I bought this phone one year ago.

[00:05:10] It's improving. I mean, the phone is improving. You need to improve ourselves and you need to improve what you're doing in both the what and the how. And what is important is a teamwork, is very important to have a great organization of your teams between juniors, senior, women, men, European, American, Asian, African.

[00:05:30] It's very, very important to improve all the time and to do an evaluation. Instead of doing that every year, I do that twice a year because we need to improve ourselves. And I was doing the evaluation 360. So Vanessa, I'm going to evaluate you in your what and your how, and you're going to evaluate me in my what and how.

[00:05:48] So we are always looking to improve, improve, improve to ameliorate the desirability. And currently, what is fabulous, you need also to improve the sustainability because all your clients asking you, what are you doing to save the planet. All your employees, what are you doing to save the planet? All your shareholders, what are you doing to save the planet?

[00:06:08] All your governments, what are you doing to save the planet? All your journalists, what are you doing to save the planet? All your children, what are you doing to save the planet? So we need to improve and we live with a sanitary path. Now soon we're going to live with a climate path because we need to avoid 25 percent to be under the water.

[00:06:24] So that's very important. And the second one is Web3. With now, with Web3, you got NFT, New Fabulous Treasure, because it helps to prove the authenticity when you're buying the metaverse, which is helping you to communicate in the world what you're doing. Winston Churchill said, the branches of the tree cannot go further than the roots.

[00:06:44] So it's important to discuss about your origin, your collections. When I was president of Cartier, Van Cleefs & Arpels, we organized exhibition in museums. We love doing that museum because we were putting jewelry next to Picasso, Van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci to show its art. But those exhibitions were local and ephemeral.

[00:07:00] Now with Metaverse, you can go from local to universal, from ephemeral to eternal. 

[00:07:06] Vanessa I: That's great. Tell us, Stanislas, I'm quite curious, it seems to you that all of these improvement processes comes to you very naturally, like a continuous improvement, continuous reflection. Is it something that came to you from the beginning of your career or is it something that you have learned to create with your team members along the way from one position to another?

[00:07:32] Or can you tell us a little bit about your philosophy around that? 

[00:07:36] Stanislas Q: Well, I learned at the beginning at Procter and Gamble because it was also learning by doing. The idea of Procter and Gamble is trying to improve the market rather than the share because it is vital to have a big market. And after that, you will grow if the market is growing.

[00:07:48] So it's more about co conquest than competition. It's co conquering, and the idea, uh Vanessa is, we all are a treasure, we are unique. There's 108 billion humans, 100 billion in the sky, 8 billion on earth, but you're unique. There's only one Vanessa, so you're unique, and you're treasure. So it's in high jury, when it's unique, it's a treasure.

[00:08:10] You know how many ancestors do you have? One billion ancestors. So you're the fruit of 500 billions, 500 millions loves. So you're unique. And you're also the CEO, the president, the chief marketing officer, the chief commercial officer, the HR director of a luxury brand. It's you. You're a luxury brand and, and you're unique, but you're doing commercial marketing, HR.

[00:08:35] It's very important that we move from a society of consumption to a society of transmission, from an egosystem to an ecosystem. But it's very important to say, look, you're going to improve every year, all the time. Not only when you're in school, but when you're working, always you're improving every year, you're better and better and better.

[00:08:54] Even when you left your school, you're part of the alumni, you're an ambassador of your school, and you're mentoring each other. We can mentor each other forever because one day you are junior, but one day you will be senior. And it's fabulous. It's the idea of to improve, improve, improve every day, every week, every month, every year, forever.

[00:09:13] Vanessa T: I love, Stanislas, how you keep talking about improvement. And if there's one thing I keep hearing from you, it's how you've done this improvement year on year and each time challenging yourself to do even more. I'd love to learn some of your lessons from having made your various career transitions. You spent several years working within the Richemont group in different brands like Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc, Dunhill, and all of these are part of the Richemont group.

[00:09:42] Now you've done something quite unique and that's having various career transitions within the same group of the same large organization. And some people think that it might be easier to grow externally, looking at external opportunities in order to grow. But you've done so much of this within your organization.

[00:10:01] Tell us a bit more about that and what is it like to move into different roles within the same group? 

[00:10:08] Stanislas Q: Well, I think it's important. If you want to improve, you say, look, I can improve and contribute to more things. So when I worked nine years at Procter and Gamble, I've done seven different jobs. During 27 years, I've done nine different jobs in different countries that were started in France, then America, UK, France, Switzerland, and the world. So I think it's, it's great. And it's great that you say, look, you're offering to your company, to your CEO, to your shareholders. You can contribute more and I can grow and help the company to grow. So that's important. It's important to have the vision of what do you want to be in three years, five years, seven years, 10 years, and you want to contribute more.

[00:10:45] So obviously manage more people, manage more geographies and contribute more and transmit to more people how to do it. 

[00:10:53] Vanessa T: You've had a very impressive career moving between continents and leading very diverse teams across all these different countries. Can you share more with our listeners what you've learned from that journey and how your leadership style has also evolved over the years?

[00:11:09] Stanislas Q: Well, I think Vanessa, first, we are put to the world. I don't know where you're born, but you're born usually in a city, in a country, in a continent. But in fact, your parents are transmitting life to you, to the world, so you belong to the world. And the universe is big. And it's great because you learn from each other.

[00:11:23] What I love is to have meetings with all over the world saying, okay, we can learn, you know, Europe, we can learn from Asia, you can learn from Europe, America, you can learn from each other. Junior, we can learn from senior, senior, we can learn from junior, men, we can learn from women, women from men. The idea was, let's discuss, let's share, let's exchange and let's create.

[00:11:42] And also there's a lot of tourists, so the people love to go from one country to another one because you're creating emotions. For example, at Van Cleef & Arpels at one point of time, I said, look, we need to create emotions so people can buy in boutiques, but let's create an emotion, we're going to create events.

[00:11:56] We're going to invite clients because we're going to invite them. And so first they're going to discover new locations, new potential friends, because we have invited them with lovers of high jewelry so that we discover new potential friends. And we're going to let them discover a new high jewelry collection.

[00:12:12] And we did the first exhibition in Paris for the 100 years anniversary of Van Cleef & Arpels. It was a gala and a dance in the Jardin des Tuileries. And after that, the cruise on the Seine river. And after that, an exhibition in an art gallery. And we wanted to change event every year. One day we did an event at Buckingham Palace. I can tell you all the clients said, wow, you invited me at Buckingham Palace! With the king, Prince Charles and Camellia, and we invited them first class ticket to bring them to Buckingham Palace. We were dancing, there was a concert, and then we were eating on the gold plate of the Queen. And after that, in a salon, we were showing them the high jewelries.

[00:12:49] Then we remember forever saying, Oh, you have bought this necklace in Buckingham Palace. So that's great to create emotions and every year to have new emotions. 

[00:12:58] Vanessa T: Stanislas, I love how you talk about learning. I love how you talk about discovering new things every year and learning and improving. 

[00:13:06] Stanislas Q: Yes, that's an old mission we all share to improve, to improve the world, the how, forever.

[00:13:12] For the moment, there's an improvement to save the planet, which is a real luxury. So the importance is to be able to sell what you've been producing. I discovered that when I was president of Cartier in America, I want to see the number one watch wholesaler and ask them, what are your bestseller? They told me Rolex. Pre-owned Cartier. 

[00:13:30] Asked three times a question saying Pre-owned or the West brand. I don't know that. Then I realized for me it's, it's vintage secondhand. It's from, I call it pre loved. I realized that, oh, but the earth has been pre loved, uh, for million of years by 108 billion human. one hundred billion sky, eight billion here.

[00:13:47] The real estate, wherever you buy, wherever you live, in an apartment, a house, a castle, a vineyard, an office, a boutique, you have been pre loved. You have been pre loved, and it's like you've been pre loved by your parents, grandparents, brother, sister, companion, children if you have children. So it's human, eternal, humanitarian, but what about brands?

[00:14:07] Look at the car industry, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Ferrari, Tesla, BMW, Mercedes. I told you I'm selling to you, repair it, I will buy it back and sell it back. For example, 30 percent of the business of Porsche is pre sold, pre loved. And when I was president of Van Cleefs & Arpels, I started a program of buying back high end jewelry, which I love. 

[00:14:26] It's win for the sellers. Thank you very much. I got one necklace to Daughter. Win for the workshop. Oh look, Vanessa, 1920 Necklace, very interesting. By the way, which we're going to create today, need to be great in 100 years from now. Win for the buyer, authentified. There's 30% counterfeited in luxury. Authentifies and uh, decarbonated. Win for the brand, you're building loyalty. Whatever you buy today, you can sell in six months, six years, sixty years, and win for the planet. Win for the seller, the workshop, the buyer, the brands, the Maison, and the planet. 

[00:14:58] I've made an interview of Richard Mille, saying, Richard Mille, you're a pioneer in watches. He told me, yes, because I love the cars. I've got 12 beautiful cars. So beautiful. I've loved real estate. I've got two castles. So I've said it's possible for real estate cars, should be possible for watches. I'm happy to do it because now it's the seller is selling it more expensively than we bought it. The buyer is happy because it's authentic price, decarbonated.

[00:15:21] The brand is happy we are building loyalty on the planet. And now since he's done it, Rolex just did it in January. Cartier is doing it with Watchfinder and Bushware. And now we have startups. We never had so much entrepreneurial spirit. We never had so much tech. And now for the first time, David and Goliath are working together.

[00:15:39] What does it mean? Goliath is a big group, David is a startup. Look at the COVID, the big group, Sanofi said they didn't find the vaccine. Moderna, a startup, said we have found it and they're working together. Look in luxury, Kering said I'm interested buy pre love. I don't know how to do it. Uh, working with Vestiaire Collective.

[00:15:55] Richemont said I'm interested by preloved, second hand vintage, I don't know how to do it. Working with Watchfinder. And now you've got startups like Valorem, dismantling unsold items to give you back 80 percent of the raw materials. So it's great. 

[00:16:08] Vanessa I: That's fascinating. I just wanted to ask you about your leadership style, because this is something that is one of your signature.

[00:16:17] And the way I got to know you is actually through one of your mentors. So one of your mentors actually talked to me about you, and he put us in contact, and this is how we got to know each other. And one of the things that really surprised me is how much that person, your mentee, who is also my mentor, He's a big fan of you and how much he's inspired by you.

[00:16:39] So I was just wondering among all these people that you have coached, that you have trained, that you have led, how did you manage to create so much inspiration around you, Stanislas? 

[00:16:49] Stanislas Q: Well, I think the idea in Spanish is that we're all brothers and sisters. We're all humans. We're all mortal. So we share everything.

[00:16:56] It's very important to have team spirits, to win all together. My military service says within the Navy, French Navy, and if you're on a boat, you either succeed together or you fail together. So in business, we need to work together and to succeed together. That's why teamwork is very important. So I work to share success with all the people and to be a benevolent and also demanding. Sometimes I'm very positive about you, I'm positive about clients, about new employees, about everything. We need to be positive. You know how many thoughts you have every day? 

[00:17:28] Vanessa I: In your mind, it looks like it's many, many, maybe less in my mind. 

[00:17:31] Stanislas Q: 80, 000. All humans, we have on average 80, 000 thoughts.

[00:17:35] What is the percentage of negative thoughts? 

[00:17:38] Vanessa I: It must be a lot, I think, no? 

[00:17:40] Stanislas Q: 80%. So, apparently, it's because when our ancestors were in the grotto, they survived because they looked at the wolves, the lions, and the snakes. But the media is saying, oh, you're interested by what doesn't work, the negative, I'm going to push the negative.

[00:17:53] I love America because in America you say, self fulfilling prophecy, tomorrow will be better than today. It's important to focus on what's positive. Because whatever you look at, whatever you focus will improve. So if you focus on what's negative, it's going to increase. If you focus on what's positive, it's going to increase.

[00:18:09] I believe it's very important to focus on what's positive and to say, look, we need to win together. We need to improve together every year, forever. And it's, the idea is win, win, win junior or senior, win women, men, win European, American, Asian. That's fabulous. 

[00:18:26] Vanessa T: Stanislas, it is so inspirational listening to you and the number of people I'm sure that you've inspired throughout your career.

[00:18:33] And now as you transition into a different role, I'd love to just hear about this transition that you've made. After so many years in, in your corporate career, you have reinvented yourself as a mentor, as an entrepreneur, and you also sit on a couple of boards as well. How did you go about making your transition?

[00:18:52] And what are some of those new skills that you've picked up along the way? 

[00:18:56] Stanislas Q: Well, I think it's important to improve always. So now I'm in nine boards in Luxury, Louboutin, Messica, Barnes International Real Estate, two investment fund, Caravelle, the fund on Web3, Luxury art, music, sports. We're investing in startup of digital disruption and 80 percent of startups that bring solutions to the planet.

[00:19:14] I believe in circular economy, so I've created the Chair of Circular Economy at Essec, which is the top ranked business school, with L'Oréal. I've created the New Federation of Circular Fashion, because fashion is the second pollution of the world. So I've created this. I'm also board of the American Friends of the Louvre to develop the culture, thanks to American.

[00:19:33] I'm also a member of the board of Remy Cointreau about transmission. I believe it's created a new price, a price of long lasting love. Because, you know, a couple is where you're going to learn to love. We are going to learn to discuss, share, transmit, forgive, find solutions in conflict. If it's working with your couple, it's going to be very successful with your children, with your families, and also with your company.

[00:19:57] So you're starting at two, you're going to end up at eight billions. And in love, you're going to have highs, you need to celebrate. You will have lows, you need to repair. So we are rewarding startups last year. Four startups, three associations that find solutions. This year five startups, four associations and it's very important because there's a French singer, Johnny, we said light the fire.

[00:20:17] Yeah, it's great to light the fire of war love. If you have a garden, take care of the garden. It's going to be good jungle. So it's very important about the couples. As I mentioned earlier, we've got four assets: body, heart, mind, soul. And we need to improve all of them always. For that you need also to have coach, mentor, because you need to learn.

[00:20:34] And I love that, you know, every year I'm taking ways to improve my heart, my body, my soul, and my spirit, because we can always improve. And that's fabulous. 

[00:20:43] Vanessa I: You do a lot of multitasking, Stanislas, with all this position you're having, because today you are most probably having six or seven lives at the same time in one month.

[00:20:54] Is that correct? 

[00:20:55] Stanislas Q: Yeah, but also I'm a mentor. What I love in the mentor, in life, you're always a junior, you will end up being senior. You're a mentor, you're going to mentor a mentor. And it's win win. In the case of mentoring, both are winning. 

[00:21:08] Vanessa I: One of the things that I'm very curious about is the work you're doing around couples.

[00:21:13] So you were explaining to us that it's very important for you to support long lasting couples because you think that this is at the heart of success, whether in family or in career. How did you get the idea of starting an association and starting supporting couples, Stanislas? 

[00:21:31] Stanislas Q: I believe that it's vital to improve a marriage in 37 years.

[00:21:36] And we had a high level and low level. At one point of time, we lost our first child. Albon was only five weeks old. It was a big drama. And then we took a coach to help each other. And uh, we said, let's improve our couple every year. And when Albon was buried, the priest said, Albon, he was loved and he loved. He had a successful life.

[00:21:56] Let's also have a successful life. I was 30 years old. I said, Oh my God, we can have a successful life without walking, talking, working. So it's only being loved, love, and being loved. That's very interesting. So whatever happens in your life, you can always learn something. But I love the fact that with my wife, every year we're taking lessons to improve our couple.

[00:22:16] And now we are helping couples more than 30 years. Because we can always improve, improve, improve. And if you're improving life with your couple, you're going to improve the life with your children, your parents, your brother, your sister, your boss, your employees, all the world. So it's much better. 

[00:22:34] Vanessa I: That's really good and it really touches our heart what you are doing with the couples.

[00:22:38] I think it's also remarkable and very enlightening that a male executive like you is talking about couples. I think there are some women out there talking about it, but having a successful male executive is quite interesting. It's actually opening up the topic to everyone. So thank you for doing that.

[00:22:56] This is great. 

[00:22:57] Stanislas Q: Now Vanessa, we are talking more and more about durable economy, durable environment, but let's talk about durable couples because I love jewelry and jewelry is a way to express love and friendship. And jewelry, you can repair it, you can restore it, you can transmit it from generation to generation.

[00:23:13] The oldest jewelry is 50, 000 years old. So it's very important to be able to improve, improve, improve and restore. And that's great. I love it. I love it. 

[00:23:22] Vanessa T: Stanislas, if there's one word I've written down repeatedly from what you've said, it's improve, improve, improve. And you've taken this not just in business, but also in the way that you coach and mentor people and also into families and, and the way that you look at relationships.

[00:23:39] So it's really, really admirable. I've written down so many notes about what you've just talked about. If there were three tips that you would like to, to share with our audience. In summary of all the things that you've just shared with us, what would the three key takeaways be for our audience today?

[00:23:57] Stanislas Q: Well, first, develop your values, your mission, and your vision because you're a lecturer against yourself. It is very important that you express your values, your mission, and your vision of you in 10 years. Second, it's very important to improve by re reading not only what you're doing, but your couple, your family, your company, your business.

[00:24:17] So read again, as I mentioned, with what has been your success, your failure, your suggestion. What is your dream? What are your dreams, your hopes, your wishes? What do you keep improve, stop, start and what are your values, your mission, your vision? And third, share, share, share, because we're all mortal. I can tell you in 100 years, I will not be there.

[00:24:37] So let's transmit, let's transmit because the COVID reminded us that we need to find solutions for all over the world. Now it's the climate change. So let's transmit and it's better to do in the spirit of co conquest to improve the market than competition. It's better to be entrepreneurial than to vocifer and to criticize.

[00:24:56] So it's better to focus on what's positive and to improve to find solutions rather than focus on the problems. 

[00:25:02] Vanessa I: Thank you so much, Stanislas, I think we got more than three tips with you, we got many more tips actually than what we bargained for, so we're very grateful to you. I was told the first time I heard about you that you were a great human being and also a person with a very, very strong humanistic values.

[00:25:21] I can see that very clearly and, um, I feel very privileged that today we talked to you, so I want to say a big thank you for joining us today. We are really grateful for the time we had with you and we wish you all the best in all the many, many conquests that you are having today. And we look forward to talking to you soon.

[00:25:39] So thank you everyone for joining us and see you on the podcast very soon. 

[00:25:44] Stanislas Q: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.