Leena Nair, Global CEO, Chanel

Ayesha Karnik 0:00 [on-hold music]

Ayesha Karnik 0:05 Leena, welcome to the GSB.

Leena Nair 0:08 Delighted, delighted to be here in a room full of bright, enthusiastic people. What can be better?

Ayesha Karnik 0:14 [laughs]

Leena Nair 0:15 And I must say I'm really happy to be here with my family. My husband and both my boys are here. I'm pretty sure they never watch any of the links I send them.

Ayesha Karnik 0:24 [laughs]

Speaker 0:24 [laughs]

Leena Nair 0:24 So this is true captive audience. I wanna make it count.

Ayesha Karnik 0:27 [laughs]

Leena Nair 0:28 And I'm very happy to have members of Team Chanel here with me, so great to have the full Team Chanel and family support here.

Ayesha Karnik 0:39 Well, I know the GSB is happy to have-

Leena Nair 0:41 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 0:41 ... all of you, and Leena, you here today as well. I think it's safe to say everyone here knows Chanel.

Leena Nair 0:46 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 0:47 And today we are excited to get to know you.

Leena Nair 0:51 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 0:51 And when I think about your journey, the first thing that comes to mind is, well, the word first. You were part of the first batch of girls to graduate from your hometown high school. You were the first woman in your family to pursue a higher education in engineering, the first woman to work the night shift on a factory floor at Hindustan Unilever, and it keeps going.

Leena Nair 1:14 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 1:15 The first and youngest female leader of global HR at Unilever, and the first woman of color to lead a luxury major brand, and specifically, the first Indian global CEO of Chanel, and arguably the most exciting, your first View From The Top.

Leena Nair 1:32 [laughs]

Speaker 1:33 [laughs]

Leena Nair 1:34 Yes. [laughs]

Speaker 1:39 [laughs]

Leena Nair 1:41 Good.

Ayesha Karnik 1:41 Leena, it's so inspirational to see all these firsts, especially knowing the challenges that can come with it. You've talked about how you've been underestimated in the past, sometimes felt like an outsider, and I know many of us here at the GSB have felt that. How have you dealt with that across your career?

Leena Nair 2:02 You know, when I look back, I can see the number of people who said, "No, it can't be done. No, it can't be done." And I remember growing up, and I grew up in a small town in India, on the west of India, and I remember everything was a negotiation. Studying, going for engineering was a negotiation because not enough women from the town had ever gone for engineering. And I remember my mom saying, "Oh, my God, you're so ambitious. Who's gonna marry you?" Because that was, like, the number one concern.

Ayesha Karnik 2:29 [laughs]

Speaker 2:29 [laughs]

Leena Nair 2:29 How is this girl ever gonna find a husband and, and she's so ambitious. So I think it takes a lot of resilience, for sure. I often joke about it that I have a thick skin. I know I met some founders this morning who were saying, "It's so hard. You're, you're too pretty, it's tough. You're tough, it's... You're tough, then you're too tough." As a woman, managing this line of liking, respecting, getting admiration, but not too much, being liked, but not too much, being respected, but not too much, is such a difficult one. So I definitely think it taught me resilience. It gave me a heck of a lot of determination and drive. It taught me to take every opportunity with both hands, to grab it, never take it for granted. You know, when I was going for MBA, I was going to an institute which was in the other end of India, so in the east. It used to take 48 hours by train to reach from my town, Kolhapur, to reach Jamshedpur. And as far as my family was concerned, that was another planet. So I used to... Going that way, it used to take a lot to be able to go there and do that, so when I reached XLRI Jamshedpur, I was, like, so determined. I've got this opportunity to study. I'm gonna give it everything I've got. So you never take an opportunity for granted. And a lot of times I had to continuously remember that it's a privilege to be first, but I don't want to be the last. I don't want to be the last person doing this job, or the last person in, running this factory, or the last person running this brand, the last woman doing it. So lift as you climb has become a huge mantra for me. How do I ensure I make it easier for those who come after me? Because this is not just about me. It's bigger than that. How do I make it easier always?

Ayesha Karnik 4:17 And it's amazing to hear about that resilience you're talking about from such an early childhood because you were a little different from the norm from where you grew up.

Leena Nair 4:25 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 4:25 Like you said, Leena, you're from Kolhapur, Maharashtra, which if you'll let me, a quick shout-out to my parents, who are also here today-

Leena Nair 4:32 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 4:32 ... and are originally from Maharashtra. And so-

Leena Nair 4:35 Oh, my God.

Ayesha Karnik 4:35 [laughs]

Leena Nair 4:37 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 4:37 What are the odds?

Speaker 4:38 [laughs]

Leena Nair 4:39 Okay. " [foreign language] ."

Ayesha Karnik 4:42 [laughs]

Leena Nair 4:42 I just [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 4:45 For those of you-

Leena Nair 4:45 Translation, being your daughter is very dry.

Ayesha Karnik 4:47 [laughs]

Speaker 4:48 [laughs]

Leena Nair 4:49 So.

Ayesha Karnik 4:50 But like you mentioned, you almost didn't get to go to high school.

Leena Nair 4:54 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 4:54 You went to an engineering degree with 3,000 men and 18 women, and like you said, yes, your mom was worried about, you know, you finding a husband, but you also were told you're so talented you should have been a boy.

Leena Nair 5:08 Yeah.

Ayesha Karnik 5:08 So take us back a little bit there. How did you even learn to build that resilience in the first place?

Leena Nair 5:14 Ah. You know, those are tricks I still use today. I'm absolute believer in affirmations. I'm constantly affirming. Finding sponsors, finding mentors, finding people, because I didn't have role models in my immediate family, but reaching out to people. I remember there was a newspaper article about, um, you know, the state topper. There was an article a- about him. I just reached out to him and said, "Hey, how did you do this? What are your techniques for studying?" And he was kind and generous enough to spend time with me, and it became something that he invested in as well. "How do you do? Are you using the techniques? Is it working for you?" So somewhere I think deep down I felt that if you're committed and you have deep intent, you will figure out a way because somebody has figured out a way, and if you are humble enough to reach out to them, you will figure out a way. So that's something that stayed with me. A huge love for learning. I love learning new things. Right now, of course, learning French is difficult.

Ayesha Karnik 6:13 [laughs]

Leena Nair 6:15 But, you know, continuously learning. Curiosity, being humble, and always saying, "I don't know. I wanna find out how to do it." That's helped. But I was so hungry when I met people who were doing something interesting, I would say, "Hey, can you spend some time with me? Can you have coffee with me? Can you do this with me?" I was always reaching out to people, anybody who inspired me, all the time. And yes, it got easier. I mean, Kumar has been a huge rock and anchor for me. You know, one of the stories I must tell you, I was, uh, traveling this 48-hour journey, and my father was a big sponsor for my education.

Ayesha Karnik 6:50 Mm-hmm.

Leena Nair 6:50 He said, "I will educate you, but I can't promise that you will have a career because I don't know if my attitudes are gonna change, mindset is gonna change. I can't change the world around you, but I'll educate you." And he said, uh, "You're gonna go so far away. I will send you on the promise that you will marry the man I choose for you to marry-

Ayesha Karnik 7:09 [laughs]

Leena Nair 7:09 ... before you turn 23." Okay, and I thought, "Ah, okay. Whatever. Whatever. Let me just sign up for this. Let me just get going on that train." I thought, you know, two years is a long time to come back and negotiate with him.

Ayesha Karnik 7:21 [laughs]

Speaker 7:22 [laughs]

Leena Nair 7:22 You know? Fine. But he didn't forget, and I was working in Unilever as a management trainee, and I turned 23. On my birthday he called up and he said-

Ayesha Karnik 7:32 [laughs]

Leena Nair 7:32 ... "I have someone I want you to meet." I said, "You must be kidding me. I'm not meeting anybody. I'm now this, you know, newly flourishing MBA. I know better. I'm not doing this." And, uh, he insisted. He said, "A promise is a promise. You said you'd go to XLRI if I, you know, chose the man you'd marry." And I met my husband. I met him.

Ayesha Karnik 7:51 Wow.

Leena Nair 7:51 And we had coffee, and I said yes in 30 minutes, believe it or not.

Speaker 7:55 [laughs]

Leena Nair 7:56 And we've been married for 30 years.

Ayesha Karnik 7:58 Amazing.

Leena Nair 7:59 So it's been, it's been great to have the support system of your family. That's so important to keep going, to have the courage. And I do think that learning to embrace failure was important for me early on. You know, truly not dreading failure. I know it's easy to say, but genuinely when you fail, take a moment to say, "Oh my God, this has been such a huge learning experience." You know, when I fail, I'm disappointed. I cry. I cry easily. I go to the loo, I cry, I'm done.

Speaker 8:27 [laughs]

Leena Nair 8:27 It's all done. It's over. It's a fresh day. Get out there. Put on my, you know, good face. Get out. But failures have taught me so much more, and the beauty is once you embrace failure, you can take risks. Because once you've learned to embrace failure, you know you can do it. You can dust yourself up, get up again. You get more audacious and more risk-taking.

Ayesha Karnik 8:50 Well, one of those risks that you took was after getting your engineering degree, you wanted to go against the grain a little bit again and shift into human resources.

Leena Nair 8:59 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 9:00 Can you tell us a little bit about that decision and what made you make that shift?

Leena Nair 9:04 Ah. You know, I did engineering. I worked as an engineer. I didn't enjoy it as much. I'm not allowed to say I'm a lousy engineer-

Ayesha Karnik 9:12 [laughs]

Leena Nair 9:12 ... because the founders I met this morning, who are in the audience, and thank you, StartX founders, told me, "No, no, you can't say that," because that doesn't make women aspire for as much technical careers.

Ayesha Karnik 9:23 [laughs]

Leena Nair 9:23 You know? We're technical, we're fashion, we rock the world, we're everything.

Ayesha Karnik 9:27 Ooh.

Speaker 9:27 [laughs]

Leena Nair 9:27 Yeah, so, [laughs] so, um, I, I didn't enjoy coding as much, and I wanted to do my management studies. I did management studies, and somehow I felt that I was more drawn towards things that engaged people, that felt, you know, skills to motivate, inspire, galvanize people. It just felt it came more naturally to me. But to be honest, I wasn't 100% sure. Joined Unilever as a management trainee. Worked ground up, did sales, marketing, factory, worked in supply chain, worked in production, worked across the spectrum of jobs. And I felt that no matter what job I did, my greatest gift was being able to know the people. I remember I was in this factory very early on in a place called Pithajung, absolute back of beyond, 40 acres of factory, and every morning I used to go on my rounds to see what had happened in production the night before. And of course the logbooks were there, but I found that by just listening to the people who'd run the machines, who'd be in the, you know, created the glycerin plant or the fine chemicals unit. If I talked to them about what had happened and really deeply listened, without any judgment, without putting my own stuff in there, without any arrogance, I would learn so much more than what was written in the logbook. And that became my... You know, I started realizing there was a real draw in this. I enjoyed it. I learned from it. And that's where I started leaning more and more towards doing human resource jobs. Yeah. And, uh, the rest is history. I had the chance to lead, uh, human resources for Unilever, which was an incredible experience. We have 150,000 people in Unilever working in 190 countries. So yes, that was a lot of people to learn how to inspire, galvanize, work with.

Ayesha Karnik 11:22 And that humility in your leadership made you such an inspirational global chief human resources officer after 30 years of being at Unilever, and you've done it, like you said, on such an unimaginable scale. What advice do you have for us in building company culture that effectively hires and retains top talent at all levels of the organization on that kind of massive, diverse scale?

Leena Nair 11:49 You know, it's, the one thing, to transform a culture, the most important things are role modeling by senior leaders. You cannot drive a behavior that you don't see exemplified by people at the top. So that's a big one to invest in. If you wanna transform culture, leaders have to walk the talk. They have to do what they say, say what they do every single day consistently, no exceptions. You've got to incentivize and compensate for the right behaviors. So driving culture starts in many ways from knowing what drives people in the company, and having a shared purpose and meaning in what you do. Yeah. So being at Unilever, one of my purpose always is how do I ignite the spark in others? How do I make others believe they can do anything in life? How can I make others jump five steps more than they ever thought? How can I ignite that sense of self-belief? That gets me going. So driving culture also needs people to know why they are in a company, what difference they make, what's meaningful for them. But role modeling, big one. You have to role model the behaviors you seek.

Ayesha Karnik 13:06 And you ignited that spark in so many people at Unilever, especially the women. Like the dean mentioned, under your leadership, Unilever achieved gender parity across every ran- management role globally. What did it take to achieve that?

Leena Nair 13:22 [laughs] A lot of hard work.

Ayesha Karnik 13:23 [laughs]

Leena Nair 13:25 You know, because of my background, always being in the minority, always being in the underrepresented set, I knew what the journey was. Now, to truly gender balance an organization, you need to support the women, you need to work with the men, and you need to change the culture, and you need to do all three at the same time. So what I mean by supporting the women is genuinely supporting women to have ability to express their ambition and feel confidence. I know I feel horrible saying this, but it's difficult. I told you my story. When I was growing up, I was always told girls are not good enough, girls can't do this, girls can't have careers. So suddenly to imagine that I would turn age 22 and have tremendous ambition and tremendous courage, it's not easy. You know?

Ayesha Karnik 14:12 Mm-hmm.

Leena Nair 14:12 So there's more work to be done to support men, women particularly to have ambition. In my job, I used to read hundreds of appraisals, and almost without exception, and men, you have to forgive me, the men in the audience, because I'm generalizing. Almost without exception, the men will write, "I'm so ready to be CEO. Why don't they already give it to me? I'm, like, so ready. I'm confident. I got all the skills."

Ayesha Karnik 14:34 [laughs]

Leena Nair 14:35 And the women will write, "I think I take, I'll take a long more time to get ready. I want to excel in my current job. That's what I want to do." And it's a little bit about getting used to being able to express your ambition. So to truly gender balance, you have to support women to feel good about expressing their ambition. You know, you walk into, in Unilever too, no exception. It's different in Chanel because Gabriel Chanel was a female founder.

Ayesha Karnik 14:59 [laughs]

Leena Nair 14:59 You have corridors and corridors of portraits of men who've led Unilever. So you're continuously only seeing male role models. Every day you walk into work, you walk through these corridors, you walk through these boardrooms, not a single woman anywhere, not in any portrait staring at you.

Ayesha Karnik 15:16 Mm-hmm.

Leena Nair 15:17 So you've got to support the women to feel confident and to feel ambitious. You've got to support the men because men are in influential power places. Men d- are gender blind. They think it's the same. [laughs] Women, men have the same challenges. What's the big deal? So you've gotta take men on the journey, and you've got to change the culture. But it happens appointment by appointment. Every time you appoint a person, you have to say, "Show me the shortlist." It's got a equal number of talented men and talented women, and then you make the appointment based on merit, but the shortlist has to be balanced, and you've gotta do this for every job, every appointment, every promotion. So yes, it takes hard work. It takes relentlessness, but it's fantastic when it happens.

Ayesha Karnik 16:02 And it's fantastic to us see that you've done that at such a big scale. I think it's inspirational for everybody else who's gonna be leading organizations. Now, Leena, after 30 years, Unilever is kind of like your family.

Leena Nair 16:15 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 16:15 You're comfortable, you're successful. You could have stayed there for the rest of your career, but then you get a call from Chanel.

Leena Nair 16:22 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 16:22 Bring us into that moment.

Leena Nair 16:24 Oh, my God.

Ayesha Karnik 16:25 What was going on in your mind, and how did you know-

Leena Nair 16:27 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 16:27 [laughs] How did you know that was right?

Leena Nair 16:29 Here I am, totally in love with Unilever.

Ayesha Karnik 16:32 Mm.

Leena Nair 16:32 30 years, family, friends, the CEO of Unilever and the board has spoken to me that I'm gonna be one of the three candidates they're gonna invest in to be the next CEO of Unilever. Life is good. It's party time.

Ayesha Karnik 16:43 [laughs]

Leena Nair 16:43 It's all going according to plan.

Ayesha Karnik 16:45 [laughs]

Leena Nair 16:46 And then Chanel called. I was so gobsmacked. I was so shocked. Like, I was like... And it was a direct call, and I was stunned. Why me? Why me? This isn't happening. I came out and I told my husband, "Chanel has called, but I'm not gonna even consider it. Are they crazy? I love Unilever. I'm too loyal. I'm not leaving." And he said, "Are you mad? Go back and take the call." [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 17:10 [laughs]

Leena Nair 17:10 I was like, "No, no, no, I'm not doing it." And genuinely, it took me nine months to say yes. Which was almost as much time to have a baby.

Ayesha Karnik 17:18 [laughs]

Leena Nair 17:19 Because I just couldn't say goodbye to Unilever. I felt such a sense of loyalty. At one point, I was sobbing so much. At all my favors, I had, like, tissue boxes next to me. And again, my husband was like, "Honey, it's not a divorce."

Ayesha Karnik 17:32 [laughs]

Leena Nair 17:32 "You're just joining another company like thousands of people do it every day. Get a grip." You know?

Ayesha Karnik 17:38 [laughs]

Leena Nair 17:38 But it was, but it was so compelling. How can I not join Chanel? I mean, the most iconic brand. It is the most followed brand on all so, all Western media platforms put together. Imagine the influence and impact by a legendary founder. Gabriel Chanel 100 years ago created trousers, crossbody bags so that women could ride horses, ride bikes. I mean, it was just so m- the variety of the job. One morning it's fashion, and we have 10 collections a year. It's relentless, and it goes like this. The next day, I mean, we are the world's largest fragrance maker. We are the second-largest makeup maker in the world. We, we make watches, we make jewelry. Every day is a new thing. It was like running so many different companies within a one. And the values of our house, integrity, independence, audacity, so, so compelling. And luxury sector. Luxury sector's so dynamic. It's $370 billion today, and personal goods luxury market has tripled in the last 20 years. So it's an exciting sector. Gen Z engages with the sector. 30% of luxury consumers by 2030 are Gen Z. So exciting sector, beautiful brand. It was hard to say no.

Ayesha Karnik 18:57 [laughs]

Leena Nair 18:57 So that was the moment. But, yeah, I'm so glad. I've completely fallen in love with Chanel. I'm like everybody else in Chanel. We fir- spend the first three minutes of every meeting admiring each other's clothes.

Ayesha Karnik 19:09 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:09 "Oh, which collection?" "Oh, spring summer 2024." "Oh, really? And the shoes?" "No, they're, they're from the fall winter 2023." "Okay, that's great."

Ayesha Karnik 19:16 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:16 We, we have such a fun moment. I've become totally into Chanel. It's a dream job. It's everything I hoped for and more. It's everything I dreamt of and more. I love Unilever, but that's the past now. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 19:28 [laughs]

Speaker 19:28 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:29 It's ... I love you, Unilever, but I'm all Chanel now, heart, mind, body, soul, all Chanel. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 19:35 [laughs]

Speaker 19:37 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:38 [clapping]

Ayesha Karnik 19:40 [clapping]

Speaker 19:41 [clapping]

Leena Nair 19:42 Don't tell anybody in Unilever please.

Ayesha Karnik 19:44 [laughs]

Speaker 19:44 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:45 Love them, too, yeah.

Ayesha Karnik 19:46 Now, I'm curious, because you may not have been the obvious choice for this role.

Leena Nair 19:51 Oh, gosh, you're never the obvious choice anywhere.

Ayesha Karnik 19:54 [laughs]

Speaker 19:54 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:54 I'm always too young, a woman.

Ayesha Karnik 19:56 [laughs]

Leena Nair 19:56 Not done this, not done that. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 19:59 But here you are making a quadruple leap-

Leena Nair 20:02 Yes

Ayesha Karnik 20:02 ... from this massive consumer goods company to a bespoke luxury brand, from public to private company, from Dutch to French culture, and from looking after people to looking after, well, everything.

Leena Nair 20:15 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 20:15 And a lot of us came here to business school to make those big career shifts. So how did you successfully navigate that transition?

Leena Nair 20:24 You're right. A quadruple s- transition means you're either very brave or very foolish. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 20:28 [laughs]

Speaker 20:28 [laughs]

Leena Nair 20:28 Or both. [laughs] You know, it's ... When I look back, the big, the toughest transition actually was from FMCG to luxury. Because for 30 years it was mass markets. You make a billion sachets a day. You're available everywhere. You over-communicate. You're on every billboard. You have 400 brands. It's mass, mass, mass. And luxury's completely contrast. You make very little. You make, like, five big bags. It's like a work of art. You don't know an artist who makes 500 paintings of the same type. This is like a work of art. You make those five bags, and you let people see them, discover them, yearn for them, desire them. Not find it in New York, go looking for them in Paris. Not find them in Paris, but dream about them. It's a completely different mindset. It's precious, it's rare, it's unique. Everything is made by hand. It takes 180 steps to make a bag. It's five years and working on dummy bags before you can work on a classic, iconic Chanel bag. So it's completely different. So I had to unlearn everything and relearn everything, and it's scary.

Ayesha Karnik 21:43 Mm.

Leena Nair 21:43 And it's very humbling, because the words I used for the first six months was always, "Help me understand why we do it this way." It was my most common go-to phrase because I really didn't understand. Why do you do it this way? Because I'd seen another reality. And, you know, [laughs] the first week. So line up the first week, and I have the schedule. It says, "Day one, surprise."

Ayesha Karnik 22:04 [laughs]

Leena Nair 22:04 "Day two, surprise." And the whole week is surprise.

Ayesha Karnik 22:07 [laughs]

Speaker 22:08 [laughs]

Leena Nair 22:08 I'm coming from a completely structured company where, you know, data analytics would have told me what I need to do in first week.

Ayesha Karnik 22:12 [laughs]

Leena Nair 22:13 No, and I'm sitting here. The first day I went to Gabrielle Chanel's apartment where she designed, and over a period of the whole day, people from our patrimoine, uh, uh, from our patrimoine, our he- heritage division told me stories. Told me stories. Didn't get me to read presentations. Told me stories about Gabrielle Chanel, how she was a radical innovator, how she broke norms, and how she did all this when women didn't have the vote. So that was day one. Day two, I went to our, uh, heritage, our patrimoine, which is 500,000 square feet of space that had 150,000 artifacts, objects, signature pieces from every collection we've designed, statement pieces, and I was told the story of all these objects, artifacts.

Ayesha Karnik 23:00 [laughs]

Leena Nair 23:00 Can you imagine? I'm like-

Ayesha Karnik 23:02 [laughs]

Leena Nair 23:02 ... "Oh, God, this is a different world." [laughs] Okay. I'm ... And then I traveled, traveled, traveled. I met all ... I met unique people I'd never met before. Pleaters, milliners, people who make hats, people who do embroidery, because everything is made by hand. It takes hours and hours to make a dress, 200 hours, 300 hours, six people working together. You know, beautiful pleated skirt you see on the ramp, it's two people pushing it back and forth in a mold for seven or eight hours before the skirt gets ready. It's just incredible. And that helped me change my pace, build patience, think differently. To be honest, the fundamentals of business are transferable. Leadership skills are transferable. Uh, I'd learned so much at Unilever, how a business makes money, how you drive growth, how you think about profitability, how you keep your commercial financial indicators in mind, how you work across cultures. All of that is transferable. Scale, complexity, international mindset, all of that is transferable. So I relied on my strengths, but I had to keep huge amount of humility to, to really understand before I jumped in to say, "Here's what I want to do differently." Yeah, so I had to really understand. Seek to understand before you seek to change was a big philosophy those few months. And, uh, yes. So it was worth, worth the pivoting, worth the transition?

Ayesha Karnik 24:30 Oh, absolutely. [laughs] And it's so awesome to hear just all the, the work you went through to understand the factories, the designers, the craftsmanship that went into Chanel. And Leena, I'm curious, 'cause you always talk about how Leena from Kolhapur could never have imagined the world of Chanel. You spent most of your career at a company that commoditized retail, like you said, mass, mass, mass, and champion inclusion. How have those experience influenced your leadership now at a company that traditionally is admired for its exclusivity?

Leena Nair 25:06 You know, um, my principles of leadership that ground me have still very much been rooted in my perspective as I was growing up and my perspective of listening to so many mentors along the way. We've, you know, spoken about how Indra is a mentor, Nigel Higgins is a mentor, so many mentors. It's ... So there are three or four things I believe in. One is I am very determined to be a holistic leader who thinks for the long term, and that was true in Unilever, that's true in Chanel, which is I look at all levers of business. You know, brand. Are we ch- building our brand? Clients. Are our clients truly happy? Our people. Are people truly happy to work at Chanel? Sustainability. Are we doing what's right for the planet? Planet, nature, business has to thrive together. That's one of my fundamental beliefs. And are we then having the financial results that matter? So thinking holistically across all aspects. I mean, the beauty about Chanel is we pay only 20% of our annual bonus on financial results. 80% is on how you build the brand, how you make the world a better place, how you look after people in the business. So it was fantastic. It is a true marriage of minds, me and Chanel. So holistic, that's not changed. The second hallmark of my leadership, which I hope that's what people say [microphone feedback] is that I truly believe in benevolence, in kindness, in compassion, in empathy. I mean, you've got to do tough things in business, but doing it compassionately is very important to me. Doing it properly, doing it keeping the person in mind. I mean, it's ... I'm very particular. If I'm in a meeting, I want to listen to every voice because I truly believe in collective intelligence. I believe everyone's voice matters, not just the ones who speak loudly. You've got to listen to every voice. Diverse perspectives matter to me. It's also ... I love knowing people. I know everybody's names and faces. 37,000, I'm not done yet. I'm probably at 20,000.

Ayesha Karnik 27:02 [laughs]

Leena Nair 27:02 But my team will, will tell you, I know everyone's names and faces. If you've told me a story of your life, I will know it. I will never, ever forget it. I will respect what you bring, your values, your beliefs. So that's very important for me, and we don't hear this enough in business. I mean, pe- people don't care for compassionate, empathetic leaders. We don't see enough role models like that. So for me, it really matters that I set a brand of leadership that's about compassion, empathy. Do the tough things, do it decisively, but do it with compassion. Do it keeping the human being at the end of it who's impacted by your decisions in mind. So those principles haven't changed. And the third thing is always being future fit. Listening, looking outside. I'm very curious. I'm always taking my team to Seattle, Silicon Valley, talking to different companies. And like I said, I had breakfast this morning talking to some amazing female founders from start-ups. I'm always curious. I wanna learn, I wanna learn, I wanna be future fit, I wanna be curious. So those things haven't changed, and this, I've, you know, and they will continue. So ...

Ayesha Karnik 28:06 Which is amazing to hear. And thinking about looking to the future, there's a new generation of consumers with slightly different preferences. There's a lot more value in individualism, personal expression. Customers, like you said, are looking to sustainability. They want ethically sourced products. How is Chanel adapting its strategy and maybe even its product line to engage these new consumers?

Leena Nair 28:30 As I said, Gen Z is 30% of luxury consumers. Not right now, but going to be by 2030. But right now itself, it's one of the fastest growing trajectories. And they buy luxury because they buy with a built ... They buy because they know it lasts. Yeah. I want you to buy a Chanel product, and I want you to keep it and ch- cherish it. Keep that bag forever, for generations. Hand it over to your daughter, daughter-in-laws, et cetera. It's the memories that count. So they buy with a buy less mindset. They buy with a buy to invest mindset. So for me, sustainability is a non-negotiable in luxury. You make less, you allow it to restore for longer, you keep the life cycle for long, and that's generally a principle of sustainability. But we have set what we call a s- Chanel sustainability ambition in place. We are one of the few luxury brands, I think we are among two luxury brands, that has set a net zero 2040 commitment, so we are really serious about reducing our carbon emissions. We invest in circularity, so we are in restoration of our products for long. We create a lot of upcycled products. All our staff uniforms are made from upcycled Chanel products. We believe in dignity and opportunity for everybody working in our value chain. We, and we are doing a lot to promote the autonomy of women and girls everywhere. Yeah. So we are taking sustainability very seriously. We are accelerating the journey. We want to be a role model in the luxury sector. We want everyone to look at Chanel and say, "Whoa. [claps hands] They're the people who've got sustainability right and are doing it in an exemplary way."

Ayesha Karnik 30:07 And part of what you just talked about is lifting women from their positions and giving them more opportunity. Can you tell us more about the work the foundation's doing?

Leena Nair 30:16 Yeah. Chanel Foundation is one of the world's largest philanthropic organization working to support women and girls to shape their own destiny. I mean, hardly anyone knows about it. Everyone knows the brand. Nobody knows about the philanthropic organization that sits within Chanel. We do almost 200 or 300 projects, about 237 to be exact, across 57 countries where we do work to support women at grassroot level for safety, for social and economic autonomy, and for women fighting climate change and climate resilience. For example, in Afghanistan, we support Radio Begum, which is a channel where women, uh, girls don't go to school, so girls between 11 to 17 get to listen to school lessons. So we do that. I believe business has resources, has power, has influence. We have got to make a difference to the world. In India, for example, we have the Green Brigade, which is thousands of women who are saving and restoring mangroves, because that provides the first shield against natural soil erosion. So women at the front end of climate resilience. So through our work on philanthropy, we support women who are, uh, fighting climate change across the world. So it's, it's... I truly believe when women thrives, the world thrives. So we've got to do more.

Ayesha Karnik 31:38 And it's-

Leena Nair 31:39 And all the men in the audience, you're important too, please.

Ayesha Karnik 31:41 [laughs]

Leena Nair 31:42 Chanel cares about you as well. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 31:44 [laughs]

Leena Nair 31:45 But it's, uh, when, you know, women thrive, the world thrives. How do we make it a more balanced world? It's just that we need so many more women in leadership. Climate leadership, hardly any women. Business leadership, that number has stayed at 7, 8, 9, 10% of Fortune CEOs are women, and that number has stayed like that for two decades. I'm in my 50s now. Girls, come on, run.

Ayesha Karnik 32:04 [laughs]

Leena Nair 32:04 We need more. So it's, uh, you know, we need more. We need to support.

Ayesha Karnik 32:10 And it's so heartwarming for me to hear all these insights from Chanel. I'm sure most of us didn't even know about the work the foundation's doing.

Leena Nair 32:16 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 32:17 And I think so much of Chanel's allure is not knowing the company behind closed doors.

Leena Nair 32:22 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 32:23 But it sounds like that's starting to shift a little bit. Leena, how are you trying to open that door into Chanel, if at all?

Leena Nair 32:30 We are an iconic brand, but we're not a loud company. We don't over-communicate, we don't... I mean, this is one of the rare speaking sessions I'm doing. Like, as my team will tell you, we get about 2,000 speaking sessions. I probably say yes to four or five. So it's, we're not a loud company. We don't over-communicate. But as we've grown larger, you know, we are a $20 billion company, we... It's important we are more transparent about who we are and what we stand for. And also, we believe that when we do things, we do them well. We're very high on integrity. We don't communicate a thing unless we are 100% sure we're doing it well, we're doing it properly. We're not, you know, over-communicating or saying something that's not true. We are super, super careful about that. But we feel that some of the good things we do could inspire others, and some of the good things others do could inspire us. So we are more open in sharing what we do well and what the challenges we are facing. But we'll never be all over the place. We'll still have our mystique and our integrity. I still want you to keep dreaming when you think of Chanel. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 33:36 [laughs] Well, first of all, we're honored that we are one of your four or five that you said yes to.

Leena Nair 33:41 Absolutely, Ayesha.

Ayesha Karnik 33:42 [laughs]

Leena Nair 33:43 Look at you.

Ayesha Karnik 33:43 [laughs] Well, look at you, Leena. [laughs]

Leena Nair 33:47 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 33:50 Um, but it's amazing that you're letting us in. So Leena, if you achieved your vision, where is Chanel in 10 years?

Leena Nair 33:57 [sighs] I'd love Chanel to continue to be a beacon of inspiration for the next 100 years. Genuinely, today, 100 years on from when Gabrielle Chanel did all the things for freedom of movement for women, I mean, it seems simple, but to liberate women from corsets, and it seems simple, and to use jersey material for women, which is never used, things like that. To take the black dress, which is only used for funerals, and make it easy for anyone to wear it anywhere-

Ayesha Karnik 34:28 [laughs]

Leena Nair 34:28 ... and that's symbolizing it today, for anything, good, bad, or ugly. And to do that 100 years ago when women didn't have the vote, nobody had equality of any sense, and today we stand and we thank her for doing that. I mean, I want 100 years from now for men and women to say, "Wow, those people in Chanel in 2024 really knew what they were doing, because they've changed our lives today." So I want us to be a beacon of inspiration for the next 100 years, and I know we'll do that if we have a positive impact in the world, and we are constantly looking at what's next and staying ahead of it, and if we continue to invest in human beings, human creation, human relations, these human skills that we have, which increasingly in a world of AI people forget. But this human, deeply human, savoir faire, craftsmanship, uniquely human things. If we keep doing that, we will be a beacon of inspiration 100 years from now. That's my vision for Chanel.

Ayesha Karnik 35:24 And we can't wait to see that vision come true. Leena, I have one more question for you before we open up for audience Q&A. It's one they're asking all of our speakers this year.

Leena Nair 35:34 Yes.

Ayesha Karnik 35:34 So our theme is leaving your mark.

Leena Nair 35:37 Oh.

Ayesha Karnik 35:38 I know. Thank you.

Leena Nair 35:38 Ah.

Ayesha Karnik 35:39 [laughs]

Speaker 35:40 [laughs]

Leena Nair 35:41 Yeah.

Ayesha Karnik 35:42 So Leena-

Leena Nair 35:42 Big words.

Ayesha Karnik 35:43 [laughs]

Leena Nair 35:43 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 35:44 So Leena, how would you like to be remembered?

Leena Nair 35:48 Aha. Uh, there are a couple of things here. One, one thing I truly believe in is people never remember what you said, what you did. Even if I... You're not gonna remember anything I said maybe three days later, five days later. It's all gonna go off. But people remember how you made them feel. Yeah. That's something that's always in my mind. I always think about that. What do I want people to feel? What do I want people to take away in terms of how they felt? So that's one thought in my mind. And the other is my 11-year-old self, cycling through the dusty lanes. I was largely barefoot a lot of times, believe me.

Ayesha Karnik 36:29 [laughs]

Leena Nair 36:30 And I would like my 11-year-old self To be proud of the leader I've become. I'd like that 11-year-old to b- know that I have truly tried to make a difference in everything I've done, and I've tried very hard to break every norm that exists, and I've used every little influence, power I have to uplift others, to elevate others, to inspire others, and make it easier for them, and I hope she is proud of who I've become. Wow, this is quite overwhelming. [audience applauding]

Ayesha Karnik 37:17 Thanks so much for sharing all these, uh, amazing insights with us. So you, you're the first of many positions, right? And you spoke about embracing failure. So how do you balance the need to embrace failure with the pressure of succeeding as the first in some of these positions?

Leena Nair 37:34 Yeah, it's such a great question. I feel it all the time. When I fail, I feel like I've let down an entire race, [laughs] or I've let down all women everywh- everywhere, or I've let down all Indians. It is a pressure I carry, and I feel for sure. For sure, I carry and feel that pressure. You know, your success gets amplified, and your failures get a- amplified, and how. The one, one thing ... You know, I put little, little practices always to help me get through those moments. One of the things I do a lot is I journal. I definitely write three things that make me grateful every single night. I've tried to inspire my boys to do it. Haven't succeeded. [laughs]

Speaker 38:13 [laughs]

Leena Nair 38:13 And during their teenage years, they said, "We're not grateful for anything in our lives. Why would we write?"

Speaker 38:17 [laughs]

Leena Nair 38:18 So, you know, they go through those phases. So it was, uh, you know, three things that helps. I ... When, when I was taking Chanel, you know, you do have some self-doubt. "Oh, God, the whole world is say- saying, 'She's not the obvious choice. Why are they bringing her? She doesn't understand luxury. She understand, doesn't understand fashion.' You know? 'She's, uh, she's from India. Like, God, what are they thinking? She's not even French. She can barely speak French.'" So you hear these voices. So another thing I do is I journal a lot. Like, I, I wrote down an essay saying why I am the right person at the right time in the right context to lead Chanel, and here are the 10 reasons why. You know, so I do things like that to help me cope with the pressure. But community, community, talking to my family, building a sisterhood, uh, cheering others, getting others to cheer for me, listening to mentors who give you perspective. I have a mentor I have breakfast every six months with, Nigel Higgins, and he's like, "You know, you haven't failed. Something you tried failed. That doesn't make you a failure. Come on, look at it differently." So it's, it's nice to do that, have different ... Go for a long walk. Have a good cry. It always works.

Speaker 39:30 [laughs]

Leena Nair 39:31 Get it over with. Then you can get on to the next thing. Yeah. Talking to my husband, going for long walks, all of that. But you feel the pressure. I'm not saying you don't. You do feel the pressure. I would be not honest if I told it's all very easy, you walk in. No, you feel the pressure. You feel the pressure of having to succeed, not for you, but for many others. Yeah.

Speaker 39:55 Hi. Thank you so much for being here today.

Leena Nair 39:57 Delighted to be here.

Speaker 39:59 My name is Dora. [laughs] Thanks, thanks for being here. Um, I'm Dora. I'm an MBA one. Um, and I'm curious. So currently the luxury market as a whole has been experiencing a softening.

Leena Nair 40:08 Yes.

Speaker 40:08 So Dior, Louis Vuitton, Gucci have all had some slight dips in their sales while Chanel has been very successful. I'm curious amid the current conditions of the luxury market what Chanel is doing to differentiate itself and maintain its success. Thank you.

Leena Nair 40:24 In luxury, you never look at competition. You're making a work of art. It's not comparable. You want people to dream and yearn for it. But to your question, yes, market forces are challenging for many sectors, including luxury. But, you know, when ... One of the beauty of being independent and private is that I can keep such a long-term mindset. I'm off the treadmill of every quarter having to show results, and I was in Unilever. I've seen that squeeze. You've got to find the answers every quarter. Some investor's gonna ask you a question. It's beautiful being in a long-term company where you're thinking 100 years. There are not that many CEOs that can say we're thinking 100 years out, you know? They have got to think next quarter and the quarter after. So to me, yes, there'll be fluctuations. There'll be some ebbs and flows. But if you stay focused on the long term, you stay focused on the brand, building the strength of the brand, the desirability of the brand, you stay focused on creating a fantastic luxury experience for your clients. You know, we don't do e-commerce. This is the 21st century. We don't do e-commerce. We only ... For fashion and watches and fine jewelry, you have to go to our stores and spend a moment with our fashion advisor to learn the story of what you're buying and why you would like to buy. So if you focus on brand, clients, people, and keeping the long-term perspective, the results will follow. Yeah. We've been a year, 100 years. We've seen more downturns than I can count. We've seen recessions. We've seen many things, but staying focused on doing the right things for the long term make a difference. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 42:00 Hi. Uh, good afternoon. I'm, I'm David. I'm from, uh, uh, China. Uh, I grew up in a household where my mom loves Chanel, and I've seen all the-

Leena Nair 42:06 Oh, my God, she has great taste.

Speaker 42:08 [laughs]

Speaker 42:08 [laughs] Thank you.

Leena Nair 42:08 She has fantastic taste. [laughs]

Speaker 42:10 Thank you. Those black and white iconic boxes everywhere. Um, you know, China, as, as you know-

Leena Nair 42:15 We must take a picture, and you must tell her that-

Speaker 42:17 Yes

Leena Nair 42:17 ... I appreciate her and admire her long distance.

Speaker 42:19 Absolutely. Absolutely.

Speaker 42:20 [laughs]

Leena Nair 42:20 I love all of my clients. [laughs]

Speaker 42:21 I'll let her know. She will be so excited. Um, so, so, so China has been such a growth engine-

Leena Nair 42:27 Yes

Speaker 42:27 ... for the past 20 years for a lot of the luxury houses-

Leena Nair 42:29 Yes

Speaker 42:29 ... uh, including Chanel, uh, mostly fueled by, uh, consumers like my mom, who's very avid, uh, in luxury. Uh, and as you know, in recent years, um, macroeconomy has slowed a little bit-

Leena Nair 42:40 Yes

Speaker 42:40 ... uh, in that part of the world, uh, it has been challenging for a lot of luxury brands.

Leena Nair 42:44 Yes.

Speaker 42:44 So how do you think about, uh, perhaps the future, uh, of the Chinese luxury consumers, uh, since such a large market? And perhaps what are the, uh, for the next 20 years, what are the next, uh, super growth market for Chanel?

Leena Nair 42:59 You know, China is a very, very good market for luxury for now and for the future because China's sophistication and understanding of luxury is very good. So I'm a believer in China. Yes, there'll be some short-term ebbs and flows, but long term, it's still a growth market for luxury. I mean, when China grow- China grows at 5%, and we're all disappointed. [laughs] I mean, many markets ... I mean, I, I live in Europe most of the time. Many markets would be lucky if they saw some of that growth. So I continue to be, be a believer in China. We're not slowing down on any of our investments in China. We're opening stores across the country. We continue to invest in a great range for China. We're continuing to invest in hiring the right people, building leadership for China. So I'm a long-term believer. So you have to keep a long-term perspective. Yes, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, three years. Who knows? Nobody can really read how quickly a market comes back or doesn't. But staying invested in the long term, I'm a believer in China. I do think in the next few years India will be a market to contend with, for sure. Luxury in India is growing up. Luxury believes in heritage, craftsmans- or India believes in luxury, craftsmanship, heritage, so that's gonna be promising. Mexico's coming up. Southeast Asian markets are coming up. So yeah, there are a lot more markets which are waking up to luxury. Yeah. We are in 141 markets, but there are a lot more I'd love to go to. [laughs] Yeah.

Speaker 44:26 Hi. Hi, Leena. Um, I'm here. I'm Sing Yi. I'm MBA 1. Thank you so much for being here. You're an incredible role model, and I love your motto, "Lift as you climb." Um, I was wondering if you can share a story about a mentor that had a major impact on you, and if you can also give us some advice on how to help others as we climb.

Leena Nair 44:46 Oh my God, I've had so many mentors. You know, I was always reaching out to people. When I was doing my job at Unilever, if I had any project or initiative to lead, you know, I would create the obvious list of people you need to meet because you've got to make your project successful. But then I'd draw a list of 10 or 20 people who inspired me, and I would say, "Hey, will you talk to me about this project?" Just because I wanted to get to know them. Yeah. So I'm a huge believer in having this mentoring support. I remember when Chanel called, and I was like, "No, I don't wanna go. I love Unilever. No, I'm not gonna take this." I called Indra, and I told her that the first question I had when Chanel called was, "Why me? Why is Chanel looking at me?" And she was so cross. She said, "Never say that again. What is this, why me? They're approaching you. You didn't go looking for them. You didn't write a resume and say. Have the confidence. If they've come looking for you, it's because they see stuff in you that's right and ready for them." So that was an important wake-up moment, you know. Instead of underplaying what I have, being conscious of the strengths that I bring, that others could see it and I couldn't see it myself. So many stories like that. Paul Polman, who was CEO of Unilever, and huge influence on me to always think about the planet and nature when you think about business. You can't do business and have a dying planet. You've got to find a way to integrate that thinking into everything you do. Yeah. So yes. And, uh, today morning I was talking to the founders from StartX, and they were really getting me to question are we doing enough to support female founders, how hard it is for them to raise money. So yeah, it'll have an influence on me. So a new, a fresh insight for today. [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 46:27 And this will be our last question.

Leena Nair 46:29 Oh, no, I'm so happy to- [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 46:32 [laughs]

Leena Nair 46:33 We're ... [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 46:34 Sorry, Leena.

Leena Nair 46:35 We should- [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 46:36 [laughs]

Leena Nair 46:37 Go for it.

Speaker 46:38 Hi, my name is Maria. I'm an MBA 1. Thank you for sharing your story with us today. Um, as you mentioned, luxury brands have chosen not to often adopt e-commerce and other technology. How do you see Chanel adopting recent changes in AI and robotics, and do you see that impacting the broader luxury landscape? Thank you.

Leena Nair 46:58 See, AI is everywhere. You know? So... And it's gonna be transformative in our world, so luxury has to engage with it. Chanel has to engage with it, as all others. In fact, I brought... Uh, we came as a team, our leadership team and I, we, we traveled to Seattle in May. We met a whole lot of people. We've gone and visited Microsoft, Google, many of the startups in this area, spent time with ChatGPT, et cetera, because we wanna learn. We wanna understand how it impacts us. I do think that, uh, the number one thing in my mind is to keep the relentless focus on human creation. I don't want that ever to go. So ensuring that AI supports human creators and creation rather than take away what they bring so skillfully and masterfully is very much core to who we are at Chanel. We're also high on ethics and integrity, so we wanna do it the right way. You know, it was funny. We were in Microsoft, and we're playing around with ChatGPT on the premises, and we're like, "Show us a picture of a senior leadership team from Chanel visiting Microsoft." It was all men in suits. This is Chanel.

Ayesha Karnik 47:59 [laughs]

Leena Nair 48:00 Yeah, 76% of my organization is women. 96% of my clients are women. Female CEO. It was 100% ma- male team, not even in fashionable clothes.

Ayesha Karnik 48:09 [laughs]

Leena Nair 48:09 Like, come on. This is what you got to offer? This is what you got to offer ChatGPT? Come on. So it's so important that we keep the ethics and integrity of what we're doing with AI, and I constantly talk to my friends in tech, all the CEOs that you know, saying, "Come on, guys. You've got to make sure that you're integrating a humanistic way of thinking in AI." But like all others, we are, um, getting our organization AI ready, which means doing all the hard work like getting infrastructure systems, data, data governance, classification. Get your data ready for AI. You can't have any AI if you don't have all of those fundamentals in place. Like all others, we're doing a lot of experiments, what I call 1,000 flowers are blooming. We're trying little things for productivity. This is chatbots on chanel.com. You know, we're trying a lot of things, like all others, for productivity. And, uh, I'm keeping focus on what truly needs to be scaled while keeping relentless focus on human creators being motivated and doing their best things, their best work, and their best... Freedom of creation is a very important value for us. Giving our f- creators the freedom to do that.

Ayesha Karnik 49:22 Leena, I know you wanna answer more questions.

Leena Nair 49:25 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 49:25 But we're gonna do our last tradition here for View From The Top, our rapid fire.

Leena Nair 49:30 Oh, my God.

Ayesha Karnik 49:31 Don't worry, it won't be scary. Uh-

Leena Nair 49:32 Do you get bribe to ask difficult questions?

Ayesha Karnik 49:35 [laughs]

Leena Nair 49:35 So how does this go?

Ayesha Karnik 49:36 Um, I'm just gonna say five statements or quick questions, and you're gonna tell me the first one that comes to your mind.

Leena Nair 49:41 Okay.

Ayesha Karnik 49:42 Okay. Favorite city in India?

Leena Nair 49:45 Oh, Mumbai.

Speaker 49:46 [laughs]

Leena Nair 49:47 Ugh, it's this rocking city.

Ayesha Karnik 49:49 Same, I know.

Leena Nair 49:50 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 49:50 Um, your fashion icon?

Leena Nair 49:53 You know, Gabrielle Chanel, of course. I'd be disappointed-

Speaker 49:57 [laughs]

Leena Nair 49:57 ... if I didn't say that. Like, she's in my heart. I, I channel her all the time.

Ayesha Karnik 50:00 [laughs]

Leena Nair 50:01 But yeah, Margot Robbie, who's now our face for No. 5. And Aussies in the audience, it's Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi.

Speaker 50:08 [laughs]

Leena Nair 50:08 Michael, just for you, it's Margot Robbie in her full power.

Ayesha Karnik 50:12 [laughs]

Leena Nair 50:12 I think she's inspiring at the moment. A empowered woman rocking the world, kickass.

Speaker 50:17 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 50:18 Yeah, I definitely agree with the kickass there.

Speaker 50:20 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 50:20 Um, the first Chanel item you ever owned?

Leena Nair 50:24 A jumbo 2.55 bag. I was so excited to buy it, and I kind of kept it in my cupboard for days, refusing to use it.

Speaker 50:34 [laughs]

Leena Nair 50:35 But I loved it, loved it. It was a, it was a labor of love to dream about it and to buy it.

Speaker 50:39 [laughs]

Leena Nair 50:40 And it still is one of my favorite possessions.

Ayesha Karnik 50:45 Do you still have it?

Leena Nair 50:45 Yes, I have it.

Ayesha Karnik 50:47 Oh.

Leena Nair 50:47 I have it.

Ayesha Karnik 50:47 That's amazing. That doesn't count as one of your five questions.

Leena Nair 50:49 And I'm in Chanel. [laughs]

Speaker 50:51 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 50:52 The first word that comes to mind when you think of Chanel.

Leena Nair 50:57 Surprise, awe, and wonder. I want Chanel to always surprise you. I want you to walk out of anything to do with Chanel, a product, an event, an interaction, feeling that sense of awe and wonder.

Ayesha Karnik 51:12 Afternoon tea in London or brunch champagne in Paris?

Leena Nair 51:16 That's a tough one, but I think brunch champagne in, uh, Pa- uh, in Paris wins.

Ayesha Karnik 51:22 [laughs]

Speaker 51:22 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:24 It's so much butter, cream.

Speaker 51:25 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 51:26 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:27 And you know, I've learned about 50 adjectives in... while my French classes are still progressing, and it's a great opportunity to practice them. C'est super, c'est incroyable, c'est magnifique.

Speaker 51:37 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 51:37 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:38 C'est, c'est sup- you know. And c'est all those things. C'est magnifique, c'est gentil, c'est sympa. I mean, like I know about 50.

Speaker 51:45 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 51:45 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:46 I use them in different combinations, and they're all positive, and they all mean it rocks.

Speaker 51:50 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 51:51 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:51 So, so yeah.

Ayesha Karnik 51:53 Well, Leena, this has been c'est sympa. I don't know if that's right, but.

Leena Nair 51:56 [laughs]

Speaker 51:56 [laughs]

Leena Nair 51:57 It's gonna be more than c'est sympa. It's gonna be magnifique, incroyable.

Speaker 52:01 [laughs]

Ayesha Karnik 52:01 Yeah.

Leena Nair 52:02 Formidable.

Ayesha Karnik 52:02 [laughs]

Leena Nair 52:03 F- you know. It's like big words.

Ayesha Karnik 52:06 [laughs]

Leena Nair 52:06 No, I'm kidding.

Ayesha Karnik 52:07 Amazing. Well, Leena, thank you so much. We are so happy that we were able to have you here today.

Leena Nair 52:12 I'm so delighted again to be here.

Speaker 52:14 [claps]

Ayesha Karnik 52:14 Thank you.

Leena Nair 52:14 Thank you so much.

Ayesha Karnik 52:15 Mm-hmm.

Leena Nair 52:16 This was so wonderful. [upbeat music]