When Jean-Christophe Bédos was going to university in Europe, he was very interested in law and intellectually very stimulated by it.
But when he finished his law studies in Paris, Bédos got a part-time job with luxury retail brand Cartier in Paris.
“I completed my law degree and then they offered me a job. That’s exactly when I thought okay I will probably not be a lawyer, let me try this.
And the rest is history because I’ve stayed in the luxury industry ever since,” said Bédos, President and CEO of Maison Birks.
At the head office of Cartier, he was working in product development for luxury watches.
It included brand management, merchandising, marketing and communication.
“This is where I made my way through the world of Cartier and luxury goods. Retail came later as I became Managing Director of Cartier in France and then I moved on to become the CEO of Boucheron, another great jeweler in Paris. This is when retail came on my radar.”
Bédos was born in Morocco but he was raised in France from when he was two years old.
His father was a judge, working with the justice ministries in Morocco and France. In France, Bédos grew up in Toulouse, which is in the southwest part of France.
He has a Sloan MSc in Strategy & Business Management from London Business School. Law degree from Paris Sorbonne University.
Business Administration degrees from Nottingham and Toulouse Business Schools.
But Bédos was drawn to the luxury retail side of business.
“The products were exceptionally beautiful. Very carefully manufactured. High quality. Precious materials. Precious metals. Precious stones.
And the history, the heritage of those brands.
In retail, the whole point is to translate to the consumer the brand essence and the style and character of the brand so that the brand experience in the store reflects what the brand is about.
Its philosophy, its values and retail has to make sense from that point of view. It cannot just be a store.
It has to be a store that expresses all the attributes of the brand,” he said.
Bédos became President and CEO of Birks in 2012, joining the leading manufacturer and retailer of prestigious jewelry and timepieces since 1879 in Canada.
He said he wasn’t brought up in luxury as a child but discovered luxury with his first job at Cartier.
“My parents were not consumers of luxury brands but my mother was very sensitive to aesthetics because she had a spa in Toulouse with a beauty salon and she used to subscribe to every ladies’ magazine you can think of.
So as a kid I grew up watching all those fashion magazines and women magazines. It was part of my family. On the coffee table.
Whether it was Elle or Vogue or many different magazines, I grew up looking at those pages which inspired me a lot because they were magnificent couture and makeup and beauty,” he said.
“But luxury goods as such like watches and jewelry I discovered later only when I worked with Cartier and then Boucheron.
This was an area I got very much inspired.
And I’m still working with watches and jewelry today with Birks because in my view there’s a lot of substance in those brands.
“Quality is a must for luxury watches and jewelry. But what really inspired me was the history, the essence of the design, the inspiration.
The design language for each brand is very specific to every brand.
When you look at the culture around those brands, heritage, design language, brand personality, the brand essence, all of this is very coherent when you look at Cartier or Boucheron.
Those fabulous brands with immense history have become legends because they have been very coherent in their expressions and in their striving for excellence.
There is always, always a distinction. You can identify a Cartier watch or a Cartier piece of jewelry just at a glance. Same as Rolex.
All the great brands have that strength in them. It’s not a coincidence.
It all comes from a very, very robust and meticulous obsession for expressing the brand, the brand values, and style and character.
Brand management in the luxury goods industry is extremely deep and profound.”
Bédos said leaders in the luxury space, beyond all the necessary qualifications and experience, also need to have a high sensitivity to history, culture, style and beauty.
“If you are indifferent to those things I don’t think you can be successful in the luxury goods industry,” he said.
“You have to be able to be emotionally moved by those products and it’s not just about managing the PNL (profit and loss), managing the balance sheet and the cash flow statement. It’s not only about that.”
When asked to describe his leadership style, Bédos said he is collaborative, especially when he moved to Canada. It’s one of the qualities of Canadian management.
He’s learned that here.
“I’ve become definitely a team player, consulting my team, listening to my team and as a CEO I sometimes say I work for them rather than them working for me,” he said.
Drawing on an analogy with acupuncture, Bédos said a needle is put where there is a need for the energy to flow and those spots have been identified by the health practitioner because there is an absence of energy flow.
“And I like to believe that the CEO has that role. I only intervene and I only plant the needles where there is a need for a flow of energy, communication, initiative and in project management I don’t believe that the CEO should be omnipotent and always there with authority.
Sometimes the CEO should listen, sometimes the CEO should not necessarily be present. When everything goes well, why interfere?
“I believe Chinese medicine is quite inspiring from that point of view. The CEO is the acupuncture of the company’s energy.”
Bédos loves to spend time with his family when he’s not working.
He loves simple things like cycling, hiking, gardening, music, dinners with friends, art, going to the cinema and opera and classical music.
“We are foodies. We go to restaurants a lot. So I am busy. I am never bored,” he said.
“I think there are phases in life when you can be dedicated to your job and be a workaholic and I’ve had those years especially at the beginning of my career when I would be working 16, 18 hours a day.
But those years are gone and I consider that in a job like mine it’s about people, it’s about managing people. You have to interact with people.
It’s not just about numbers.
“In a job like mine also because we deal with luxury brands it’s important to be nourished with culture, with trends and be exposed to what’s happening, going to exhibitions, museums, going to see the latest films in the cinema.
It’s important because we sell culture. Luxury goods are part of our modern culture and you can’t be disconnected from that.”
