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I’ve always heard that Hermès is very costly. It’s not expensive. It’s costly...

“I’ve always heard that Hermès is very costly. It’s not expensive. It’s costly. The cost is the actual price of making an object properly with the required level of attention so that you have an object of quality. Expensive is a product, which is not delivering what it’s supposed to deliver, but you’ve paid quite a large amount of money for it, and then it betrays you. That’s expensive.”

From Hermès Artistic Director Pierre-Alexis Dumas.

China is great again...

We can officially say that the world has now awakened to China's rise. It's always funny to have seen such a tidal wave coming from far out on the horizon while everyone was carelessly sunbathing on the beach. I remember about ten years ago, when discussing

Rather than asking customers explicitly about feature X, Y or Z…ask, ‘What is the smallest or least complicated problem that the customer will pay us to solve?’

Steve Blank: “The Startup Owner’s Manual"

Of the European car industry as a proxy for our geopolitical woes

I began working with several prominent European automotive companies around 2012; at the same time, I was traveling frequently to Shanghai for other customers. At the time, it was pretty clear to the industry that the future car would be electric and, as such, software-first. Digital architecture, software design, enhanced

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