In 2020, Ramon Ros left Paris for China to serve as the General Manager of Louis Vuitton China. Actually, this was his second time leading the China business of a luxury brand under the LVMH Group (he had served as the General Manager of Givenchy China when he first joined the LVMH in 2013). However, this time, the burden on his shoulders would be much heavier since Louis Vuitton is the largest brand of the LVMH Group and the world’s largest luxury brand. Furthermore, the increasingly mature Chinese luxury market underwent dramatic changes between 2020 and 2025, consecutively facing significant challenges such as the pandemic and economic transformation.
As a regional market leader, could he still make a difference in such a complex and challenging environment? Ramon Ros gave a resounding yes – due to his outstanding performance, he was promoted to zone president in 2022; and in July 2025, he was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Fendi, another very important luxury brand under the LVMH Group. It’s worth noting that before his departure, Louis Vuitton accomplished a landmark event in China: a giant ship named “The Louis” “sailed” into Shanghai’s HKRI Taikoo Hui, creating a conceptual space unprecedented in terms of scale and creativity. This move not only brought Louis Vuitton massive exposure and foot traffic, directly contributing to what the LVMH Group CFO described as a “very steep improvement”, but also sent a valuable positive signal to the long-sluggish Chinese luxury market. This effect was unexpected by the LVMH Group management and was described as “one very noticeable action.”
More than three months after taking the helm of Fendi’s global operations, Ramon Ros returned to Shanghai with an equally unexpected new book: “1+1>=3: Daily Leadership Notebook”. This bilingual (Chinese and English) blue book may well be the very first book written and published in China by an executive of an international luxury brand.
As the straightforward title suggests, this is a collection of leadership notes accumulated over time, faithfully recording Ramon Ros’s thoughts and practices on “Be the Leader You Would Like to Have.”
At the beginning of the book, he wrote:
“In Today’s world for things to work out, at least for those extraordinary ones that last and bring real change, we need something extra, an extra synergy, magic, will, grit, vision or dream.
In life 1+1 equaling 3 is possible and could eventually be 4 or 5 or higher, depending on hidden variables added to the equation. Those hidden variables act as a multiplier and give us something that makes us greater than what we are.
We all have challenges, often to do more with less, the hidden variables of leadership are the multiplier that allows us to do more and be more.”
In Shanghai, Alicia Yu, Founder and CEO of Luxe.CO, engaged in an in-depth face-to-face discussion with Ramon Ros (pictured below) on the topic of leadership development.
Photo Credit: Daily Leadership Notebook team
Alicia Yu: Compared to other industries, do you feel that it is somewhat more difficult to establish leadership in the relatively traditional luxury industry?
Ramon Ros：Everything is about how you do things, it depends where you put the attention, depends what’s important for you.
Luxury is a triangle between the past, the present and the future. The past is the heritage, the craftmanship, the story. The present, which is the whole creativity, the new designers, how they see the world. And the future, is the management, how you manage things in order to make the past, the present speak together.
In other industries, normally you get 20% of your effort, 80% of results. Luxury allows you to do 80% of effort for that extra 20 because luxury looks for excellence.
I think the luxury brand is they are phenomenal platforms because they’re based on excellence, they are based on craft, they’re based on a real story, a real quality creativity.
Alicia Yu: You wrote that “dream bigger can be trained.” How could this be properly done?
Ramon Ros：I’ve always been a big dreamer. I’m a dreamer, I like to do things and I like to dream big and try it and give my best.
The biggest regret people have on their 80 almost, that is I didn’t try hard enough. I personally think that’s my view, that it’s better to have failures than regrets in life. And failures hurt. I have many efforts, but hurt less than regrets.
I don’t think anybody can help us to dream big. Normally, the family, the school, the university, the colleagues, everyone tells you normally why you can do something, but they don’t tell you how you can not on why you can not do things. Say, I want to build a house in the space, they would tell you “Forget it”, because nobody has done it. This the whole system, it’s very fact driven, they are not taught or encouraged to dream bigger. But for the dreamers, if you challenge status quo, you can get to places that nobody thought.
My experience is that the biggest enemy we have is our own mind, you have to believe you can do it to be able to focus enough to improve every day. Often, you can be able to actually get to places you never thought you could get just by having focused and having the discipline to be able to do that.
Of course, you have to keep the fact that you will fail. But it’s okay, I think failing is learning, but you have to be wise enough to be able to fail safely and properly.
People that have failed have more and more resilience, more courage and curiosity, so when I select teams, I rather have those who have had experience with failure.
Perfection many times is the enemy of development. You can’t wait till things are perfect to start. I mentioned in the book was you have to be like a train, so you have to know where you’re going. Some people say, I don’t know where I’m going, it’s a spark that you find by questioning yourself, then immediately take action, then eventually you’ll find your own path. it’s much better if you question yourself when you’re early in your life, because you will be able to be much more intentional with your life.
Alicia Yu: You mentioned a lot about the importance for the team to “align”. When you were leading a French brand in China, how did you ensure that you are aligning with the frontline team, especially the retail team, despite language and cultural differences?
Ramon Ros：When you go to a country, it is very important to understand the culture, not the language. So really understand what drives those individuals and why they are driven by that.
I think everything’s about the “why”. So, then you have to make sure you understand that your “why” links to their “why”, and then you connect. Because in every country, there are very different ways why they work and why they want to work and why they want to excel or not excel. They have different “why” and ways of expressing that. People to understand the why of things to really get to the core.
Often, companies tend to focus on the person, not in the problem, it doesn’t help. It is about being very objective and make sure there’s a trust base in the company, in the ecosystem that allows people to bring their best without fear of losing their jobs or whatever.
Alicia Yu: In your opinion, how can one maintain a positive learning mindset and consciously cultivate leadership skills?
Ramon Ros：Everything is our purpose in life. You need an an objective to wake up every day in the morning, something that pushes you. You need a purpose that can not be material things. And that bigger than that to be able to drive. When you have that work is doesn’t feel like work, you don’t get exhausted by work, you get motivated by God.
I think you should be loyal to your future, not to your past. And by understanding how lucky you are, then you understand your chance of improving the world and doing something better.
You need to start by knowing yourself and knowing what you can do, and you build your curiosity, then you can put yourself in a place that resonates into you, linked to your purpose.
“I think we are always in a hurry.” This is a quote I mentioned in the book.
Einstein said that if I had an hour to solve a problem that could save the world, I would spend 55 minutes thinking and another 5 minutes looking for the answer. But today, people do the exact opposite, they understand the question very quickly, and they start to run with solutions without really understanding the “why”.
I think one of the things that now we are missing into this whole is a high level of curiosity. people don’t know how to ask questions as good as before because there are too many information, too many streaming, everything is given to them automatically, so they don’t have any time to ask questions. I remember like 50 years ago, you want to know something, you have to go to a library, find a book, and then go through the book.
Alicia Yu: In today’s information-saturated world, how can young people find and stick to their long-term goals?
Ramon Ros：First, they should be very authentic to themselves. People at universities, they all try to emulate some of the very successful people, but very successful people have been very successful because they were able to look at the classical problem with new eyes. They did something very that resonated with them very well and was very authentic to them. They didn’t try to copy anybody’s eyes. I think that that’s key in order for you to be able to deliver an outcome that is even better by copying, you will never be able to express your full potential.
This is also a quote from David Bowie that he was saying like it takes age, brings you to the person that you should have been from the first day. And only with age you realize who are you are, so the closer you become, who are you are, what you like, what you don’t like, who is good for you, who is not for you, what’s good for you, what’s not good for you.
In today’s world of advanced social media and the internet, most of the people are busy and feels good to be busy, so people get into the temptation of going to meet things, responding emails, but basically is an excuse of avoiding the big topic, they are not driving change themselves.
Take the time to disconnect from the noise and focus on what you believe is important and what you want to do and being intentional about. I know it’s easier said than done, but if you start smaller, then you’ll get the habit. Many people went at the end of the year to say how well I did, why? Why don’t do it on weekly basis, on monthly basis? Because we will really allow you to measure yourself more the impact and be able to improve.
Young people are concerned about what the others think of them, we all went through that phase, but as time pass by, they realize they are worrying for things that nobody cares about them. So I think it’s important if we can help the young generations to focus more what’s important for them and relevant for them a bit to be more authentic to their lives, will be able to make much more impact.
Alicia Yu: What kind of books do you normally read?
Ramon Ros：I read one book per week, I read a lot business books, management books when I was younger. I don’t read any now because I think I don’t want to copy paste.
Now I want to get inspirations elsewhere, from nature, from art, from AI, poetry and a lot of literature, from different areas. I think management, I’d rather go to inspire somewhere else.
When asked about his motivation for writing this book, Ramon Ros said: It’s a gift to the team he has worked with for many years. Although it only took eight months to write this book, the success and failure cases in it are based on his experiences over the past 30 years.
“Most of the books on management are case studies, this book is more on the self-reflection of yourself, I think the most important thing is the idea to pivot and to ignite the self-reflection. If we improve every day or we have the attitude of learning something every day, even if it’s small, then that makes you unstoppable.”
About Ramon Ros：
Ramon Ros graduated from the University of Barcelona and IESE. In 2013, he joined the LVMH group as Managing Director of Givenchy China. In 2016, he become Givenchy’s International Director. Since 2020, he worked at Louis Vuitton China and was promoted to zone president in 2022. Effective July 1, 2025, he was appointed as the new President and Chief Executive Officer of Fendi. In the official announcement, the LVMH group praised Ramon for his “deep expertise in luxury retail and clienteling, coupled with his passion for product excellence and collaborative leadership”. Before joining the LVMH Group, he worked for Marks & Spencer, Diesel, and Tous.
In 2025, his book titled 1+1>=3 Daily Leadership Notebook was published in China.
About Alicia Yu:
Alicia Yu is the founder and CEO of Luxe.CO. Established in 2013, Luxe.CO is China’s leading information service platform for fashion business and finance, as well as the preferred channel for global high-end brand leaders to communicate with Chinese professionals and high-net-worth individuals.
At the end of 2022, Alicia’s first book ——The Tiffany Deal, a historical research and business study on Tiffany and the luxury brand portfolio of the LVMH group, was published in China.
About LUXE.CO（华丽志）
Founded in 2013, LUXE.CO is China’s leading businessmedia &strategic advisor for luxury and premiumbrands.
Positioned as the “The Business Media that Influencesthe Influencers” ,LUXE.CO is the trusted name andultimate destination for executives and professionals seeking comprehensive and authentic business & financial information on global luxury and premium brands. It is also the preferred communication platform of domestic and overseas business leaders toconnect with important business circles and elite consumer groups in China. Our digital media proper-ties include Chinese website (luxe.co) , Chinese app(华丽志),English website(luxeplace.com) and major social media accounts on Wechat,Weibo and Linkedin.
LUXE.CO is also a unique and powerful strategicadvisor to global luxury and premium brands who want to enter or accelerate growth in China market inthe most efficient and effective way. Our highly expe-rienced in-house experts and research team, leverag-ing on our strong industry network, are well equipped to provide top quality research and consulting services with regard to brand building, corporate communica-tion, opportunity study and strategic planning.
