Ravi Thakran is group president for LVMH South & South East Asia & Middle East. He is also managing partner of L Capital Asia, the private equity arm of LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton.

Q. Do you remember the first time you were confronted with a different culture?

A. When I started my career, I had to move from New Delhi to Bombay. In India, moving from one part of the country to the other can leave you with a real sense of culture shock. I imagine it’s the same in the States if you were to move from New York to California.

At the time, Bombay was really a more cosmopolitan city than Delhi; it was the industrial capital. India is definitely a challenging place. Just crossing the road sometimes can be quite dangerous, and with so many different languages and religions, I think adaptability for an Indian comes naturally.

Having said that, in 1989 when I moved to London with the Tata Group, I still found this a big culture shock. It wasn’t easy going from a developing market to a mature and highly structured one. In India, Tata was the No. 1 company, and I was working for Titan, the leading watchmaker in India. When I visited these stores, I was going with confidence — we were the leading brand. Then you go to try to sell the same product in the U.K., where the made-in-India label was a no-no, particularly in watches. India hadn’t even yet made its name in I.T. The products were also not adapted to British taste.

Q. What lessons did you learn from these early experiences?

A. Humility was one of the biggest ones; that was a huge lesson. And then secondly, perseverance — you don’t give up, you don’t quit. You start planning over the medium term to adapt, and you look for your strengths.

Reflecting back on those days, it was one of the toughest periods for me, personally, because I was already married, and my wife was working in Singapore, and I was alone in London. But this was also the best phase of my career because the learning experience of looking for opportunity in adversity has brought me success in later life.

Q. Have you continued with that?

A. I moved to Swatch Group in the mid-1990s. This is when we looked at starting the business in Asia. At the time, most of the watches sold in the region were either local brands or Seiko/Citizens, so $200 was already a high price for consumers. Therefore, the issue was how to sell an Omega watch, which was a minimum $2,000, at a time when consumers were very price-sensitive.

There was also the issue of how to raise the profile of a brand in a region where many people were still unfamiliar with the brand. Many people assumed we were acting prematurely in setting up business in Asia. Instead we saw this as a great opportunity and decided to go all in with our own stand-alone stores, which we didn’t even have in Switzerland. We also decided to use local celebrities for a more direct approach to reach out to the customers.

Today, Asia is by far the biggest contributor to the Swatch Group’s profit. Omega, Rado, Longines and Tissot are today the top four brands in China and India for Swiss watches. More importantly, the strategy of stand-alone stores and celebrity advertising has since been adopted by many other brands.

Q. How do you motivate a team to buy into your “against the grain” decisions?

A. Strangely, even though I work in a capitalist world today, I was a communist student leader linked with the Communist party of India (Marxist). I also became the president of the student union at university. We used to do something called “study circle” where we mainly studied communist ideology, but we also used to do “criticism and self-criticism.” This was the last point on the agenda of every meeting, and the idea was that we had to do self-criticism first to help put others you’re about to criticize at ease.

That particular education has put me in good stead. Communist ideas in a capitalist world can be very effective. Motivation is all about rallying the team towards a goal they can be proud to achieve. I have often been criticized that I look for a blue sky, that I over-budget, but somehow I’ve always believed you should always shoot for the stars, and then at least if you miss, you’ll land on the moon.

Over time, I’ve had to temper my expectations, but my recommendation is be pragmatic about setting goals with your bosses, and be aggressive setting goals with your team. I really don’t believe monetary reward is the biggest motivation. I think it is recognition and the pride derived from succeeding in your goals. If I had to choose between giving someone a $55,000 bonus or nominating that person to go and attend the General Management Program at Harvard that cost the same amount, I would most definitely choose the latter. This way you are showing the person you believe in them, which is far more motivating.

Q. Does this attitude cut across different cultures?

A. It does, and there are other common denominators that will bring you success. Leading by example is something that cuts across cultures. Giving pride to your team is the same across cultures.

Then you must understand the nuances. Some managers make the mistake of coming in and trying to put a broad line in the sand, making their mark from day one. I think that you should always be an observer and a listener first. This goes for any culture.

Q. You talk about self-criticism. How do you do that?

A. I’m very open. Whether it’s in a one-on-one meeting, where you have to handle the very difficult task of disciplining someone, or whether it is criticizing someone in a team environment, I think knowing how to do that is very important. It is not the message but the way in which you deliver it, which is almost more important.

Obviously, I’ve made every mistake in the book during my early days, such as talking too harshly or too abruptly. What I have learned is that nothing is more effective than criticizing oneself. That’s by far the best tool.

Q. In the Asian context, especially, don’t you think self-criticism can be seen as a sign of weakness?

A. I think if someone had just started in the company and wasn’t familiar with certain aspects of how I work, how motivating I can be, how I try leading by example, how I push people to work hard, then yes. Frankly, however, I think people will find this type of self-criticism humbling and motivating, and I believe it brings out the best in my team.

By SONIA KOLESNIKOV-JESSOP
The New York Times