How do you think you and your brand are shaping the future of retail?

By making retail a channel for comfortable education and exploration instead of an environment centred around sales. 

What has been your biggest failure and how did you learn from it?

Our biggest failure was placing distribution ahead of demand in the earlier years. Life is just much more sensible when demand is ahead of distribution and this position now guides all our developments.  

What have been your top three lessons learned in business?

1) The longest path between you and your objectives is a shortcut. b) Don't look for people who will work for you; look for those who will work with you. c) The two enemies of every startup are the bank and the government. 

What do you think is the next big idea in retail?

Retail will break down into convenience retail and experience retail; everything in between will disappear. 

Who within/outside of the industry inspires you the most?

Leonard Lauder. He has achieved all there is to achieve and yet he is very humble, very passionate and very involved in Estée Lauder's direction.    

As a leader, what is your number one objective when it comes to innovation within your brand and/or the retail industry as a whole?

Innovation itself is the number one objective; we want the consumer to recognize our brand as a leader in innovation. 

And for a bit of fun…

If you could pick a superpower, what would it be?

Make everybody more humble. 

What was your last purchase?

A worktable from Amsterdam.