Case 17 — Hermès · Jean-Louis Dumas · 1984
Demand exceeds what your artisans can make. Do you scale production to meet it?
Hermès makes leather goods by hand. A single artisan makes an entire bag, start to finish, and takes years to train. Demand for your handbags now exceeds what your workshops can produce. Every consultant in Paris can show you the model: expand capacity, license the name, and capture the demand while it is there.
Choose before you scroll. The answer is hidden until you commit.
§02 — More forks
- Lululemon · 1998You have one store, no ad budget, and a pair of yoga pants that costs four times what anyone pays today. How do you price it?
- Nike · 1984You can sign five established NBA players, or spend the whole basketball budget on one rookie who would rather sign with your competitor. Which?
- Amazon · 2000Do you let outside sellers compete with you, on your own product pages, for your own customers?
- Glossier · 2023The thing that made your brand special is the thing now capping its growth. Do you break your own rule?