Competing as a Luxury SME

Historically, the luxury industry was based on family firms and independent
creators or founders. Such individuals had a natural tendency
to retain ownership, to consolidate their image and their traditional
handicrafts and to protect their power of control. However, the
industry has moved on to an industrial development logic, brought
on by the increasing need for family SMEs to climb on the bandwagon
of globalization. Lasting changes have been brought about by big
international actors whose large and diversified high-prestige brand
portfolios yield huge and still increasing turnovers. Sometimes, they
strangle the historical DNA of those brands, threatening one of their
greatest strategic strengths.