A Chat with Christophe Gaigneux,EVP, Boston Apparel Group,
CS: Across your entire career, what has been your greatest challenge, and how did you deal with it?
CG: It's always difficult to think of your greatest challenge, but something came to mind about when I joined La Redoute. Back in 1999, I joined as head of the women's apparel, VP of women's apparel for La Redoute, reporting to the CEO. But we changed the organization a few months later. In just a few months, in 2000, I was appointed EVP of apparel for La Redoute including creative and sourcing. And this wasn't just for women's apparel, but for menswear, and children's wear. This was a new job at the company. At the same time, just to make it easier, PPR, created a new training program. It was called U-Next, which stood University for the Next Generation. They established a training program for younger executives at the company. It was a one-year program with a lot work, not only off-site training, but training with Harvard and French teachers - it was an international program. At the same time we had our regular job. It was a stretch for me. You had to take care of the team with the new job and the new organizational structure. So it wasn't just the new promotion, but it creating the new job and the one-year training program. It was an interesting challenge for me. We had to present to the PPR executive committee a project on corporate social responsibility. So I couldn't give up on my project group. It was always a continuous stretch between taking care of my team on the job with La Redoute, and taking care of my PPR teammates for the training program. It was the first promotion where I had to go through this great process. It was an interesting year.
