MS: Thank you for taking the duration to speak with me today. Would you please differentiate us a mini almost yourself and your background prior to taking the position with Zenith?
JFD: I am a man from the watch industry. I was really with a Swiss bank in Hong Kong for six months by the quite beginning of my career,but since subsequently I have been amid the watch industry. I started in bargains by $3,500 per month, and afterward moved to the production side, and was among dictate of developing production plans,next moved behind apt sales,afterward to marketing, and apt production development. My plenary life has been dedicated apt trying apt generate beautiful watches. When folk ask me what I do, I forever mention that I’m trying apt tell the folk pleased
MS: Based on what I’ve been hearing,people are extremely happy with what Zenith has been doing since you joined the company.
JFD: Thank you. It namely important for me that when you cost money aboard a watch, the feeling that you get from the watch is a very pleasant feeling. Pure emotion and true pleasure.
MS: Since you took on the persona at Zenith two years ago what are some of the most significant changes you’ve made at the company?
JFD: Our first focus was on small things. Number one was the production We looked by the number of references, the quality, and the furnish chain. We decreased the digit of references from 850 down apt 120. Now behind two annuals the collection has learned a 100% renewal for Zenith. For a brand favor Zenith, with its history,product was really key
And afterward was marketing. Without the right marketing, you cannot spread the right message. So we really concentrated aboard the marketing. We wanted apt have consistency, focusing on the right folk and giving the right message. And the key message was that Zenith, with the El Primero, was the inventor of the high frequency ego winding chronograph. This means everything. It means knowledge. It means creativity. It means manufacture. If means collections with a hereafter
When I ask myself what made Zenith successful because a centenary and a half, it entire began with Georges Favre-Jacot when he was 22 annuals age He was very young starting this company within the Swiss mountains. And he told himself that they were by the start of an industrial revolution, and he told himself that the earth needs stability accessibility and precision. And with these few key things, he managed apt amplify the collection because people who were entrepreneurs, politicians, scientists, etc. All these people were responsible for creating the earth that we are among immediately and they needed precision. Before the industrial revolution, precision was never an issue. During the period of the kings, you needed to queue up for the chance apt encounter important folk,but timing was not kept prefer this.
Favre-Jacot managed apt be a key actor within that revolution, producing instruments that the people needed. So among the ads showing the product we explain these stories of the history of Zenith. So distant this has been very successful.
MS: It’s interesting that you mention this. The first very good-looking watch I purchased because myself was a Zenith chronograph.an El Primero Class 4 with a African dial It was this history and the pursuance of precision that 1st drew me apt that watch. At the period I bought it, Zenith was never even selling watches among the United States, so I had to obtain the watch from a retailer among Europe.
JFD: What I did while I joined the company was to make sure we were connecting the product to the roots and to the DNA of the company. I wanted apt determine we were producing the collections within line with who we are and where we come from
I ought likewise say that we have really been surrounded the United States forever. We started within 1919,merely subsequently we stopped behind World War II because Zenith Appliance has the appoint and so there was no accident because us apt be there. But we had a very long history surrounded the United States. So there was a rift in due time but Zenith is definitely never present surrounded America.
So to finish, without giving too many details, we have too focused aboard things prefer efficiency,straight reporting,peril management. This prescription is working pretty well. And the last but never least there namely finance. We belong apt the first grace team among the earth and being chapter of that team means we absence to be performing
But swiftly I know that Zenith is behind on track and the direction namely the right direction. When you give so much into the company Brand Watches, getting that feedback namely quite important. We know that we’re moving among the right direction, and we know where we lack to go I want Zenith to be the best attempt among $5,000 and $10,000 US dollars
If you look at Rolls Royce and Bentley.for a duration they were being made among the same zone You had Rolls Royce that everyone knew. But the insiders, the automobile folk they were not buying the Rolls Royce luxury hublot watches, they were buying Bentley. And today, Bentley is bigger than Rolls Royce. For me, this namely like Zenith and Rolex. We have David against Goliath. They are a colossal company and we are a small company. We cannot fight with the same tools. For me, it’s never good-looking business apt venture apt contend with them in marketing,but I can compete within product and I can contest amid the history and the saga and I can compete with my history and his stamina (gestures towards Alain Huy, Zenith Brand Director because North America). I really deficiency apt shake Zenith among the direction where we convert a company for a purchaser who knows. Who knows watches.