Interview with Cyril Camus President and General Manager of Camus Cognac, at the time of a lecture for MBA Luxury Brand Management’s students at INSEEC Business School, Bordeaux.
Cyril Camus completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Management at BABSON COLLEGE, USA. He became a member of Young Presidents’ Organization, a global network of young chief executives.
While doing his Bachelor degree, he first started business in unrelated industry.
Then after graduation, he went to China to work in the local distribution arm of the family company and came back to French headquarters in 1998 to work as Development Manager for Eastern Europe.
In 2000, he became Marketing Director in the family business and since then he’s been running the family Camus Cognac company.
1- What is CAMUS COGNAC’s turnover?
2010 turnover is slightly above 60 million Euros. Our sales are over 98% outside of France, roughly 40% in Europe, 40% in Asia and 18% in North America. Camus today is the fifth largest Cognac company by number of bottles sold, but with the highest mix of premium products. It is the fastest growing company amongst the top 10. It is also the largest to be still entirely family owned and managed.
2- What are the main qualities and knowledge required to be Director of Camus Cognac?
I believe that the key assets for the CEO of a Cognac company are a good understanding and appreciation for the History and Traditions of the product. Cognac is not just a drink, it is also a culture, traditions, and know-how transmitted over time.
Otherwise, an appreciation of cultural differences is also important as our business is Global by nature.
Finally, patience combined with dynamism can help!
3- What is the international dimension of your job?
We sell 98% of our production on the international market, throughout all continents. I personally spend about 1/3 of my time in France, and 2/3 on the various markets, to keep a constant watch over the evolution of the consumer’s behavior and the main trends.
To reflect our philosophy of remaining as close as possible to our consumers, we maintain a physical presence (staff and offices) not only in Cognac, but also in London, Palm Beach, Tokyo, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong-Kong, Ho Chi Minh and Moscow.
One of my key responsibilities as head of the House of Camus is to encourage and maintain a common company culture throughout our locations, and amongst the more than 10 nationalities that compose our group.
4- Why did you accept to teach INSEEC’s students? What does it bring you on both personal and professional points of view?
I remember clearly as a Business Student that presentations on « real life » business issues were extremely useful to me, helping put what I had learnt in context.
I’m therefore very happy to share now my experience with those to whom it might be helpful.
Having to present one’s business issues is also a great way to force oneself to clarify those issues, and thus get closer to a solution. Finally, I always enjoy the feedback from the students, as they are always honest, objective and constructive. I see such presentations as a win-win situation, where I bring in my experience and issues, and the students bring me a fresh perspective and insights.
5- In relation with what you have to handle at work every day, can you give our students some advice to succeed in their first executive job?
As a young executive, I would concentrate on:
- Learning from those who have been in the industry for some time.
- Keeping a clear idea of where the priorities are, and not get overwhelmed by the details.
- Understanding that there are often many solutions to the same problem, most of them valid.
- Remembering that an objective that is not quantifiable is never a good objective.
6- Main difficulties of the job?
The main challenge in my job is to maintain the proper balance:
- Between the various cultural influences in the Group
- Between respect for traditions and need for innovation
- Between long term vision and short term imperatives
… and remembering in which country I am when I wake up in the morning !
7- How do you see the branding of luxury in the future?
To me, Luxury brands used to be defined by the Craftsmen behind the products, and by the nature of the buyers of such products. Today, the buyers are very diverse, geographically spread, and constantly evolving. Also, a lot of the brands now belong to Groups where it is difficult to see how the « soul » of the brand will be maintained over time. This shift from smaller privately owned brands sold to a clearly identifiable customer, to large brands in ever larger groups sold to a wide range of consumers, is rather new and its impact on the future not easily predicted. I remain confident however that Authenticity and Craftsmanship, two of the pillars of Luxury, will be still sought out by consumers for the many years to come.
8- What are the future strategic plans of the company in the near future? Will you remain family owned or have you considered being part of mega group?’
Strategic plans are to continue offering on the market Cognacs that are an authentic reflection of the diversity of the Cognac region. From a larger company perspective, we will continue to invest in related business to ensure our growth and sustainability: other categories such as Brandy, Calvados, Wine, but also other business models such as Flagship stores, direct marketing, and Lounges. Although belonging to a large group can be great leverage to speed up growth of the brand, I strongly believe that the sustainable success of any brand over the long term (25-30 years) can only be guaranteed by the presence of a very limited number of shareholders with a passion for that brand. As such, I am the only shareholder in the Camus Company, and have no plans to sell the company into a larger group.
