Thursday, 25 November 2010
Tommy Hilfiger at the Oxford Union
A few weeks ago I had the privilege of hearing Tommy Hilfiger speak at the Oxford Union. I was quite interested to hear him speak for a number of reasons. Firstly, just because it is always interesting to hear a successful entrepreneur and businessman tell his story. But also because he is a designer, as well as a businessman. Where did the balance lie? And how did he feel about seeing his name on thousands of strangers’ shirts and hats? Did that say something about his personality, or not?
Well, all thoughts of a megalomaniac, or an Andy Warhol-style “artiste” were quickly dispelled as soon as he opened his mouth. He was surprisingly authentic, and down-to-earth, and visibly impressed and proud to be speaking at Oxford. (In fact I would say that he was more authentic and down-to-earth than most people in Oxford, let alone fashion designers!) He spoke for some time, telling the story of his life, which was interesting and inspiring, then took questions until he had to rush off to the next stop on his tour.
To me as an MBA student, though, his talk was particularly good. It was sort of a capstone to many of the classes we have had this trimester. Themes from marketing, managerial economics, accounting, and strategy all came out in his experience and advice, and had much more weight coming from an actual entrepreneur’s experience than they ever could coming from textbooks or carefully crafted case studies. This, too, was confirmed by his talk: he actually had very little education. His MBA, he told us, came from all the lessons he learned when his first company went bust. It was refreshing to get a dose of “out there doing it in the world” entrepreneurship, to remind us not to get too comfortable in the classroom.
Not only was it a great talk, but everyone in attendance got a Tommy Hilfiger bag out of the deal too!
