Lux and Friends

Welcome to a special live episode of Lux & Friends recorded at the latest edition of Vicenza Oro, one of the world’s most prestigious jewelry fairs. Today, I have the distinct pleasure of speaking with Paola De Luca, a visionary and multifaceted figure in the world of luxury and jewelry design. Paola’s career is nothing short of extraordinary, spanning over three decades and marked by her ability to predict and shape trends that have influenced the global jewelry industry.Growing up in th...

This episode 56 Lux & Friends. Speaking of Lux, today's episode delves into the ultimate luxury—one that transcends wealth, age, culture, personality, and dreams: the luxury of lasting health, specifically coronary health. We are honored to have Dr. Shady Habboush with us today. Dr. Habboush is a German-certified interventional cardiology consultant and heart rhythm specialist. Born and raised in Dubai, he returned to the UAE after 15 years of dedicated service in Germ...

Today, we have an extraordinary guest whose journey through the luxury and retail industry is nothing short of inspirational. Shireen El Khatib, a name synonymous with pioneering luxury retail in the Middle East, joins us. From managing the first Bulgari store in Dubai in 1993 to leading the charge at Al Tayer Insignia and Majid Al Futtaim Shopping Malls, Shireen has been a key architect in transforming Dubai into a global luxury destination.With over 30 years of experience, she has not only ...

In the new episode of Lux & Friends (#54), I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrea Fornari, General Manager GCC and Export of Essilor Luxottica, the undisputed leader of the global optical sector. I have always been fascinated by this industry, which encompasses lifestyle, health, and technology. For someone like me, equally passionate about luxury and innovation, this was a great opportunity to learn more about the company that, due to its size, dominant market position in both fr...

I am Carlo Pignataro, and this is a new episode of Lux and Friends. Luxury, as an industry, has many faces. When thinking of luxury, some people portray in their mind fashion, others jewelry. For some, it's all about exclusive experiences; others are into art, or the finest wines and spirits. Many products, services, and categories belong to luxury, and yet only a few professionals have managed to navigate this vast and fascinating territory in its various dimensions. My guest today did just ...

I couldn't be happier to kick off a new season, this time live from Dubai, of Lux & Friends podcast, with an exceptional guest whose story is nothing short of a fairytale in the Luxury Industry. Like all fairytales, Amedeo Scognamiglio's life and journey are filled with surprises, miracles, unexpected twists, extreme joy, and profound sadness. Amedeo and his childhood friend, partner, and later business partner Roberto Faraone Mennella left Italy in the late 90's to pursue their dream of ...

The focus of this episode of Lux and Friends is Permanent Reinvention, the one thing we (individuals and organizations)all need. That we all somehow do, and that we all fear.In nature, change is inevitable. Organisms either change or die.And yet, the human brain is resistant to change despite all evidence would suggest it is vital to one’s survival.My guest of today is Aidan McCullen, author of the best-selling book Undistruptable, A Mindset of Permanent Reinvention for Individuals, Organisat...

The title of this episode is Art and Business, Music and Luxury and to discuss such a variety of topics, I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a true artist and a businessman, Vincent Corver.Vincent is an acclaimed concert pianist and music composer, as well as an ambassador for Steinway & Sons, the most prestigious manufacturer of the finest musical instrument, the piano.With Vincent, I have discussed the intersection between art and luxury, what creativity can do in business, and the pr...

This episode of the podcast is about Emotional Intelligence, a term popularized in the 90’s by the psychologist Daniel Goleman and, ever since, the corporate world has embraced it. Or so they say.In fact, that type of intelligence that makes individuals and groups of people aware of their emotions, and the emotions of others, is as rare as desirable.In a time when efficiency, productivity and market domination have become the standard definition of success, we need to go beyond Emotional Inte...

Today’s podcast is all about bringing humanity back to business!It is about putting customers back into the center of your business model Data alone can’t help you understand and empathize with your customers.” says my guest Janelle Estes, co-author of the newly released book User Tested.“No amount of data will take you inside your customers’’ heads, help you see the world through their eyes, or let you experience what it’s really like to be your customer. Only human insight from real pe...

In today’s episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Andrew Hallam, a financial expert and author of many books of which “The Millionnaire expat”is at the center of our conversation.Yet, you don’t have to be an expat, nor a millionaire to benefit from listening to this podcast, from which you’ll learn, as a starter, that some of the most reputable insurance companies in the world sell retirement plans that will leave you broke. Andrew will tell you who they are, and what you can do to avo...

Our journey in the world of NFTs continues and in today’s podcast, I have the pleasure of interviewing Seoyoung Kim the Author of NFT for Dummies.Seoyoung Kim is an Associate Professor of Finance and Business Analytics at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, where she teaches Financial Management, Financial Engineering, and FinTech.As the financial markets are plummeting all over the world, and the crypto and blockchain sectors make no exception, professor Kim's expertise in in...

The title of this podcast is Neuroscience at Work, and I had the immense pleasure of interviewing, for the second time, Dr. Helena Boschi, an organisational psychologist, a neuroscience expert and the author of the unmissable book Why we do what we do.This conversation with Dr. Boschi is a fascinating journey into our brain. Listening to it, you will understand what attracts people to luxury and what drives buying decisions at large.You will learn how your brain copes with the informatio...

Today’s podcast is about innovation, the innovation that can and should come from within a corporation.Yes, Contrary to popular beliefs, large corporations are better off than startups at winning the innovation game, or so says my guest, Andrew Binns.Andrew is the co-author of the best-selling book, The corporate explorer, and a strategic advisor to Fortune 500 companies.Listening to this interview, you will learn there is a breed of managers, that are the corporate explorers, who have the vi...

The topic of today’s podcast is NFTs, non fungible tokens.Whether you think they are just a jpeg file people exchange for millions of dollars, or the next generation of contracts, whether you think they are the ultimate cultural phenomenon, a great investment or just a scam, you can’t ignore NFTs anymore, for they are changing the very idea of digital property.To set the record straight and help you, dear listener, understand NFTs well, I’ve interviewed QuHarrison Terry, a formed digital art ...

The title of today’s podcast is Rethinking Luxury Fashion.I had the pleasure of sitting with Thomaï Serdari, the director of the Fashion & Luxury Mba at the Leonard Stern School Of Business, at the New York university and the conversation that follows will open your eyes.You’ll learn that luxury is a universal certainty, that fashion is a cultural phenomenon before it is an industrial, or simply an aesthetical one.You will see through the strategies the most successful luxury brands in th...

Our guest, Kelly Khan, is a professional soprano singer. She takes us through her daily singing exercises. Breathing & diction are core and benefit non singers.Why is improving one's voice valuable to all of us?Why are singing techniques useful for non singers?How to exercise and train our voice every day?Why can't we hear our own real voice?Why can't we trust our own ears?What do we need to know about our vocal chords?In this episode of Lux & Friends, Kelly explains to us how trainin...

WHAT IS IT GOING TO TAKE TO WIN THE BATTLE OF CONTENT?You want to know the answers to key questions:Who will win the fierce battle of content? Which brands will be the kinds of content? What is too much content kills content? What can be defined as innovative content?Our guest, Julien Lévy, was head of global brand & digital communication at Firmenich. Now a brand strategic advisor, he gives us his tips to win the content battle.In this episode of Lux & Friends, Julien ...

Stop worrying about money. Financial Literacy with Michael GilmoreIn this episode of Lux and Friends, Michael Gilmore tells us why he has embarked on such an ambitious mission, teaching the world the power of money. He wants to improve life for humanity at large by removing poverty and giving financial freedom to people. To achieve his goal, he writes books and gives lectures. His financial literacy teaching method is simple, his 'freedom formula' or '7 dollar millionaire' pri...

The subject of today’s podcast is the importance of building strong and meaningful relationships at work and in life.Easier said than done, you may say, for human beings are complex machines and all wired differently.There is always a Problem A and a Problem B in every relationship, says my guest of today Paul Cowan, the author of the book “ “Connecting with Clients: For stronger, more rewarding and longer-lasting client relationships”Problem A is the task at hand, the very issue or subject w...

The title of today’s podcast is GO LIVE AND SELL.The sales education arena is a crowded one, and inevitably so because…..think about it although many companies and individuals don’t really like to use the word sales to describe what they do, most of the time nothing really happens in business until a sale is made.And so, the world is getting increasingly populated by people who write, talk, teach and preach about sales.Some of them are extremely good, others are neglectable, and only a few ar...

The subject of today’s podcast is Digital Transformation, one of the hottest, if not the hottest topics in today’s corporate world and to address it,and understand the various conceptual and practical implications of Digital Transformation, I’ve chosen to speak with the co-author of a very detailed and well structured book titled “ The Digital Transformer’s Dilemma. How to energize your core business, while building disruptive products and services.”With my guest Markus Schmidt, I will ...

The topic of today’s podcast is Business Transformation, a trip into the future with one of the world’s leading futurists, Peter Fisk.Corporate leaders, says Peter, spend way too much time thinking about the past, looking at past performance, trying to replicate what made their company successful forgetting that the future is complex, unpredictable, fast coming, and there to be created.What if they’d choose to spend their time imagining, inventing their future instead?In this interview, Peter...

The topic of today’s podcast is HOW TO SELL A BUSINESS, AND GET THE MOST OUT OF IT so, if you’re a business owner, an entrepreneur, or if you’re planning to start a business sooner than later, you don’t want to miss the precious advise my guest John Warrillow, the author of the newly released book which we will discuss today, titled The Art of Selling Your Business will share in this comprehensive interview.But if you’re an employee, and entrepreneurship is not in your agenda, you may find va...

The topic of today’s podcast is Virtual Sales Meetings, as if our lives were not filled enough with virtual events…..and yet there is much to gain from leveraging the opportunity to meet new and old customers online that I wanted to know more about it, and share with you, my dearest listeners, the world’s best practices.Let’s start from saying that, if you and your business are not equipped yet to engage in virtual business development activities, well, the clock is ticking and you have to qu...

The topic of today’s podcast is VISION, which is that unique, special, rare, aspirational and yet tangible ingredient of leadership only the most impactful leaders display, to the point we may conclude VISION is what makes their leadership so strong and impactful.When we take a close look at the way people like Apple’s Steve Jobs, of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, and the many corporate and community leaders who have changed the world operate their business, we realize they couldn’t have ach...

The topic of today’s podcast is personal finance, and also financial education and also financial freedom.Yes, I am talking about freedom because there are two ways to go about money, we can either work for it for the rest of our lives, or make it work for us as early as possible and live a life in which money is no longer something to worry about.Wouldn’t this be just great?And what if I tell you there’s a simple formula you can use to become financially free, that accumulating 25X you...

The topic of today’s podcast is Virtual Events.Yes, the kind of events many people wouldn’t even consider events before COVID came and changed our physical world.And so, all of a sudden, we found ourselves having to replace the shows, the conferences, the trade events in which we would share our space with thousands of people, with the four walls of our house and a pc screen or at best, a large TV screenAnd we realised that technology could actually help us not lose everything, and perhaps ac...

The focus of today’s podcast is Artificial Intelligence, and more specifically the transformation AI will cause to a variety of industries.I am extremely happy to discuss such a deep topic with Sudi Sinha, the co-author of the book Reimagining businesses with AI. Sudhi is a business and technology leader with over 20 years of experience.He has served as VP and GM of Digital Solutions for Johnson Control, and has 22 granted and more than 40 pending patents in Internet of things, big data,...

The topic of this podcast is INNOVATION, the type of innovation that makes a company strive questioning first and foremost the way it does business; its business model. My guest today is an innovation rockstar, the co-author of the newly released book Business Model Shifts, 6 new ways to create value for customers, and with him I will try to understand which systematics steps can a business take to reinvent itself, leveraging the worlds hottest trends.Patrick Van der Pijl is CEO of...

The topic of today’s podcast is HOW TO SELL EXPERT SERVICES, and more specifically how recurring revenue is driven at expert firms like BCG, KPMG, EY and more.If you are a consultant, of if your job requires you to build strong relationships with high-profile corporate clients, relationships based on trust and expert advice, this episode of the podcast with provide you with ideas, case histories, and a framework, called the diamond of opportunities, which will help you grow your business with...

The topic of today’s podcast is A MARKETING REVOLUTION, A CONTEXT MARKETING REVOLUTION, that is.Anyone thinking the rules of marketing haven’t changed, because consumer behavior hasn't changed and the media still got all the power may be setting themselves up for a bad surprise.With my distinguished guest of today, Mathew Sweezey, author of the bestseller “The Context Marketing Revolution”, and Head of Market Strategy at Salesforce, one of world’s leading tech companies which has foreve...

The topic of today’s podcast is China, one of the largest markets in the world, formerly the largest factory of the world; the Country making the headlines every year for its GDP growth, the next world’s superpower, at least according to many analysts, and certainly the place where many companies, in particular in the luxury industry, develop most of their turnover.But China is also a place where innovation, be it technical or social, happens at an extremely fast pace, and where the laws of b...

Welcome to a new episode of Lux & TechThe topic of today’s podcast is WORKING FROM HOME.To dig into this extremely relevant topic, I am delighted to interview Karen Mangia, an internationally-recognized thought leader whose TEDx appearance, keynotes, blogs and books reach hundreds of thousands of business leaders each year. She is the author of the books Working from Home: Making the New Normal Work for You (Wiley), Listen UP! How to Tune Into Customers and Turn Down the Noise (Wile...

NEGOTIATION, the topic of today’s podcast, is the ultimate business skill, regardless of what industry you are in, regardless of your role, and even the level you play at.Negotiating well, means not only getting as much value as you possibly can from anything you do, but as master negotiators know, it also means creating more value than you thought possible at the beginning of a negotiation.Listening to this episode of LUX & TECH, you will learn timeless negotiation principles and bulletp...

Welcome to the age of transparency sounds like the title of a scifi movie, doesn’t it?But if you think about it, the internet, and its mainstream, mobile, use has created an unprecedented opportunity for people to source information, and to a certain degree of accuracy, to fact check.And so, trying to hide something, or avoiding uncomfortable questions may be just the wrong thing to do for a business, or a public figure.Yet, nothing is harder to tell than the truth.For reasons that made sense...

What is luxury?What makes it so desirable?Can anyone create it? Should anyone have access to it? Would anyone understand it or just the few? These and many more questions come to mind when discussing a topic that is at the same time fascinating and difficult to enclose in a single definition.Luxury is certainly about perception, but can you dare say a luxury product or a luxury service is not tangibly superior, materially exquisite, undoubtedly precious?And what can a company, a brand do...

ARE YOU A THINKER OR A FEELER?I mean, do you draw your conclusions about the world, its future, and the future of humanity based on what you see around you and feel about it, or on larger data?For example, did you know that the world today is greener than it’s ever been?That it's also more peaceful than it’s ever been before and that the number of children starving to death - still too high - has decreased over 99% over the past 50 years?If you find yourself having a pessimistic view of the f...

The time to sell for the sake of selling, for the sake of making money, for the sake of scaling and gaining more power are over.No, I am not saying that these are not legit reasons why organizations should exist and people should work, but I am here to tell you that another way of doing business exists, and is gaining traction, has already got momentum.Purpose is the name of the game; is the one abstract, yet powerful concept, or idea, or ideal if you want that changes everything, that ...

Today we’re talking about money, banks, finance, technology and before you skip this episode thinking "oh this is Fintech, it’s not my business" I tell you stop! Don’t go anywhere because a revolution has started, an irreversible process of transformation of the way we earn, save, borrow, lend, invest money and that involves everyone, including yourself.My guest of today is an expert, the CEO of the Fintech Circle, a global platform of more than 130,000 fintech entrepreneurs, investors, finan...

Why do you do what you do?Have you ever asked yourself this very question?Have you ever investigated the neural and psychological mechanisms that govern your brain, and as a consequence your mind and which determine every decision you make?If you haven’t, this episode of the podcast will provide you with newly found scientific evidence that the brain is first and foremost an organ and that by understanding it, and by taking care of it will help you in many ways to make better decisions for yo...

Getting to know, and understand the industries of the future is not only a moral imperative for anyone willing to gain or keep their relevance in an ever changing world, but also the smartest thing to do to try and catch the opportunities the not so silent technical revolution we are experiencing has has to offer, and minimize the risk of being, personally and professionally, left out.If you don’t know yet how robots and automation will transform humanity, if you still look at money simply as...

The topic of today’s podcast is China and it’s quite an ambitious one you may think, for China is more than just a country or a market, but rather one of the most complex, and fascinating I’d say, players in the geo-political and economical theatres of the world.Listening to this episode of LUX & TECH will give you the opportunity to see China through the lenses, or to be more accurate, the eyes of 25 CEOs of Multinational companies operating across various industries, and ranging from Mi...

If you are like me, and probably many other people around you, you may get discouraged everytime you hear the word problem, or when you find yourself in a tricky situation that requires a certain level of structured thinking.From today onwards, this will change.By listening to this episode of the podcast, you will learn that not only complex problem solving is the skill that will support you throughout your personal and professional life, but also one that, contrary to popular belief, is acce...

The topic of today’s podcast is….your brain.Yes, that part of your body that consumes 20% your energy, although it accounts for only 2% of its weight.Your brain, that little engine inside your head that controls your life because as neuroscientist Antonio Damasio said “We are not thinking machines that feel, we are feeling machines that think”.And so, while marketers all over the world keep trying to appeal to the rational side of consumers’ brain, relying on surveys, market research and web ...

Creativity and innovation are two of the most spoken, dare I say, abused words in the corporate world today.Leaders of all industries reckon that the speed of change we are experiencing , challenges pretty much everything a business is and everything a business does.From its products to its culture, from its processes to its business model.There is nothing, nothing, nothing we can be sure won’t be disrupted.Yet, as much as an urgent need for creativity and innovation has arised,many leaders a...

Should they choose the latter, they must know CSR, corporate social responsibility, is not the answer.The guest of today’s show, Gib Bulloch, the author of the book The Intrapreneur, Confessions of a corporate insurgent, has spent most of his professional life merging business with aid and development, leading ADP the non-profit arm of the consulting giant Accenture.He did it for over a decade until life presented a sudden turn of events and he found himself questioning whether the system he ...

The topic of today’s episode of the podcast is charisma and I cannot stress enough the importance of this subject.Charisma, contrary to popular belief, is a skill and a skill that can help you in so many ways in life, from gaining respect and admiration, to succeeding professionally, from attracting the partner of your dreams, to having your kids hear and listen to you every time, from gaining popularity amongst your friends, to being able to stand up for your or somebody else’ rights when ne...

The fourth industrial revolution, the one we are experiencing today, has come so fast you may not even noticed it was a revolution.Of course, you’ve seen the signs, you’ve even tasted the fruits, but chances are you kept thinking “life and business will go on as usual” and that’s where you are setting yourself up for an unwelcome surprise.You need to realise the world has become increasingly VUCA, which is an acronym that stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity, and the o...

Ulrik Nerløe, founder of Unified People, has been transforming international organisations and creating winning cultures that bring world-class results since 2010. An “energy and freedom creator”, he has extensive experience in executive mentoring, organisational development, leadership development, and one-on-one life coaching. He is the author of the best-selling book " The life bridge, your journey from an unconscious to a conscious life".Key takeaways of this episode:Everyone ha...

Drawing the fine line between reality and perception has kept humanity busy for thousands of years.Countless philosophers and scientists have spent their lives trying to separate what’s true from what’s collectively and individually perceived as such, and they often failed the test of time for their truth being true only until the next discovery was made to contradict it.This is not to say we cannot be certain of anything in life.Of course there are facts and we should not confuse them with o...

Today we’ll speak about tomorrow.The future, once said the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, influences the present as much as the past. The future is everyone’s next destination, yet many people and companies don’t know where they are going and they need the help of those who can read the signs.And reading the signs to understand where society will go, what consumers will buy, and what people will want is a job that requires analytical skills and a methodology grounded in science.In the ...

Millions of people around the globe buy a watch every day, despite having their time measured by their smartphone, because they have either learned to appreciate the almost impossible work of engineering that goes with the complicated mechanical movement because they love a certain design, or because they seek social recognition.In all this Switzerland has for centuries been the country where the most sophisticated watches were invented, and still is the place where most premium luxury and hi...

Paolo Gallo is a best-selling author, coach, and former head of HR at the World Economic Forum.In his career he has interviewed over 9.000 candidates (including several Nobel Prizes, Prime Ministers, and CEOs.)In this episode of the podcast, Paolo shares principles and strategies to help listeners achieve happiness at work while building a successful career.Key takeaways:Passion and talent are not the sameTalent is not enough to succeed in the long runFailing to understand an organization's c...

It was 1999 when a book titled “The experience economy” made its appearance in the bookstores around the world.Many listeners will surely remember how companies, back then, were still busy producing goods and delivering services at full speed and very few of them, with the exception of some in the entertainment and hospitality industry, would ever think of their interactions with their clients as EXPERIENCES.Yet, experiences they were, for experience is an inevitable dimension of human life.W...

In this episode of Lux & Tech, Carlo Pignataro discusses the future of humanity with best-selling author and Artificial Intelligence expert Calum Chace.Calum offers a comprehensive overview of the challenges and opportunities a "Luxury Automated Capitalism" presents and in this interview, based on the principles included in the book "AI and the two singularities" the two discuss:A brief history of AIAI and machine learningThe economic singularity, and a jobless worldThe technical singular...

In this episode Carlo Pignataro interviews John Wood, co-author of the book "Humachine, humankind, machines and the future of enterprise".Key takeaways:Data overload: not everything that can be counted, countsThe elegance of the Kasparov's lawNarrow Artificial Intelligence is extremely powerful and can give companies a significant competitive advantageArtificial General Intelligence may not be possible, nor the best path to followMavoc's paradox should be leveraged rather than solvedA Humachi...