Chanel CEO’s rise to success started with a 48-hour train ride

Chanel CEO Leena Nair was recruited to lead one of the biggest fashion houses in the world, ranked at No. 209 on the Fortune 500 Europe list.

Transcript

00:00Chanel CEO Lena Nair leads one of the biggest fashion houses in the world,

00:03and it all started with a 48-hour train ride across India.

00:06Nair recently told students at Stanford that getting an MBA was a key step in her career.

00:10The only problem was that her university of choice was on the opposite side of India,

00:14practically another planet away from her family.

00:16But Nair still took the rare opportunity to advance her education,

00:19and worked her way up through business.

00:21She said she was surprised when she got a call from Chanel,

00:23one of the world's biggest luxury companies,

00:26and it took her nine months to eventually say yes to the CEO position.

00:29Despite the sharp differences,

00:30Nair has already made significant changes in her two years with Chanel,

00:34seeing a 16% jump in the company's revenue last year

00:36and increasing the funding for Chanel's charity arm.