MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Transmitting an Unwritten Culture: Hermès HR Leader Sharon MacBeath

At luxury brand Hermès, a tradition of apprenticeship informs its approach to handing down cultural values to employees. Hermès’s top HR leader shares the company’s tactics for instilling culture.

Hermès is one of the world’s most admired brands, renowned for its exquisite craftsmanship — as exemplified by the iconic Birkin and Kelly bags. Hermès has also achieved remarkable long-term business success. Nearly two centuries after the company’s founding as a workshop to craft horse harnesses for European nobility, Hermès today ranks among the 50 most valuable companies in the world.

“What’s below the visible tip of the iceberg & the financial results and growth & [is a] very strong culture that’s been built up through time in a very consistent fashion,” according to Sharon MacBeath, group human resources director at Hermès. Employees agree. In our study of culture at more than 400 large companies, employees’ Glassdoor ratings of Hermès’s culture and values put the company two standard deviations above its luxury fashion peers in our rankings.

About the Author

Donald Sull is a professor of the practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a cofounder of CultureX. Charles Sull is a cofounder of CultureX.

Learn more about MIT SMR.