Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm. It's about doing more good.Collection: Good
We should bring in an environmental attitude, and I think luxury should automatically be about sustainability and quality.Collection: Attitude
I call upon governments to start supporting companies to use more sustainable materials in their products instead of continuing with antiquated incentives, such as import duties on synthetic materials that are in principle much higher compared with those placed on leather goods regardless of the environmental footprint.Collection: Environmental
Let's recreate the equivalent of the Met Ball in Europe and, rather than for the museum, give the money to environmental causes.Collection: Environmental
The puma... the cat... is not just about power and speed and strength... but it is also a very elegant animal. That's what we've tried to reflect in our products.Collection: Strength
It's shocking to think about how little the travel industry cares about sustainability - and it's the basis of their business!Collection: Travel
I always wanted to be a medical doctor, and I never thought of business.Collection: Medical
I was actually accepted into medical school in Italy. But then I wanted to come back and learn medicine in Germany. And while waiting, I decided to join a business school. I figured it would be useful for doctors to know some business as well!Collection: Medical
Unless the local community signs up, wildlife won't survive. And without wildlife, no one will visit.
Everything is interconnected. The moment you take philosophy, psychology, religion and business and look at the underlying commonalities, that's when you start looking at business in a different way.
If you look at the state of our planet, the next generations won't be around if we consider sustainability as a gimmick.
The problem is you can't wear your old shoes too often because people say, 'You're still wearing that shoe?'
When you are small, and you have to try and prove yourself, it is tough. When others are catching up and copy you, that's tough. We constantly need to change ourselves to stay ahead of the game.
I believe in metaphysics. I don't believe in God because I think that is a human simplification of the things we can't explain. But I believe in a greater universe.
It may sound crazy, but maybe there's an economic way of producing a leather-like product in the laboratory.
We have to find alternative ways of producing our raw materials without asking nature to do it for us.
Being able to dedicate 100 per cent of my time to impacting more businesses without being operational, it just gives me a bigger platform.
When it came to the discussion about would Harley do an electric bike, I said, 'Absolutely - this is a no-brainer.' Let's define the sound of the future.
Governments have a unique opportunity to incentivise corporations so that they can accelerate their evolution to a more sustainable economy through more sustainable practices and products.
The company was ready to close its doors; there was real financial distress. But on the other side, there was high brand awareness, but that was negative because Puma was perceived as low-priced. It had lost its cachet. It was a well-known brand without a presence.
For a long time, companies ignored the fact that 80 percent of sporting goods are sold to the casual consumer.
We believe that African football is among the best in the world and very much characterized the Puma brand mentality, which is to win.
Be curious enough to keep an open mind to what's happening around you in society. You can look at yourself and the world at the same time.
Look at timber prices in the late '90s, at around $50. If you count the true damage of cutting down forests, the resultant flooding, insurance claims, and so on, then the timber price should have been $100.
Obviously, South Africa is our most important market, but we are also gradually increasing our presence throughout East and West as well as North Africa. It is a continent with a lot of potential which we plan to tap into.
I think South Africa has shown it can host such a big event as the World Cup, so why not hold the Olympics at some point in Africa? Maybe not just in one country but in a host of countries.
I never felt that although we were based in Germany, Puma was and should be considered as a German brand. So we restructured it in a way that positioned us as a global brand, with English being the corporate language, rather than us looking at it from a German perspective.
We decided that sports, lifestyle and fashion were three elements that could be mixed together to a very unique formula. That's what we did: make Puma a very sports-fashion brand when, at the times, everybody talked about sports and sports performance and functionality. We said, 'Well, it's about more.'
We allow people to be creative. We set a direction, we set the vision, we set the strategy, but within that framework, we allow our people to be as creative as they want to be.
I'm a curious person, and I always like to test new waters, and I've always jumped into the cold water and then started to think about how to swim.
We always try to reinterpret sport in an innovative, fashionable way, and when we do fashion, we're always trying to bring our sports heritage into the fashion world.
Puma was all about function and not at all about design. The founder of the company always believed functionality and performance were the only ingredients that could make Puma successful and design never mattered.
When I started at Puma, you had a restaurant that was a Puma restaurant, an Adidas restaurant, a bakery. The town was literally divided. If you were working for the wrong company, you wouldn't be served any food; you couldn't buy anything. So it was kind of an odd experience.