Bart Claes

The through-line

The recurring position is that a business is worth fighting for absolutely, and that the fight only becomes possible once you stop letting the business define your worth. In 2018, with JBC under pressure, he and his sister Ann said out loud to each other that they might not save it, and that failing would not make them lesser people, because "We zijn meer als alleen het professioneel stuk van ons leven" [1]. That separation of identity from outcome is described as the thing that paradoxically released the fighting spirit rather than dulling it [1][2]. The same conversation produced the other half of the stance: "Not under our watch. Potverdorie, we gaan toch alles aan doen, maar echt alles, het onderste kan halen om het recht te trekken" [2].

Around that sits a vocabulary of mildness and equality that he applies to himself, to his sister and to the family question of who counts as a real entrepreneur. He refuses the hierarchy that puts founders above successors: "Ik voel me ook niet minder ondernemer. Ik heb het voortgezet. Kinderen van stichters moeten ook niet denken: ik ben dan minder ondernemer als een stichter" [2]. And he describes himself in terms that resist performance over substance: "Je hebt twee soorten mensen: die vertellen over wat ze doen in het leven, en mensen die leven. En ik ben de tweede" [2].

On surviving one crisis after another

He treats the last decade as a sequence of blows rather than a single disruption: online competition, a terror-driven collapse in spending, COVID, then inflation [2]. The 2015-2016 attacks are singled out as structural rather than temporary, because consumer fear cut clothing spend and pushed shoppers toward discounters, which put the mid-segment under sustained pressure [2]. COVID exposed the arithmetic of a store-based retailer: even multiplying online sales by 2.5 in 2020 could not compensate for closing 150 physical stores for three months when stores carried 90% of revenue [2].

On e-commerce and competing with giants

His correction to the standard retail narrative is that the difficulty was never technical. Selling online is not the hard part; selling online profitably is, and doing it against a competitor like Zalando with 10B in revenue against JBC's 250M means fighting with unequal means and taking years to master the economics [2].

On running a business with your sister

The sibling partnership is codified into three working rules: complementary yin-yang balancing in meetings, managing the relationship rather than controlling it, and a credit split where each grants the other 51% in good times while taking 51% of the responsibility in bad times [2]. The middle rule carries the most weight for him: "Geen van de twee wil de andere beheersen. Wij beheren onze relatie, wij beheersen ze niet. Wij zijn echt volledig gelijkwaardig" [2]. The emotional condition underneath it is stated just as plainly: "Wij gunnen elkaar het succes" [2].

On family business and succession

He argues that governance, not sentiment, is what unlocks generational transitions. It was the external board members who took the initiative in 2003 to confront his father about the clash of visions between generations, and that intervention led to his father stepping out of operations in 2004 [2]. Entry into the business is equally formalised: the next generation must complete a six to nine month traject through every part of the company, mirroring the way he and his sister started on the shop floor [2]. He puts the stakes high, citing family businesses as generating around 75% of economic value, and insists the transmission mechanism is behavioural rather than documentary, since employees mirror what leaders do daily rather than what a family charter says [2].

On leading as an introvert

Rather than treating introversion and high sensitivity as obstacles to the CEO role, he designs the job around them, structuring his work into 1-on-1 meetings instead of large group settings in order to protect his energy [2]. The principle behind it is compressed into one line: "Uit rust, uit stilte komt kracht" [2].

On the next generation of customers

The forward-looking bet is a clothing line with Camille for children aged 4 to 14, extended into a Roblox and metaverse version where avatar clothing is bought with points earned by playing [2]. The design choice he emphasises is what it deliberately excludes: the points are earned through play, not paid for with parents' credit cards [2].

Takeaways

• Say the unsayable out loud with your partner. Agreeing in advance that failure would not make you worth less as people is what freed the fighting spirit, not what softened it [1][2].
• Successors are entrepreneurs. "Kinderen van stichters moeten ook niet denken: ik ben dan minder ondernemer als een stichter" [2].
• The e-commerce challenge is profitability, not capability. Competing online against a 10B player from a 250M base takes years to master because the means are unequal [2].
• Channel mix is arithmetic. Multiplying online sales by 2.5 could not offset closing 150 stores for three months when stores were 90% of revenue [2].
• Use "beheren, niet beheersen" as the operating rule for a co-leadership relationship, paired with 51% of the credit given away and 51% of the responsibility taken on [2].
• Let the board do the hard family conversation. External board members confronting the founder in 2003 is what produced an orderly exit from operations in 2004 [2].
• Formalise entry: a six to nine month rotation through every part of the company before the next generation takes a role [2].
• Adapt the calendar to the temperament. Structuring the CEO role around 1-on-1s rather than large groups is an energy strategy, and "Uit rust, uit stilte komt kracht" [2].