Over the past 15 years, Authentic Brands Group has gone from being one of Jamie Salter ’s many ideas to the world’s second-largest licensing business behind Disney, with brands that generate $32 billion in retail sales annually.

So when Jean E. Palmieri, WWD’s senior editor of men’s, had Salter on stage at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit, she began at the only logical starting point.

“How’d you do it?”

Salter, who is founder, chairman and chief executive officer of the New York company, said he kicked off Authentic with a business plan inspired by big tech — and stuck with that plan.

The idea was fairly simple.

“We’re going to be an asset-like model, and we’re going to build the business, really as a software company in the old economy,” he said of the early thinking that le

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