Bill Winters Sees ‘Enormous, Untapped' Chance in Carbon Credits
Standard Chartered Plc Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters said financial markets are underestimating the business case for carbon credits, given the growing need among companies to offset their CO2 footprints.
'The enormous, untapped opportunity is the corporations of the world,' Winters said in an interview with Bloomberg Television's Francine Lacqua on Tuesday.
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Associated Press
27 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Wimbledon 2025: Coco Gauff is just 21 but already thinking about what to do after tennis
LONDON (AP) — To be clear, Coco Gauff didn't bring up the word 'star' during a recent interview with The Associated Press; the reporter did. So as Gauff began to answer a question about balancing her life as a professional athlete with her off-court interests, she caught herself repeating that term. 'I definitely didn't know how it would look like,' she began with a smile, 'before I got to be, I guess, a star — feels weird to call myself that — but I definitely did want to expand outside of tennis. Always. Since I was young.' She still is young, by just about any measure, and she is a really good tennis player — Gauff owns the Grand Slam titles and No. 2 ranking to prove it as she heads into Wimbledon, which begins Monday — but the 21-year-old American is also more than that. Someone unafraid to express her opinions about societal issues. Someone who connects with fans via social media. Someone who is the highest-paid female athlete in any sport, topping $30 million last year, according to with less than a third of that from prize money and most via deals with companies such as UPS, New Balance, Rolex and Barilla. Someone who recently launched her own management firm. And someone who wants to succeed in the business world long after she no longer swings a racket on tour. 'It's definitely something that I want to start to step up for post-career. Kind of start building that process, which is why I wanted to do it early. Because I didn't want to feel like I was playing catch-up at the end of my career,' said Gauff, who will face Dayana Yastremska in the first round at the All England Club on Tuesday. 'On the business side of things, it doesn't come as natural as tennis feels. I'm still learning, and I have a lot to learn about,' Gauff said. 'I've debated different things and what paths I wanted to take when it came to just stimulating my brain outside of the court, because I always knew that once I finished high school that I needed to put my brain into something else.' In a campaign announced this week by UPS, which first partnered with Gauff in 2023 before she won that year's U.S. Open, she connects with business coach Emma Grede — known for working with Kim Kardashian on Skims, and with Khloe Kardashian on Good American — to offer mentoring to three small-business owners. 'Coco plays a key role in helping us connect with those younger Gen-Z business owners — emerging or younger entrepreneurs,' Betsy Wilson, VP of digital marketing and brand activation at UPS, said in a phone interview. 'Obviously, she's very relevant in social media and in culture, and working with Coco helps us really connect with that younger group.' While Grede helped the entrepreneurs, Gauff also got the opportunity to pick up tips. 'It's really cool to learn from someone like her,' Gauff said. 'Whenever I feel like I'm ready to make that leap, I can definitely reach out to her for advice and things like that. ... This will help me right now and definitely in the long term.' ___ Howard Fendrich has been the AP's tennis writer since 2002. Find his stories here: More AP tennis:
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bottega Veneta Through the Years
It's hard to imagine Bottega Veneta, which last year surpassed the 1.6 billion euro mark and has reached global brand status, as a struggling, off-the-radar, near bankrupt leather goods label back in 2001 — and many may have forgotten that the acquisition of the brand was spearheaded by Tom Ford and Domenico De Sole, who were leading the then-Gucci Group. De Sole at the time revealed that Bottega Veneta had been at the top of the list of his acquisition targets, and with Ford, realized the brand's strong heritage based on high-quality leather accessories and shoes and Italian craftsmanship had huge potential. He believed the brand could exponentially grow its revenues, which in 2000 amounted to approximately $50 million. More from WWD Here's Why Tracee Ellis Ross Used a Height-illusion Styling Hack in Bottega Veneta Boots for Kendrick Lamar's Concert in Los Angeles Steve Madden Said He's 'Nicked' Luxury Shoes, Not Making Designer Ripoffs: 'It's Like Calling the Beatles a Knockoff Band' Ayesha Curry Shines in Crystal-embellished Aquazzura Heels and Rabanne Crop top at Time 100 Impact Dinner Ford did not get involved in the design of the collection, as he was taking over the over the design of the Yves Saint Laurent Rive Gauche rtw line, which Gucci Group acquired in November 1999. Instead, Tomas Maier was appointed to the role of creative director of Bottega Veneta. Initially, Gucci Group bought a 66.67 percent stake in Bottega Veneta via a capital investment of $96.2 million and the purchase of shares from its stockholders for $60.6 million, for a total of $156.8 million. The remaining 33.33 percent was in the hands of its shareholders — the Moltedo family. The company was founded in 1966 in Vicenza, Veneto, by Michele Taddei and Renzo Zengiaro. Shortly after Zengiaro left Bottega Veneta at the end of the '70s, Taddei handed over the company to his ex-wife Laura Braggion, who headed the company with her second husband Vittorio Moltedo, and was the brand's creative director. She would contribute to the early success of the brand in the U.S., becoming an assistant of Andy Warhol, whose studios made the short film 'Bottega Veneta Industrial Videotape' in 1985, and opened the first store there in New York in 1972. The brand had achieved success in the '60s and '70s as an expression of high quality, discreet elegance and craftsmanship. At the time of the takeover, Bottega Veneta had 12 directly operated stores in the U.S., five in Europe and four in Asia, and the Italian luxury group mapped out its strategy to control distribution in Japan — historically a strong market for the brand – including the operation of 19 stores. Ohio-born Edward Buchanan joined Bottega Veneta after graduating from Parsons School of Design in 1995, and with creative director Laura Moltedo, he was tasked with developing the brand's first ready-to-wear collection as design director. The first fashion show for the brand was staged in October 1998 at Palazzo Serbelloni. Buchanan left the company after six years to launch his own Leflesh brand with Manuela Morin, also a Bottega Veneta alumna, and Giles Deacon joined the creative team for one year. The Moltedos exited Bottega Veneta shortly after Gucci Group's acquisition and Patrizio di Marco was recruited from Céline, where he was president of U.S. operations, to join Bottega Veneta as chief operating officer in May 2001. The following month, he was promoted to CEO, while at the same time, Tomas Maier was tapped as the brand's creative director, thereby setting up Bottega Veneta for its reinvention. The German-born Maier, who had spent nine years at Hermès and previously worked at Guy Laroche and Sonia Rykiel, was an unlikely savior for a company steeped in Italian tradition. But the tenets he set down — no logos and no compromises — redefined Bottega Veneta in an era of luxury branding run amok. The women's rtw line had made its debut in October 1997 and was briefly scrapped by Gucci. Maier reinstated it and in 2004, the company introduced menswear and quickly established its signature look: refined, realistic and steadily evolving, never trendy. From the brand's signature Intrecciato woven leather bags and leveraging the strength of its artisans, the history and cultural background of the region itself, Maier had set to create a lifestyle label. As the '90s logo mania raged on, he was attracted by the brand's tag line that resonated with the designer, who preferred sophisticated designs promoting individualism: 'When your own initials are enough.' Di Marco was tasked with repositioning Bottega Veneta in the luxury range, which was a tough call because the brand had strayed from its roots and diluted its brand DNA by embracing a flashier, less luxurious identity and had very little left of the old archives. The clarity of the vision and its disciplined execution paid off, and, after structuring its global organization and distribution, growing revenues more than tenfold in six years, in 2009 di Marco left the company on a high note and was called to lead the Gucci brand, succeeding Mark Lee as CEO. In January 2009, Marco Bizzarri, previously at Stella McCartney, was appointed president and CEO of Bottega Veneta, and although his arrival coincided with the global recession, he also succeeded in leading the brand through another growth phase. He continued to build the brand on discreet luxury and craftsmanship, establishing new 108,000-square-foot headquarters in Milan and investing in the company's human resources by providing its employees with a new headquarters in 2013 — the stately 18th-century Villa Schroeder-Da Porto, ensconced in a park about 16 miles from Vicenza, in the Veneto region of northern Italy. The site obtained the LEED Certification at the Platinum level developed by the Green Building Council, helping Bottega Veneta to become the first Italian company to reach that level in the fashion and luxury sector. The building included the atelier, management and administrative offices, storage of precious hides, the archives comprising 5,000 bags, a museum, a restaurant and its own school of artisan, which was internalized. Bottega Veneta conservatively restored the 54,000-square-foot villa, which is protected by the Italian government's department in charge of historic buildings and monuments, maintaining its local-stone facade, portals, columns, statues and fountains. He drove growth in Asia and further expanded the brand's retail footprint, opening a flagship in Milan. In 2014, Bizzarri went on to become CEO of Kering's newly created Couture and Leather Goods division, directly supervising most of Kering's luxury brands. Former Valentino and Ermenegildo Zegna Group executive Carlo Alberto Beretta was appointed CEO of Bottega Veneta in January 2015 and exited a year later, succeeded by former Hugo Boss CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs, at a time when the brand was impacted by the luxury downturn, as analysts lamented a lack of product innovation, imbalanced pricing architecture and over-dependence on the Chinese and tourist clientele and limited brand awareness in developed markets. In 2018, after 17 years, Maier left Bottega Veneta. Under his tenure, revenues went from 48 million euros to almost 1.2 billion euros in 2017, but the brand had struggled to keep up with rapid changes in the consumer landscape, as demand waned in its key market, Asia, and it failed to tap into a Millennial audience. He was succeeded by Daniel Lee, previously director of ready-to-wear at Céline, which followed earlier stints at Maison Margiela, Balenciaga and Donna Karan. In Sept. 2019, Bartolomeo Rongone, who goes by the name of Leo, previously COO at Saint Laurent, succeeded Lahrs. Lee helped revive the brand, turning it into a hot selling ticket and a trend-setting, influential label, injecting a new and youthful spirit to the collections. His designs, especially the accessories — from the signature Pouch bag, which was introduced in his first collection in 2019, or the Cassette bag and the Lido sandals — all flew off the shelves. He built momentum for the brand with disruptive strategies like erasing its Instagram account and staging traveling fashion shows in locations including London, Berlin and Detroit. In a surprising split, Lee exited the company in November 2021, which was deemed by several sources as a layoff, given the designer's complex personality. According to sources, Bottega Veneta was losing key figures within the company, starting from prized and highly skilled veteran artisans at the company's headquarters in Vicenza to pivotal managers who clashed with Lee, who was often described as uncommunicative. Matthieu Blazy, previously design director, was promoted internally, a few days after, and held his first show as creative director on Feb. 26, 2022. The event marked the brand's return to Milan Fashion Week and did not disappoint retailers and the press, as the collection was praised for respecting yet evolving the codes of the house and its precise and chic tailoring and strong accessories. Rongone helped Bottega Veneta log a 24.2 percent increase in revenues in 2021 compared with 2020, surpassing the 1.5 billion euro mark. Compared with 2019, revenues rose 32 percent. The CEO and Blazy were planning to move the company's new headquarters in Milan's Palazzo San Fedele. The executive has further driven the exclusivity of the brand by eliminating all markdowns and by streamlining the brand's wholesale accounts — increasing the number of concessions and also taking over online partners. During his tenure, Matthieu Blazy heated up Bottega Veneta and his inventive designs and fabrics research helped fuel the brand's business and expand it in key markets. His successful trajectory led him to nab the creative director job at Chanel, starting in 2025 and succeeding Virginie Viard. Louise Trotter was appointed to lead Bottega Veneta, leaving her role as creative director of Carven on Jan. 24, 2025. Trotter joined Carven in February 2023 and her first collection for the brand bowed in September 2023 during Paris Fashion Week. Carven had been absent from the runways and without a marquee designer for several years. Trotter reignited the label with her quietly sensual designs and her focus on textures would gel with Bottega Veneta and her predecessor's work at the brand. Before Carven, Trotter held the same role for four years at Lacoste. She studied fashion design at Newcastle University, and worked at contemporary British label Whistles before moving Stateside to design for Calvin Klein, and later Gap and Tommy Hilfiger. Trotter returned to London for a stint at Jigsaw and then served as creative director of Joseph from 2009 to 2018, a period of product diversification and international expansion for the brand. During her four-year tenure at Lacoste, she beefed up the womenswear offering and explored innovative methods of upcycling. Best of WWD Chanel's Ambassadors Over The Years Ranking Fashion's Longest-serving Creative Directors The Biggest Designer Exits of 2024: John Galliano, Matthieu Blazy, Hedi Slimane, Kim Jones, Virginie Viard and More Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
CEO TALKS: Kering's Francesca Bellettini
Earlier this year, Kering quietly changed its corporate tag line from 'Empowering Imagination' to 'Creativity Is Our Legacy.' The new slogan revs up Francesca Bellettini, Kering's deputy chief executive officer in charge of development, for it crystallizes her passion for working with top designers, ignited when she had the chance early in her career to interface with Helmut Lang. More from WWD Brandy and Monica Take on Burgundy Trend With Coordinated Shoes to Promote 'The Boy Is Mine' tour on 'Jimmy Fallon' Jewelry Brand DoDo Has Named a CEO The RealReal's 'Clueless' Edit Celebrates '90s Shoe Style: From Cher's Versace Bow Mules to Dionne's Prada Boots and More 'I really saw how a collection is done out of nowhere, from a white piece of paper, from sensitivity, and that for me was magical,' she related. Fast forward to today, and Kering has put creativity at the center of its strategy. An investment banker who segued into business development, and later communications and merchandising for fashion houses including Prada, Gucci and Bottega Veneta, Bellettini seems to thrive on challenges, even relishing the opportunities that can be seized during downturns and crises — including the one currently weighing on the luxury sector, and on Kering in particular. Indicative of her ease with change, Bellettini honored an interview appointment with WWD fixed a few weeks before the surprise announcement that Renault Group's CEO will become Kering's new CEO on Sept. 15, succeeding François-Henri Pinault, who remains chairman. 'I know that Luca de Meo has an incredible track record and history, so it will bring only good to the group,' she said, flashing a big smile. It was WWD's intention to unpack the many decisions she spearheaded over the past year, in concert with Pinault, that leaves three Kering houses with new creative directors — Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta — and four with new CEOs, at Gucci, Balenciaga, Brioni and Saint Laurent, where she relinquished the CEO title to manage the workload overseeing a stable of brands that also includes McQueen, Pomellato and Queelin. In a wide-ranging conversation, Bellettini discussed her management style, mentorship, succession planning and the power of saying 'yes.' WWD: About the new corporate tag line: Why is creativity so central to the group's legacy, and how does this tag line guide and inspire you? Francesca Bellettini: For the past 10 years, the group really focused on luxury, and so we wanted to define ourselves in an even better and unique way vis-a-vis others that may have another idea of how to make the business. It's very important, the combination of the two words…because legacy is something that evolves. Legacy starts from your heritage, starts from your history, but what fuels the legacy is creativity. The creativity of today builds a legacy of tomorrow. WWD: Some people perceive Kering as more of a 'fashion' player than a typical 'luxury' player, implying that it relies more on trends and heat than brand heritage and DNA, savoir-faire, etc. Do you agree with that? F.B.: That's a misconception in my view. We create trends through creativity, we don't follow trends. Creativity doesn't mean that you don't consider the heritage of the brand. We have many brands that have been created very long ago. Think of Gucci, think of Ginori 1735, think of Balenciaga. They all have a heritage, but again, they were all founded on creativity. Through creativity, we keep our heritage alive. I'm in love with creativity as a manager, and so being in the fashion industry is a plus, because it gives you the opportunity to work with creative people and to create a business out of incredible creative ideas. WWD: What sparked your passion for working with designers? F.B.: Early in my career, when I was in Prada, I started to work with Helmut Lang, where I was operations manager. The company was small, so I had a super direct relationship with Helmut. And I learned so much. Then I saw that in this industry, there is a role also for businesspeople, because that creativity needs to become a business. WWD: You have three new creative directors making debuts this fall at three big Kering brands. Can you talk about that? F.B.: Every brand has its own momentum. What is true is that Gucci needed a new injection of creativity, and we planned to bring that at a certain moment. In the last two years before the change of creative director, we worked on the brand to prepare the territory for a new, strong injection of creativity. Demna was, for me, an obvious choice. It's very clear to me what Demna can bring to Gucci, a brand that benefits from a tension between heritage and newness. Demna is going to build on the heritage of the brand, build on the iconicity of the brand, but inject his strong creativity, his point of view, to recreate desirability. Demna had to accept the job. It was not an imposition to take the job at Gucci, but of course it necessitated a search at Balenciaga. This brand probably needed to build on what Demna has been doing in the last 10 years and this is why the search for the new creative director of Balenciaga was very narrowly focused. When meeting with Pierpaolo [Piccioli], his project for Balenciaga was amazing, exactly for that, because he presented a project that was a build-on. The 10 years of Demna at Balenciaga have been incredible. They have opened doors for the brand that no one else could have opened. I don't need to describe Pierpaolo's capability on couture volumes, it is well known. But the striking point was his ability to connect and build on what had been done. In the case of Bottega Veneta and Louise Trotter, it's a different story, because Matthieu [Blazy] decided to take another opportunity. It opened up the opportunity for us to search for a person that could accelerate certain ideas that we had for the brand. So we were searching for a creative director that had the same sensitivity as the brand. The choice of Louise was done quite quickly and was quite obvious to myself, Leo [Rongone, Bottega's CEO] and François-Henri, because of this connection. We have been very fast and very precise in those recruitments and didn't lose any time. We are quite prepared. We know the talents that we have internally. We have mapped the talent outside. The choice of the right creative person for a certain moment in a brand is the most important one. WWD: Kering has had a reputation for recruiting hidden or number-two designers if you look back at the hiring of Daniel Lee for Bottega, Alessandro Michele and Sabato de Sarno at Gucci and Blazy for Bottega. Your three new creative directors are quite well known. Does this represent a change in strategy? F.B.: No, it's not a change in the strategy. You simply need to get the right person. It's not that I decide, 'Oh, here, I want the famous person. Here, I want a number two.'…It has to be a perfect match. In particular, their sensitivity needs to be correct for the brand. I don't believe that every creative director can be good for every brand. There has to be the sparkle in the eyes when they talk about it. WWD: Exactly how much creative freedom are your creative directors given? F.B.: I prefer the words trust and respect. Freedom implies that you can give it and to take it away. For me, it's more about saying to the designer, 'I trust you in your role.' If he or she stays within the framework of the brand, I love to empower creativity. I love to see ideas that I would never think of. In this sense, it's the freedom of the CEO to be able to say yes to creative ideas. It would be easy to say no all the time — no because there's no budget, no because it's too risky. You have that power when you are the boss.…Whenever I say no, it always comes with the reason why. But a yes to a creative idea can bring you to the magic. And when you have incredible creative people working with you, that's what you want to do. So if that means a freedom, it's freedom. But for me, it's more trust and being aligned with what the brand has to do, what the brands represent. And of course, if you see suddenly a creative person going outside whatever is the framework of the brand, the positioning of the brand and what has been decided together, of course we intervene, but it's a dual work. It's a mutual respect and a mutual trust. At the end of the day, we are all working for the brand, and that's the conversation that happens constantly. WWD: You obviously said, which catapulted the brand into film production? F.B.: It was [Saint Laurent creative director] Anthony Vaccarello's idea based on his understanding of the brand. When he presented to me this idea and the way in which he articulated it, I fell in love with it. I thought it resonated very much with the brand, because it's a form of collaboration at the end of the day. And a brand today cannot resonate only with product. It was a form of collaborating with other artists, in this case directors, actors and expanding the brand in a territory where we were not before. And if you think about the return that the brand had thanks to that initiative, in terms of awareness, in terms of the people that are going to watch the movie and they see 'Saint Laurent Productions by Anthony Vaccarello,' it's impressive. We were also able to create experiences for our clients — film premieres, talks with the actors, podcasts with the directors. Imagine if I would have said, 'No, because that is too strange, too expensive.' And then we wouldn't have produced 'Emilia Pérez' and won Golden Globes, Césars and Oscars. It's a great example of what is right for a brand moving in a different territory. WWD: Gucci is obviously a key focus for the group, given its scale and important profit contributions, and its worrisome slowdown. Can you give your prognosis? F.B.: We had to work on operations first because the brand had been growing so quickly and it achieved a level of sales that was incredible. When you grow so fast, the structure needs to adapt, but then you don't have the time to plan it perfectly. We decided to reassess all of this and to take the opportunity to intervene on certain processes and operations, to fix them, from the organizational structure to the level of new products you put in stores versus carryovers. As Gucci was growing, it was also becoming more retailized. Now almost 95 percent of sales are via directly operated stores, so basically, it's a retail company. We reviewed the structure of the retail function within the company, the structure of the merchandising, and also worked on the quality of the products. I must praise Sabato, who was really, really fond of products, and helped the company a lot in improving the quality. Gucci today is, for sure, in better shape and in a better situation to be ready for the injection of the creativity that will come from Demna. But again, it's teamwork. One could not exist without the other one. It's not Demna alone that is going to change the trajectory of Gucci, it's the team with Demna. WWD: You once told me that you don't mind operating in a downtown, insofar as you can better detect the impact of your decisions and strategies than in boom times, when all boats rise. How are you tackling the current morose and volatile climate for fashion and luxury? F.B.: In a moment of crisis, it's always an opportunity to relook at yourself. You need to be very pragmatic and stay focused on the things that you can control. The worst would be to be defensive and to say, 'I don't change, because I've always been doing things in a certain way.' Everything needs to be reassessed with a sense of urgency, without creating panic, because panic is the worst enemy of good business, along with fear….What I love is always having a portfolio of actions that bring results at different times. If you would only do actions that bring short-term results, you risk compromising the positioning of the brand. You need to be very aware of when you can expect the results to come. If you put in place an action plan that you think is going to give the results in a month and the result is not coming, you need to shift gears. If you put in place an action plan knowing that the results are going to come in six months, in a year, you don't have to panic if you don't see the results straightaway. I don't want to waste the opportunity of a crisis to fix certain things. WWD: Since you were named deputy CEO in charge of brand development, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Brioni have all named new CEOs. Can you elaborate on the rationale for these appointments? F.B.: These CEOs were chosen thinking about where the brands have to go. What is the strategy for the brand, short, medium and long term? And do they have the skills to deliver that? I know all of them — the new CEOs — personally, and worked with them in the past. I love to work on succession planning. I think that is the duty of a manager to study and groom talent. I love to work with people who are great, who have skills that are better than mine, because then you keep learning. It's a very important responsibility of every manager and every CEO to build a team below him or her of great talents for the brand, and also for the group. WWD: A good number of prominent CEOs inside Kering and outside have worked under you. Can you talk a little bit about mentoring, transmission and building tomorrow's fashion leaders? F.B.: To mentor, the first thing that you need to do is listen. Because if you don't listen to the person, and you think that you can use a formula with everybody, it doesn't work. When you are a boss you need to adapt yourself in the way you liaise with people to make yourself understood. In Italian, we have two words to define two different kind of leaders. An authoritarian leader relies a lot on the power. 'I'm the boss. I tell you what to do. We go — bam!' They usually surround themselves by 'yes' people, they don't like very much confrontation. They can bring results, for sure, but they tend to create an environment of fear, where people don't speak up. And in my view, in particularly in a business that has to deal with creativity, if you create fear, you're done. The other kind of leader still decides, still knows that he or she is the boss, but stimulates a dialogue, listens and try to create a team and is very aware that a collective intelligence is much better. You see it also in sports. When you build a team where everybody is a super champion, most of the time, you win nothing because they are on the field thinking only about themselves and what they can do. When you build a team of great players and you have a great coach that finds a way to make them play together, that's when they win everything, and that's the one that I prefer. Three people that were working for me got promoted while I was CEO of Saint Laurent: Emmanuel Gintzburger to Alexander McQueen, Cédric Charbit to Balenciaga, and Leo Rongone to Bottega Veneta.…I always said to the team, 'When you see your colleague being promoted to CEO, it's because this person is a great talent, but also because we are strong enough as a team to go without that great talent.' You need to search for people that can work very well together. And I tend to focus more on the strengths of people rather than on the weaknesses. It doesn't mean that everybody can arrive to the top, but we don't need only top people. We need great people across the organization. When I see my team growing, I'm happy. I don't know if it's because I don't have children. But when I see people that I believed in, and mentored, and they make it, I'm very happy. WWD: Can you also talk about how your formative experiences in investment banking shaped you into the CEO you are today? F.B.: In investment banking, you learn very quickly the importance of the teamwork. You never work alone, and you work a lot, and you know that to succeed and to finish the project, the team has to function, and everybody has to do their job. I also realized how much I love numbers. I was always very good with numbers at school…they speak to me. And when I moved into merchandising, I learned how numbers could help you working also with creative people. The first person who told me I could be a good merchandiser was Mark Lee, when he was CEO at Gucci and I was doing business development for the brand. He said, 'I think you have the characteristics to be a good merchandiser, because a good merchandiser needs to be good with numbers, but at the same time, also have a sensitivity for products, because you have to have the rational part, but also being able to embrace the creativity.' And so he gave me my first job in merchandising at Gucci. All my career has been very helpful to become a CEO, and every experience that I did was very helpful. WWD: How would you describe your leadership style? F.B.: Putting it at the service of the group and not only a brand. My style in working with the CEOs has been this one, staying close to them, having a role also of mentor. You know that the CEO is a very lonely person. In a a company, you need to be quite strong. Of course, you have your team, and the team is close to you, but you also need to protect them. You cannot throw your worries, the tension, the stress of certain situations to your team. When I was CEO of Saint Laurent, there was more distance from François-Henri. When he created my job, it was to create an intermediary in between his role and the brands. He was also preparing a succession, but it was to create an intermediary that could narrow the gap with him being chairman, CEO and also the shareholder of the group.…Each of our brands needs to build a strong relevance. And that's what we have been working on. WWD: There are still relatively few women CEOs in our industry, and you happen to be in a group with many initiatives to advance women's causes and help women in need. How do you use your platform to aid progress? F.B.: I hope that I can serve as an example for all the girls that have the ambition to grow and to have a career, and I love speaking in front of university students. I really hope that by looking at me, they can think, 'If she can do it, I can do it, too.' We are in a group that values diversity, and I value diversity very much, too. Sixty-three percent of our employees are women, 57 percent of our managers are women, and more than 45 percent of our executive committee members are women, so a lot of progress has been made. You need to be given equal opportunities, and that's the culture of Kering. WWD: You have a reputation for being a very hands-on CEO, and you initially held onto the leadership of Saint Laurent when you became deputy CEO of Kering. Is it hard to let go, or are you easily finding your rewards in different ways? F.B.: It has been a process. I cried when I abandoned the role of CEO of Saint Laurent, but I wanted to give it up to make sure that I could do well my job as deputy CEO of Kering. I could not continue to do both, especially because I am also responsible for development of the jewelry brand since January. (Note: Since the interview took place, Kering also appointed a new CEO for the DoDo brand.) Also, we were ready with the succession planning. Cédric is the perfect person to take Saint Laurent to the next level. Of course, Saint Laurent is my baby. I've been there 10 years, so of course I was very emotional the day I had to leave that role. But I also learned how you can contribute from a distance. A critical part of my job today is not to substitute the CEO. I am the deputy CEO of the group in charge of brand development, so I help them developing the brand, but I would never decide in their place. Of course, if I think they are making a mistake, I intervene and I say it. There is a very open and regular dialogue, but it's very important that I respect the role, because I need the best professionals in those positions, and I need CEOs with full power. WWD: How far do you sketch out the roadmaps for the houses under your purview? F.B.: You need to have a long-term vision. The DNA of the brand is forever, like the DNA of a person. We all evolve as people, we all adapt, we all change, but we don't change who we are. I always give this example when I must define a brand. A brand for me is like a person. It has its own characteristics, values, certain icons, certain elements. And then it evolves with the times. A brand has to consider opportunities, business evolution, new markets, new ways of consumption, but the creativity always must respect the fundamental values and the brand territory. For example, now we talk about brand experiences, something never mentioned even 30 years ago. We were talking about mostly products, and in multibrand retailers. Now we are talking about products in your own stores and experiences to make sure the client is engaged. WWD: Is there still room for taking risks in the luxury landscape of today? F.B.: There are opportunities for the luxury industry to take risks, to embrace creativity even more — it's very important. Whether it's a well-known designer or a newcomer — it doesn't matter. This industry needs a stronger creative point of view. We need to sell the dream. You need to inspire, because we don't make things that people need. We do things that people want. It's very different. And the ability to create desirability is the difference in our industry. WWD: Finally, you've worked side by side with François-Henri Pinault for many years. How do you feel about the changing of the guard? F.B.: In our industry, we have to be open to changes and open to questioning ourselves. I happen to know Luca de Meo a little bit. We got to know each other because we were both interviewed for a book that has been published about Italians in Paris. We have some friends in common. For me, he's a super manager. It's incredible what he has been doing, not only at Renault, but also before. Luca de Meo is a superstar in Italy, and we all know how strong he is, so I am eager to see what he's going to bring. I'm very open to changes. From changes, we can all learn and be excited. So I'm excited for this new chapter. I've been in this group for more than 20 years. I've seen many changes happening. Every change brought something good. François-Henri stays as a chairman. So that's also important, because I think one of our values is also to be a family-led group, and this is still a family-led group, because François-Henri is our chairman, and the Pinault family is our major shareholder. But it's great to have a leader like Luca de Meo joining us with his track record. Best of WWD Bottega Veneta Through the Years Chanel's Ambassadors Over The Years Ranking Fashion's Longest-serving Creative Directors Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
