Editor’s Note
This article examines the pivotal leadership transition at Kering, as new CEO Luca de Meo takes the helm to steer the luxury group toward a turnaround. His appointment marks a significant shift, bringing an outside perspective from the automotive industry to a family-founded fashion empire. We explore the challenges and strategies defining this new chapter.
It has been approximately two months since the new Kering began its journey. The company, which has been struggling with performance for several years, saw its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Luca de Meo—an outsider from the founding family and from the completely different industry of French automobile manufacturing at Renault—assume his role on September 15th and promptly begin efforts to turn the business around. Meanwhile, François-Henri Pinault, the Chairman and former CEO who led Kering for 20 years as a member of the founding family, stepped down from the CEO role on the same date to focus solely on his duties as Chairman. We asked the Chairman, the driving force behind growing the company’s luxury business sales by approximately sixfold during his tenure and establishing it as one of the ‘Big Three’ in luxury, about his current state of mind, his expectations for the new CEO, and the role the founding family should play.