Gucci boss Marco Bizzarri: ‘You cannot be a pessimistic CEO’

Gucci President and CEO Marco Bizzarri. (Photo by Gpautou via Wikimedia Commons 4.0)

Is peak Covid over? Are booster shots necessary? The world is slowly opening up but also remains a bit confused about the current state of the pandemic. But the CEO of Gucci holds on to a positive outlook about business recovery. A CEO can’t afford to be negative, he says.

“You cannot be a pessimistic CEO – you should change your job if you are,” Marco Bizzarri said in an interview in the November issue of Monocle. “In 2021 the industry has been experiencing a remarkable rebound. Europe, of course, slowed down because of [the decline in] tourism but there was a rebound in local consumers. China and the US are flying with data that is quite incredible. So what we have learned from this is that flexibility and elasticity are important values that you need to have as a business.”

A wiry 59-year-old with a shaved head and an ability to dress enthusiastically regardless of age, Bizzarri feels it is important for a business to better manage warehouses and supply chains becomes. Another key point, he says, “is that this situation (Covid) just accelerated trends that were already happening. Think about all of the recent digitalisation, not just in terms of e-commerce spending but also of people who prefer to have more digitalised work arrangements. The move to smarter working set-ups was already happening.”

In the travel boom of the pre-Covid years, stores had no trouble attracting footfall. Nor did brands have to necessarily glad-hand all buyers. But now, the old ways of developing a relationship with special customers is back, at least to an extent, Bizzarri suggested.  “Starting in 2015 (when Bizzarri became CEO), we were benefiting significantly from the flows of tourists. So we didn’t have to create long-term value or long-term relationships with certain clients, whereas after the virus kicked in we were obliged to do so,” he said. “It is great for the future to create this kind of relationship and an attachment to the brand. So personalisation, selling one to one, is becoming increasingly important.”

Asked what were some other brands he admired, Bizzarri said, “Apple, for sure! A man I greatly admire is [author James] Patterson because he created a brand in books. He is incredible: he’s essentially writing a book every 15 days. I also admire Hermès, because what it has done in recent decades has been extremely coherent. I like that it plays the game without compromises.”