LONDON, United Kingdom — Marco Bizzarri is nothing if not daring. Gucci’s president and chief executive has overseen blockbuster growth since he took the helm of the Italian megabrand in 2015. The Kering veteran is what some call “a CEO’s CEO”, meaning he keeps luxury industry leaders second-guessing as they watch his every move for signs of what lies ahead in a rapidly changing marketplace.
Gucci has seen its annual turnover grow more than 40 percent year-on-year, reaching €6.2 billion in 2017, and Bizzarri attributes a key driver of this success to the Chinese market. Gucci’s gains both in China and around the world were buoyed by the ability of Bizzarri and creative director Alessandro Michele to transform the brand image and reinvigorate it with a sense of purpose.
In our latest episode of Inside Fashion, Bizzarri shares some candid thoughts on daigou, counterfeiting and the very real problem of “control freak Western managers” who impose unrealistic strategies on the Chinese market. China’s economy may be growing at its slowest pace since the financial crisis, but Bizzarri remains bullish.
Find out why he remains so suspicious of partnering with China’s e-commerce behemoths and what exciting opportunities Bizzarri sees there that could help him achieve his bold – and some say overly ambitious – annual revenue target of €10 billion.
To learn more, tune in.
To subscribe to the BoF Podcast please follow this link.
Subscribe to BoF Professional for unlimited access to BoF articles, plus exclusive benefits for members.
To contact The Business of Fashion with comments, questions, or speaker ideas please e-mail [email protected].