Pinault's Little Note

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They say at Kering that François Henri Pinault and Luca de Meo, the group's new CEO , liked each other right away, at their first meeting . Nobody knows if they talked about cars, to which, moreover, the Milanese manager who grew up in Sergio Marchionne's team, then architect of the relaunch of Seat and the exceptional recovery of Renault, dedicated a "Dictionnaire amoureux" a year ago, published by Plon.

The dictionary has also been translated into Spanish, but you can find the advertisement mainly on Amazon.fr with the following review: “From A for Abarth to Z for Generation Z, from R for robot to S for Senza Patente, Luca de Meo, CEO of Renault, tells the incredible story of the automobile, a popular topic that arouses great passions”. Since both these values, popularity and passion, have been in fashion lately, it is relatively easy to explain why the Pinaults, forced to find a new CEO because the founder's heir, François Henri, had clearly had enough after twenty years at the helm, and the two deputy CEOs, Francesca Bellettini and Jean Marc Duplaix, evidently have not given the proof needed in this year and a half to remove the deminutio "deputy" from their title, have decided to look outside the usual circle, out of the box as those who know English say, ending up hiring this pleasant-looking manager, which in the sector always offers an extra chance, and who will certainly have been in love with cars, but not enough to refuse the top position in the management of some of the most fabulous brands in the world, in a speed crisis like Gucci but also with good road holding like Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta and Pomellato: if the group closed 2024 with revenues of 17.2 billion euros, down 12 percent, and a profit of 1.13 billion, down 62 percent, the main culprit for the huge decline is undoubtedly the Florentine brand .

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At the end of 2024, Kering had debts of 10.5 billion euros and, according to Reuters sources, risks a third rating downgrade in three years. In France, the news of de Meo's change of lane left no one indifferent, especially because Renault, with the French state holding 15 percent of the capital, is a political symbol, and De Meo is leaving while the "Futurama" strategic plan is being defined. His exit, in a Europe of automotive crisis, with electric vehicles at 15 percent and a lot of pressure caused by the strengthening of China and US tariffs, risks slowing down the detachment from Nissan and the relaunch of low-cost cars . The news of de Meo's arrival began to circulate on Sunday evening, while the Milanese were gathered at the Teatro alla Scala to listen to Kirill Petrenko conducting an exceptional Brahms First Symphony.

The next morning, upon confirmation, Renault's stock fell by 8.69 percent: the automotive group, certainly more solid today than in 2020, continues to need a leader who can strengthen its innovation process. Which, unfortunately, is exactly what Kering also needs : not only to sort out the accounts, selling off activities that are no longer useful and profitable and also heavily reinforcing personnel, all activities that a professional outside the infinite cross-relations within the sector can certainly carry out without fear, but also to restore momentum and vision to the group.

It is not the first time that the Pinaults have chosen a manager outside of fashion; the same reactions that now accompany the appointment of de Meo were produced in 2004 when Robert Polet, head of the ice cream and frozen foods division of Unilever, born and raised in Asia, was called to replace Domenico De Sole at the top of Gucci. The “ice cream maker of Kuala Lumpur”, as he was inevitably immediately nicknamed, actually did very well for almost a decade and until the arrival of Patrizio Di Marco. And a very similar path, albeit starting from less relevant positions, was that of Pietro Beccari, current CEO of Louis Vuitton, who joined the LVMH group in 2006 from the haircare division of the Henkel group as executive vice president of marketing and communications, before becoming president and CEO of Fendi in 2012 and of Christian Dior Couture in 2018. Evidently, François Henri Pinault must have thought that replicating those successes was possible, even in a completely different market context .

He also wrote it in a note circulated among collaborators that, while highlighting the excellent work done by the two “deputies”, who have “implemented significant changes, strengthening our capacity for action at every level” made it clear how it was necessary to separate the two roles of president and CEO, “identifying potential candidates” for the latter role, entrusting the task not to one but to two research firms (one of these was Jouve). “We were looking for a manager with great experience”, also “international” , “with a fresh vision of the sector and of our group in particular”. That, beyond the previous considerations, no fashion manager was deemed up to the task should give us pause for thought.

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