Maike Kiessling

What Kering’s New CEO Reveals About the Future of Luxury — and Art In The Business of Fashion, Luca Solca offers a sharp, unsentimental letter to Luca De Meo, the newly appointed CEO of Kering, who arrives from the automotive industry into the turbulent waters of luxury fashion. Having steered Renault’s strategic turnaround through his now-celebrated “Renaulution” plan, De Meo is expected to apply a similar mix of industrial discipline and visionary risk to Kering — a group currently burdened by high debt, lagging brand performance (especially Gucci’s 25% sales drop), and investor skepticism. Solca outlines a clear roadmap: fix the balance sheet and fix the governance. Luxury, he argues, is no longer just about aesthetics or legacy; it is about strategic clarity, investor trust, and operational resilience. De Meo’s outsider status may well be his strength — but only if he can translate systemic thinking into cultural intuition. This shift — from cars to couture, from torque to texture — resonates far beyond luxury conglomerates. It reveals a deeper, quieter movement already reshaping the art world: the end of disciplinary comfort zones. When a fashion empire taps an industrialist to reimagine its soul, we are reminded that leadership today is no longer about specialization, but about sensibility — the capacity to navigate complexity, to listen across silos, and to reframe decline as potential. In the art ecosystem, too, we see institutions fatigued by old models: biennials recycling the same curators, galleries struggling to justify their overheads, museums trapped between blockbusters and bankruptcy. What if, like Kering, they looked beyond their own industry for answers? What if curators were selected not only for taste, but for systemic intelligence? What if the next museum director came not from academia, but from gaming, climate strategy, or logistics? De Meo’s appointment invites us to imagine a new kind of cultural stewardship — one that does not fear friction between worlds, but draws strength from it. After all, the great works of art, like the great turnarounds in business, often begin with a single bold reframe. A Letter to Kering’s New CEO- Luca Solca https://lnkd.in/eM4fzRiw

179

25 Kommentare

How Luxury Fashion Brands Are Brewing a New Growth Strategy in Food & Beverage Luxury fashion has always been about creating worlds, through design, storytelling, and iconic spaces. But in recent years, many brands have found a new way to extend that universe: food. From Louis Vuitton’s elegant cafés in Osaka, Paris and New York, to Armani’s Michelin-starred restaurants in Milan, to Ralph Lauren’s iconic Polo Bar, luxury houses are investing heavily in gastronomy. What might seem surprising at first actually makes perfect sense. Sharing a meal or sipping a coffee is one of the most universal ways to connect with people, and it allows brands to turn their values and aesthetics into a living, breathing experience. For customers, it’s about more than a cappuccino or a plate of pasta. It’s the chance to taste the lifestyle, to immerse themselves in the brand’s universe for a moment, even without buying a bag or a dress. For brands, it’s about building emotional connections, driving new revenue, and staying present in their customers’ daily rituals. This move into cafés and restaurants also reflects a larger shift: retail is no longer just transactional. It’s experiential, multi-sensorial, and cultural. A boutique may showcase products, but a café tells a story, one that people can sit in, savor, and share on social media. What started as a side project has now become a true growth engine for luxury. And it shows that sometimes, the most powerful way to reinforce exclusivity… is through something as simple and universal as food. #LuxuryIndustry #BrandStrategy #FoodAndBeverage #ExperientialMarketing #Innovation #FashionBusiness #LuxuryHospitality #GrowthStrategy

87

11 Kommentare