As you are probably aware, on April 24 I was appointed chairman of Benetton Group, the company bearing the family name. [Anyone interested in the technical details can click here.] I would like to share my thoughts on this new adventure – in just a few words – with the readers of this blog who have followed me over the past few months.
I am fully aware of the extent of the challenge awaiting me. The paradox is that we work in a business which is one of the oldest in the world (man has used wool to make clothing for millennia) and yet it is also one of the most dynamic and open to constant change, driven by changes in fashion, technology, as well as by social and cultural trends. In this happy contradiction between tradition and innovation lies everything that awaits us: the difficulties, but also the great attraction of this business, “destined” to reinvent itself time and time again.
And for this reason, we will increasingly focus on the young generations: as our natural public, of course, but also through a close dialogue with these drivers of fresh ideas and new trends.