Rich But Three Generations? Battle History Of Benetton Family Business

Alessandro Beneton returned to his family business as executive vice president in 2007. He received a master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard. He worked as an M & A analyst at Goldman Sachs for several years, and successfully operated his private equity fund company, 21 Investimenti, which manages more than 1 billion 200 million euros in assets.

The brand of Benetton needs the new energy that can lead the family direction and bring out expert opinions. Under the background of increasing global competition with similar brands such as Zara, H & M, Uniqlo and rising raw material prices, the operating profit of Benetton group dropped from 145 million euros in 2007 to 102 million euros in 2010, with a flat income.

Alessandro Beneton, who has firmly grasped his role, is looking forward to redefining the position of the company as a high quality fashion designer, and further emphasizes Benetton's environmental management principles and its provocative and colorful marketing strategies. To promote this creative repositioning, Benetton announced in June that You Nguyen, a former Levy Strauss clothing company, became its chief purchasing officer and creative director.

In order to learn more about Alessandro Beneton's vision of reshaping Benetton in twenty-first Century, the British media conducted an interview with him.

The new era of family needs my return.

Q: first of all, I would like to ask about the return to family business. You have achieved great success in other business areas, including private equity investment. What prompted you to return to family business in 2007 and why at that particular time point?

Alessandro Beneton (hereinafter referred to as answer): This is a completely unexpected move. In order to become an entrepreneur, you must be independent. After graduating from business school, I walked into the private equity world instead of joining the family business, and things went well. I was looking forward to continuing my career and watching my baby, the growth of Private Equity Firm.

But in 2007, something unexpected happened. Since the beginning of this century, perhaps earlier, since the mid 90s of last century, our family businesses have begun to diversify. My family has been very active in new venture capital. In a new stage, if you enter a new field, it is best to have strong management. This is the beginning of a new era for our family company. Finally, my family asked me. This is not my decision.

Q: did it take you a long time to convince you? Because it is conceivable that managing a 2 billion euro company is hard, but managing a company that has ownership of 2 billion euros and ownership with its family members is even more complicated.

A: I have been away from private equity investment for some time, and I have to do this for my family. Why? Because Benetton is in a new stage.

Q: has Benetton been operated by members of the Benetton family?

A: Yes, until today. We have two outstanding managing directors. The company has been run by family members.

Business needs to start with its strengths.

Q: now you have been back home for several years. What are your impressions of the company's business when you first came back, and what is your strategy to revive this amazing, long-standing, global business?

A: I think it took me several years to understand the general situation. My practice is that if you want to write a new chapter of the same book, you must always start with the last line of the previous chapter, so the first part of my analysis is a sense of appreciation, a sense of identity, and the advantages of looking for a company. You must start with your strengths.

At the same time, I analyzed the disadvantages of the company. In the changing world, Benetton has written the history of franchise, color and communication. But at the same time, the environment is changing. Therefore, I think the most difficult part is to develop new projects that first respect the past and imagine the future.

Q: I grew up in Benetton clothes. Most of the clothes for sale are knitwear, a large quantity of color, and to a certain extent, they are close to the origin of fashion. Then it has a fashion element, which is rooted in the aesthetics of Italy.

Now in high street, we see two things are happening. At the end of the spectrum, companies like Zara and H & M are updating their fashion colors at a very fast rate. Then there are enterprises like Uniqlo, almost all of which are basic funds. In this high street, where do you see Benetton today? And how did it change from what might have been in the past?

A: I think this is another discussion. We hope that You Nguyen will bring this image and cognition to consumers. At the public price, return to the foundation, fashion, Italian style, fashion oriented and colorful costumes.

The question is, have we lost it in the past few years? I don't think we lost it. I think what happened is that our business model has not allowed us to fully display all these values.

We see that Benetton is in a position where it should be placed, a company that wishes to communicate with its consumers and communicate with each other emotionally, sharing views and having some social influence, which indicates that our market activities are of some significance. We did so because we have been doing this for 30 years. The so-called disposable fashion is not suitable for us. We have arrived at a time when consumers are more likely to throw away their clothes after wearing them 3 times, because sending them to dry cleaners will cost more.

I think style, color, natural fabric and fashion are the places of Benetton.

We need to regain public awareness.

Q: when you talk about Benetton as a socially responsible company, what does this mean for you in practice?

A: I can give you a list of many things we do, but only give you some reference. Before the 50s of the last century, we had air conditioners in factories. Over 25 years, we have reused waste paper in our company. In the 80s of last century, we had built underground parking lots for the purpose of respecting the land. We even check the energy sources of some of our suppliers to determine how they operate their own companies. I appreciate what my father and his brothers have done is that everyone is aware of this problem. It is not only a marketing tool, it is not a gimmick, it has always been a part of this company.

Q: I find this very attractive, because I am a very smart fashion buyer. What you told me is a wonderful story, but as a consumer, these are not what I immediately think of when I think of Benetton. Why is that?

Answer: Yes. I think you are right. I think we may have partially lost the public perception of a company as a conscious society. One possible explanation is that we have missed the change in media technology. We have used our ability to spread social problems, but since the beginning of the new media era, we have not been able to adequately grasp the changing mode of transmission. It's just speculation. I'm not sure.

Q: when I heard Benetton picking up interesting debates and conversations from the 80s and 90s of the last century and having very provocative advertisements for consumer space, I thought of one thing. I think that digitalization strategies and methods can largely help restore the position of the company as a responsible society and at the same time understand how to stir up interesting topics that lead to interesting discussions among consumers. Is digitalization your consideration? Can you tell us a little bit about this plan?

A: I launched a plan, and I hope that in the next 3 years, we can see that 80% of our communication is digital. I also encourage our executive directors to set up a new media related new department. I think this will be an effective tool to reconfirm many topics that you and I emphasize today. Social elements and the courage to abandon plans are values that we can share with our consumers.

Business in business

"We welcome all comments on the Internet because they help us grow to a certain extent. We take every design very seriously. Many people feel that fast fashion clothes can be thrown away, but we hope to create value for consumers. As a family brand, we talk about the design of the company almost every day, even the design discussed at the table. We have a shoulder skirt and T-shirt priced at less than $20, but for us, the important thing is not the price, but the value concept of brand transfer. "

--- Linda Chang, marketing director of fashion brand Forever 21. Because of its "quick update and low price" features, young fashion women in the United States are fond of this fast fashion brand, which conquers the US and the Far East market, and will enter London this month.

"The increase in rents, wages and so on, of course, brings pressure, but it is not a problem for us. We still maintain the" best price fashion "strategy. Sales in China are growing faster than we expected. If you look at the speed of our opening up and sales increase, it will be very fast. The Chinese market is catching up with fashion trends very fast, faster than any other country in Europe, not just fashion, but anything. "

--- Lex Keijser, general manager of H&M Greater China, the world's second fast fashion retailer. H&M has opened 20 new stores in mainland China and Hongkong last year. In the first half of this year, the company has about 20 new stores, and more than 20 new stores will be opened in the second half of the year. The number of stores opened in the mainland and Hongkong is expected to be doubled over the past year.