Fendi goes back to school to save centuries of Italian tradition

Bloomberg

When Serge Brunschwig arrived in Rome almost five years ago to become Fendi’s chief executive, he was confronted
with a conundrum: the company was struggling to find skilled workers.
The problem left the 62-year-old McKinsey alum taken aback. After all, Italy has always been known for its artisans, from the violin-makers, textile designers and painters of the Renaissance to the legends of modern fashion, craftsmanship and Italy go hand-in-hand.
“You have these extraordinary people, incredibly devoted, who are ready to go the extra mile,” Brunschwig says from his office in Fendi’s iconic Roman headquarters. But those traditions are at risk of petering out. “Where is the next generation?” he asks.
Brunschwig’s challenge is one that executives around the world would recognise. Despite the mounting recession risks as 2022 draws to a close, companies are struggling to find talented staff as the aftermath of the pandemic compounds long-term demographic trends shrinking workforces across the developed world.
In Italy, the struggle to recruit younger workers is not just an issue for Fendi, a division of the French luxury powerhouse LVMH. The small family firms that produce many of its supplies are facing the same problem and some are going out of business, raising the prospect that Italy could lose that precious know-how that has helped drive its economy for centuries.
Italian luxury companies are managing to fill only about half of the posts they advertise, according to Stefania Lazzaroni, director general of trade group Altagamma. That means the industry will be missing about 94,000 over the next four years.
Like his boss at LVMH, the billionaire Bernard Arnault, Brunschwig is a graduate of France’s prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, known for its military training and rigorous curriculum in science and engineering. He worked in Paris and Hong Kong during a career of more than 20 years developing LVMH’s top brands — including Dior and Louis Vuitton — before arriving in Rome with a mission to steer the fashion house through the end of Karl Lagerfeld’s 50-year reign as creative director.
His appointment of British designer Kim Jones has pushed up sales with a refreshed product line-up, but he’s worried about the consequences of Italy’s traditional skills fading away.
He considered whether it came down to money. But starting salaries in the industry bear comparison with other professions and can rise quickly.
If you can turn a designer’s sketch into a beautiful shoe that fits, that can be produced in sizes and is well-stitched, that has immense value people will pay for, he said.
So Brunschwig decided that Fendi would have to take on a more active role in preserving and cultivating those traditions.