Management Tips by Gucci

Robert Polet, Gucci’s chief executive, was featured in the January issue of Fortune Magazine.

In it he revealed a moment in his life in which a fundamental premise of decision making was formed. While facing a difficult situation at a former company, he called the main corporate office for some help. The answer that came back was simplicity itself, “Take a piece of paper, write down all the options available, and pick the best one.” The next morning he said to his wife, “They’re right. It’s only by going through tough experiences that you can grow.”

I read the article while on a flight coming back from a Syracuse iMBA residency. At that moment in time, I was pondering some personal and career change issues and what to do about them in 2008. The straightforward idea of simply jotting down all the realistic options available and picking the best one struck me as virtuoso genius. It cuts through all the noise and focuses the mind on execution. Within thirty minutes of reading the article, I had all my 2008 options neatly written down, and the beginnings of a plan of action.

I also found his method of managing the Gucci brands interesting. The bulk of the decision making has been pushed down to the brands. The brands are now responsible for their own products and profitability (where as before they were centrally controlled). The article states, “In exchange for their newfound control, the brand CEOs must sign a two-page document that spells out which issues need to be elevated to the group level, and every year they work through a strategic plan with Polet for the next three years. Every month they give him a detailed performance report, and the group’s top management gets together four times a year.” Polet calls it, “freedom within a framework.”

This method of management is aligned with his personal value system which states, “the family comes first.” By giving autonomy to his direct reports, he doesn’t get sucked into daily crisis and can better organize his time.

He’s adamant about protecting his time with his family. He turns off his Blackberry on Friday night and doesn’t turn it back on until Monday morning. He also doesn’t take business calls while on vacation with his family, unless it’s a true emergency.

When he first took over Gucci he was derided by many as a misplaced “ice cream” sales guy. (His former job was president of a global ice cream and frozen foods division at Unilever.) The New York Times publicly disparaged him by asking, “Can the emperor of ice cream survive under the hot lights of high fashion?”

However as he has lead the Gucci group to “three years of booming growth,” most the skepticism has disappeared. The realization now by his former critics is that the job was not about someone who could “design dresses,” but rather of one who could manage and coordinate the ten luxury brands of Gucci. Polet was quoted as saying, “I hit the ground running because 80% of what I’m doing is the same as what I have always done-it’s about leading and coaching people.”

John P.

(In all fairness I should disclose that I own a pair of Black suede Gucci moccasins that I’m very fond of. They’re extremely comfortable.)