“Increasing prices doesn’t mean increasing luxury — it just means increasing prices. So people feel a little bit cheated right now,” Marco Bizzarri said, as the opening keynote speaker at the first-ever Vogue Business Global Summit last week. Bizzarri came out all guns blazing. Subjects in his sights included “cautious” creative appointments, “autocratic” executive leadership, a disregard of the value of sales personnel and an over-reliance on the advice of analysts to the detriment of brand identity.
Bizzarri is uniquely qualified to deliver this tough love. A free agent since September 2023, he was previously CEO of Gucci during an eight-year period in which revenues grew from nearly €4 billion to more than €10 billion. During Bizzarri’s five years as CEO at Bottega Veneta, from 2009 to 2014, revenues almost tripled to €1.1 billion. And during his four years as president and CEO of Stella McCartney, from 2005 to 2009, he led the company into profit for the first time. This record is why Vogue Business asked him to deliver some “lessons in growth”: pointers to identify opportunity during this period of stagnation in the luxury industry, and insecurity outside of it.
