“During meetings, 9 times out of 10 the entrepreneur tells us they don’t know who to leave the company to. There is no 2nd generation, or it doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps. Sometimes entrepreneurs are concerned with the financials”, said Matteo de Rosa, CEO of LVMH Métiers d’Art (in photo) while attending the Luxury Summit by Il Sole 24 Ore. “De Rosa explained the approach of LVMH Métiers d’Art with potential partners, specifying that, while looking to the future, the challenge comes from the generational change from the reference entrepreneur.
The entrepreneur doesn’t know who to put in charge of the business
“During the first meeting I don’t discuss numbers and financial statements – says De Rosa -. I ask the entrepreneur what they want to do together. Then we talk about industrial plans and start to discuss the future. Then come profits, innovation, investments, but always with a 5–10-year horizon”. The industrial plan shows the needs of the entrepreneur, with Métiers d’Art evaluating if and how to resolve them. The more frequent obstacle is business continuity from an operational standpoint. At the end of the meetings, De Rosa finds the best solution: a majority partnership, a minority one, company development from a commercial standpoint, or other matters.
Artisans don’t wish to change
“Artisans don’t wish to change their work method, but we don’t just want to preserve it, but also evolve it and improve it” – explains the manager. The CEO of Métiers d’Art, without nominating it, provided as an example the latest acquisition in Italy: the purchase of the majority of tanning laboratory Ally Projects (better known with the name Heng Long Italia). “The average age of personnel was between 50 and 55. In 7 months we put a 32-year-old woman at the head, and the average age of employees was down to 28. It’s not true that young people don’t want to work. They do. But how do they want to work is the question. Our job is to provide the right offer for the time we live in. You can’t just demand they come to work for us, to tell them they will be here all their life”.
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