To avoid a too-many-cooks scenario, Wanda Ferragamo and her five prolific children running the company concurred that only three of Salvatore’s 23 grandchildren should join the company.
Requirements for the screening process included perfect command of English, a two-year work stint in another company, computer knowledge, plus a final interview with a professor from the Bocconi university. The only exception to the rule? Any grandchild with creative genes à la Salvatore gets the preferential lane.
Here, a quick look at Ferragamo’s new blood — James Ferragamo, Diego di San Giuliano and Angelica Visconti.
James Ferragamo
Since he was appointed handbag manager in 2004, James Ferragamo has been on the go.
After the accessories department was split into two distinct categories — one for footwear and another for handbags, belts and small leather goods — Ferragamo’s challenge has been to develop fine handbags with timeless elegance but innovative appeal.
While Ferragamo, who joined in 1998, doesn’t put pencil to sketch pad per se, he has put together an international design team of 30 people and coordinated those creative minds for commercial clout.
“Being responsible for the handbags also means coordinating the designers with the marketing and merchandising divisions,” he said.
In his mind, shoes and bags don’t need to match. “There has to be continuity, but making shoes and bags with the same buckle and materials is dull. That’s not how people dress anymore,” he noted.
Ferragamo, 35, also believes in focus groups that zoom in on customers’ profiles.
“We’ve organized three focus groups, in the U.S., Asia and Europe, because they help us to understand our customer and the noncustomer, the customer between 25 and 39 and the one from 40 up and their perception of the brand, which can be different from what we think,” said Ferragamo.
James Ferragamo is one of Ferruccio’s sons. His twin brother, Salvatore, tends to the wine business at Il Borro. Just like his dad, James gained insight by boxing shoes, dusting, serving in the shops and compiling inventories during school break from age nine up.
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Diego di San Giuliano
The son of Fiamma Ferragamo, Diego di San Giuliano, 35, studied political economics at Bocconi University in Milan. Before joining Ferragamo in 2000, he worked at Lehman Bros.; at Bain, Cuneo & Associati, and at Yoox, a successful e-commerce site in designer stock.
At Ferragamo, he cut his teeth in the footwear department and then became personal assistant to ceo Ferruccio Ferragamo.
He is on a one-year sabbatical.
Angelica Visconti
Fulvia Ferragamo’s daughter headed east to gain her experience for the family business. Angelica, 33, is marketing analysis manager and has spent the past year working at Ferragamo Hong Kong. The date of her return has not been set.