Del Vecchio

"Guerra, who will indeed go on to work with Prime Minister Renzi as an advisor for economic activities, leaves after ten years with a check for 50 million euros, including stock options repurchased by Del Vecchio, severance, and a non-compete agreement. In total, according to L’Espresso, Guerra leaves Luxottica with a personal nest egg of 170 million euros."

"Armani, who with Del Vecchio established a partnership in the eighties that transformed the world of optics into a fashion sector, tells me about the energy of that period. "Our generation lived through hard times that toughened it: the years of war and reconstruction. At one point there was nothing, and you had to start from scratch, and this scenario offered a lot of possibilities," he explains. "The memories I have of Milan at the start of my career I would compare to a blank sheet on which each of us could write a paragraph or an entire story. We were aware of the usefulness of what we were doing, day after day, building. Those were unforgettable years, full of energy.""

"Osvaldo always arrives before everyone else, by 6:30 he is already at the gatehouse, notebook and pen in hand. When the boss enters, he follows him everywhere. He marks down what is decided on his morning round, which Del Vecchio expects to be realized the following morning, if not the same evening."

"Armani explains it to me simply. "My personal adventure as a designer and entrepreneur was already underway, and I had begun to extend my aesthetic to various areas, including eyewear. It was then that I identified Luxottica as the company with the right know-how to realize what I had in mind. It was a fortunate meeting: I would do what I did best, which is creativity, Del Vecchio would perfectly manufacture the product. We both understood that glasses, from simple functional objects, would become indispensable fashion accessories. And so it has been." The licensing agreement is signed, a contract typified by Armani himself in the clothing industry, which provides for a percentage, the so-called royalties in favor of the designer, generally 10%."

"His beloved Inter, owned by the Chinese group Suning, owned by Zhang Jindong, is going through a rough patch. The pandemic has devastated the business of football, stadium revenues have disappeared, and the already notoriously shaky balances have turned deep red. The Nerazzurri have obvious cash problems, just in the year when they return to win the championship after over a decade. The company hasn't paid wages for months, and losses exceed 100 million euros per season. Zhang is desperately looking for a buyer, but he demands evaluations not in line with the revenues of the Milanese team. A tasty morsel for bankers who start knocking on the doors of the major investors in town. They also make it to Del Vecchio's office, hoping to breach his Nerazzurri football faith, as revealed by press rumors. After all, when he was young, he had been president and founder of the Agordo football team. No dice, Leonardo is loyal to the line. He has too much respect for money and for the effort it takes to earn it to get lured into the football business, one of those where it's easy to spend hundreds of millions of euros to please one's ego."

"Sagnières is aware that the Italians are the ideal partner to ensure leadership in the market in the long term. He knows Del Vecchio well and knows it will be difficult to convince him to no longer be the controlling shareholder and final decision maker of every strategy."

"Luxottica is still a small company, Del Vecchio is a paternalistic father figure who has a direct relationship with his workers. He doesn't want intermediaries, he doesn't accept threats and can be very tough. A demonstration organized by unionists from other industrial areas reaches right up to the gates. That day, in Agordo, buses of striking workers arrive from Cadore. The target is the Rizzato moped factory, Luxottica's neighbor, often in crisis; the workers' struggle there is real."

"The story of publisher Angelo Rizzoli has a beginning similar to that of Bianchi, and then Del Vecchio, with a widowed, sick mother who cannot feed her youngest son and turns to the Martinitt to guarantee him three hot meals a day and a better future."

"Foreign wholesalers enter right away. The price attracts. It's as if you can see them, the elegant American importers studying the frames of this new company from Belluno with great attention. They are well made, to perfection. They place large orders. Outside the booth, a line of buyers forms. Del Vecchio and Francavilla exchange glances, a mutual understanding is enough. They started off apprehensive, with prices that were perhaps overly competitive. "All the wholesalers were literally diving into our small booth and leaving after placing significant orders." The price of a single piece went from 600 to 1,000 lire. But that still wasn't enough. "At one point, we increased the prices because we realized that they were probably too low, and so every hour the prices went up... it was chaos," explains the president. Francavilla is amused remembering their first Milanese expedition. "An incredible success. On the third day, we managed to triple the prices, up to 1,800 lire a piece.""