The Devil Wears Gucci - Merchandising Gucci Employee Review

TL;DR (Too Long, Don’t Read) Gucci is everything you imagined a luxury fashion house to be. Gigantic egos, ritualistic narcissism, divas galore, and suffering interns and junior staff. If you don’t want the details, stop here. 1. Geocentric, Insular, with Strong Unconscious Bias Contrary to the carefully curated marketing message, do not believe any of the employee awards, or LinkedIn posts you see on Gucci's diversity or treatment of employees. For example: • In the Milan headquarters, there is shockingly little diversity. Obviously, Italians or naturalized Italians dominate. There are token representations of colour, but all in junior positions. Leadership is exclusively monochromatic. Except for a smattering, in this gigantic headquarters of a global company - all the black people are security guards. • The company displays significant linguistic discrimination against countries that don't speak English or Italian well, amongst other forms of cultural arrogance. Asia is always seen as huge problem, and their views are regularly denigrated. Much of it is unconscious bias (inherent in the culture due to the lack of true cosmopolitanism in most of the country’s upbringing), but it's uncomfortably obvious to any global citizen. The discriminatory faux pas that made the news in recent years are of no surprise to anyone working within Gucci - it's an Italian business and its true attitude towards diversity is nothing more than this, despite the marketing. 2. Incorrigibly Toxic Leadership Culture This could be a book in itself, as there are more things wrong with it than right. The causes are complex and many are deeply ingrained: - The path to leadership in Gucci in Milan is brutal and arduous, sometimes taking a decade or more. Leadership development is given attention verbally, but with no real incentive to develop since senior positions are rarely open and Gucci prefers to hire externally rather than develop its teams. In the meantime, juniors spend years under leaders who display abhorrent leadership traits straight out of a "How Not To" Management textbook: - Withholding information to consolidate power - Rampant narcissism and ego tied to formal position and title - Micromanagement (a real pandemic in Gucci - after all, if you've never leaned real management skills, micromanagement is one of the defaults that helps you feel in control) - Meetings of ten people where only two leaders are speaking, but each bringing an entourage of "their people". On the topic of meetings: It would not surprise me if Gucci had the highest productivity loss in the world due to its awe-inspiring meeting culture. It’s not possible to reply to the question, “Do you have anything to add/any feedback” with “No, thank you for asking”. Any answer must be accompanied with either a 400 word glorification of the project or a very carefully worded criticism disguised as half praise, which is even more verbose. After years of observing their bosses, many people who finally make it into leadership positions in Gucci display the exact same poor behaviour. You will find vanishingly few leadership role models in Gucci. Instead, you will find many people who are known by the masses to be game-playing, unpleasant political animals, who are consistantly promoted rapidly within the company, further compounding the issue. 360 appraisals tied to financial penalties and career progression are desperately needed in this organization. 3. Dear Leader – Gucci Style I want to spend a little time on the topic of narcissism in Gucci. The company’s CEO Marco Bizzarri has probably been awarded more than any other CEO in the industry – and the ego matches the profile. This trickles down into the already flawed leadership culture of Gucci: - WhatsApp groups where the boss is present, are almost comical in their fawning praise and over-reaction to each comment or post the boss makes. The boss posts a pic of some random thing she did today? 50 emojis of celebration, 20 exclamation marks, and various opinions will follow affirming that her experience is the ideal state of the universe. This is the fun/harmless part. - Not so fun: the most brain-dead or tone-deaf ideas constantly rise to the top in Gucci because it is a giant echo chamber. The power wielded by leaders, and the culture of authority worship in Gucci means that even a question or thoughtless suggestion by a HoD is echoed back with affirmation of how brilliant the idea was – even if it’s not. There are leaders who genuinely want real feedback in Gucci. Of these, most have to fight to hear the real feedback over the cries of their department fan club reinforcing their brilliance in every meeting. It’s madness. - Once an idea is echoed back via this chamber, and becomes actionable, the entire team then mobilizes to market the idea as a nobel-winning candidate. This reaches the markets who have a “WTF” moment, and some try to push back, but by then there is so much momentum behind it, it’s doomed to launch. The clean-up involves regional leaders carefully tabling the reasons why it was a terrible idea, 3 months later, after hundreds of hours of wasted resources in a “pilot” that was doomed from its inception, and dozens of charts and PPTs justifying that it wasn’t a great idea – but by then the damage is done. - It’s funny and tragic at the same time, because people in Gucci are constantly asking for feedback, but the combined effects of the echo chamber, authority worship, and general disconnect from reality mean that in very rare instances is the feedback actually potent enough to generate change. Think very carefully before joining the company. If you are fine with living with corporate Stockholm syndrome, and are immune to cognitive dissonance, this may well be the dream company for you. If you like inspirational leaders, or are looking for a job where you'll feel that you are really making a difference, you’ll have to find a unicorn department to work for. The vast majority will swallow you whole.