Armin Broger is the new CEO at B&B Italia. His appointment indicates a clean break with the past, with a professional profile characterised by strong ties to the retail and fashion worlds. His last position was as CEO of the Dutch McGregor Fashion Group. Previously he has also held top positions at Levis, Diesel and Tommy Hilfiger, without forgetting his time at Walt Disney.
The inevitability of generational transition, especially with large companies operating on the global market (the B&B Italia export quota is over 80% and contract is a big part of it) has recently inspired a radical change in the types of decisions made by shareholders of fashion sector groups. Management is being integrated with professionals without a past in the sector, but with significant experiences in different worlds.
However, not all new additions come from so far afield.
The nomination of Barbara Corti (an architect with a past in Condé Nast) as Head of International Marketing at Flos is the result of 12 months of significant results in the Bovezzo-based company’s digital department. Barbara first joined the company in March 2017 as Chief Digital Officer and immediately made her mark, with the launch of the new website flos.com, coupled with a rapid and exponential growth of the company’s visibility: + 500% social audience and + 37% (consolidated) web traffic.
Digitalisation is a sensitive and burning issue (as seen in the latest Facebook – Cambridge Analytica affair). However it is undoubtedly also an instrument which enables both vertical actions as well as transverse operations for raising awareness in different worlds (private and professional domains) and different contexts (indoor and outdoor), all present and future markets for Flos.
