The Art Of Letting Go

What I'm about to share to you is a case that happens in Gucci, one of the most high-end apparel label in the world originated from Italy. This happens about a decade ago when Gucci was faced with financial problem, family feud, and counterfeiting issues. The company was in a downward spiral at that moment because of a poor management.

Then they hired Tom Ford, a top notch designer from America to handle everything from design to product launch. Suddenly, there were signs of life. Tom worked very hard to get the company going and has done a great job according to the original shareholder, the Gucci family.

Then the shareholder changed, which means that the Gucci family is no longer in control. And the current shareholder was not amused at the "already much better" performance of the company because they think that the company was too "Tom-centric" that decision was so centralized even a mid manager could not or dare not decide for small things. This is also worsen by the celebrity status that Tom possess.

Then they changed the company CEO. They summoned Robert Polet, a Frenchman from Unilever, a huge company in consumer goods industry. Polet was handling ice cream business before he was asked to lead Gucci.

The media and fashion world was somewhat shocked by the shareholder's decision to sack Tom and have Polet at the helm. How come an "ice cream guy" which strategy was a mass marketing and mass production can run a very delicate business of ultra niche market like Gucci had? There were jeers and boos heard from everywhere, yet the show went on.

Surprisingly, Gucci now has managed to perform much much better even compared to the moment when Tom left the company. In an interview with Polet, he revealed the secret that made him succeed. He knew that he is not a fashion guy and he will never be, so instead of doing designs, he managed to hire people to do it for him and for your information, Gucci has many brands under it's belt that it is just almost impossible to undertake the task centrally. Polet called it "the art of letting go" that he gave full authority and responsibilty for each business unit to perform their activities and decide everything that's necessary to achieve the goals that they had agreed before.

Now, there are three positive insights in this business case:

1. Always get the right people to do the job. Before you have the right people on your bus and before you let the wrong people off the bus, never set the bus direction. In every business, it is not the hardware, or the system, product, appearance, or even quality that's the most important. You will never have those if you have the wrong people working with you.
2. Give Them Direction and Watch Them Grow. Jack Welch of GE has illustrated that managing people is like planting seeds in the right soil, then all we have to do is water them then sit back and watch them grow. Of course, occasionally, we have to pull out some weeds, but basically, it is like planting.
3. Be adaptive to changes. Don't be trapped in complacency. It is every leader's biggest pitfall and unfortunately happens only on successful ones. Current condition work only for now. Yesterday might not be relevant anymore. And things have to improve for tomorrow. Set new objectives, challenge yourself and the team for better target. If the water is too still, it's not alright. If you get all the brains moving, your company will move forward also.