Earlier this year, Kering quietly changed its corporate tag line from “Empowering Imagination” to “Creativity Is Our Legacy.”

The new slogan revs up Francesca Bellettini, Kering’s deputy chief executive officer in charge of development, for it crystallizes her passion for working with top designers, ignited when she had the chance early in her career to interface with Helmut Lang.

“I really saw how a collection is done out of nowhere, from a white piece of paper, from sensitivity, and that for me was magical,” she related.

Fast forward to today, and Kering has put creativity at the center of its strategy.

An investment banker who segued into business development, and later communications and merchandising for fashion houses including Prada, Gucci and Bottega Veneta, Bellettini seems to thrive on challenges, even relishing the opportunities that can be seized during downturns and crises — including the one currently weighing on the luxury sector, and on Kering in particular.

Indicative of her ease with change, Bellettini honored an interview appointment with WWD fixed a few weeks before the surprise announcement that Renault Group’s CEO will become Kering’s new CEO on Sept. 15, succeeding François-Henri Pinault, who remains chairman.

“I know that Luca de Meo has an incredible track record and history, so it will bring only good to the group,” she said, flashing a big smile.

It was WWD’s intention to unpack the many decisions she spearheaded over the past year, in concert with Pinault, that leaves three Kering houses with new creative directors — Gucci, Balenciaga and Bottega Veneta — and four with new CEOs, at Gucci, Balenciaga, Brioni and Saint Laurent, where she relinquished the CEO title to manage the workload overseeing a stable of brands that also includes McQueen, Pomellato and Queelin.

In a wide-ranging conversation, Bellettini discussed her management style, mentorship, succession planning and the power of saying “yes.”

WWD: About the new corporate tag line: Why is creativity so central to the group’s legacy, and how does this tag line guide and inspire you?

Francesca Bellettini: For the past 10 years, the group really focused on luxury, and so we wanted to define ourselves in an even better and unique way vis-a-vis others that may have another idea of how to make the business. It’s very important, the combination of the two words…because legacy is something that evolves. Legacy starts from your heritage, starts from your history, but what fuels the legacy is creativity. The creativity of today builds a legacy of tomorrow.

WWD: Some people perceive Kering as more of a “fashion” player than a typical “luxury” player, implying that it relies more on trends and heat than brand heritage and DNA, savoir-faire, etc. Do you agree with that?

F.B.: That’s a misconception in my view. We create trends through creativity, we don’t follow trends. Creativity doesn’t mean that you don’t consider the heritage of the brand. We have many brands that have been created very long ago. Think of Gucci, think of Ginori 1735, think of Balenciaga. They all have a heritage, but again, they were all founded on creativity. Through creativity, we keep our heritage alive.

I’m in love with creativity as a manager, and so being in the fashion industry is a plus, because it gives you the opportunity to work with creative people and to create a business out of incredible creative ideas.

WWD: What sparked your passion for working with designers?

F.B.: Early in my career, when I was in Prada, I started to work with Helmut Lang, where I was operations manager. The company was small, so I had a super direct relationship with Helmut. And I learned so much.

Then I saw that in this industry, there is a role also for businesspeople, because that creativity needs to become a business.

WWD: You have three new creative directors making debuts this fall at three big Kering brands. Can you talk about that?

F.B.: Every brand has its own momentum. What is true is that Gucci needed a new injection of creativity, and we planned to bring that at a certain moment. In the last two years before the change of creative director, we worked on the brand to prepare the territory for a new, strong injection of creativity. Demna was, for me, an obvious choice. It’s very clear to me what Demna can bring to Gucci, a brand that benefits from a tension between heritage and newness. Demna is going to build on the heritage of the brand, build on the iconicity of the brand, but inject his strong creativity, his point of view, to recreate desirability.

Demna had to accept the job. It was not an imposition to take the job at Gucci, but of course it necessitated a search at Balenciaga. This brand probably needed to build on what Demna has been doing in the last 10 years and this is why the search for the new creative director of Balenciaga was very narrowly focused. When meeting with Pierpaolo [Piccioli], his project for Balenciaga was amazing, exactly for that, because he presented a project that was a build-on. The 10 years of Demna at Balenciaga have been incredible. They have opened doors for the brand that no one else could have opened. I don’t need to describe Pierpaolo’s capability on couture volumes, it is well known. But the striking point was his ability to connect and build on what had been done.

In the case of Bottega Veneta and Louise Trotter, it’s a different story, because Matthieu [Blazy] decided to take another opportunity. It opened up the opportunity for us to search for a person that could accelerate certain ideas that we had for the brand. So we were searching for a creative director that had the same sensitivity as the brand. The choice of Louise was done quite quickly and was quite obvious to myself, Leo [Rongone, Bottega’s CEO] and François-Henri, because of this connection.

We have been very fast and very precise in those recruitments and didn’t lose any time. We are quite prepared. We know the talents that we have internally. We have mapped the talent outside. The choice of the right creative person for a certain moment in a brand is the most important one.

WWD: Kering has had a reputation for recruiting hidden or number-two designers if you look back at the hiring of Daniel Lee for Bottega, Alessandro Michele and Sabato de Sarno at Gucci and Blazy for Bottega. Your three new creative directors are quite well known. Does this represent a change in strategy?

F.B.: No, it’s not a change in the strategy. You simply need to get the right person. It’s not that I decide, ‘Oh, here, I want the famous person. Here, I want a number two.’…It has to be a perfect match. In particular, their sensitivity needs to be correct for the brand. I don’t believe that every creative director can be good for every brand. There has to be the sparkle in the eyes when they talk about it.

WWD: Exactly how much creative freedom are your creative directors given?

F.B.: I prefer the words trust and respect. Freedom implies that you can give it and to take it away. For me, it’s more about saying to the designer, “I trust you in your role.” If he or she stays within the framework of the brand, I love to empower creativity. I love to see ideas that I would never think of. In this sense, it’s the freedom of the CEO to be able to say yes to creative ideas.

It would be easy to say no all the time — no because there’s no budget, no because it’s too risky. You have that power when you are the boss.…Whenever I say no, it always comes with the reason why. But a yes to a creative idea can bring you to the magic. And when you have incredible creative people working with you, that’s what you want to do. So if that means a freedom, it’s freedom. But for me, it’s more trust and being aligned with what the brand has to do, what the brands represent. And of course, if you see suddenly a creative person going outside whatever is the framework of the brand, the positioning of the brand and what has been decided together, of course we intervene, but it’s a dual work. It’s a mutual respect and a mutual trust. At the end of the day, we are all working for the brand, and that’s the conversation that happens constantly.

WWD: You obviously said “yes” to Saint Laurent Productions, which catapulted the brand into film production?

F.B.: It was [Saint Laurent creative director] Anthony Vaccarello’s idea based on his understanding of the brand. When he presented to me this idea and the way in which he articulated it, I fell in love with it. I thought it resonated very much with the brand, because it’s a form of collaboration at the end of the day. And a brand today cannot resonate only with product. It was a form of collaborating with other artists, in this case directors, actors and expanding the brand in a territory where we were not before. And if you think about the return that the brand had thanks to that initiative, in terms of awareness, in terms of the people that are going to watch the movie and they see “Saint Laurent Productions by Anthony Vaccarello,” it’s impressive.

We were also able to create experiences for our clients — film premieres, talks with the actors, podcasts with the directors. Imagine if I would have said, “No, because that is too strange, too expensive.” And then we wouldn’t have produced “Emilia Pérez” and won Golden Globes, Césars and Oscars. It’s a great example of what is right for a brand moving in a different territory.

WWD: Gucci is obviously a key focus for the group, given its scale and important profit contributions, and its worrisome slowdown. Can you give your prognosis?

F.B.: We had to work on operations first because the brand had been growing so quickly and it achieved a level of sales that was incredible. When you grow so fast, the structure needs to adapt, but then you don’t have the time to plan it perfectly.

We decided to reassess all of this and to take the opportunity to intervene on certain processes and operations, to fix them, from the organizational structure to the level of new products you put in stores versus carryovers.

As Gucci was growing, it was also becoming more retailized. Now almost 95 percent of sales are via directly operated stores, so basically, it’s a retail company. We reviewed the structure of the retail function within the company, the structure of the merchandising, and also worked on the quality of the products.

I must praise Sabato, who was really, really fond of products, and helped the company a lot in improving the quality. Gucci today is, for sure, in better shape and in a better situation to be ready for the injection of the creativity that will come from Demna. But again, it’s teamwork. One could not exist without the other one. It’s not Demna alone that is going to change the trajectory of Gucci, it’s the team with Demna.

WWD: You once told me that you don’t mind operating in a downtown, insofar as you can better detect the impact of your decisions and strategies than in boom times, when all boats rise. How are you tackling the current morose and volatile climate for fashion and luxury?

F.B.: In a moment of crisis, it’s always an opportunity to relook at yourself. You need to be very pragmatic and stay focused on the things that you can control.

The worst would be to be defensive and to say, “I don’t change, because I’ve always been doing things in a certain way.” Everything needs to be reassessed with a sense of urgency, without creating panic, because panic is the worst enemy of good business, along with fear….What I love is always having a portfolio of actions that bring results at different times. If you would only do actions that bring short-term results, you risk compromising the positioning of the brand.

You need to be very aware of when you can expect the results to come. If you put in place an action plan that you think is going to give the results in a month and the result is not coming, you need to shift gears. If you put in place an action plan knowing that the results are going to come in six months, in a year, you don’t have to panic if you don’t see the results straightaway.

I don’t want to waste the opportunity of a crisis to fix certain things.

WWD: Since you were named deputy CEO in charge of brand development, Gucci, Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Brioni have all named new CEOs. Can you elaborate on the rationale for these appointments?

F.B.: These CEOs were chosen thinking about where the brands have to go. What is the strategy for the brand, short, medium and long term? And do they have the skills to deliver that? I know all of them — the new CEOs — personally, and worked with them in the past.

I love to work on succession planning. I think that is the duty of a manager to study and groom talent. I love to work with people who are great, who have skills that are better than mine, because then you keep learning.

It’s a very important responsibility of every manager and every CEO to build a team below him or her of great talents for the brand, and also for the group.

WWD: A good number of prominent CEOs inside Kering and outside have worked under you. Can you talk a little bit about mentoring, transmission and building tomorrow’s fashion leaders? 

F.B.: To mentor, the first thing that you need to do is listen. Because if you don’t listen to the person, and you think that you can use a formula with everybody, it doesn’t work. When you are a boss you need to adapt yourself in the way you liaise with people to make yourself understood.

In Italian, we have two words to define two different kind of leaders.

An authoritarian leader relies a lot on the power. “I’m the boss. I tell you what to do. We go — bam!” They usually surround themselves by “yes” people, they don’t like very much confrontation. They can bring results, for sure, but they tend to create an environment of fear, where people don’t speak up. And in my view, in particularly in a business that has to deal with creativity, if you create fear, you’re done.

The other kind of leader still decides, still knows that he or she is the boss, but stimulates a dialogue, listens and try to create a team and is very aware that a collective intelligence is much better. You see it also in sports. When you build a team where everybody is a super champion, most of the time, you win nothing because they are on the field thinking only about themselves and what they can do. When you build a team of great players and you have a great coach that finds a way to make them play together, that’s when they win everything, and that’s the one that I prefer.

Three people that were working for me got promoted while I was CEO of Saint Laurent: Emmanuel Gintzburger to Alexander McQueen, Cédric Charbit to Balenciaga, and Leo Rangone to Bottega Veneta.…I always said to the team, “When you see your colleague being promoted to CEO, it’s because this person is a great talent, but also because we are strong enough as a team to go without that great talent.” You need to search for people that can work very well together. And I tend to focus more on the strengths of people rather than on the weaknesses.

It doesn’t mean that everybody can arrive to the top, but we don’t need only top people. We need great people across the organization.

When I see my team growing, I’m happy. I don’t know if it’s because I don’t have children. But when I see people that I believed in, and mentored, and they make it, I’m very happy.

WWD: Can you also talk about how your formative experiences in investment banking shaped you into the CEO you are today? 

F.B.: In investment banking, you learn very quickly the importance of the teamwork. You never work alone, and you work a lot, and you know that to succeed and to finish the project, the team has to function, and everybody has to do their job.

I also realized how much I love numbers. I was always very good with numbers at school…they speak to me. And when I moved into merchandising, I learned how numbers could help you working also with creative people.

The first person who told me I could be a good merchandiser was Mark Lee, when he was CEO at Gucci and I was doing business development for the brand. He said, “I think you have the characteristics to be a good merchandiser, because a good merchandiser needs to be good with numbers, but at the same time, also have a sensitivity for products, because you have to have the rational part, but also being able to embrace the creativity.” And so he gave me my first job in merchandising at Gucci.

All my career has been very helpful to become a CEO, and every experience that I did was very helpful.

WWD: How would you describe your leadership style?

F.B.: Putting it at the service of the group and not only a brand. My style in working with the CEOs has been this one, staying close to them, having a role also of mentor. You know that the CEO is a very lonely person. In a a company, you need to be quite strong. Of course, you have your team, and the team is close to you, but you also need to protect them. You cannot throw your worries, the tension, the stress of certain situations to your team.

When I was CEO of Saint Laurent, there was more distance from François-Henri. When he created my job, it was to create an intermediary in between his role and the brands. He was also preparing a succession, but it was to create an intermediary that could narrow the gap with him being chairman, CEO and also the shareholder of the group.…Each of our brands needs to build a strong relevance. And that’s what we have been working on.

WWD: There are still relatively few women CEOs in our industry, and you happen to be in a group with many initiatives to advance women’s causes and help women in need. How do you use your platform to aid progress? 

F.B.: I hope that I can serve as an example for all the girls that have the ambition to grow and to have a career, and I love speaking in front of university students. I really hope that by looking at me, they can think, “If she can do it, I can do it, too.”

We are in a group that values diversity, and I value diversity very much, too. Sixty-three percent of our employees are women, 57 percent of our managers are women, and more than 45 percent of our executive committee members are women, so a lot of progress has been made. You need to be given equal opportunities, and that’s the culture of Kering.

WWD: You have a reputation for being a very hands-on CEO, and you initially held onto the leadership of Saint Laurent when you became deputy CEO of Kering. Is it hard to let go, or are you easily finding your rewards in different ways?

F.B.: It has been a process. I cried when I abandoned the role of CEO of Saint Laurent, but I wanted to give it up to make sure that I could do well my job as deputy CEO of Kering. I could not continue to do both, especially because I am also responsible for development of the jewelry brand since January. (Note: Since the interview took place, Kering also appointed a new CEO for the DoDo brand.) Also, we were ready with the succession planning. Cédric is the perfect person to take Saint Laurent to the next level. Of course, Saint Laurent is my baby. I’ve been there 10 years, so of course I was very emotional the day I had to leave that role.

But I also learned how you can contribute from a distance. A critical part of my job today is not to substitute the CEO. I am the deputy CEO of the group in charge of brand development, so I help them developing the brand, but I would never decide in their place. Of course, if I think they are making a mistake, I intervene and I say it. There is a very open and regular dialogue, but it’s very important that I respect the role, because I need the best professionals in those positions, and I need CEOs with full power.

WWD: How far do you sketch out the roadmaps for the houses under your purview?

F.B.: You need to have a long-term vision. The DNA of the brand is forever, like the DNA of a person. We all evolve as people, we all adapt, we all change, but we don’t change who we are. I always give this example when I must define a brand. A brand for me is like a person. It has its own characteristics, values, certain icons, certain elements. And then it evolves with the times. A brand has to consider opportunities, business evolution, new markets, new ways of consumption, but the creativity always must respect the fundamental values and the brand territory.

For example, now we talk about brand experiences, something never mentioned even 30 years ago. We were talking about mostly products, and in multibrand retailers. Now we are talking about products in your own stores and experiences to make sure the client is engaged.

WWD: Is there still room for taking risks in the luxury landscape of today?

F.B.: There are opportunities for the luxury industry to take risks, to embrace creativity even more — it’s very important. Whether it’s a well-known designer or a newcomer — it doesn’t matter. This industry needs a stronger creative point of view. We need to sell the dream. You need to inspire, because we don’t make things that people need. We do things that people want. It’s very different. And the ability to create desirability is the difference in our industry.

WWD: Finally, you’ve worked side by side with François-Henri Pinault for many years. How do you feel about the changing of the guard?

F.B.: In our industry, we have to be open to changes and open to questioning ourselves. I happen to know Luca de Meo a little bit. We got to know each other because we were both interviewed for a book that has been published about Italians in Paris. We have some friends in common.

For me, he’s a super manager. It’s incredible what he has been doing, not only at Renault, but also before. Luca de Meo is a superstar in Italy, and we all know how strong he is, so I am eager to see what he’s going to bring. I’m very open to changes. From changes, we can all learn and be excited. So I’m excited for this new chapter.

I’ve been in this group for more than 20 years. I’ve seen many changes happening. Every change brought something good. François-Henri stays as a chairman. So that’s also important, because I think one of our values is also to be a family-led group, and this is still a family-led group, because François-Henri is our chairman, and the Pinault family is our major shareholder. But it’s great to have a leader like Luca de Meo joining us with his track record.