ReconKering: Strategy or Performance?

1. Over the weekend I revisited the Kering Capital Markets Day presentation.

2. The programme includes points I agree with and disagree with. I will write separately about one that particularly caught my attention and is almost always unfairly overlooked.

3. Let’s consider the non-obvious.

4. Luca de Meo became CEO of the group in the autumn of last year. According to rumours, he was also considered for LVMH, but it did not work out.

5. It was he who presented the ReconKering recovery programme — a 120+ page presentation that can be reviewed in detail on the official website. The presentation lasted more than an hour, and I noticed a telling detail — no glass of water next to him.

6. This was followed by a Q&A session, where the group’s management joined on stage. Just before it began, the audience heard through an unmuted microphone someone chewing gum.

7. A live Q&A session is usually very revealing in every sense — not only the answers, but also the reaction to unprepared questions.

8. Throughout, Luca de Meo could not sit still: sliding back in his chair, leaning forward, with constant small gestures. This can mean different things — from temperament to simple cognitive load and the need to maintain focus in a new environment.

9. In this particular case, however, there was a sense of internal tension. While answering questions, he would regularly turn towards Francesca Bellettini, as if checking for confirmation. It came both as insecurity and as calibration with someone knowledgeable.

10. Luca de Meo may be in his prime: a substantial list of professional achievements, along with a visible personal transformation over the past few years.

11. And yet, at the very moment when everything seems to support a confident expansion, a layer of doubt emerges — both external and within the structure of the role itself.

12. What is the risk for the business? As I have written before, the issue is not that executives from other industries enter luxury. The problem arises when the hidden logic of luxury — the part that does not translate onto paper, yet ultimately drives stable revenue — is overlooked in favour of short-term gains through cutting corners on quality and constraining creativity.

13. Another risk is more subtle: instead of focusing purely on the business, the role begins to shift towards proving individual weight. There is a temptation to simplify complexity through previously successful frameworks — “this worked there, I’ve seen this before, I know how to do this.”

14. It was precisely this pattern, with a dominant “I” rather than “company,” that became the final layer shaping the overall impression of the presentation.

15. Meanwhile, Gucci remains positioned as the core driver. This pattern has also been tried before, but did it work?

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“ReconKering” kind of naming together with the final on-stage appearance, smiling and waving, reads like a ceremonial moment than something that genuinely builds trust.