The issue with Kering is that all of their brands are designer-centric. While it's fun for the runway, it leads to these houses creating "cults" around the creative director rather than the brand itself. This can work for a smaller brand that makes 50-200 million, but after the 1-2 billion milestone, a brand really needs to be desirable in spite of the current creative director. From there, it's really just basing itself on the myth of the founder (Chanel, Dior) or the house's extensive resources (Hermès, Louis Vuitton).
They also made the mistake of putting all their eggs in Gucci's basket. For context, Kering makes 19.6 billion:
• 9.9b from Gucci (50.4%)
• 3.2b from Saint Laurent (16.2%)
• 1.6b from Bottega Veneta (8.1%)
• 3.5b from their other houses (17.8%)
• 1.5b from Kering Eyewear (7.5%)
While it's more than fine to have Gucci as the primary cash cow, the combination of Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta should've been big enough to support Kering in the case that Gucci has a flop era. Kering wouldn't be in this situation if their revenue distribution looked more like this:
• Gucci (35%)
• Saint Laurent (25%)
• Bottega Veneta (15%)
• Other houses (17.5%)
• Kering Eyewear (7.5%)
Gucci has two problems. The first is that their core product range is kind of ugly and dated across the board. The second is that they've already created cults around two of their previous creative directors: Tom Ford and Alessandro Michele
They need to make Sabato's Gucci look very desirable without creating yet another cult around him.
Saint Laurent is doing fine, but will need to double its revenue to become another main pillar for Kering. Without YSL Beauty (makeup, skincare and fragrances), it could easily take 10+ years to achieve those numbers. Kering probably only has 2-3 years, unless they get Gucci back on track.
Bottega Veneta's intrecciato is too eccentric to be another Hermes, but they could easily be another Loewe/Fendi. Use the Andiamo to reintroduce their more classical designs in a wide range of colours: charcoal, slate grey, chocolate, buttery yellow, cream and maybe green and throw a designer who can make interesting, but wearable clothes and shoes on top of that.
It would be much more advisable to retain Balenciaga and McQueen as self sustaining "high fashion social currency", instead of trying to turn them into cash cows. Of course, both brands will need creative directors that can produce 360° visions and retain long tenures. Meanwhile, they could push Brioni in the direction of Bottega Veneta.