This was originally posted by me at the Lapo Elkann thread, but it's about John, so since there is now a thread for John...well, I am thinking it's appropriate to post the article here.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
Associated Press Financial Wire
June 26, 2006 Monday 1:19 PM GMT
SECTION: BUSINESS NEWS
LENGTH: 1440 words
HEADLINE: All in the Fiat family: Agnelli heir aims to reinvigorate legacy
BYLINE: By GABRIEL KAHN, The Wall Street Journal
TURIN, Italy John Elkann is heir apparent of the Agnelli family, one of Europe's most-storied industrial dynasties. The 30-year-old grandson of the late Gianni Agnelli, he holds the title of vice chairman of the Fiat group, maker of such items as Ferraris and farm equipment. Like his grandfather and great uncle, he married a noblewoman.
But as Mr. Elkann is poised to move into the driver's seat at the 107-year-old icon, the European model of family capitalism espoused by his clan is struggling to endure. Financial markets have become impatient with family-dominated companies, which sometimes put dynastic interests first and occasionally have murky corporate-governance practices. There is also increased skepticism that companies controlled by Europe's grand families can produce top-flight managers.
Over lunch at the headquarters of IFIL SpA, the Agnelli family holding company of which he is also vice chairman, Mr. Elkann brushes aside these concerns, insisting instead that the family's role at Fiat, founded by his great-great grandfather, has historically brought great benefits to the company. "As a family we have always seen it as our role to guarantee stability for Fiat. That's what my grandfather tried to do."
Yet the question of how much power families should exert is a pressing one in Europe. According to Guido Corbetta, a professor specializing in family-business strategy at Milan's Bocconi University, about 40 percent of companies on the continent have passed control from one generation of family managers to another. On the Italian stock market, more than 60 percent of all publicly traded companies are controlled by families.
Some families are determined to stick with the old model. Hermes International Chief Executive Patrick Thomas, appointed earlier this year as the first nonfamily member to head the French luxury-fashion house, is running the company until a family member from the next generation is ready to take over. Francois-Henri Pinault, chairman of French retail and fashion conglomerate PPR SA, last year took over at the company his father, Francois Pinault, founded.
Others are cutting the umbilical cord. The chairman of Luxottica Group SpA, the Milan eyewear maker, last year passed over his son to name an outsider as chief executive. At French tire maker Michelin SA, it is unclear what role the members of the founding family will play in the company after the sudden death in a boating accident last month of fourth-generation manager Edouard Michelin.
At Fiat, as financial troubles have created pressures in the marketplace, Mr. Elkann is committed to maintaining the family legacy. The Agnellis own 30 percent of the Fiat group through IFIL.
Soft-spoken and reserved, Mr. Elkann exudes little of the flair for which his grandfather was famous. "The important thing I have learned from my grandfather is to be able to adapt to the times you live in," he says. Toward that end, he says he has responded to calls for greater transparency by opening up Fiat's board to more outside directors and creating clearer lines of responsibility.
Historically, the heads of industrial families, such as Mr. Elkann's grandfather or Reinhard Mohn of Bertelsmann AG publishing group in Germany, never had to confront those issues. Their prominent role in society made them guarantors of a sort of social compact with governments and workers. Investment might be directed to a certain area or a factory spared in order to maintain their social standing.
Some argue that the model has served Europe poorly. "The sooner we get rid of family capitalism the better off we all are," says Umberto Mosetti, a corporate-governance expert at the University of Siena and president of shareholder adviser Deminor.
When markets were regional, says Mr. Mosetti, families could finance their businesses through cash flow and loans from friendly local banks. As markets went global, large companies needed to go to capital markets to fuel expansion. Family-controlled firms were often ill-prepared. Something similar happened at Fiat. When competitors from Asia entered the European market, Fiat was caught flat-footed and lost market share; it has been trying to recover ever since.
Mr. Mosetti says family capitalism often breeds complicated ownership schemes. The Agnelli family maintains control of Fiat through three separate holding companies. Mr. Mosetti argues that these arrangements often lead to poor corporate governance which can make it more difficult to attract outside capital to finance expansion.
In the Agnelli family tradition, Mr. Elkann, after early schooling in Paris, studied engineering in the company's home town of Turin. During the summers, he was rotated through different Fiat business units, and discreetly clocked time on the assembly line, where most factory workers didn't realize that they were laboring alongside the heir. As a young graduate, he spent several years honing his business skills at General Electric Co., where he crossed paths with the legendary chairman, Jack Welch.
When Mr. Elkann rejoined the family business in 2002, at age 26, Fiat was facing its greatest crisis. "I'd say there was a certain sense of responsibility in that I thought I needed to go back to see if I could help out," he says. His grandfather, considered the public face of Fiat at age 81, died several months later. A consortium of banks put together a $3.76 billion convertible loan to keep the company afloat.
Mr. Elkann threw himself into the unpleasant business of selling a portfolio of assets that his family had spent years assembling. "It was tough, very tough," he recalls. Among the properties that the family sold off were stakes in Club Med, legendary French winery Chateau Margaux, and the La Rinascente SpA department-store chain. Fiat sold its financing arm, an insurance company and other noncore assets.
Mr. Elkann says he was too busy to worry whether Fiat would pull through. "I was 26 years old. Under these circumstances you don't really ask yourself that kind of question. You spend little time asking yourself questions," he says. "You just concentrate on doing your best in a difficult situation."
With Fiat on the ropes, the family decided to invest $313 million of its own money in a capital increase. More than three years later, Fiat is in the midst of a convincing turnaround led by independent-minded Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne. Like Mr. Marchionne, CEOs at Fiat traditionally have been nonfamily members, usually reporting to Agnelli-family chairmen. Fiat's current chairman is Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, a longtime Agnelli family loyalist and chairman of Ferrari and Italy's powerful business lobby, Confindustria.
As Mr. Elkann assumes the leadership role within the family, he is aware that the Agnellis no longer hold the unassailable status they once did. He is trying to clean up a match-fixing scandal involving Juventus Football Club SpA, the family's successful soccer team. Prosecutors allege that Juventus executives repeatedly conditioned referees to give the team favorable treatment. Team officials say they are cooperating with authorities.
Mr. Elkann led the appointment of a board and management at the club, as well as ethical guidelines. "The family image is very much linked to Juventus, and so it was very important to address it," he says.
The match-fixing scandal is the latest of several episodes that have brought the clan unwanted attention. Last year, Mr. Elkann's younger brother, Lapo, who had been serving as an executive at Fiat Auto, survived a drug overdose at the apartment of a transvestite, a story that dominated Italian newspaper headlines for days. Mr. Elkann declined to comment on the episode.
Mr. Elkann led the appointment of a new board and management at the club, as well as new ethical guidelines. "The family image is very much linked to Juventus, and so it was very important to address it," he says.
Prosecutors in Turin have opened a probe into possible insider trading regarding a complicated equity swap performed by several Agnelli-controlled companies. The swap allowed IFIL to purchase Fiat shares at a favorable price and thereby maintain the family's 30 percent stake, which had risked being diluted by a capital increase. No charges have been filed. Mr. Elkann says the share purchase "is intended as a clear vote of confidence in the Fiat management and its plans."
These incidents have thrust Mr. Elkann more into public eye. He concedes he is uncomfortable in assuming the high-profile role that his grandfather played for so many years. "I mean, I'm 30 years old," he says. "Respect is earned, not inherited."
