Mash-Up
A petite 49-year-old woman with a cherubic smile and a fancy for diamonds, starting out from a modest background and the daughter of a military officer, we couldn't keep our eyes off Donatella Versace. The perma-tan, the platinum mane over right eye, the Cleopatra makeup, the cigarette permanently lodged in her diamond-armored hand. And this is just for daytime. Unapologetically ostentatious? Yes. She hasn’t lost her ambition, though. Sometimes called the queen of trash, she doesn’t disown the title.
In a society known for close ties and hidden deals between government officials and business leaders, she says simply, “I’m an honest businesswoman. It is going to sound like an obvious answer, but you have to like yourself first. There is no faking it”
Analysts have been nearly unanimous in their praise of a striking, three-story-high billboard celebrating her ebullient personality, which made her a great saleswoman and a sharp deal maker.“You can't do it alone. You have to find the right team and trust them. Especially choose the people that are saying the opposite. It's fascinating that the company is morphing into something else.”
To some people in the industry, Donatella Versace, of late, has even outshone her old nemesis, Bill Gates of Microsoft -- not in market share, of course, but in innovation. There were occasional threats from competitors, yet being a woman was not a problem, she says. "Actually, I didn’t find it difficult," she says. "I found men respected me."
She’s a visionary; she doesn’t mind putting a lot of money in at the beginning, to build the company. Despite all of her warts, Versace has kept the dream alive, whether it's movies, music or photos. Donatella has created a fusion of fashion, brand, industrial design and the Versace that is starting to emerge may be a harbinger. The company's growth may no longer be defined by its market share, but instead ability to create consumer markets.
Most of the world’s richest women inherited their wealth but not Donatella Versace. Six years since Donatella eased out from under Gianni's shadow, as a result of her entrepreneurship; she is now among the richest women anywhere in the world, including Oprah Winfrey, Martha Stewart and eBay’s chief executive, Meg Whitman. Will Versace eventually be overwhelmed by its bigger, better-heeled competitors? Throughout the world, there seems to be a simple, uniform answer to that question: Never underestimate Dontatella Versace.
References (Harvard)
Zhang Yin: Barboza, D 2007, ‘Blazing a Paper Trail in
Donatella Versace: Eisner, L & Alonso, R 2008, ‘La Dolce Diva’, The New York Times, 13 May, accessed
Steve Jobs: Markoff, J 2004, ‘Oh Yeah, He Also Sells Computers’, The New York Times, 25 April, accessed 13 May 2008, <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9D00E3DB123AF936A15757C0A9629C8B63>.
posted by Chris @ 9:55 PM
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