CEO, ACBC
I am 39 years old, married since 2011 and have a 6 year old son. Third of four children, raised in a wealthy family in a small town in Liguria: Sanremo. My father was a third-generation lawyer, my mother took care of the house. I always loved sport, making the national football team under 18, as well as winning regional medals in almost all competitions that I was participating such as: swimming, volleyball, skiing, running etc. At the age of eighteen my father passed away and I moved to Milan to attend Bocconi University. (2002)
I studied business administration address, which I completed in two and a half years with an Erasmus experience at Maastricht university (2005); subsequently, with the bachelor’s degree obtained at the age of 20, I decided to work and study. I enrolled in Cattolica University to do a master’s in business administration and I started working in a consultancy company in Milan (PKF). Our main clients were Tommy Hilfiger, Foot Looker, Ecco Shoes.
After about a year (2006), I moved to Berlin where I began working for BASF’s finance & reporting division, an extremely educational experience that impressed upon me the importance of learning to write and follow procedures, as well as understanding the importance of budgets and achievements;
While doing this, I completed my Master’s in Cattolica bringing the following thesis: “new international accounting standards on the ENI case”. In 2007 Tommy Hilfiger gave me the opportunity to come back to Italy as a strategic analyst reporting directly to the Country Manager. I worked about 2 years after which, at the age of 24, I reached the position of being responsible for the Italian market for 2 additional years. This experience taught me how to relate to top managers, evaluate the dynamics of business fashion 360 degrees, and understand the importance of relationships in every aspect of the business. Subsequently I decided to undertake further EMEA experience for ACER GROUP, in 2010 I was responsible for a new division: “Smartphone”. The approach to a new market was very challenging, but thanks to my spirit of adaptation after about 6 months I managed to bring in the first results.
After only about a year and a half, the Lusini family (owner of Peuterey) wanted me to develop a Retail project and subsequently open the Asian market; my love for fashion attracted me to accept this challenge. After the opening of 15 shops in Europe I moved to Shanghai with my family. Furtherly, together with BCG consultants, we created the Asian business model that is still in place with a double company (HK and China), The China company division is in charge of: production, development and logistics. The HK Branch to Manage and develop Japan and Korea market. In three years we have opened 10 stores in China and 100 multi-brand shops between Japan and Korea, reaching 35% of the overall business (almost 35 mln) and 80% of the total production; My role at this juncture also saw me head of marketing and acting as the face of the company.
After three years of success, I decided to challenge myself once again by working for Trussardi (2015). This entailed, making a complete business turnaround from a daily loss of around 30,000 Euros to positive EBITDA, which was achieved in the first year, added to reporting directly to Tomaso Trussardi as I was member of the strategic committee. We rationalized our distribution channel closing one line out of three, changing the business model from direct to 16 franchises divided by area managing almost 70 points of sale, which included 220 people; opening the first JV in Japan, opening the ASIAN and Indian market, focusing on product market needs.
After about two years, almost 5 years of China (we were living in shanghai) my spirit and responsibility as manager / entrepreneur together with the explosion on Kickstarter of ACBC project lead me to take another hard decision: leave Trussardi to follow my entrepreneurial dream; as a result I decided to move to Italy, covering the position of Triboo Digitale CEO (second only to YOOX in the ESP world in Italy with more of 150 portfolio brands, public company), CDI (Triboo’s holding company) became a shareholder of ACBC SRL with a 30% stake.
Focusing on international business: we opened branches in China, UK, Japan, bringing important partnerships with groups such as AEFFE (MOSCHINO, ALBERTA FERRETTI, POLLINI), PIQUADRO, NGG (OFFWHITE and MARCELO BURLON), etc.; Triboo opened my mind to the digital world, knowledge that I would like to merge with the traditional way to do business in fashion.
I decided to dedicate 100% of my time to ACBC, (even if I still be part of the strategic committee of Triboo SPA) which has been nominated as one of the most valuable start up in 2019; in which FORBES included me among the TOP ITALIAN MANAGERS.
ACBC is the first and only B Corp in Italy in the footwear segment and from 2020 until now we have impact and managed around 1MIL pairs of shoes always with the goal of CO2 reduction. Today we are the leader on the market in Consultancy when it comes to transform and analyze a product from “standard” to “responsible” and we are working with more than 45 brands like: MISSONI, PHILIPPE MODEL, DIADORA, SAVE THE DUCK, MSGM, PIQUADRO to transform products with the lowest CO2 impact.
We also have 4 mono-brand stores in Europe where you can buy and see the results of our transformation projects.
We are on a mission to change 1% of the global footwear market and we are very serious when it comes to Sustainability.
My ambition is to create and manage a fashion group with a business model that is completely different from the actual standard: driven by Data, sustainability, Customer Satisfaction and quality products, creating a community that could be adaptable to the value of each brand of the group
Here below some link of my career:
https://forbes.it/classifica/i-100-manager-vincenti-nel-2019/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/giogiacobbe/
