Marco Gobbetti’s early exit leaves Burberry blindsided | Nils Pratley

The chief executive was hired to solve one boardroom crisis but his departure has caused another

• Burberry boss Marco Gobbetti to step down after five years
• Partnership ends that kept Burberry at leading cultural edge

Marco Gobbetti was hired by Burberry to solve one boardroom crisis – the uncomfortable reign as chief executive of Christopher Bailey, who was clearly better suited to being the creative boss. By skipping off early, though, he’s caused another. Burberry doesn’t have a succession plan, as far as one can tell, which is not ideal when the UK’s leading fashion house is persistently talked about as a takeover candidate.

You could see Burberry’s discomfort in its effort to describe Gobbetti’s time as “nearly” five years with the company. It depends on how you count it. He became chief executive almost exactly four years ago after a six-month warm-up tour of Asia. More relevantly, he launched his five-year plan in November 2017, so, even if he stays until the end of this year, he will have overseen only four years of a five-year overhaul, which is not quite a full lap of the catwalk.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3A7XL40