Lorenza Di Giovanni Board and Executive Solutions (LDG)
Providing Choice and Ideas to a Selected Client Base

After having worked on the ‘Client’s side’ and then run the Luxury Practice for two leading global Executive Search firms, Lorenza Di Giovanni saw the gap between what was offered and what clients needed. With a strong entrepreneurial urge, she saw the space to introduce a more intimate, entrepreneurial, agile, and truly client-centric service without the rigidity of a large firm and its many binding off-limits, but with all the quality of a structured search process. She particularly wanted to bring value to clients in delicate phases as expansion, M&A, restructuring by fully understanding their peculiar culture, their mission, and identify the best bespoke solution for them, right in the moment but also with an eye to the longer-term success of the client.

Following is the conversation that Europe Manage HR had with Lorenza Di Giovanni, the Owner and Managing Director of LDG.

What has made LDG so successful since launch?

I think the most important driver of our success has come from the trust relationships I have built over the years with my global and local clients.

Also, we offer all the quality and depth in the search process of the top three global firms but with a personal, flexible approach. We are true specialists, and we know our industry well. We invest time in developing a deep understanding of the culture of the companies we work with and grasp the bigger picture. We are truly passionate about the luxury industry and make the time to observe the world, understand the trends that will shape the market in the future: the experiences that fashion and luxury consumers delight in, the different way that Gen Z look at things, how consumers are moving towards renting vs. owning, circular models creating strong second-hand markets, the recent explosion of the metaverse.

What differentiates LDG?

We are not transactional in our approach. Because I started my career as a Brand Manager at a global multinational corporation with a business and a team to lead, I fully relate to my Client and always provide my point of view after asking myself ‘what would I do if I was running this company?’ and at times it may imply not launching a search – perhaps leveraging internal talent I know would do a great job.

Secondly, while we do not compromise on quality, we are super flexible. As Managing Partner, I am always at the forefront of each search. I do not refer searches to others and I personally interview the candidates. For projects taking place in a different Region, I allocate local Associates and Researchers but then I jump in as our Client’s ambassador on the market, viewing things with her/his eyes after deepening all aspects of the brief together.

What are some of the current trends you see in the Luxury industry and how has Lorenza Di Giovanni translated those trends into its solutions?

Of course, we all see how Digital is a dominating topic for companies. The pandemic has simply accelerated what was already happening. Around that we do a lot of work to support Brands. Here are some concrete examples.

Among Fashion Brands there is a lot of exploring around NFTs (non-fungible tokens), gaming, “skins”, virtual fashion, and community building with the need to evaluate how big of a stream of revenues this can generate and, perhaps even more important, what are the impacts on the Brand image. To coordinate all this, we sat down with our Client, a global leading fashion Brand, and together wrote the brief for a Chief Metaverse Officer and launched the search on the market.

The rise of Digital also brings about more frequent cyber-attacks and data loss so we supported the setup of the Cybersecurity function with the identification of its leader for another client Brand.

Besides Digital, I’d say the second hottest area is Sustainability, the reduction of environmental impact with circular business models, and Diversity and Inclusion. For these roles we frequently also look at other industries to identify the right profiles.

Last but not least, our markets are currently under strong logistic pressure, and we are being chosen to search for COO’s who are able to strategically align customers’ demand and global supply chains while displaying strong operational resilience.

In your opinion, what’s the secret sauce in Talent Acquisition between what the market is looking for right now and what is unique about LDG company and services?

I never compromise on doing it right. When you work with people a dozen of things can go wrong so you must be flawless in how you handle the process and anticipate any possible issue, be transparent to put the client in a position to make an informed, timely, well-thought-out decision.