HR leading by example during Zegna transformation
| Published date | 17 December 2007 |
| Date | 17 December 2007 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14754390810847522 |
| Pages | 22-27 |
| Author | Lynda Tyler‐Cagni,Jan Hills |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour |
HR leading by example during Zegna
transformation
Lynda Tyler-Cagni and Jan Hills
Abstract
Purpose – When Ermenegildo Zegna’s senior management team decided to transform the organization
into a performance-oriented culture, the decision was made to start with the HR function. The purpose of
this paper is to outline the challenges they met and how they were overcome.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses Ermenegildo Zegna as a case study of how to
transform an organization into a performance-oriented culture.
Findings – The move from transactional to strategic HR is not a one-off, closed-ended process. HR
must keep ahead of the changes and needs to always be thinking of new ideas and new attitudesand to
keep pushing forward.
Originality/value – The paper examines Ermenegildo Zegna’s process of transformation.
Keywords Organizational performance, Human resource management, Organizational change
Paper type Case study
Introduction
When Ermenegildo Zegna’s senior managem ent team decided to transform t he
organization into a performance-orientated culture, the decision was made to start with
the HR function. Lynda Tyler-Cagni, group executive vice president, was brought in to
head up the change and working with transformation specialist Jan Hills used the HR
function as a model and agent for change. Here, they outline the challenges they met and
how they were overcome.
Luxury menswear company Ermenegildo Zegna has successfully implemented a major
change in its HR function over the last six years, and as a result changed the direction of the
organization as a whole. It is a family owned business with 7,500 employees and a 2006
turnover of e779.4 million. In 2000, the senior management team decided to change the
direction of the company to become more performance-orientated. This decision was driven
by a shift in the generation of family leading the company combined with increasing
consolidation in the luxury industry.
Lynda Tyler-Cagni, now group executive vice president, was responsible for transforming
the company’s HR team from a traditional transactional focused department into a
business-focused team, creating a model and an agent for organization-wide change.
Throughout this process, she worked closely with HR transformation specialist Jan Hills of
HR with Guts, a relationship that continues today as the transformation process continues to
deal with emerging external and internal challenges.
The impetus behind the change
Zegna has strong family-based values that have contributed to its success. They include
quality, authenticity, vision, accountability, passion and belonging. While it wanted to make
sure that it held on to those values, in 2000 it made the decision to move the business
PAGE 22
j
STRATEGIC HR REVIEW
j
VOL. 7 NO. 1 2008, pp. 22-27, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1475-4398 DOI 10.1108/14754390810847522
Lynda Tyler-Cagni is based
at Ermenegildo Zegna,
Milan, Italy.
Jan Hills is based at HR with
Guts, London, UK.
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