101: Turning Around Businesses with Cristina Scocchia, CEO of illycaffe’

Incredibly, female CEOs are still rare, so listen to this inspiring chat between Andrea and the illustrious CEO Cristina Scocchia. Hear how Cristina went from humble beginnings to leading major international companies through pivotal turnarounds including Proctor & Gamble, L'Oréal, Kiko Milano and now illycaffè. Cristina shares her unique leadership style, thoughts on diversity, and insights into achieving work-life balance as a mother and top executive. You’ll be motivated by Cristina’s passion for business ethics and commitment to building sustainable, purpose-driven brands.  

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Leadership means taking responsibility and caring for your people first. True leaders make tough decisions rationally, even under pressure, and communicate empathetically.  
• To grow a brand, win consumers' minds with functional benefits and their hearts with emotional benefits. Tell an authentic brand story that resonates.
• Seeking continuous improvement is positive. Complacency and status quo thinking limit growth. Challenge yourself and your team to get better daily.
• Meritocracy is key. Judge people based on talent and potential, not gender or background. Give everyone equal opportunities to prove their abilities.

BEST MOMENTS

"Leadership doesn't mean power. Leadership means responsibility. You need to care about your people first, and then you need to care about everything else after."

"If you want to grow, you need to win consumers' minds and hearts. You need to talk to their minds with functional benefits and their hearts with emotional benefits."

"I always see the glass half empty. I want to improve, but I don't enjoy what I achieve. If I could advise my 20-year-old self, I'd say ‘Appreciate and celebrate every success'".

"Meritocracy is key. We need to evaluate people and give opportunities based on skills and talents, regardless of gender, background, or other factors."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

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ABOUT THE GUEST 

After graduating with full marks in Management of International Firms at Luigi Bocconi University, Cristina Scocchia completed a PhD in Business Administration at the University of Torino. 

She started her career at Procter&Gamble, where since 1997 she held positions of increasing responsibility working on mature and emerging markets until she was appointed in 2012 as Cosmetics International Operations Division leader, with the responsibility of supervising the brands in her portfolio in over 70 countries throughout the world. 

From 2014 to 2017, she served as Chief Executive Officer of L’Oréal Italia and she led the return to growth of the company in a challenging economic environment. 

From July 2017 to December 2021, she acted as Chief Executive Officer of KIKO, a leading make up company that she has led to a successful turnaround thanks to a business plan based on product innovation, digital transformation and geographical expansion in Asia and the Middle East.

Since January 2022 she is Chief Executive Officer of illycaffè. 

Speaker and lecturer in many national and international conventions and conferences related to enterprise development, leadership, diversity and sustainability, Dr. Scocchia is also a member of the Board of Directors of EssilorLuxottica and Fincantieri of which she is also Chairman of the Nomination Committee.

In June 2019 she was awarded the Legion d'Honneur. In 2022, Forbes and Fortune included her in the prestigious ranking of the most influential female leaders.

ABOUT THE HOST

My name is Andrea Petrone. I'm a Human Performance and Leadership Advisor, Executive Coach and International Speaker. I help leaders and their teams to change their mindsets and master their leadership capabilities so they can achieve extraordinary performance. I've been in the corporate world for more than 20 years working globally - in 6 countries and 3 continents - for medium-large companies.