Luxottica, top managers doubled by 2009

60% of the people who purchase designer eyewear are women, but only 17% of the top managers of Luxottica are of the gentle sex.

Inside the company, diversity – of gender and of other kinds – is universally acknowledged as an added value.

The diversity of a company is in direct proportion to its creativity and innovative potential.
For those working in the fashion and luxury industry, innovation is the key strategic factor. These four reasons alone would be enough to explain the decision of the Veneto company – to raise the percentage of women in "top jobs" from 17% to 35% by 2009, as reported yesterday by the British newspaper, the Financial Times.

However, according to the top management of Luxottica, boosting the female presence on the upper rungs of the hierarchical ladder is “not just a business objective”. The truth is that business is already booming: in the first nine months of 2007 revenues reached 3.778 billion, up 5.9% on 2006 (+11.4% if we exclude the exchange rate effect), with net profits of 395 million (+19.8%). “We reached this decision in April 2006”, explains the company. “Looking at the figures, it seemed a natural consequence to devise objectives that would enhance not only business but the corporate culture in general.”

One year and eight months have elapsed since the decision to double the percentage of women in top management positions, and Luxottica “is half way there”; that means it’s running ahead of schedule since there are still two years to go to reach the target. The lion’s share of the initiatives are in-house, stimulating the emergence of the female talents already present in the company through special courses directed at all the managers. In this enterprise the company collaborates with universities in Italy and abroad so as to capitalise on the best practices that have already been appraised. Naturally, these also involve the famous "work-life balance", a balance between the home and the workplace that women often find more complex to achieve because the family continues to be a demanding second job.