Ferraris CEO Benedetto Vigna. Song Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images
Benedetto Vigna has been CEO of Ferrari since 2021, leading the company’s transition to electric vehicles.
He has a technical background and previously worked as an executive in a semiconductor company.
Vigna likes the speed of tech startups and has reduced bureaucratic hurdles at Ferrari, reports the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Ferrari’s CEO would prefer the company to move as fast as its cars. Since taking over as CEO in 2021, Benedetto Vigna has introduced changes at Ferrari to enable the more than 80-year-old company to move into the competitive electric vehicle space at the speed of a tech startup.
To achieve this, Vigna reduced bureaucracy and created a flatter hierarchy within the company, reported the “WSJ” – a step that other CEOs have also tried to improve a company’s performance or ability to innovate.
For example, there used to be six levels of employees between the CEO and the test drivers. Now there are only three left. “When environmental conditions change at high speed, you need a team that is able to adapt at high speed,” Vigna told the WSJ.
Vigna developed his leadership style through his positions in the technical area
According to the magazine, Vigna’s leadership style comes from his many years of experience in the technical field. A physicist by training, Vigna worked for STMicroelectronics, a semiconductor company, for about 25 years. There he started as an engineer and later took on a management position, according to a press release from Ferrari.
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At Ferrari, Vigna noticed a high “Bureaucratic Mass Index,” according to the “WSJ.” This means that employees are too far away from the CEO. Vigna has previously expressed his desire for Ferrari to work faster and with less bureaucracy. In an interview with „Bloomberg“ from 2023, Vigna said he believes smaller teams make companies work more efficiently.
“In a big team you feel like a number,” he told Bloomberg. “In a small team, you are one person who contributes in one way or another. You can also learn from mistakes much more quickly.”
So far, Wall Street has responded well to Vigna’s approach. According to the WSJ, the company’s share price has almost doubled since Vigna took control of the company. Ferrari also plans to launch its first electric car by the end of 2025. A Ferrari spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent over the weekend.
Read the original article Business Insider.
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