The Agnellis and Fiat: Family Business Governance in a Crisis (A)
9-812-128 MARCH 28, 2012 JOHN A. DAVIS BERNARDO BERTOLDI ROBERTO QUAGLIA The Agnellis and Fiat: Family Business Governance in a Crisis (A) On Saturday evening, May 29, 2004, John Elkann left the funeral of Umberto Agnelli, which took place at the family’s ornate private chapel in the Cimitero di Villar Perosa outside of Turin, saddened and concerned about the challenges facing the Agnelli family he now led. The public outpouring of affection during the day, as Umberto’s body lay in state at the Fiat museum archive in Turin, reassured him about the loyalty of many people to the Agnelli family. But these were risky times. Umberto, the chairman of Fiat Group, had died after a brief illness, only a year after the death of his older brother and family patriarch, Giovanni Agnelli. John had been designated the future leader of the family in 1997, and now it was his job to make important and difficult decisions for his family. The Agnellis had a tradition of granting complete authority over their business holdings to the family leader. That tradition had done much to give the family stability, direction, and unity. The stability was enforced by the presence of Gianluigi Gabetti, who had served Giovanni and then Umberto for thirty years as trusted advisor and chief executive of the family’s main holding company. With Umberto’s death at 70 years old, John now had this authority, and he would likely draw heavily on advice from Gabetti. But in this time of transition for the family, the family business was in trouble.
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