Innovation Drives Talent Research
Patrizia Ciompi, partner of Sterling International, explains what luxury companies are looking for. A search for personnel between parallel worlds such as automotive and metatarsal skills
«The dynamics of the search for the highest ranking personnel in the hard luxury segment are not so very different from those that govern the world of high fashion as far as the high-profile customer experience is concerned,» explains Patrizia Ciompi, Partner Sterling International. «However, we can identify two macro areas substantially linked to the size and culture of companies looking for new talent. In the case of big brands, which are often part of large conglomerates, searches focus on innovation. On the one hand, they draw on distant sectors, such as the automotive and tech industries, to find people specialized in processes in more complex contexts; on the other, they look to everything related to the metaverse and augmented reality, so profiles that know how to imagine the evolution of these topics, which are now on everyone's lips but will not be fully operational for several years to come. Instead, niche market companies, where manufacturing and product as well as the uniqueness of the objects themselves are central, searches focus on creativity and customer care. And if in the first case, companies are seeking talent that can bring unprecedented visions also in the use of materials, in the second, it is the client experience that guides the choice of new resources. The latter case - niche companies speaking to an extremely exclusive audience - finding established personalities who have a one-to-one relationship with the target community is a priority. We can add these two extra concepts: all the jewelry world needs to evolve in order to manage integrated projects, from design to product development and branding (not, as happens now, with such vast fragmentation); for the new digitized generations, the relationship with luxury jewelry is changing. It is becoming a form of expression instead of a status symbol or something needed for an occasion, and sustainability and environmental and social ethics in the sourcing of raw materials and the impact of processing are still the driving force.»
