AP - Billionaire Couture

T.
....
....1,
_
,
•
1
4,,
.
z,..
..
AP"-
=
_
-
•
-
_
•••
/
,
.-•••
•
il. •
.
FOR Y P.A RS HIS REPUTATION HAS B
THAT OF TI IF HEDONISTIC PLAYBOY,
AND SEEMINGLY ALMOST TO
NT OF SE F-PARODY
-
That comes across as believable, even if it might risk
bounding disingenuous, given Briatore's own wealth — not a billionaire,
because that's when you realise you're alive. It's an attitude: to wake
and be happy, you're alive."
but valued at an estimated £.150m — and his gilt-edged public image
Indeed, while nobody would wish such an illness on
For years his reputation has been that of the hedonistic playboy
anyone, it does somewhat temper Briatore's story — makes him more
.nd seemingly almost to the point of self-parody. His was a life of
human — that his business ventures at least have not all been one
he catwalks, the pit-stops and the nightclubs, jets, yachts and
long success story. In 2007, he was ejected from Formula One, banned
relationships with models, specifically Naomi Campbell and Heidi
for involvement in race fixing at the Singapore Grand Prix, which he
Klum, with whom he has a daughter.
challenged in court: a case he won. And, like other super-wealthy
It is a lifestyle he only half admits to, in part because he
people with one foot in the UK, he has found it hard to avoid the allure
is now a happily married man (to an ex Wonderbra model half his
of football club ownership. With partners he bought Queen's Park
.ge) with whom he has a young son. "Fatherhood changes everything
Rangers and had plans to overhaul its stadium and introduce what he
because it provides a completely different focus to life For many
dubbed 'boutique football', with fewer seats but better service. OPR
years the focus of my life was me, then my wife. And now it's my baby."
made it into the Premiership before he sold up But the experience for
But also because it is a lifestyle that was perhaps only ever embraced
him was a painful one
"In fact, it was a disaster," he concedes "Sometimes people
with circumspection, as might be expected for someone who made
make the wrong investments. It happens. Failure is a good experience
his money rather than having been born into it.
"Of course, among sports, Formula One gives you an
— if you learn from it. Everything you do is an experience — you add it
amazing, worldwide profile and it becomes a certain kind of life —
up, put it in your bag, take it on with you and use it all the time. But it
dating models and all that," Briatore says with a wave of his hand, as
was different to what I expected in all ways Like Formula One, football
is a product But its impossible to make money. Only go into football if
though in recognition of his world having stumbled into cliche
"I was always looking for a girl my age but I couldn't find
you have a big fortune and want a small fortune. You have to be ready
one But, you know, I prefer to marry someone 25. Who wouldn't? You
to put in 20, 30, 40, 50 million pounds every year and see it disappear.
know, this is life And I feel like the same man I was at that age, just
Its business model is completely wrong."
older physiologically But my public image is strange to me because
By now one might expect Briatore to take that reading
I still work 15 hours a day. The newspapers, unfortunately, never arrive
of the situation But not, perhaps, for the reasons of filthy lucre one
at my office at 7am But I go out maybe five times a month and,
might expect, not because it means you must go without another
naturally, they're there then, but (by going to fetch them), it looks like
yacht — like his Force Blue converted icebreaker — or another pair
I've been out partying every night."
of alligator skin shoes (of which he has more than one pair), in fact,
These days his outlook is perhaps calmer and wiser, a
that reptile skin lines the personal elevator up to his Knightsbridge
product perhaps of the kidney cancer he was diagnosed with five
office. But, he says, again passionate. because; "the fans who go to see
years ago, from which he has recovered. "What do I enjoy the most?"
football struggle and the players make millions and don't give a shit."
he says rhetorically. "It's waking up in the morning and shaving,
08 /,/
109
Flavio Bnatore: not quite who you expect.
rs
"I'm good at choosing the right people," he adds. "In
Formula One, for example, I chose the right driver [Briatore can be
redited with hot-housing the talents of Michael Schumacher and
be a train station and 50 hotels arcx.ind it. but in Italy ifs -
:-
the Italian government is managed by oki people: he said Nth pawion
Small wonder Bnatore feels that the mood Ni Itialy is 'very Roskilde_
"In Italy there is just so much talent and enemy night now
Fernando Alonso] Did I have any real interest in Formula One? No,
none So I guess you don't have to be emotionally attached to some
it's all so frustrating." he adds. looking upset 11 you go to a mstauranit
businesses to be good at them," he said with a smile
you're scared to order a bottle of wine because It looks flask But FM not
"For me a car has four doors and you go around in it from
offended by the attitude that Italian people have to the wealthy right ncnit
place to place, whereas Formula One is a tool for marketing, it's a
I'm offended by how entrepreneurship is havered in the country I'd
product, a product you need to be quick so as to beat the competition
love to be a dictator — because sometimes you need strong leadership
So you need that good driver," Bnatore continues, as though that
in difficult moments, to get things done, to act as an entrepreneur does,
was blindingly obvious. "Formula One is really the complete business
to get up and do it to make it happen, right or wrong.
— technology, organisation, competition, emotional content. And
"Of course, if a country gives you the opportunity to
although it's not easy, there is a business model there . cut costs —
work, to do business, then take it. I started from nothing — and lots
and if you do that right away, then you make a profit."
of people I meet have done that. The point is that my opportunities
It's that kind of blunt, back-to -basics business insight which
came in the US and the UK, not in Italy."
has won Bnatore a spot on the panel of Italy's take on 'The Apprentice'
Opportunities, that is, to repeatedly apply that stupid-simple
It has been, he says. "another challenge and an opportunity to find
'Mr Fix-It' entrepreneurial methodology, he continues. "What do the very
out how the new, iPad generation thinks, which we too often forget."
wealthy want in a nightclub, but to hang out with beautiful women and
But then there is a change in Bnatore's tone, now suddenly there is
other very wealthy people? What do the very wealthy want from their
agitation. The two months filming back in his homeland has, it seems,
clothes other than protection and style — it's to express their wealth?
"You wear Brion' and look very conservative, while maybe
been a reminder why he made it everywhere but in Italy --• a country
it's not so easy for a man to wear high fashion either — I'm certainly not
with; as it were, the wrong business model
Italy is, he says with some passion. "... a bureaucratic disaster
skinny enough," Bnatore says "So I think there's room in the middle for
that is killing investment. It takes you 10 years to get a license for a club
high quality with a little bit of aggressive design. Yes the name of Billionaire
there: nobody ever tells you 'no', they just always tell you 'maybe' Its
Couture is arrogant, especially when we started, but I think it's fantastic —
people are over and inefficiently taxed; its tourism and cultural import is
people never forget it Besides, it's the dream to be a billionaire I'd like to be
undervalued. Fifty per cent of the art in Italy is in storage somewhere in a
a billionaire, but my motivation now is less about making money and more
garage — it's just crazy. If Pompeii were in another country there would
about creating jobs and helping people pay their rent."
WEMMIM
"If you shout it makes no difference," says Flom Bnatore. "Speak normally and its easier for
people to understand what the message is It's more efficient."
Bnatore has just turned one of his Knightsbridge shop employees the colour of
winter fox — just the kind of trim that might be found on one of Briatore's Billionaire Couture
jackets For those whose pocket, or taste, does not stretch to winter fox, it is very white_ The
fizzy water Bnatore requested as we talked, has taken Just a tad too long to arrive_ You have
to enthuse young people, try them, and if they're any good, keep them," he comments. And
the inference might be, if they're slow with your drink, let them go
Is it such people skills that have made Flavio Bnatore a successful if controversol
businessman, as has often been claimed. Billionaire is his brand Billionaire Couture is, as it sounds,
a fashion brand for the extremely comfortable, peddling a sometimes over-the-top take on exotic
luxe through shops the world over It is just the latest of his Billionaire ventures, among them
Tuscan beach clubs and Kenyan resorts. His Billionaire nightclub in Sardinia was a Mecca for the
open-shirted, over-tanned, Krug-splashing 'partyrati' and remains a slowly expanding franchise.
Before all this, Briatore made his money first launching Benetton in the US, then
running the Formula 1 Benetton team and then — after its purchase by Renault — the Renault
team, for both of which he won championships. And yet he is no pioneer; he's more the savvy
salesman, a talented motivator of people, a man who can see the opportunities within a
business model in cold, hard terms while others get lost in the puff
.
Indeed, after a spell as a skiing instructor, it was in travelling insurance sales that
this son of two school-teachers started out, before getting a job at the Milan stock exchange.
It was there that he met Luciano Benetton — and was convicted of fraud and sentenced to
four-and-a-half years in prison, a term he dodged by making pronto for the Virgin Islands. It is,
somehow, a typically Italian business experience
"For me you have to feel business in your stomach, to be emotionally involved to
make it work If not, you don't give 100%. After that you need a little creativity to do something
a bit different. And you need a good group of people around you," the 62-year-old explains,
relaxed in his Italian Playboy uniform of navy blazer, crest-embroidered slippers and faded Jeans
— although his, Billionaire-style, is made to measure and comes with gold buttons.
104
sos
LI
•
F
„fwo,
JOSH SIMS
/1/ V;/:ti
\ N\ EILERS