I wake up naturally between 6.30am and 7am. I get out of bed quickly and have a shower to wake me up. If possible I have a good breakfast, but unfortunately that doesn't happen often and it can just be an espresso coffee. In any case, as soon as I get to the office I have an additional espresso coffee. If I can, I drop my daughters off at school because it's on the way to my office in Milan. Sometimes we walk: it depends on the weather.
I get to the office at 8am to 8.30am and the first thing I do is e-mails. One of my responsibilities is Asia, so the e-mails have been arriving throughout the night. I try to get through as many as possible. In the past we were overloaded by paper; now we are overloaded by e-mails and it's getting worse. We have various offices and production plants. My cousin [Ermenegildo Zegna, co-CEO] lives in Switzerland, I live in Milan and the wool base is in the Alps, so where we meet depends on who has to meet whom. It certainly doesn't make for boring days.
The office in the Alps is where the company started in 1910. It's in the village where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. It is one of Italy's major textile producing areas, one-and-a-half hours north of Milan, 750 metres above sea level. The original wool mill is based there and the village still has some old houses. Ours is one of the biggest mills and one of the oldest. The production of fabric has tripled since my grandfather passed away, but the size of the factory remains the same and 50 per cent of our fabric still comes from there. One of my favourite childhood memories is of my brother and I jumping from one floor of the mill to another onto the wool.
Different fabrics require different production techniques so the wool mill is specifically for wools such as cashmere and alpaca. The fabrics for our shirts, sportswear or ties may be linen or pure silk, which have other production methods. For each raw fibre we go to the world's top producer: the silk and cashmere is from China, the mohair from South Africa, the vicuna and alpaca from Peru, and Australia is best for super-fine wool. We've been travelling around the world for a long time. Normally we have long and strict contracts with producers. We don't simply go in and buy something; we work with the producers from the perspective of achieving the best possible quality. We talk to farmers and herdsmen because the quality of the final product comes out through how they treat their animals. It's like cooking. The quality of a dish is determined by the ingredients and then the know-how of the cook. The first thing that makes a product beautiful is the raw fibre and the quality of the materials. Even if we don't produce a fabric, they are all designed by our people so the creativity always comes from us.
My work varies each day. The morning could begin with me working on projects in Asia, and end with me introducing a new training course for the group. In the afternoon I could be hosting a meeting on textiles and be looking at the economics of the company - that's what comes with being the CEO.
There wasn't really direct pressure to join [the company]. Nobody said to me you have to join, but you do feel a responsibility as you get older. You get used to the idea and before you know it you are about to become a part of it and you think, 'Why not?' Not all my family are in the business - my brother is an architect and one of my cousins is a housewife - but unfortunately when my generation meets outside work we spend most of the time talking about it.
I try not to miss both breakfast and lunch, but when I have lunch it's quick. I just have a sandwich or a salad at my desk. If I've got time to take a break I'll read the papers. I like to read the Italian newspapers, the fashion and luxury press and weekly magazines such as BusinessWeek and Time, the usual things. I also try to be open-minded and look at different magazines because sometimes you get ideas from publications you wouldn't normally read.
I spend a lot of my time on work relating to Hong Kong because of the variety of new operations we have decided to open there and because of its links to the greater China region. We're convinced China is where we'll see a good slice of our future business and we have invested there with the long term in mind. I've recently taken on Japan, which is a very big market for us. There's still a lot of potential there despite what some people might believe. Other priority countries are South Korea and Thailand, because of its local and tourist potential. We also have a strong presence in Australia.
I leave the office at about 8.30pm. I like to have dinner at home. At the end of a long day I don't want to go out. I'm learning to cook but I'm not very patient. I like to eat basic things like simple pasta and risotto dishes and simply grilled fish and meat, but I'm discovering that often the dishes that seem basic are more complicated to make. After dinner I might work until 11.30pm preparing for the next day so it can be a long day. The eight hours that are a normal day at the office is a half-day for me.
Even so I try to close the door behind me when I leave the office. If you talk about business all day it's not good for you or the people around you. You have to be wider in your outlook, especially if you have children because they have totally different priorities and interests.
I like to escape from Milan as much as I can. I like to ski at the weekends. In the winter I go to the mountains in Italy and I have a flat in Switzerland. In summer my favourite exercise is hiking, especially in the mountains near the mill. I also like fishing - it's a good way to clear my mind. I like to go to the Italian Riviera where you can catch big tuna fish and I've fished in places such as Alaska, but that happens rarely, when I get the chance to take a long holiday.
There was a time when I tried going to bed at 10pm, but that didn't last long. Normally it's between 11pm and midnight. I try to do some light reading, to change the tune a bit, but usually I fall asleep automatically.
