Ferrari accelerates India push as 'market of the future', targets younger buyers while guarding exclusivity

When Ferrari announced in 2021 that it was appointing as CEO Benedetto Vigna, a physicist and semiconductors veteran, who had never previously worked in the automotive or luxury industry, it was met with disbelief. The message was clear, though the job is to ready the Italian luxury sports marque, a byword for expensive fast cars that made a statement, for the era of new powertrains, and more AI and software inside cars than ever before.

Transforming a successful company like Ferrari, with its intense aura of racing heritage and fandom around it, is among the toughest jobs in business management. It became evident when the company launched its first electric car, the Luce, in May to negative reactions around its design.

Also read: Ferrari accelerates India expansion, opens doors to EU trade pact benefits


In a conversation with Sruthijith KK for ET's The Quest podcast, Vigna says innovation cannot be driven by consensus, and that humans are uncomfortable with "everything that is diverse, everything that is new and the future". While India is a small market for Ferrari today, Vigna believes it is a market of the future for the carmaker. The Indian Ferrari buyer is among the youngest Ferrari buyers in the world.

While legacy carmakers around the world are trying to gauge which technologies and powertrains to bet on for the future, Vigna says Ferrari has many horses in the race and will let the customer choose the powertrain. As someone who loves to drive in every country he visits, he says the transformation he has seen in India in the last 25 years is extraordinary. Edited excerpts:

Watch: Inside The Mind Steering Ferrari: CEO Benedetto Vigna on Innovation, India, Powertrains | The Quest

India certainly has a lot of Ferrari fans but it's a small market for you. You sell 14,000-odd cars around the world of which you sell less than 100 in India. You are in India for the third time this year. What makes a CEO like you invest in a market of the future?

I think one of the biggest responsibilities of a CEO is to pick the weak signals and to pick them on time. We have been investing in India for a while, I believe this is the time to push the accelerator because, on the one side, we have this free trade agreement that is going to be signed, and it will benefit the client. On the other side, we see more and more wealth generated in India. Here the age of the client is much lower, much younger. In a world that is becoming more and more digital, a CEO cannot rely on an AI agent, which can only tell what has been done. You need to be close to the people. You need to live the reality, to smell it, to breathe it.

You went from a very successful semiconductor company, STMicroelectronics, to one of the world's most passionately followed companies-Ferrari. You are an outsider to the world of cars. How has this transition been?

I believe we have only one life and we have to live it the best. Sometimes it is good to challenge yourself in a different field. Clearly, the two worlds-high tech and luxury-are different. But there is a common factor-people and the passion they put in the work. My biggest privilege has been to work with people who are passionate about what they are doing. In Ferrari, the passion is at a high level. It's very engaging because Ferrari is very experiential. You cannot experience a chip, but you can experience with all your senses the car.

A company has three things-people, product and processes. At the centre, you have the people who make the product, following some processes. People are the most important thing. You have to understand the people working in the factory, in the company. You have to spend high-quality time with your client. You have to go around the market to pick up the culture. You have to use a helicopter. Because with a helicopter you go up and have a good view of the ground and then you go down to understand what is going on.

I was in Florence earlier this year, and our tour guide told us: Italy truly comes together as a country only on two occasions-when the Italian football team is playing in the World Cup, or when Ferrari is racing. That is how important your company is. That means there are high expectations also. When you introduced the company's first electric car, the Ferrari Luce, earlier this year, the internet didn't exactly love it. But it's been a commercial success. It's sold out.

Yeah.

How did that episode play out for you?

First, I would like to add something to what you said. It's true Ferrari is a kind of glue for all Italians, but I would go one step further. It is gluing people from different parts of the world. Coming back to Luce, three days before the launch, a friend and I wrote an article where I said, 'Innovation is never democratic. When you innovate, it's not easy for anyone to understand the essence of what you are doing. We had a lot of negative comments, but once we auctioned Ferrari Luce for $40 million for charity, a lot of the comments became positive. People need to see the reality. When they see Luce with their eyes, it's completely different.

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In the face of that kind of public blowback, you have to walk tall and hold strong. How do you build that fortitude?

If you are a leader, you need to dare with responsibility. When you do innovation, you cannot look for consensus. You need to make sure that you preserve the values the identity of the brand, but you have to read the past with new eyes. You cannot keep copying the past because otherwise you become a museum. The Luce is a great execution done with the collaborative work of people across the globe. When people see it, they change their point of view. So the fortitude is coming from maybe experience. The team was 1,000% committed to do something new. If you come to our factory in Maranello, you will see Luce, Testarossa hybrid, Purosangue 12Cilindri and Amalfi. Luce is only one chapter in Ferrari's future.

You have many horses in the.... race.

We believe in the client's freedom of choice. He or she has to pick up the car they want. We need to do innovation. The world is changing. If we don't keep up with the pace of change, we lose grip.

Becoming a prisoner of past success-that is a trap so many companies fall into.

There are many examples all over the world. Because people become lazy. There are three things that people don't like, don't feel comfortable with everything that is diverse, everything that is new and the future. If you want to lead, you need to make sure that you manage these three things in the right way.

Because past success never implies future success. I think the company and the reality are like two wheels that are moving at the right speed. If something is changing the speed, and the company does not change its speed, does not adapt then you go out of sync.

Innovation is fundamental for us because that is the only way forward, to not lose the pace of change. And we do innovation, starting not from technology, but from people. Technology is important for sure, but you have to use it in a way that is waking up a unique emotion in the client. It's about people-people that make the product, people that buy the product.

How are you such a persuasive storyteller?

Thank you for this compliment. Maybe because I started a business from zero. The business I started was about putting sensors in different things-mobile phones, game controllers-and there was no market. Nobody believed in what I was doing. So you have to sell your ideas, otherwise you die. Maybe that is the reason. Maybe when you are doing something with passion-if you do it, if you feel it, if you breathe it-then you are able to transmit it.

The risk of being a good storyteller is you do not update your set of information. You are stuck to your story. But you have to change it. That's why It's important to know new people, to change your point of view. You need to put yourself in different conditions so you have a kind of 'metacognition'. That's what I'm trying to do-to avoid becoming obsolete, depreciated.

In the automotive industry, especially in Europe, there has been a degree of confusion about how fast should be the shift to electric. We saw Ferrari first say in 2022 that by 2030 you want 40% of your cars to be electric. You have subsequently revised it downwards. Could you walk us through not just Ferrari's, but the broader car industry's reckoning with this change in the powertrain?

We never gave a number about the cars we are going to sell. We gave the split of the products we offer. We said the split of our offers would be 20:40:40-20 ICE, 40 hybrids and 40 electric. And it became 40:40:20.

You have spent your career in an industry where technology...

Yeah, it is changing fast. High tech and luxury are different. In high tech, the past is a burden. In luxury, it's your greatest asset. You need to put together the heritage, the tradition and the innovation. I worked for 25 years in STMicroelectronics. If you ask me how the company started, I never studied it. But if you are in Ferrari, you have to study the story. In high tech, things happen much faster than in the automo-tive world. To change the technology of simple things in a mobile phone, it took 10-15 years. How can you change in the same timeframe something in cars? One of the strategic decisions I'm mostly proud of is to push the three motorisations in parallel to address different clients.

ICE, hybrid and EV.

Exactly. And to leave the freedom of choice to the client.

But don't you have to see which tech is likely to win so that you would direct greater investments in that direction?

We have to. We saw it. But we don't have to cut with the past. We never said we would make only electric. We said we would add the electric propulsion. For us, Luce is an addition. It's not a full transition. Some cli-ents like hybrids. Some people want electric because it is more sustainable.

Ferrari is a unique company-one, because we make unique products; two, because we are inclusive and exclusive. We are inclusive with all the sport. We have a lot of fun. We are exclusive because we sell only 14,000 cars. We are unique because we do high tech-nology with handcraft. We are also unique because our clients are unique. Each client is a universe for us. We don't have categories of clients.

What is Ferrari-a luxury company, a car company, a technology company?

The best way to define Ferrari is through its purpose-to audaciously redefine the limit of possible.

Earlier when we were discussing the Luce, you said it means roshni. How did you know about roshni?

When I was here earlier in March, I was invited by a per-son named Roshni to have dinner. And then I understood Roshni means luce. Then I went to talk at IIT-Varanasi, and when I was there, I saw that another name of Varanasi is Kashi. The city of light. We were announcing in May our Luce, and we had Roshni, we had Varanasi.

For the design of Luce, you worked with Sir Jony Ive and his company. What was that partnership like?

We have been working with the company of Jony to make something unique. We need to make unique products-unique in design, in performance, in the way we address the client, in the way we use technology and craft. So it's always about using the advantage technology offers when you design a car, when you design a product

You've been driving around India. What is it like? What are our roads like?

The first time I came to India was around 2000, so I've seen the evolution of this country in the last 25 years. The progress is really remarkable. The speed at which it has happened is unique. I've been driving without any problem, honestly.

Do you drive in all the markets you are visiting?

For me, driving is a way to know the culture of that market. I have always liked driving. And I like driving a Ferrari. I heard that you are building 12,000 kilometres of highway a year. We believe now is the right time for us to increase our presence here. We are adding two dealerships. We already have three-in Bengaluru, New Delhi and Mumbai. And we are adding one in Ahmedabad...

...and one in Chennai. How is the Ferrari customer in India? What is that crowd like? How is it evolving?

There are two specific features that I have noticed. One, they are younger. Two, they enjoy and use the car. They use the car here more than in other places. I know people who are waking up early in the morning to enjoy the car, and they tell me it has the same effect as meditation.

Are you going to make more cars? Your yield per car is really growing. What's the future strategy?

Exclusivity and scarcity are two important pillars of our growth. We always want to make one car less than what the market is demanding.

Are more buyers in India repeat customers?

We have a lot of new clients here. One client told me, "You know, I am a Ferrari native client. Ferrari is the first sports car I have had in my life. I like that-Ferrari native."

What about Formula 1? India is talking about bringing Formula 1 back.

I know there are some discussions to bring it back here.

Give us a flavour of how you run the company. What percentage of your time does it take?

The company is not done by one man. There is a team behind that. I have the opportunity and the luck to have a very strong team. Some of them I brought from outside. Some have been growing from inside. I have people that are responsible. It's not a one-man show.

All good leaders say that. But you must have a matrix-in a month I will devote this much time to innovation or X, Y, Z?

I don't. It doesn't work like that. I think a CEO has six responsibilities. No. 1 is to mobilise all the resources internally to execute a plan. No. 2 is to set the plan. No. 3 is to shape the culture in a way that people can give It their best. Then you have to manage the shareholders, connect with the stakeholders and, last but not the least, manage my time and my energy.

In the normal course of things, if you spend five days in a market that's not really giving you a very high degree of sales, some people might be confused, but you're very clear that this investment is needed, this is a market....

...of the future. I believe it is needed. Nothing happens without time and energy.

For innovation and in terms of automotive culture, what is the most interesting market in the world?

The world is the most interesting market. India is interesting? Yes. It is the only interesting market? No.

You talked about your team, how your key people are the most important thing. When there is a conflict between them, what's your approach?

If two people are not able to find an agreement my responsibility is to ask additional questions, expand their field of view and see how the discussion goes.

What if it is a clash of personalities and both of them are very critical to you?

Look, there is only one solution. You need to invite both of them to leave. Because teamwork is fundamental. If you have people at some level that are not able to do good teamwork, you have to invite them to leave.

Is culture one of the most critical things a CEO can....

Before starting in Ferrari, I asked several CEOs to give me some feedback, some advice. One told me, Benedetto, pay attention that the impact you may have on the culture is much bigger than you believe. And it's true.

You think that happens by people observing you, what you are doing.

For sure, there are people observing you, the simple things you do, the way you park the car. But it's the way you behave the consistency between what you say and what you do. If there is a gap, it is a problem.

You need to practise what you preach.

Walk the talk.

You said you learn about the culture of a country by driving on its roads. What did you learn about India?

Despite not having very codified rules, people here are able to drive well. There are some countries where you need to tell the driver exactly what to do. Let's put it this way. There are some people who need a map with all the details. There are other cultures for which a compass is more than enough. I believe India is more on the compass side. If I have to go north, I see where the sun is and I go. I don't need to know all the dimensions.

That's beautifully put, Benedetto, it's been such a pleasure chatting with you.

Thank you. And the next time you come to Florence, come a little bit north.