GENOA – Stassi Anastassov does not seem particularly interested in conventional corporate talking points. Aboard the Pershing 6X, where we met him at the Genoa International Boat Show, Ferretti Group’s Global CEO discusses customers, brands, the market and governance with a highly pragmatic approach: he distinguishes between what the company can control and what it can merely observe, focusing his attention firmly on the former. He takes the same approach when the conversation turns to The Italian Sea Group, a dossier he confirms is currently under evaluation, immediately shifting the focus from a potential acquisition to the ability to manage what comes afterwards. Because, as he puts it, “in an acquisition, winning the bid does not mean you have truly won.”

PressMare - Mr Anastassov, which principles from your management culture do you believe can be transferred to the yachting industry, and what are the specific characteristics of such a distinctive business?

Stassi Anastassov - The first thing is the numbers. We do not sell 250,000 boats; we sell around 250 a year. I come from a corporate culture where we used to say, almost jokingly, “consumer is boss”. Here, I would say “owner is boss”: the owner is in charge. I believe there are few industries where this principle matters more.

If someone comes to us because they are considering buying a yacht and wants to speak to me, I cannot tell them I do not have time simply because they are interested in a smaller boat. I am the CEO and I have to treat them with respect. Whether they want to spend one million, ten million or one hundred million, the customer is at the centre of everything we do.

With 250 customers a year, we do not get a second chance to make a good first impression, and everyone in the company needs to have that mindset. Every detail matters, from the way we welcome a customer and offer them an espresso to how we accompany them, show them our boats and discuss their options. They need to feel special, and our job is to put them in the best possible position to make an informed decision.

Sometimes I surprise people because I might say: “A competitor makes a boat that I think is very good; perhaps you should go and see it and compare it with ours.” My role is to behave properly, both as a person and as a CEO, and to offer a balanced view. The relationship with an owner is a long-term one. If I sell a house, I may never see the buyer again after the transaction. But if you buy a yacht from us, I know we will meet many more times. That is a huge difference.

PM - Particularly because a boat can have problems…

SA - Exactly, and that is another important point. A yacht is not a Birkin bag. What we do is much closer to building a house. I have built several houses, and there has always been some kind of problem. That is normal, because building a house is a complex process.

Building one of our yachts, or a CRN, is even more complex. That “house” also has to navigate, be watertight and efficient, have the right stabilisers and safely handle demanding sea and weather conditions. Nobody can expect a boat to be delivered and never experience an issue.

So the point is not to build a boat on which a problem will never occur. It is to solve that problem, when it arises, so quickly and so well that the owner can say: “Thank goodness I bought this yacht from Ferretti Group.” There will always be challenges, because putting together systems of this complexity inevitably involves them. What makes the difference is how we deal with those challenges.

PM - Why do you think the shareholders chose you to lead Ferretti Group? And what ultimately persuaded you to accept the role?

SA - I can only imagine what they saw in me, because not many people usually come to me to say nice things; normally, they come to me with problems. First of all, I think they were looking for experience. This is a complex business: the customers are complex, the shareholders are complex and the regulations are complex. I do not necessarily think this is a job for a 35-year-old CEO who is racing ahead with his career. To manage such a multifaceted situation, you also need a few grey hairs, like mine.

The second factor, I believe, is the ability to understand different cultures, not only those of our customers but also those of our shareholders. Our board includes Czech, Chinese and Middle Eastern shareholders. Managing an environment like this without a strong degree of cultural awareness would be very difficult, because culture and background matter.

Finally, I have had around forty years to prove that I can deliver results. So I would say there are three things: experience, the ability to navigate different cultures and a proven track record of results. And then there is one more characteristic: I do not give up. Ever.

I accepted because I love these brands, I love challenges and it is a great honour to be part of this environment. I also have enormous admiration for Italy. Right here at the Genoa Boat Show, I met Giorgia Meloni and told her that, regardless of anyone’s political views, leadership and stability are things that cannot be taken away. Today, Italy is back on the world map in a very different way from what it had been for a long time. It is a great time to be Italian.

PM - Ferretti Group comprises seven brands. How far should industrial, technological and organisational synergies go without diluting what makes each brand unique?

SA - We need absolute, almost brutal, clarity about what each brand stands for. I do not believe brands can be differentiated simply through cosmetic elements. It would make no sense, for example, to take this Pershing and turn it into a Riva simply by changing the interiors while leaving everything else the same. The same applies to Itama.

We need to know precisely what makes each brand unique and what customers expect from it. At the same time, we need to identify those areas that do not affect the perception or performance of the brand and, in those areas, leverage the scale of the Group. We cannot find ourselves with no cost advantage over smaller operators simply because we are fragmented internally.

Purchasing and manufacturing are therefore crucial areas: we need to understand where we must differentiate and where we can adopt common solutions, while fully preserving the identity of each brand.

PM - How do you intend to find that balance?

SA - I work on it every day. It is the first thing I think about every morning: how can we make our brands stronger while, at the same time, creating greater synergies between them? That is the tension we have to manage. It is not easy.

PM - Which indicators do you personally monitor to understand where demand is really heading, and where do you see the strongest growth opportunities today?

SA - Perhaps it comes from my background, but I do not pay that much attention to sales statistics. I mainly look at the economy and the stock markets, because they are among the main indicators of new wealth creation. When financial markets perform well, wealth is created, and our job is to capture that wealth and bring new customers into yachting.

I also look at geopolitics, but I tend to regard it as a temporary factor. When someone tells me the market is difficult, I smile: our job is to convince more people to come to us.

PM - And how do you assess the market at this stage?

SA - I see it as relatively stable. I do not see any reason to expect major changes, and I do not see a declining market. But I believe the most important thing we can do is work on ourselves. And when I say become better, I do not mean better than Sanlorenzo or better than Azimut. I mean better internally. If we achieve that, we will be able to compete with Dutch, German, Italian and Turkish builders, and everyone else.

I try to focus on my “areas of influence” and worry less about my “areas of concern”. The economy, wars and other external factors belong to the latter category: we cannot control them. What I can do is make sure that, the next time we meet, Ferretti Group is an even better company. I call it moving from “good to great”.

PM - Your appointment came after a highly contested confrontation between shareholders, and some of the resolutions adopted by the shareholders’ meeting are still being challenged. Leaving the legal aspects aside, what would you say to a major shareholder who did not support the current governance structure? And how do you lead the company in the interests of all shareholders?

SA - My objective is very simple: to lead the company in such a way that, if tomorrow I fell overboard from this beautiful Pershing and somebody had to replace me, the first thing the new CEO would say should be: “I want to continue doing what Stassi Anastassov was doing.”

It does not matter who owns the company, who holds the majority or who sits on the board. The areas I am working on — brands, quality of sales, owner focus, organisation and corporate culture — are priorities that any shareholder and any CEO should address.

Secondly, I make no distinction between shareholders. If a shareholder with 3% calls me and wants to meet, I meet them; if a shareholder with 5% asks the same, I do exactly the same. We are running a listed company, and a listed company is governed by a board of directors. Ours includes people of great integrity and standing, with backgrounds in academia and international finance. Governance must work in the interests of the company and all its shareholders.

Sometimes, when I read newspapers and magazines, I am surprised that some fundamental principles of governance or industrial management do not seem to be understood, for example when people talk about relocating production. These are enormous decisions that require five or ten years of planning.

We have seven shipyards, all of them in Italy, more than 2,000 employees and almost 3,000 people working in our supply chain. We have helped develop and train many of our suppliers and contractors. We do not make T-shirts, where you can decide to manufacture in China today, Vietnam tomorrow and India the day after. The yachting industry does not work that way. When I read certain accounts of what could supposedly be done, I think that either those writing them do not fully understand this industry or, despite understanding it, have other reasons for supporting those arguments.

PM - A question about The Italian Sea Group. It has been reported that Ferretti Group may be interested. What kind of interest could there actually be?

SA - It is both a very easy and a very difficult question. The easy part is this: no reasonable person could look at The Italian Sea Group without recognising what has been achieved. It is a fantastic achievement built by Costantino, and it is sad to see the company in the situation it is in today, particularly considering how quickly it reached this point.

Then there is the difficult part. What are you actually buying? How do you intend to solve the problems? What kind of company has the financial and organisational capabilities, as well as the shareholder and governance structure, required to deal with a situation of this kind? These are questions that any potential buyer needs to ask.

It is easy to be attracted by the positive aspects of a company, but you need to assess very carefully everything that the transaction entails. And that is exactly the process I am going through: I am evaluating the situation and what could happen.

In an acquisition, winning the bid does not mean you have truly won. Buying a company can be relatively straightforward: you go to a bank, secure the funding and complete the transaction. But success can only be measured several years later, when you have demonstrated that you have been able to integrate and manage what you acquired.

PM - How are your relations with the other Italian yacht builders?

SA - Excellent.

PM - And with Confindustria Nautica?

SA - Absolutely excellent. I am very open and collaborative. I have met the key players in the industry and I am always willing to work together in the interests of the industry as a whole.

I always say that my job is not to fight my competitors; my job is to go to market. I would be very happy if I could help grow the market and, at the same time, my competitors became more successful too. As long as I secure a fair share of that market, in the end we all win.