始建于13世纪的Spini Feroni大宅，是Salvatore Ferragamo名鞋帝国的总部，这座建筑令人叹为观止。无数挂毯与绘画点缀着它的高顶房间。它是佛罗伦萨的地标性建筑，游客们安静的臣服在它的庄严之下。
但是在Ferruccio Ferragamo ——集团董事长兼Salvatore Ferragamo的长子——的记忆中，半个多世纪前的这里没有如此的奢华，还多了一些吵闹。
1. 继承Salvatore Ferragamo的血脉
「我小的时候，隔壁就是皮匠们做鞋的房间。」他指向如今的几个小客厅之一。「我仍记得那种悦耳的声音。那是用锤子敲打包在皮革下鞋楦所发出的独特声音。那是流淌在血液里的音乐。」
血脉对于Ferragamo家族而言十分重要。正是鞋与血缘的结合造就了这个「部落」（家族成员们喜欢如此称呼它），世界上最知名的商业帝国之一。
Salvatore Ferragamo品牌因其蝴蝶结芭蕾鞋闻名，去年年收入超過13亿欧元。公司三分之一的股份在米兰股票交易所上市，而公司大部分的股票仍保留在 Salvatore Ferragamo——这个来自南部拿波里的鞋匠——超过70名的后人手中。上世纪20年代， Salvatore Ferragamo 在好莱坞名声鹊起，成名时还不满 20岁。
这是一个非常独特的白手起家的故事。1927年Ferragamo回到意大利时，这种柔软而时尚的鞋令他十分出名，以至于像Judy Garland（朱迪·加兰）、Marilyn Monroe（玛丽莲·梦露）和Sophia Loren（索非娅·罗兰）这样的明星都来寻求私人定制。他甚至能够买下整个Spini Feroni大宅，不过一开始还不得不出租大部分的楼层用来帮助支付月供。
Ferruccio Ferragamo还是个小男孩时，每次听到父亲要去参加Audrey Hepburn（奥黛丽·赫本）或某地女王的活动时，都会被深深触动。
2. 因悲剧强大的家族
但在时尚传奇的背后，Ferragamo的故事揭示了如何让第二代，第三代和第四代子孙团结一心，将祖先的才智转变成为全球化业务。当1960年Salvatore Ferragamo突然过早去世时，他因其发明的软木楔形鞋和钢骨高跟鞋而闻名，但是这家公司每天仅生产80双鞋。他的遗孀Wanda Miletti只有38岁，并育有6个从2岁到17岁的孩子。14岁的Ferruccio Ferragamo记得那段悲剧时期，「那是公司危机，父亲是一个富有创造力的天才，但公司实际上就是父亲的个人事业。」
「他去世后，我们认为一切都结束了；但相反，我认为我们因为这次悲剧而变得更强大，更团结了。我的母亲——我不知道她是怎样有了这么多的精力。我们不仅只生产鞋，我们还生产孩子，因此现在我们有了一个非常大的公司。」他补充道。
69岁的Ferragamo先生将公司的成功部分归功于父亲的创新（他申请了350项鞋样专利）——公司档案屋中 14,000个不同款式的鞋样图纸——和一群忠实的外聘经理。Ferragamo的业务范围从女士和男士鞋子到服装、手包、丝巾和领带。
但他承认，企业的核心仍是他母亲，母亲是整个家庭背后的原动力。在谈话中，Ferragamo先生语调温和风度翩翩，经常提到他的母亲。「她是家族第二位先锋」他说道。当2011年7月公司三分之一的股份在米兰股票交易所上市时，他登台和母亲拥抱，而母亲擦干眼泪说她是如此为她家人的成就所自豪。
Ferragamo先生说，一开始他认为这并不公平，因为自己承担了更多的责任。但是最终他意识到，这样明确的规定有助于公司的蓬勃发展。
3.打破「富不过三代」的诅咒
这一规定已经延续到了第三代——管理学表明家族企业通常到了这一代就会没落。最多三名第三代Ferragamo家族成员可以在企业中工作，并且需要证明他们能够胜任并足够优秀。
「我们设定这条规定是因为我们看见了太多公司因为家庭的分裂而倒闭，」他说道。「从我的孩子们还小的时候，我就经常告诉他们，我会将公司的利益放在第一位而不是他们自己的直接利益。因为公司的利益就是他们的利益，但如果我将他们的利益放在第一位，我有可能会毁了公司。」
Michele Norsa早先在另一个家族企业Marzotto任职，2006年来到这里任职首席执行官并进行首次公开募股。对外部人员的招聘也是公司长期生存计划的一部分。Salvatore Ferragamo的股票价值从2011年上市以来已经翻番。由第二代兄弟姐妹所拥有的控股公司拥有上市公司56%的股份。而所持股份不得出售——至少在这一代——所有家族成员可以在公司内部自由出售自己的股份。
尽管如此，Ferragamo承认爱马仕家族的经历——LVMH在未经这个家族获悉或同意的情况下购买了23%的股权——是非常值得关注的问题。「我们希望避免他人进入公司，巧取豪夺。」他说道。
随着他们财富的增长，他们的业务兴趣也更加广泛。Ferragamo先生和他的弟弟Massimo（Ferragamo美国公司董事长）都在托斯卡纳、Il Borro 和Castiglion del Bosco 拥有巨额不动产，都是豪华度假村和葡萄酒庄园。每年，整个家庭都会在 Il Borro聚会洽谈业务。
「如果我没有生活在意大利，我将会住在美国。」他的弟弟Massimo绝不会离开美国回到意大利。「他的孩子经常说：『我们什么时候回家？』而他说：『絕对不行』。」他笑着说道。
金融界人士认为，当下一代掌权后，公司将不可避免面临被全面收购的命运。
James Ferragamo是Ferragamo先生双胞胎儿子的其中一位，在女士皮革产品部门工作，即将带领家族的第三代进入高级管理层。他希望自己的儿子接替自己的董事长职位吗？「如果这对于公司来说是正确的。如果不是，那我更希望他是一个富有的股东，而不是一个差劲的董事长。」
英文原文如下：
Palazzo Spini Feroni, the 13th-century headquarters of the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe dynasty, is a showstopper. Rich tapestries and paintings dress the walls of its high-ceilinged rooms. A landmark in Florence, its grandeur invariably reduces visitors to a hushed silence.
Yet Ferruccio Ferragamo, the chairman of the group and firstborn son of shoemaker to the stars Salvatore Ferragamo, remembers it in less opulent – and noisier – days more than half a century ago.
“When I was little, in the next room cobblers were making shoes,” he says tilting his head towards what is today one of several drawing rooms. “I can remember that lovely sound. It is a unique sound of a wooden last covered in leather, with a hammer tapping on top. It is musical, it gets in the blood.”
Blood is no small matter for the Ferragamo family. Shoes and blood ties have made this tribe, as its members like to call it, one of the world’s best known business dynasties.
Salvatore Ferragamo, the brand known for its bow-tied ballerina shoes, had revenues last year of €1.3bn and as of December had 620 stores worldwide. A third of its shares are listed on the stock exchange in Milan, while the majority of the company remains owned by more than 70 descendants of the shoemaker from Naples who made it big in 1920s Hollywood at barely 20 years old.
As a rags-to-riches story it has few equals. By the time Ferragamo returned to Italy in 1927 he had become so famous for his supple, stylish shoes that later stars such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren came for personal fittings. He was even able to buy Palazzo Spini Feroni, initially renting out most of the floors to help fund the monthly payments.
Ferruccio Ferragamo, then a young boy, says he was always “impressed to hear my father was attending Audrey Hepburn or a queen of somewhere”.
But behind the fashion legend, the Ferragamo story is a study in how a second, third and fourth generation of descendants stuck together to turn their ancestor’s talent into a global business.
When Salvatore Ferragamo died suddenly and prematurely in 1960, he was famous for inventing the cork wedge and the steel-reinforced stiletto heel, but the company was making just 80 pairs of shoes a day. His widow, Wanda Miletti, was only 38 years old with six children aged from 17 to two. Ferruccio Ferragamo, who was 14 years old, remembers the period as “a tragedy, it was a crisis for the company, he was a creative genius and it was a one-man company.
“When he was gone, we thought everything was gone; instead I think we got stronger, we got very united by the tragedy,” he says.
“My mother – I don’t know where she found it but she found a lot of energy. And we didn’t just produce shoes we produced children, so now we have a very large company,” he adds.
Mr Ferragamo, 69, puts the success of the company down partly to the innovation of his father, who filed more than 350 patents on shoe design, – the company archive houses drawings of 14,000 different shoe styles – and a group of “faithful” external managers. The Ferragamo business now ranges from women’s and men’s shoes to clothing, handbags, scarves and ties.
But he admits that at the centre of the business remains his mother, who has been the driving force behind the family. In conversation Mr Ferragamo, who is softly spoken despite his princely mien, refers frequently to her. “She was a second pioneer,” he says. When the company listed a third of its shares on the Milan stock exchange in July 2011, Mr Ferragamo stepped on stage to hug his mother as she wiped away tears, talking of how proud she was of her family’s achievement.
At the insistence of Signora Wanda – as the formidable Ms Ferragamo, now 93, is universally known – all family members are paid the same, and have the same portion of company shares.
Mr Ferragamo says at first he thought “it was very unfair as I had more responsibility”. But ultimately, he realised clear rules would help the company to thrive.
The rules have extended into the third generation – where management studies show family dynasties typically fail. A maximum of three Ferragamo family members from the third generation are allowed to work in the business, and only if they have proved they are asuitable fit and well enough qualified.
“We put the rules [in] because without them, we’ve seen many examples of companies where the family fell apart and they ended up selling,” he says. “I have always told my children, since they were very young, I will always put the interest of the company first, not their immediate interest. Because by acting in the interests of the company it will be in their interest, but if I put their interests first I may ruin the company.”
Michele Norsa, previously at another family group Marzotto, was brought in as chief executive in 2006 to carry out an initial public offering. The hiring of an outsider was part of the plan for long-term survival. Salvatore Ferragamo’s shares have doubled in value since the 2011 listing.
A holding company owned by the siblings of the second generation holds 56 per cent of the shares in the listed company. While shares from the holding cannot be sold – at least in this generation – all family members are free to sell their shares in the listed company.
Nonetheless, Mr Ferragamo admits the experience of the families behind the Hermès luxury brand – where LVMH bought a 23 per cent stake without the family’s knowledge or consent – is very much a concern. “We want to avoid the condition when someone can step into your company, or steal it or take it away,” he says.
As their wealth has grown so have their business interests. Mr Ferragamo and his brother Massimo, chairman of Ferragamo USA, both own vast estates in Tuscany, Il Borro and Castiglion del Bosco, which are luxury resorts and vineyards. Each year the entire family gathers at Il Borro to discuss the business.
His father’s fervour for the US still burns bright. Even though Asia Pacific is its biggest market, Mr Ferragamo calls the US, which makes up a fifth of Ferragamo’s sales, as “our second home town”.
“If I didn’t live in Italy I would live in the US,” he says. He adds that his brother Massimo would never leave the US to return to Italy. “His children are always saying, ‘when are we going back home?’ And he says, ‘no way’,” he adds with a smile.
And what about his own children? Bankers consider the company could be ripe for takeover when the next generation assumes power in spite of all the efforts by Salvatore Ferragamo’s widow and her children to ringfence the group.
James Ferragamo, one of Mr Ferragamo’s twin sons, who works in the women’s leather products division of the business, is tipped to lead the family’s third generation into senior management. Would he like his son to succeed him as chairman? “If it is the right thing for the company. If it is not, I prefer he was a rich shareholder than a poor chairman.”