About Diego Della Valle: Diego Della Valle is the President and CEO of the Italian leather goods company, Tod's.
Italian style is a natural attitude. It is about a life of good taste. It doesn't have to be expensive. Simple but with good taste. Luxury is possible to buy. Good taste is not.
Tod's customers - whatever their nationality - want the very best things in life.
I come from a family with a long tradition in shoemaking, and I still live in a region famous for its shoemakers. It is getting harder and harder to find skilled workers. There are no professional training institutes, so we have to train our own empl...
I worked in the family business, which was my father's shoe making company that he had inherited from his father, and that led me to become interested in what could be achieved by a great Italian brand. That became my ambition as a young man.
My father wasn't absolutely delighted. He wanted me to become a lawyer. I studied law, but I thought the shoe business was more exciting.
You have to be serious-minded in business, but not take yourself seriously.
Image is something you construct, while reputation starts at home. If you are able to pass on solid values to your children, then they can become citizens of the world.
My father taught me respect for quality as well as a sense of dignity - great values as we face a world going in a different direction. I try to teach my children to stay close to the real things.
I grew up watching my father work, and learning from him what good quality is. I took from him the passion to create beautiful and exclusive products. He also taught me to persevere if I want to reach my goals.
I hope I will be remembered as a good father and a fair employer. And a good host, of course!
Businessmen should not put their finger in politics, because they tend to think only of their own self-interest. But I worry about the low morale in Italian industry and the lack of government initiatives to help the poor.
I was born and I live in a small village, where the centre of life is the square, and the small bar/cafe.
When it is possible, I choose to have a quiet life.
When you work too much, you are boring - that is possible. But to have a happy life, if you can do several things in the correct way, that is perfect.
You try to be young, maybe you like to have a few toys, but it's not the most important thing in life.
I love and admire the American culture and the American dream. I learnt so many things about the American shoe industry and marketing strategies. I caught the secrets of American casual wear, that is elegant and wearable, retro and modern, and mixed ...
Put a compass to paper and trace a circle. Then tell me which other country has such a concentration of places like Amalfi, Naples, Ischia, Procida, Sorrento, Positano, Pompeii, and Capri.
I remember perfectly my first trip to New York, when I was on the bridge between Brooklyn and Manhattan, when I saw the skyscrapers. It was like an incredible dream.
I need to have a quick wardrobe. Two or three blazers with dark gray pants, two pairs of jeans, two light blue shirts, a casual shirt, two pairs of shoes, one formal one not. Small accessories like Tod's Greca belt and our woven bracelets for a wild ...
Of course China is an important new market for Tod's, and of course we need to succeed commercially. But I believe the way to do that is not to aim to deliver results in the short term by thoughtless expansion, but instead to explain to the Chinese p...
