Gianni Agnelli
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What could be more obvious than to start the second Fiat book about the period after the Second World War until today (2024) with Gianni Agnelli. After all, he successfully managed the company for a long time and
successfully represented the Agnelli family.
The grandfather died in 1945, when the fate of his life's work had not yet been finally decided. At least he had already made arrangements for his successor and probably also considered the 23-year-old Gianni to be too
young yet.
Having just turned 24, he quickly and painlessly agreed with the appointed administrator Vittorio Valletta that he should continue to run the company. Apparently even his grandfather gave Gianni the tip to enjoy life a little bit
first.
At the time, Gianni Agnelli was described almost exclusively as a playboy who had nothing else to do than spend his annual income of around one million dollars. There was probably even some truth to the image of a party
animal. But it is just inadequate that he is denied any talent.
There is perhaps a parallel, namely Gunter Sachs, the heir to the well-known ball bearing factory, for example. He was also said to have had a similar life. After his suicide, it turned out that he had been extremely successful
as a gallery owner.
Back to Agnelli. He was always an oddball, but interesting enough for John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline, among others. And of course he had other prominent friends. As expected, he was also a ladies' favorite.
What was forgotten to mention is that he had already completed a law degree at the time and was deputy for Valletta and president of the ball bearing factory in parts of the Fiat empire. And traditionally, as Agnelli, he was the
boss of Juventus Turin for 20 years, considerably longer than his son Edoardo later did.
After all, he was the head of the family as one of seven children, his mother was always fighting with his grandfather about custody, and had just died in an accident, as had his father much earlier. Speaking of sons, he
married Princess Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto in 1953.
We have already mentioned in the book Fiat 1 the good relationship with his sister Susanna, who despite having six children had a considerable political career, reaching the post of Foreign Minister. The Agnellis can
certainly be described as a ruling elite, but not far from achievements.
If you want to know more about the Agnellis, we can recommend the translated book about this family by Vito Avantario, from which we also get a lot of our wisdom. It also describes the confusing political situation in Italy up
to almost the present day, which we will not concern ourselves with here.
When Valletta finally resigned as president in 1966 and Gianni Agnelli took over, it became clear how wisely he had acted for his own benefit. Valletta only lived for another year. He had led the company through an incredible
number of challenges and made it more successful than ever.
He seems to have been regularly informed by Valletta about the situation at Fiat. In 1962 he travelled with him to the USA, primarily as a translator. But it was also Kennedy's time as president. At least the USA's concerns
about the construction of a car factory in Togliattigrad (USSR) could be allayed.
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