HR leading by example during Zegna transformation

Purpose – When Ermenegildo Zegna's senior management team decided to transform the organization into a performance‐oriented culture, the decision was made to start with the HR function. The purpose of this paper is to outline the challenges they met and how they were overcome. Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses Ermenegildo Zegna as a case study of how to transform an organization into a performance‐oriented culture. Findings – The move from transactional to strategic HR is not a one‐off, closed‐ended process. HR must keep ahead of the changes and needs to always be thinking of new ideas and new attitudes and to keep pushing forward. Originality/value – The paper examines Ermenegildo Zegna's process of transformation.