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John Elkann

Executive Chairman, Ferrari

Search every verified John Elkann interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In an August 2026 episode of the Vento Meets podcast, John Elkann discussed his views on entrepreneurship and leadership, drawing on his experience as CEO of Exor and chairman of Ferrari and Stellantis. He reflected on the advantages of starting a career with limited experience, stating that being comfortable with uncertainty at a young age allowed him to focus on problem-solving and learning from more seasoned colleagues. Elkann also emphasized the importance of conviction in business, saying that founders need a strong belief in their work, their collaborators, and their purpose to endure the frequent self-doubt that comes with building a company. Elkann also commented on the changing landscape of entrepreneurship, arguing that the declining cost of code and the global reach of AI tools have shifted competitive advantages toward creativity, taste, and judgment rather than technical engineering capacity. He suggested this trend could benefit Italian founders by reducing the need to relocate to traditional tech hubs like Silicon Valley. The podcast appearance followed his 2023 founding of the investment firm Lingotto and his 2025 appointment to Meta's board of directors.

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“The fundamentals of the business. And of course, as entrepreneurs, you're focused on the fundamentals of the business. The stock price is an output, an ultimate output that you actually have very little control over. Benjamin Graham the great investor is famous for saying in the short term the stock market is a voting machine in the long term it's a weighing machine and so as founders and entrepreneurs and business p”

“If you take the biggest car markets in the world, China in 2025 will be bigger than Europe and the US combined; the industry is becoming multi‑regional, and leading a car company today means understanding and operating across those markets.”

“If you look at the regulation we're going to face from now to 2030, 120 new regulations are coming in; more than 25% of our engineers just work on compliance with no value added, and regulation‑driven cost increases have made cars much heavier — which is not good for the environment — so we need smart regulation.”

“I produttori automobilistici europei stanno affrontando uno svantaggio strutturale rispetto ai loro concorrenti cinesi pari al 40% del costo manufatturiero complessivo, in particolare i prezzi dell'energia di paesi produttori di auto europei risultano cinque volte più alti di quelli cinesi.”

“Se non ci fosse oggi Stellantis non saremo qui perché l'auto italiana sarebbe già scomparsa da tempo come l'informatica dopo l'Olivetti o la chimica dopo la Montedison.”

“I produttori automobilistici europei stanno affrontando uno svantaggio strutturale rispetto ai loro concorrenti cinesi pari al 40% del costo manufatturiero complessivo, in particolare i prezzi dell'energia di paesi produttori di auto europei risultano cinque volte più alti di quelli cinesi.”

Other executives at Ferrari

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