On  November 26 2016 Giuseppe Recchi, Executive President of  TIM was guest at L4T – Leader for Talent –  a series of meetings aimed for Specialized Masters Students. This insight was written by Giuseppe D’Auria, student of the Master in International Management.

Sustainability and impact on society is the common denominator which can be found in Giuseppe Recchi’s career, being an example and a source of inspiration. For a student who is attending an intense university program to become a future executive manager, meeting Giuseppe Recchi means  understanding  that if you want to be a leader you need to foster relations with people part of a company and know its history and work . You need to be able to interpret  changes  in order to understand the necessary investments so as to contribute to relevant transformation. To undertake such a role you need to be ready to aim for something that goes beyond individual success but can involve people singularly, starting from the corporate community to the entire country.

For a leader the growth of a company is connected to individual growth.  Right from the very beginning since his experience in General Electric  in 1999, Giuseppe Recchi supports horizontal growth. Thanks to a yearly competition among the 50 best employees, through which  people of the company, could even temporarily, take on a different role as an opportunity to diversify skills and face different types of issues and promote a new problem solving approach. A virtuous new model which can generate know how that together with meritocracy can produce real improvement of the quality of life in a company so as to encourage successful people to stay and be part of it.

Behind such a success story, there is the idea that innovation stems from personal history and therefore one must not be afraid to work in different fields.  The engine to growth  is simple but also multi-faceting: the ability focus in situations that are different from the usual ones,  develop emotional intelligence and the key ability to adapt to create new opportunities of growth for future corporate leaders.

Innovation and transformation  are the guidelines of a business model, they carry on the personal paths and with them the company’s heritage. A story which the leader can tell passionately motivating and transmitting the vision that true welfare is such if shared, creating a positive environment,  orientated towards sustainability  for everyone. A goal that could not be met without respect for rules and ethics, not giving in to the common mind frame which identifies leadership as the result of careerism and utilitarianism.

The years spent as President of ENI– the second youngest after its founder Enrico Mattei– the ones known for the most relevant challenges from an ethical point of view, concerning the difficulties  that emerging countries have to face in order to benefit from energy. A role and at the same time an opportunity like no other  to favor the strategic development and growth  of the country and company. Since 2014 his mission continues as President of Telecom Italia, leader of the company which intends to guide the digital transformation of our country. The quality and amount of investments carried out in time  have reinforced the company in such a  way to pursue this ambitious task and protect it from competitors and widen its strategic vision. It is  not only a supplier of the infrastructure network and IT services, but also instruments and digital know how, becoming the engine for the development of the country: an ability that goes back to a long term perspective part of leadership. Telecom Italia offers a lot insights on how technological evolution is radically changing the way to interpret the working and social world: drivers  such as processes more “on the way” in order to benefit from contents, the culture “always –on” represents ways for increasing sales and developing the company, even as a ratio  for strategic decisions  and for the organizational chart  of the company: have a team vision, is what permits TIM to evolve and see itself as “the home for technology”

 Giuseppe Recchi’s advice to future Leaders:

1. Don’t ever stop wanting to learn,  be curious and open to new experiences.
2. It is crucial to critically look at  other people’s skills and abilities and see in them a milestone for growth.
3.  You must not forget that being a leader means being a mentor for others.
4. The type of career chosen is important as much as being efficient and performing in a role or in a field.
5. A leader is “the person who can make ordinary people do extraordinary things” being a leader means being able to encourage passion and commitment in others.
6. A successful leader aspires to be a positive model.
7. Experience is a unique asset: which needs to be inspired by a model.
8. The strong minded character and the scientific approach within a company have given way to concepts such the central role of stakeholders and their positive experience: it is important to never look back.

The L4T meeting was a success both as a learning experience and as an event itself: it was not only interesting but also an inspiring moment given the central role of the individual in all its different meanings- it gave an interpretation to the key figure of the leader- underlining that both professional and personal experiences are important in order to be successful. Success is therefore determined  by common experiences of individuals that can be personally and professionally virtuous.

(Article by Giuseppe D’Auria, student of the Master in International Management)

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21/12/2016