It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up.

Florence, a 27 years old guy uses Twitter to tell everybody he's quite annoyed because this summer he will stay home.

His name is Giuseppe Rossi; typical italian name. 

There are thousands of Giuseppe Rossi in Italy but this one is different.

He's gifted. He was born in the US, his parents being from southern Italy, and he came back to Parma when he was 12. One year later he started his career. He's a football player.

Parma, Manchester when he was 17, Newcastle, Parma again and then Villareal and Florence.

An expatriate like thousands of italians in the early 19th hundreds that had to motivate himself and always proof he was good enough to be there.

When he starts at Manchester he's playing with Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Diego Forlan, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs just to name some.

A lot to learn, a lot to fight.

But he's gifted. He's a striker and he can score. He scores a lot of goals both in his team and in the National team. In 2008 after his 1st injury, a meniscus broken, he's 21 and he's preparing for his 1st World Championship. 

That's THE EVENT. 

A player has probably the possibility to play two World cups. A good one three. 

16 players could play four editions, 2 played five.

Giuseppe is 21. He has 10 years at least in front of him. 10 years are 3 World Cups.

But Marcello Lippi, a semi-god after he won the 2006 edition, decides it's not his time yet. 

He stays home and Italy comes quickly back from South Aftica after one of the worst world cup ever for the team.

For the 2012 European championship though there is a new Italy manager, Prandelli, that thinks Giuseppe must play.

He's now playing for Villareal. 32 goals in one season and he's the top scorer ever for the Yellow submarines, so is Villareal known for its yellow shirts. The first "human player" after the two aliens Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi that play for super teams though. Real and Barça.

That's what Italy needs to remember another Rossi, Paolo Rossi, that brought us to the top of the world in Spain 1982.

26/10/2011, Madrid. During Real Madrid vs Villareal a ligament of his knee breaks. 6 months out. There's still time though for the Euro Cup in Summer 2012. But the recovery will be long and tough.

Giuseppe is a strong guy though. He went around the world since he was 12 and he lost his father few months earlier. He had to do it for him.

The day after his ligament was back and now 6 months of pain. Out of the pitch for the recovery.

Winter goes by quickly and in April Giuseppe is ready again. But it's not over yet.

The 12th of April he's doing his training and... crack. Same knee, same ligament. 6 more months out.

This would have killed everybody's hope.

But Giuseppe is strong. And Fiorentina thinks he can do it and although he's still out, signs him for the 2013/2014 season.

And he's back on duty on August 2013. Goal to Catania. Then 2 goals to Genoa, 3 to Juventus and 2 to Sampdoria.

He's the usual Pepito, the nickname that was given to him when in Spain was one of the top scorers.

5th January 2014.

 

A tackle and his knee goes bad again. 4 months out.

I think that you must ask yourself why this is happening.

What "God of the football" you have insulted to make him hating you so much. Where you can find the strength to restart, again, for the 3rd time in 3 years. Always alone in a team game.

Resilience. Giuseppe has got a lot of it. And a lot of motivation.

Football world cup in Brasil is waiting for him. Football at the top level and he deserves to be there.

He's back again on May and ends the season with an impressive 16 goals in 24 games.

He's on the 30 players of the Italian team that will be shortlisted to 23.

On June 2nd the final list. Giuseppe is not there because he's not been considered ready after the last injury and he tells everybody he does not agree.

He will probably have his last chance in Russia in 2018.

Cheer up Giuseppe!!! You'll do it.

Ah... I could not run the Cortina Dobbiaco last week. 

6 months of training and 600km gone. My meniscus was broken. The little devil won but I'll try again next year. I will have much more chances than Pepito to do it.

Have a nice week end

The little devil

Just one week to the Cortina-Dobbiaco.
Just one week to the 30km that I am preparing for the last three months.
To be ready and ENJOY a great run among one of the most beautiful landscape in the world.
The "Tre cime di Lavaredo"

And the Lake of Dobbiaco

will be the great environment where I will try and finish my 1st 30km run.

These last weeks has been quite tough. Even though I traveled a lot (and I really mean A LOT) I tried to keep following the training I had to do, to be able and ready to finish the race.
Wake up calls early in the morning to go out and have my 15/18 km before breakfast or late runs have been the normal things in the last weeks. And now...
Last Sunday I had a problem on my knee that made me stop training and that is seriously threatening the possibility to run.
This is the "little devil" that became big. Veeery big.
Who's the little devil?
I call "little devil" the voice that is inside you every time you want to do something different, something bigger, something outside the "normal stuff". Every time I want to be different and to change something I have this voice that tells me... stop doing this Ale... keep on doing the good old way!

That's the feeling you have, when you're 2 km away from the end of the training. A hard one. And everything inside you says "stop, you have done enough".

Training, to me, is also if not MAINLY to be able to resist to these voices. Much more difficult to resist to temptations

The little devil is trying to leave things as they are, trying to stop you doing the extra mile.

That's valid on sports as well as on life.
This is the same voice that stop people going outside the comfort zone. To really understand what they can do and what they are. To do everything they can do (and this can be a lot!)

To make people dividing the "ME" from "I". What I must do (for example because it's my job) from what I really am. In a word, stopping people being happy because they understand what they really want to be.

But beware.
The solution is not being deaf to the little devil. Not covering his voice with other louder voices.

The solution is to learn NOT to follow the voice. Not to keep the status quo and take a step forward.

Don't stop moving forward. Don't listen to your little devil.
I hope my knee will not listen to him too

Have a nice week end

The "T" factor

This has been the "TIME" week.

Infact the time factor has popped out a lot during my recent meetings.
When discussing with one of my best distributor (and quite experienced) trying to put together an aggressive plan, he came out with a short story:
"When I worked in a family owned company, we were doing 15.000 boilers per year and we prepared a plan to increase the sales to 20.000 in two years. It was a realistic and feasible plan with some good actions and things to do.
After we presented the plan the owner said... good but not enough. I want a plan to produce 60.000 units per year. We ended up in two years producing always 15.000 boilers"

And this story immediately came back to my mind when I saw FCA (Fiat Chrisler Automobiles) plan.

Moving in 5 years from 4,4 Mil vehicles of 2013 to 7-7,5 Mil per year (2014 will be 4,5Mil vs an original plan of 5,9Mil).
Alfa moving up to 150.000 only in North America (from 70.000 in total in 2013) and Jeep up to 1,9 Mil from 732.000 in 2013.

I will not stress on the fact this is the 8th plan in 10 years and guess what... in no case the numbers were even close to the reality.

Yes, market was down. Yes, the scenario has changed but... out of the original 66 models that were planned only 32 (ish) were launched. And you know that once you start being late...

The "When" is the key issue.

Unfortunately putting together a 5 years plan, but even a 3 years plan, make you think you have plenty of time. You can fill up your days with a lot of things and everything can be achieved.
You know that a good plan is made of 1% of inspiration and 99% perspiration. So everybody must work hard on this but often you realize, after six months or one year, that you're late.

Late projects tend to make this more complex as it's not possible to speed up a process by adding people.

The development plan MUST therefore be carefully evaluated starting with the REAL availability of people and, in general, resources. And, most of all, with a CLEAR target from the beginning. This is crucial as once you start being behind schedule it's very unlikely you'll be able to close the gap. That is valid both for FCA and for much smaller companies.

CLEAR TARGETS: who the company want to be
CLEAR DIRECTIONS: what the company needs to reach the targets
CLEAR PLANS: when things must happen and with which results
CLEAR RESPONSIBILITIES: who's going to make it
CLEAR CHECK POINTS: when and what should happen in between

Will also this FCA fail? I don't know. Certainly mr.Marchionne's record is not exceptionally good and I sincerely hope that this will finally work.

What I know for sure is that.
Guess who's suffering the most from things being late... SALES!
Sales development, unless it's driven only by a coverage of uncovered markets (but also in this case a ramp up phase is required), it is just the final part of a more complex activity.
Being the last part it often suffer the delays of the previous activities and, unfortunately, it will not recover the time that it's lost and it's suffering even more as the infrastructure that is supposed to help is not supporting properly.

Have a nice week end

Three hours alone

In this paperless society I am still quite old style.

Looking at my desk I am always feeling guilty for the amount of trees that have been chopped to make the incredible amount of paper that I am using.
But I strongly believe that this is the Paper 2.0 society.
We have to use pencil and paper to clean our mind and write down our ideas. And we have to use paper to print books, especially good ones.
I know, I know... you may say I am so old since today tablets and E-books are there to avoid this but I cannot resist. In a book shop I need to see the book, to feel it, to open some pages and to buy it.
And again this happened this week when, waiting for a colleague of mine in a shopping center, I had the bad idea to enter into a shop.
I came out with four books that now I need to read.
The first one I bought is from Pietro Trabucchi. This is the second book from this psychologist, athlete, professor, writer (and I am sure I forgot something) that is following mostly sports linked to physical resistance: Marathons, Ultra-marathons, Cross country ski.

He is studying the effect of the resilience, of the capability of resist to stress in people that are apparently not gifted with extraordinary physical features but that can do extraordinary things.
I already briefly spoke about him in my Persevere blog.

The type of people we are talking about are Bruno Brunod or Kilian Burgada.

Resilience is the word and to explain it well I think that we must look at its roots.
It comes from the Latin "resalio". This word meant to try and go back into the boat after you have been thrown into the see. This effort to overtake the panic, the stress and go back into the boat is what we should try and improve. Because the good thing is that we can improve that and human beings were born with this capability.

BUT, what made me really thinking, was a brief interview to Bruno Brunod that was quoted in this book (Resisto dunque sono, in Italian unfortunately) that I would like to translate. Clearly I will not be able to pass some of the "italian small details" but also the original version was quite straight forward and simple.

"My mother grew me and other 4 children alone. Since my mother had cattle, we lived above Chatillon in the Zerbion mountain. In our home we had plastic on the windows since glass was too expensive. Until I was 8 (he was born in 1962) I lived without electricity. I was going to school, but I liked staying alone.... I was with the cattle when I read an old newspaper talking about Coppi and Bartali. I was shocked. I decided I had to be a champion as well so I went to the village and bought a bicycle. They screwed me though because they gave me something old and heavy. I realized this afterwards: I started immediately training alone. My basic training was to have a bag with bricks on my back and go up from Chatillon until the end of the road. Then waking to the top part where the cows were... Now many people would like to take the merits of my performances. I think that it comes from my life. Hard but happy. I read that Socrates once said "Let your children always be a little cold and a little hungry if you want them happy". Yes, Socrates said that but I do agree".

To sum up... no resilience can be trained if life is too easy and the sport environment can also help doing that beside giving clear help on the physical side.

It is for this reason and to make my life more difficult (just kidding!) that I am preparing the Cortina Dobbiaco Run.

30 kilometers in a breathtaking environment into MY mountains.

I will be needing a lot of resilience and training. But there is a quite complicated part of this kind of run that people often forget or do not take into account.
I think that the most difficult part in these long distances is to listen to your body and to the signs it will give you. You need to learn staying three hours alone, listening inside yourself. Listening to all the signs and giving yourself the right message to your body.

Let's see...

In the meantime, I wish you all a happy Easter.
Ciao

Quick baby quick

The latest macroeconomic data about Italy are a real disaster.

Unemployment is at its highest level since 1977, the GDP is expected to grow less than 1% and that will make Italy the slowest county in the EU28.
Looking at these numbers there is definitely no reason whatsoever to believe we will finally get out of this mud.
But... in reality Italy has got a quite strong and robust base and infrastructure. There is a number of medium small companies that are scattered throughout Italy and that are the beating heart of the country.
The potential is there. It's a quite powerful engine that must be properly managed and driven.
Yes. It must be managed.
We need a skilled driver to be able to put these companies in the right conditions to operate.
Indeed, Italy is currently exporting 3,1% of the TOTAL WORLD EXPORT value. It's among the top 10 exporting countries in the world and 3rd in Europe. It's simply a very good engine that must be well lubricated.
Infact, out of the 210.000 Italian companies that have exported in 2013 (yes, two hundred and ten thousands!!!), 85% exported less than 750kEuro.
Only 4,5% of them exported, on the other hand, more than 5 Mil. Euro. Less than 9.500 companies.

We can then say that only these companies have a proper export department, a department that has got the skills, the knowledge and the target to develop the market in all the aspects:

1) find customers
2) develop relationships
3) communicate the strategy
3) keep the customers

In reality though, although this picture clearly shows a weak point of our country, it gives also a big hope. In reality we can say that 85% of the company that export HAVE BEEN CHOSEN by their customers.
They have been found and given an opportunity thanks to their skills.
They have been invited into an existing market or created a new one although their set up was not apparently there.

The Prosecco development in Europe is a clear example since in few year it became a well known wine everywhere.

But we are talking about all the different markets, not only our "historical ones" like clothes or food.
They have been chosen because of their Technology, Flexibility, Design, Differentiation, Culture and Price.
In a word because they are Italian.
The customer has chosen them and they have skipped the first step, to find customers.
Now they just have to keep the customers and find new ones.
That's the most difficult thing and what must be written on every agenda of a sales meeting:

And today is the right moment.
Such companies have a flexibility and a speed that very few others can have.

Today is the "Economy of NOW". We are seeing more often that we are moving away from the "Big fish eats small fish" concept and entering a "Quick fish eats slow fish" as Beau Toskich (link is only in Italian, sorry) has correctly said.
These companies can be faster than the market because their structure, most of the times a family business, are normally perfect to react and have a quick execution of their plans.
We need to remember that once you realize that the market is faster than your company you're definitely in trouble.

Yesterday your idea was great
Today is ok
Tomorrow... do you have something different?
And what was innovation yesterday is today commodity.

How to increase the numbers of exporting companies? How to be able to move from being the chosen to being the main actor?
In my humble opinion they need an export department. A strategy and a vision to take control and sit behind the steering wheel.
This will be one of the investments that nobody will regret of.


This blog was created also to try and give some visibility to these 200.000 italian companies. 

A little support for this giant task.

Have a nice week

"Always pass on what you have learned." 5 good tips from Master Yoda

These days are quite hectic and full of things to do.

In this big flow of information, targets, flights and small things and with so little hours to sleep and rest I must admit I have thought about my Blog very little this week.

In reality when I woke up this morning, feeling a little bit like Sting waking up again in his clothes (sorry for this parallel that might seem a little presumption but look at this please...)

I had no idea on what to talk about this morning.

Then, a new friend of mine, saved my day. We were talking about the types of protections that men are creating to protect themselves.

Anger, Hate, Fear and Suffering.

That's quite close to what one of the characters that I loved most, used to say. Master Yoda.

I have then to pick 5 of his best quotes, the 5 that I think can give good pieces of advice to everybody.

Ah, I could not find who was the screenwriter for Yoda's part. It should be Lawrence Kasdan but I am not sure. What I am sure about is that he has created a gem on the cinema world.

1) Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

This is one of the basis of the psychology. We create an artificial shield to protect ourselves from what we fear and make us suffer. We need to understand what we are fearing and build a positive shield not to destroy but to positively channel the anger and not let the things go to the wrong direction.

In a word... Be a Jedi

2) (Luke) I can't believe it. (Yoda) That's why you fail

This idea was also taken by Guy Kawasaki on the video I posted on last week (see my Marketing in the facebook era Post)

To take step forwards you must "Believe to see" not "See to believe". Only if you fully trust on your ideas you'll reach the goal you've in mind.

3) If no mistake have you made, yet losing you are... a different game you should play

This, together with the next one, is the basic of what you need to get out of your comfort zone. It is impossible to go out of what you do, always, and make no mistake. People learn from mistakes. 

No mistake, nothing to learn. You're still in your backyard.

4) You must unlearn what you have learned

Again, that's the basic of moving to the next level. It's like if you're doing a sport since when you were a child. Nobody taught you how to do it. This happened to me with tennis. I am not a good player but I took some lessons with a master that changed some aspects of my game. I was getting worse instead of improving. Then after having practiced I became being better, and better and better.

To move on the next level you need to be prepared to do that, even if this mean to change what you've done since you were born.

5) TRY NOT. Do or do not. There is no try

This is by far my favorite. Don't be stopped by your fear of not being able to make it. The fear is just a screen that is between yourself and what you want to do.

Delete the "I'll do my best approach" and replace it with "I will do this".

That's all for today. I wish you a great Jedi week.

Ah, sorry... also the title was a quote from Yoda. Actually I found 6 good quotes and I did not want to skip one. I used that as a title but it is as important as the others.

Ciao

Marketing in the facebook era

Last week has been quite tough. I have been out for an exhibition almost the whole week and that has been exhausting.
I don't know if this is common to everybody but when I am too tired I cannot sleep.
Or, better, I find harder to fall asleep. Instead of counting the sheeps though I looked at Linkedin and Facebook and I realized that more and more people are using them as real advertisement platforms.

Have you realized how many Facebook or Linkedin posts are published in your profile everyday? How many of them have you read?
Is it a good way to promote something?

The more I see the markets developing the more I am convinced that the ONLY way is to base your company strategy on two pillars:

-Strategy is about being different.
-People don't know what they want. They will only ask for a quicker, cheaper, bigger product like the one you have or your competitor has. And do not ask the "so called experts"... they are clueless as well.

The key marketing activity for this kind of strategy is to find the 15% of innovators, normally well hidden among the other 85% of potential customers, and start trying to create the "Penny drop" moment. With all the problems and hurdles typical of such a "spread the gospel" activity.
The worst one is called Confirmation Bias.
Confirmation bias tends not to favour info that are too different from the standard behavior. You must then follow the golden rules of the old Rethoric that was well mastered by Aristotle. Reach the goal trough known milestones. Like reaching the other side of the river stepping on small stones.

When I start talking about these things I usually say that it is like people are holding you by the ankles. Don't worry, it's hard at the beginning but then you get used to that.

This is a quite selective and bespoke activity though.
How can you manage this with a massified communication like the one that is currently in internet?

How can you do that with internet that
- touch plenty of people that you can only partly select
- for very little time
- valid only if you promote business as usual

What does it mean?
Contents are diluted. They must be suitable for everybody so.. Good for none. You must remember that people of different cultures, ideas and experiences will read.
So it must be as neutral as possible.
In a world... Either you talk about something well known to everybody or you will loose the main benefit of this massified message. Touching quickly a big mass of people.

I grew then up a firm belief.

Differentiating messages cannot go through massification media. It would be like making meatballs with kobe beef.

Now I have a question for you. Do you see any chance to use internet for differentiation messages?

Today I will leave you with another TED Talks video. It's Guy Kawasaki, great man that worked with Apple and helped them developing the MAC.

Have a nice week

3 simple suggestions

After 1999 Oscar Prize won by Roberto Benigni "Life is Beautiful" (La vita è Bella), Italy won another one this year.
"The great Beauty" (La grande bellezza) managed to bring back the little golden Oscar after 15 years. In reality I am not a big Cinema fan. The last movies I watched were cartoons and I was obliged to go with my children but there's always a certain "Italian pride" when we win something regardless is a Football word championship or a friendly Curling match against Samoa Island (That, for obvious reasons, I hope we will win...).

But having a look a the two titles I think there must be a reason if in both cases the word "Beauty" is mentioned.
A movie coming from the "Bel Paese" the Beautiful Country as old poets used to call Italy winning the Oscar Prize must talk about Beauty. In whichever sense you can mean it.
Beauty of the place
Beauty of the arts
Beauty of the design
Beauty of the people
Even an ironic and often cynical showman like Jeremy Clarkson (I like him a lot though), always considered our cars and our places as among the best in the world.

I had already posted this link but I want to do it again... I am always touched when I see it.

So, being surrounded by all this Beauty, that is the normal environment for us make us losing the real importance of it.
The RESPONSIBILITY we have to preserve this and, possibly to improve it (see also my post People always get used to beauty though). This is a real responsibility, both for the country but also for the world as Italy has got the highest number of UNESCO world heritage sites.
That's part of the legacy, part of our DNA and culture that cannot be taken away unless we REALLY WANT TO.
It's our treasure that we are not fully exploiting, that we are even spoiling and ruining.

But we often do not realize that we have this incredible treasure and opportunity. We always look outside forgetting our beauty and not looking after this. "Bel Paese" is often used in ironic sense and used as an excuse to destroy everything.
STOP! Breath deeply and start looking around. Start looking outside and, with a clear and open mind, try to be objective.

THEN....
Time for the 3 points i would like to give to our colleagues managing our tourism to implement to try and go back to "beauty". It may look too simplistic but I am convinced that we should start from simple ideas and develop them.

1) COMMUNICATE!

I find incredible that in today's world, people cannot communicate in English. English has undoubtedly become THE LANGUAGE and not being able to communicate will simply cut you out of everything. If you do not tell people you exist, people will not know. And, most of all, nobody will listen to you. Everybody in Italy MUST learn English and be able to communicate.
This BLOG is the proof that, if you think you have something to say, you will find someone ready to listen.
Communication is making guest's life simple. Nobody wants to go where their life will be difficult.

2) PREPARE YOURSELF

It's like when you are dated, you must be prepared to always look GOOD and TIDY. We must have a plan to keep our treasures ok and always ready to be visited and appreciated.
Sad to say that, if we do not have the funds to do this (and I cannot really believe we do not have funds to look after what's extremely important for our country) we have to choose what MUST be looked after. It is better to have something great that everything bad.
Show people how to do things, where to do things and guide them. You are dating someone and nobody wants to end the story after the first date.

3) BE KIND WITH PEOPLE AND UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCES

Why people come here? Because they like Italy, a place that is DIFFERENT from where they live. The difference is the reason why they are here and if there was no difference they would simply stay home.
Difference is an opportunity, not a burden to be carried and pointed out every time you see things you do not understand. Listen and learn, you will be a better man afterwards.

Then you will be ready for that...

A presto
Have a nice week end 

The little Chemist

It's spring!
Finally the temperature is going better and the days, after a very long wet period, are starting being more pleasant.
The garden is then the natural place to spend the day. The first two days though are used to bring it back to a "proper shape". It's not only cutting the grass but trying to get rid of all the things that were put outside during winter (you do not wish to go out in winter at out temperatures).

In doing this you suddenly realize the real essence of our economy today...

We got rid of an entire big bag of games that, I am sure, my children used veeeery little. Then suddenly this video came to my mind.

99% of the things that are moved around the US is TRASHED AFTER 6 MONTHS!!!
I do not think Europe is so different.

But why is this happening? Is it just a question of buying useless things?

I am sure that whoever has got children agrees that they much more than what they can enjoy. They are simply getting more than what they really need.

This comes from a "natural" reason.
Two of the chemicals that are responsible for the "feelings", the Seratonine and the Oxitocine, are generated by growing the sense of "relationship" and "feeling of love and trust".
In reality these are chemicals that we have since thousand years and their main target was to keep us alive favoring the "sense of belonging to a group" and making the group healthy i.e. having always food and protecting themselves from dangers.
And today it is artificially generated. One of the ways is to give presents, to give something regardless is needed.
It is somehow like the famous quote of the movie "The Devil's Advocate" where Al Pacino, describing love, was saying "Overrated. Biochemically no different than eating large quantities of chocolate."
So today we are BIOCHEMICALLY simulating a atavic behavior giving presents 99% of which are thrown in a bin in 6 months.
And in our environment, this is even more required as the Fantastic 4 chemicals (Endorphins, Dopamine, Seratonine and Oxitocine) are always fighting against...

CORTISOL that is generated by the stress and anxiety

The original function of Cortisol was in reality to raise our attention and pump sugars in our muscles either to fight or to run.
Good if you are in a forest some thousand of years ago.
Good if it happens once every now and then.
Not good if stress is continuous.

So, among the usual bad feelings, the usual sleepless nights, the usual problems that stress is generating we are also trying to generate some "good chemicals" to fight it by doing the WRONG THINGS.

And we go back to the usual point.

Life is simple. It's just about doing what you REALLY like with the people you REALLY like. Doing it well and enjoy it. But most of all, do good things for people that is around you at work and at home. Create a sense of safety and trust.

Do not try to artificially feel well. It's not working on the long run and does not help yourself.

Music is also a good way to grow one of the Fantastic 4.
That's my favorite song (and also my children's) these days .

Enjoy
Have a great week

Everybody's got a weapon of choice

Quigley down under

I don't know how many of you have ever seen that movie.

It is some years old and tells the story of Matthew Quigley (Tom Selleck), a cowboy and sharpshooter from America with a keen eye and a specially modified rifle with which he can shoot accurately at extraordinary distances. Quigley's weapon of choice is a customized 1874 Sharps Buffalo Rifle. He answers a newspaper advertisement that asks for men with a special talent in long-distance shooting with four words, "M. Quigley 900 yards," written on a copy of the advertisement, punctuated by several closely spaced bullet holes.

Once he moved to Australia, he grew his reputation (and his problems) thanks to his rifle.

And this is one of the main scene when the villain, Marston, who has noticed that Quigley only ever carries a rifle, decides to give him a lesson in the "quick-draw" style of gunfighting.

"I said I never had much use for one. Never said I didn't know how to use it."

Although it is true that you cannot be everthing for everybody you cannot forget the "business as usual", the gunfight for a cowboy, and keep well alive what generates the most of your business. 

But the only way to develop is to understand who you want to be. And the decision has to come both from listening but most of all from the ideas and your DNA.

The importance of listening is clear as well as the importance of implementing the signs you get from the market.

But this will not ensure you the development. You will be another one using the gun. Maybe a good one, maybe one of the best but still, one of the big group.

Unless you are very lucky, from the market you will be getting info about products as usual, i.e. what is available on the market with some minimal changes.

Everybody knows that, these kind of things only give you benefit on the short term. 

Great to keep your bread and butter alive. But not great to really differentiate on the market.

We should learn to listen and drive the discussion on a high level never entering into the specific points because, once you are drilling down too much you will simply look at the details. 

Looking at the reason why on that specific case you could not succeed. 

Looking at what was missing productwise or servicewise typical of a "me too" approach. 

And it is hard to change the world looking at the details and having a "me too" approach.

Giant steps forward will be made changing things because in today's market everybody's gaining access to everything. The old tactic of opening new market is today less and less winning as the new markets to sell the "usual things" are less and less.

So...

-To change things you cannot (only) listen to your customers although this will ensure you the day by day business.

-Knowing the process is the only way to dramatically change things. So, again, expertise, skills and some degree of risk are necessary.

-Ideas are ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent actions

-Be the best on somehting and make people knowing you for that.

-Do not forget bread and butter. You may need that sooner or later.

Have a nice week

History SHOULD teach us nothing

Europe has been one of the main actor of the last 1500 years of history. Within Europe, Italy played an important role throughout the different times starting from the Roman empire, going through the Venetian republic and the importance of Florence in the Renaissance.
That's history and this is what has heavily shaped our italian (and European) culture up to today.

Facts are that Italy has the highest number of UNESCO sites included my beloved Dolomites (and I'd better not start talking about the wasted potential of this as only 4% of our GDP comes from tourism) and some of the laws, rules and habits are a direct consequence of what our beloved Roman ancestors discussed a couple of thousand years ago.

Everything has been already seen and tried and checked... as the great Shirley Bassey said, HISTORY REPEATING.

We have 2000 years of history!!!

And we know why things cannot work.
We know everything that has been already tried and why this is not going to generate what we expect. Therefore we need to find something new, something new out of very little choices since everything has been already tried.
This is what I call the "WHY NOT" syndrome. It is a very European type of syndrome as we come from a very "conservative" colture.
It is spreading everywhere and it's mainly appearing when salesmen are doing their presentations. Things changes though. Sometimes people that do not have experience have an advantage. They are free to do things without prejudice and preconceived ideas.

A salesman must be a visionary, someone with hope and dreams. Someone that is trying to break the current status quo trying to find something different.

Different countries
Different customers
Different solutions
Different products

And the hope, the dream and the optimistic approach are the main driver to make them spending hours in a plane or in a car, away from their families and their hobbies.

There are little things that can destroy this. It is like putting some sand into the gears. Little things that are making the whole system break down.
And the "WHY NOT" people are the worst enemies. People that already know that "it'll not work because..."

It's always easy to say that things will not work without saying HOW TO DO TO MAKE THEM WORK.

This is the basic driver for a salesman (and not only for a salesman). We must think it will work.

If we do our best to convince people that they can't succeed we will easily make it happen. With a bad result for the company.

Things changes and things have changes. Do not worry to try again and to risk. Don't take history as unique driver for your choice.

Challenge the "WHY NOT PEOPLE" proving that YOU CAN DO THINGS.
Being in the winter olympic period, follow this

Take your shot. And score.

Have a nice week end

Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life.

I would really like to be a good father to my children and a good husband to my wife.

Quite a difficult task when you are spending half of your day phisically at work (being in reality more than 3/4 of the time in which you are awake) and some of the rest mentally at work.
In this difficult task, to try and spend as much time as possible with my children, I drive them to school.
With my little princess, 5 years old, I must also enter into the school and I help wearing her smock and getting ready for the day.
In that very moment also the school bus arrives and my daughter's school mates enter as well and start getting ready.
They do everything themselves and what is always funny is that, if I ask anybody if they need help, they challenge staring at me and, after a "no thanks" meaning "I am good enough to do it myself", they show me how good they are.
They simply learnt to do it properly since every morning they must do that themselves. And if I ask my daughter to do it she is simply telling me "mmmm daddy, can you help me?" exactly in the way that you cannot say no.

This came into my mind while driving to the office.

The radio was giving the usual bad news telling that some companies are closing and hundreds of workers risk to be made redundant therefore help is required to the government to try and help their case.
Sad thing, clearly. But how much is this our fault?

If on one side the companies, once they settle somewhere, MUST have a corporate social responsibility on the other side they must continue their business in a sound and healty way.

If one plant or company is not going well this cannot make the whole ship sinking.

In reality a government should be able to protect workers by making the working and investment environement suitable and appealing for the companies. In a word, by making the country competitive as the companies that are in the country should be.
Currently, unfortunately, what we are doing to to protect the workers is subisiding them and the companies and, to me, this is a big mistake.

This means we are financing the inefficiencies instead of financing the SOLUTIONS to the inefficiencies.
In an office environement, this would mean to continuously hire people instead of improving the process.
Quite difficult to imagine if you are an investor or entrepreneur.

It is not something that can be done overnight. I know.
We are, or better, we have been experiencing a deep change in the economy and in the markets. But it seems we haven't realized that. We must really start realizing that the "lifetime job" will probably not be the standard in the future.
It will definitely not disappear but it will not be the norm as it was.

So, how should we react to that?
This will not be easy. It will need first a change of attitude and mind.

So...
1) STUDY!!! Always!!! Look around, listen and be curious
2) Understand what we are goot at
3) Do not give up. Elvis was told to go back driving his truck instead of sing!
4) Be the best salesman of yourself!

Do not trust people that say they have the secret for the success. There is no SINGLE SECRET FOR THE SUCCESS.
Look for someone that can be a teacher, someone that you trust and that care you. Someone to tell you how to wear your smock at school but that let you do it yourself.


But remember

So, I would like to propose a change to the old saying I put on the title.

What do you think about...

It is not 100% mine I admit, but I liked that very much. UNDERSTAND-LEARN-SELL

Ciao and have a great week end

It's hidden in there

What is that?
It's easy! Come on!

Right, it's paper.
BUT...
Last week in my blog "It's a kind of Magic" I was talking about what the great Michelangelo used to say: "the sculpture is already into the block of marble. The artist must only free it".

Well. Whichever thing I do to take out of this paper sheet a masterpiece this is the best I can do

It flies veeeery well, it's landing smoothly but it's far away from being a masterpiece.

In Apulia, the region I talked about in "Heaven", there is someone that even from such a simple and straight forward paper sheet is able to create something exceptional.
The "Cartapesta" (Papier-mache).

For its “cartapesta” and artistic craftsmanship, Lecce can be considered as one of the major cities in Italy. This cultural heritage is strictly linked to historical developments during the 17th and 18th centuries, right in the middle of the triumph of Baroque architecture.

“Cartapesta” began as a symbolic, sacred art in honour of Lecce, which was then the most sanctified city of the southern region of the Kingdom of Naples, owing to its great number of churches and convents.
During the following decades, the production of “cartapesta” embraced symbolic figures of every kind, such as those representing the lives of ordinary people.

It is in such an environement, full of history and legacy, that Claudio Riso has revived this ancient art, with his skilful use of simple and modest materials.

You can find all the "Made in Italy" features (what I really like) in the workshop:  - Il laboratorio del Maestro Claudio Riso is a family owned workshop, it has more of 25 years of experiences and all its products are hand-made and delicate.

You can see the "Sacred Art" (Nativity, angels) associated to local social life (who is producing wine, card players).



But he can also create customized products based on the special requirements or events. The Cartapesta is recognized as an artistic product.
You can find all the masterpieces in Claudio Riso's workshop (it: il Laboratorio di Cartapesta di Claudio Riso) where, during the year, he always gives « Cartapesta's lessons » to students who come in Lecce.

How is he able to do that?
Have a look at this video. You will be surprised.
Again a great story of:
-Talent
-Passion
-Immagination
the reasons why Italians are (or should be...) known around the world.

It's a kind of magic

"The sculpture is already into the block of marble. The artist must only free it."

This is what Michelangelo used to say in the 15th century and this is what he managed to do ONLY freeing the sculpture from the marble block.

Nice one, isn't it?
We could say that also nice paintings are trapped into the pencil or the brush and the artist's task is "just" to take them from there to the canvas.

But how?

These are both paintings. YES! Even the first one that looks like photography.

The painter in that case is Diego Fazio a.k.a. Diego Koi while the second one is, as most probably all of you recognized, Pablo Picasso.
What's the difference then? Not that the Picasso woman got stuck while going out of the pen, but the WAY people are using their talent and skills is different. What's behind these skills is always difficult to understand. And it's not only the 10.000 hour rule saying that takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to acheve mastery in a field (see "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell)

They are, in my humble opinion, both mastering their field.
They are just showing that in different ways coming from:
- their life experiences
- their ideas
- their skills

To better understand this, let us look at photography.
I am so lucky to live in one of the most beautiful mountain areas of the world: The "Dolomiti Bellunesi"

What's behind these fantastic pictures? Is it just being in the right place in the right moment? (thanks to Federico Musashi)
Is it a question of luck or of being quick at taking out the camera and shot?



Well not only that...

The GREAT RESULTS are always a mix of:

- Training
- Skills
- Passion (love your work)
- Preparation

7 minutes of difference are crucial to take the picture you want to take and you must probably camp for days to take it as the weather conditions as always unpredictable.

In this quick discussion about artists and talent we forgot about some important things though.

How many failures they had? How many times Michelangelo hammered the wrong point? How many Picasso sketched something he didn't like? How many wrong takes are behind a breathtaking picture?
But also, who were their mentors or guides that saw their talents and gave them the directions? 

None of these artists has stopped trying and improving and none was scared or discouraged by the mistakes. They all love what they do and this is the fuel to keep their passion.

This is not only valid for artists though. It's also true in our everyday life!
Whoever manage people has a big responsibility not only for the company they are working for but also for the people they are managing (not to mention the responibility we have for our children).

If you manage people you must understand their talents, mentor and support them when there are problems or difficulties.
Everybody is a nice sculpture trapped into a marble block. It's just a question of be freed.

Have a nice week end

It's just a virus

This winter has been quite good so far.

I don't know if that was because of the mild conditions or because I built more immune defences but fortunately I did not catch any flu nor strange things during my holidays.

Every year infact, as soon as I stop working...
Bam a tiny virus decides to take over the control of my body and obliges me to stay in bed for some days.
Last week though, I started my personal battle with the flu. I was almost giving up but at the end I limited that toa cold and headache.
Clearly, all the ladies that are reading this Blog would say... here it is.
The usual man-flu; it's even been formally defined.

Though for me, average italian man, this kind of flu takes away mental and phisical strength.
And this week this has been worsened by some events that people I know and I work with had to face.

Problems, things like a child or a relative being seriously ill or a job lost that happened and that I did not know anything about because they were either keeping very secret (and I can understand them) or that suddenly recently happened. Everything this week, and it really touched me.

I tend not to believe to "signs" but, probably because I am getting older, I took these events happening during my "man flu" as something to think about how little I should complain. Funny enough, I also got this message from a friend of mine...

Be kind. Always.
Tough target isn't it.
Because if there are people that are VISIBLY fighting a battle, and then it's reasonably easy to be kind with them, and others that are keeping everything inside.
But when you fight you do not need other enemies but allies regardless your battle is outside or inside you. And someone kind at you is an extra help to find the strenght to overtake the problem.

I invite everybody to see this video. Again quite a casual thing that happened this week, a lead I got that is perfectly fitting into the mood of the week.

There is something to learn from every event of our life. Clearly the bad ones are the worse to overtake but WE WILL BE ABLE to overtake them only if we are ready and prepared to do it.

Prepare yourself, increase your competence and live well your life to tackle the bad moments.

Never give up. Never stop learning. Stand up and keep on going.
Have a nice week end

For your eyes ONLY!!!

It is scientific. Men and women are different.

I really did not need scientists to tell me that.
Whichever man is capable to see the small drop of water in the sink that is making your wife mad... please raise your hand.
I think it's a phisical difference in our eyes. Colours and small details are simply seen in different ways.
Look at that example...

Even though I know that, during the Christmas holidays I volunteered helping my "better half" cleaning our flat. In a nanosecond I had a vacuum cleaner in my right hand and a sponge in my left one.
And I promise, I did my best, THREE TIMES.

And the result was...

She had to redo everything simply because the result was not what she thought was the minimum acceptable...
Well, let us say that her minimum acceptable is like the Pope is coming for dinner that very day (not an unrealistic option with our beloved Pope!).
So what happened?

- She was upset (to say the least)
- We lost time
- I have a good excuse not to do it again (that is a strategy too)
- I have a new topic to discuss in my Blog. DELEGATION

In my continuous journey to the "recherche du temps perdu" or better searching for the wasted time rather than lost, this is one of the main topics.
And it is an ART.
Delegate means to have everybody doing what they should do so you can do what you are supposed to do.

I know, everybody would like to delegate BUT...

-it takes more time to explain than to do it yourself
-nobody can do it properly
-the others don't have time either

So we keep on doing things and complaining that we do not have time (and maybe the others work much less than what we do).

In reality I think that there are three main reasons why we tend not to delegate:

1) we do not have clear which are the activities we must do.
What happens if I give away some of my work and I realize I have nothing better to do? The key point is that people must free their time to do what they are good at and what is strategic for the company (or simply what they are paid for)

2) we think that by keeping the knowledge away from the others you will become "irreplaceable".
Sorry to say, guys, BUT normally we can be replaced by someone else. And if your company grows on someone that cannot be replaced you'd better find another company before this "genius" finds one. Maybe it's better to keep your job reaching the results thanks to your extremely professional team.

3) we cannot set a "minimum acceptable" performance for the other's job.
Clearly we must understand that the others WILL NOT DO THE JOB LIKE YOU. It does not mean they will not reach the target but the WAY in which they will reach the target will be different. And we must accept this once we set a "good minimum result".

If you really want the skills of your team to improve, to develop new leaders within the group and to have everybody feeling they are INTO THE GROUP then start delegating.

- Identify who can do the job and tell him why
- Show examples of previous jobs
- Be sure people understand the objectives and the deadlines
- Give everybody the tools to succeed (this is what we want!!!)
- Let people work (and make mistakes) and support ONLY if required

and at the end... CELEBRATE!

Hard task... probably another target we should reach in 2014.

From my side, I promise I will improve on house cleaning... I am not sure I will be able to see the small drop into the sink but I will do my best. It is scientific... men have different eyes.
Otherwise I will start with ballet dancing...

Still have some hope with some practice

Have a nice week end!

Heaven...

Being home on holidays for some days is always a good thing.
Spending "high value time" with your family doing the things you like is quite addictive and makes me start planning my next holidays.
In this Blog I would like to share with everybody some information about places in Italy that are outside the normal Venice-Florence-Rome trip.

Let me then open this 2014 with a Post about Holidays.
Today, in this wintry, rainy and cold day I would like to talk about... SEA!

And this is the type of sea I like...

Where am I?
Is it Barbados, Caribbean islands or some "in the middle of nowhere" place?

No. This is Puglia (Apulia).

The easternmost town of Italy, the first to see the dawn of the new world, the enchanting landscapes of olive trees, the dry stone walls, the coastal towers, the historic farms, the white towns, the national parks, the ancient underground olive-presses, festivals and religious holidays, crystal clear sea, golden beaches, deep reefs, unforgettable sea bottoms, the local traditions and the ancient crafts, tasty food, beautiful little towns, all of this and much more is Puglia!

Taking a trip to Puglia it means to immerse yourself in a unique atmosphere, in which the visitor is captured by the many and varied attractions that this country offers.

Have a look at Gargano, the northest side of Puglia. If you have decided to visit Gargano, one of its tourist attractions are definitely its long coastlines and especially the coastline that goes from Vieste to Peschici characterized by "strange buildings" called “trabucchi”, 

that is old tools for fishing no longer used and converted into restaurants or tourist attractions becoming part of the "Gargano National Park".

If you love the sea and the white sandy beaches, so let's visit "Mattinata", known as the Gargano's butterfly, so called because it is placed on a hill like a white butterfly on a flower, in a typical Mediterranean landscape between olive trees, almond trees and prickly pears. To avoid losing these wonderful places, it is better to organize your holiday by entrusting to reliable online incoming websites, such as www.pacchettievacanze.it (see also their FB and G+ links) which is specialized in Puglia and offers accommodation, holiday packages, tourists guides services and even more.

Have you ever heard of "Trulli of Alberobello?" 

World Heritage Site since 1996, they are typical  buildings erected in the dry without the use of mortar, which end with a particular conical roof. Do not miss the chance to stroll the narrow, winding streets of "Rione Monti" and "Aia Piccola"

and live the experience of staying in a real trullo, catching some good deals as those proposed by www.pacchettievacanze.it.

Otranto, the easternmost town of Italy, it is the first Italian town to see the dawn of the new year. This ancient village, surrounded with the majestic walls of the castle, after knowing the "fear of the Turks", it reveals to visitors telling its stories through the architectural and historical beauties, such as its Cathedral with the majestic mosaic pavement and the chapel of the Holy Martyrs of Otranto, the Castle, the Ramparts, the small church of San Pietro, important example of Byzantine architecture. Live its charming history, discover its alleys and narrow streets looking for panoramic views and small jewelry, let yourself be guided by an expert guide to give voice to this ancient village.

This will be my summer destination... anybody wants to come with me?

Have a nice week end