After attaining a degree in Economics and Business Administration, I was catapulted into the challenging task of managing the extremely complex administration of a large tourism company alone. The company was exciting and dynamic but completely lacked organizational structure. The persons who assigned me this role had the naive idea that having that kind of degree under one’s belt meant having an in-depth knowledge of a company’s full span of financial, accounting and tax operations!.
But I was up for the challenge and the hands-on experience proved to be a great advantage. I learned through trial, error and adjustment. My insecurities and indecisiveness were cleared away by the pressing need to take action and by the environment itself, which at the time was not as tattered as it is today.
I did what I had studied to do, pouring passion, effort and willpower into it.
Driven by my desire to grow, I decided I needed a change to test my managerial abilities and landed the senior tax manager position at Opel Italia S.p.A., now General Motors Italia S.p.A. (GM), where I worked for a period of time. At GM, I enjoyed rationalizing, organizing, learning internal auditing procedures, and interacting with a management and consulting environment that was more structured that what I was used to.
That’s how I became a solid financial advisor and administrative executive. I have created procedures and trained dozens of employees for various company roles, especially in the hotel sector. I have covered positions in the purchasing, sales and booking departments. I have developed hotel management software in collaboration with various software houses and assisted the transition to management, accounting and performance audit software. For years, I was in charge of accounting, tax planning, generational changes, corporate mergers, reorganizations, and performance audits.