#empowerwomen Ilaria Tiezzi

“In my opinion, diversity and inclusion issues go beyond the gender aspect. It’s important to know how to make the most of professional resources as people, with their passions and attitudes”.

New appointment with #empowerwomen, the exclusive interviews by Red Public.

Today we meet Ilaria Tiezzi, CEO BrandOn Group. A woman with a professional background in large global groups in strategic consulting and new technologies, who chose to return to Italy, making a bet: to raise her child in the warmth of a large family, without giving up to professional achievements.

Now we can say that it has been a bet widely won. In this interview she will explain the reason why we can say it.

Ilaria, have you ever thought, as a young student, that you would get to play a prestigious role like yours?

To tell you the truth, I never set myself the goal of covering a certain role. Anyway, I knew that I would have put all my determination and commitment into building a challenging career path that would allow me to work on issues I was really passionate about, such as technology and innovation.

From the choice of my university path, I bet on a degree course created a year before at Bocconi: Economics and Management for Art, Culture and Communication. It was innovative in its mission to create managerial figures with a strong economic background combined with knowledge of creative industries, including digital media.

Without preconceptions and without setting limits for myself, I have always had the ambition to leave a mark by contributing to the launch and implementation of cutting-edge projects. While having the opportunity to follow the footsteps of my entrepreneur father, I chose to create a professional story in which I could identify myself as a woman and as a professional. For this reason, I have always been very open to pushing my boundaries and embracing opportunities to work abroad as well.

Tell us a little bit about your professional journey.

Immediately after graduating, I joined Mediaset, contributing to the launch of the first digital video broadcasting platform (DVB-H) in the world. From 2006 to 2011 I have been management strategy consultant at The Boston Consulting Group where I gained a great international experience in the TMT (Technology, Media and Telecommunications) and Consumer Goods practices.

Then my passion for technological innovation brought me to Sky Italia, where I worked on multi-platform strategy, commercial partnerships and the launch of new digital platforms for four years.

In 2015 I chose to embrace a new professional challenge based in London in a much less structured reality with great potential for growth. For two-and-a-half years I held the role of Vice President in V-Nova Ltd, a startup that quickly became a global player in offering video compression solutions.

Since 2018 I have been the CEO of BrandOn Group, online sales enabler with a strong focus on marketplaces, which in the last three years has grown extraordinarily going from 4.8m€ of turnover in 2017 to over 30m€ in 2020. All these achievements are due to an extraordinary management of the company and a clear strategy of internationalization and expansion of business lines and sales channels.

Has it been a winning bet returning to Italy from London? how did you manage this choice?

The career choice of coming back from London to Italy was a real hazard. I put the needs of my child first, hoping that leaving London would not necessarily mean having to give up my professional career.

Returning to Italy at the age of 35 with a title of Vice President, a role of responsibility in a team generally male-dominated in the field of technology development and a salary consistent with that position was not a safe conclusion that I would have find an interesting and ambitious role.

Instead, that bet had a very positive outcome, also thanks to the fact that I didn’t encounter any kind of “prejudice”, maybe also due to the fact that the Founder of BrandOn is a woman and a mother.

Tell us how you came to BrandOn?

I came to BrandOn through its investors. I was selected by the two investment funds, as well as by the Founder, who chose to invest in the company believing in its great potential, entrusting me with the objective of “managing” it and guiding its growth. All these goals had to mantain a strong focus on internationality and technological innovation.

Since female leadership was already present in BrandOn, I believe that their decision of choosing me was guided by my skills and my professional background, both elements of strong complementarity with the Founder.

How is the relationship between you and the Founder of the Group? How did you manage to integrate your professional skills?

Paola and I are different and very complementary, but we have the same fundamental values such as professional ethics, a strong sense of responsibility, great passion and infinite tenacity in carrying out our daily work. Furthermore, we both have the ability to dream big and try to make that dream come true.

Of course, there have been complexities, but they would have happened the same, even if “Paola” (Marzario, ndr) had been “Paolo”, since they are linked to the fact that it is difficult for any Founder to leave “his own creature” and start a process of depersonalization of it. This necessary but difficult path is totally “gender free”.

Coming back to us, Paola and I were able to did our best,in our own way, to the company. In fact, it has grown extraordinarily fast, transforming itself from a start-up to an internationally renowned company.

BrandOn’s growth trend did not stop even in the face of the pandemic of the last year, what was the strategy that proved to be successful?

Being able to ensure the continuity of the trend despite the fact that 2020 has certainly put us in front of some important challenges, is a source of great pride for me.

The growth has been possible thanks to the ability to reorganize quickly, following the opportunities offered by the market at that historical moment. With the launch of the e-procurement service and the conversion of internal profiles to categories and activities that seen a peak in demand, we went further and better compared to others that had completely stopped.

One fundamental aspect, however, was the company’s strategy focused already in 2018 on the diversification and internationalization of customers and sales channels and the maximum automation of internal processes. Everything has also been possible thanks to the development of our proprietary technology platform. If we had been mono-category/mono-country and not been able to rely on a technology capable of supporting extraordinary peaks in demand, it certainly would not have been the same.

Can you briefly describe the professional experience that you remember with most pleasure and that has influenced you the most?

All the stages of my professional career have contributed substantially to enriching my wealth of skills and experience.

In particular, the years at BCG have been a very intense training ground in which I acquired working tools and a structured and analytical mentality, but also a unique opportunity to participate in projects of great international impact: I spent almost half of my years as a consultant in France, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Greece and the United Arab Emirates.

I am also particularly grateful for the time spent at Sky Group where I had the opportunity to participate in the launch of new digital platforms, experiencing the leadership and coordination of cross-departmental teams.

Coordinating heterogeneous resources, not only in terms of gender or origin but above all in terms of training, character and role, allowed me to fully understand the importance of ensuring an overall vision, capable of synthesizing and enhancing all the company’s points of view.

It is also due to this experience that I discovered the passion I have for leading challenging projects in the launch phase, having the opportunity to design the strategy and then take care of all aspects of its implementation, putting together the various components just like a puzzle.

I have always carried with me what I learned in Sky, transmitting also today, in BrandOn Group, the importance of the added value of diversity within the team.

Capturing the potential of individuals and making the most of resources, seeking harmony as an orchestra conductor does, is an exercise that enriches both on a professional and human level.

We know that you are a promoter of female talent and gender balance (you were a finalist in the Gamma Donna 2020 Award), what are the inclusion policies implemented by BrandOn Group in this sense?

I would like to remind you that the themes of diversity and inclusion, which are dear to me, go beyond the gender aspect alone. First and foremost, it’s a question of knowing how to make the most of professional resources as people, with their passions and skills.

It’s also true that the promotion of female talent is a topic that is particularly close to my heart and that I know better than others, also because in working in male-dominated environments I’ve experienced and fought firsthand several stereotypes and areas of gender gap.

When I joined BrandOn I found a substantial gender balance among employees. Being a company founded by a woman, the habit of female leadership was already consolidated. On the other hand, the most senior roles were all held by men and I saw potential for growth for internal managers who had the skills but, as often happens, were waiting for an opportunity to grow without having the courage to ask for it explicitly.

I remember with pleasure one of my first actions as the Ceo of BrandOn Group: the clarification and sharing, with all employees, of the company values to which each one must be inspired every day in carrying out their tasks and in the interactions with clients, partners and external interlocutors. It has been a fundamental step to create a corporate culture and to start a path of managerialization in which roles, responsibilities but also evaluation parameters were clear and settle.

Within the BrandOn Group I support meritocracy: everyone is selected on the basis of talent, aptitude and experience and grows on the basis of the generated results and a behavior founded on four fundamental values: Drive — Strive for perfection, Collaboration — Sharing is caring, Professionalism — Data driven company, Client first: See things from our interlocutors’ point of view.

Inside my organization I don’t see a problem of gender representation, but I think it’s important to proactively seek and encourage the construction of a mixed team that can benefit from a cultural, age and background diversity in creating innovative and original solutions.

During last years I have met many talented women, both inside BrandOn and outside, and too many of them did not believe in the possibility of reconciling the professional and personal aspects.

Also for this reason, as well as for a widespread self-criticism much stricter than that of their male colleagues, they did not apply for roles of greater responsibility. That’s why I’ve been thinking a lot about the risk of self-sabotage that many women run when they wait passively for someone to notice their value, when they don’t promote themselves effectively and lack the courage to apply for roles for which they may have the potential but not yet the experience.

I am therefore proud that some of BrandOn’s key roles, such as Logistics, Product Catalog and Marketing Manager, have been assigned in last two years to women who believe in themselves and in the possibility of reconciling personal fulfillment with the achievement of ambitious goals in the professional sphere.

In your opinion, what are the advantages (including economic ones) for DIGITAL and TECH companies in attracting more female talent and fostering cultural contamination within a team?

People of different genders, backgrounds, training and attitudes favor what is defined as lateral thinking, and this inevitably affects the effectiveness of the results.

At BrandOn we didn’t focus on measuring the advantage of female talent over male talent, rather we focus on creating heterogeneous and well-balanced teams, including but not limited to gender. These teams, in my experience, are the ones that lead to the best quality outputs.

Most original and effective solutions are obtained after asking the right questions in the design phase. This happens when women and men, characterized by vertical vs. horizontal skills, creative profiles and more structured ones, tend to put the emphasis and approach the problem in different but complementary ways.

In particular, I believe that women often have a more inclusive outlook, a skill that is probably better trained given the frequent responsibility of making daily decisions for the entire family unit and, first and foremost, for the children, as well as an innate spirit of identification, generally more pronounced than the one of men.

Work-life balance. Can you tell us your secret? What advice would you give to all female professionals?

Reconciling work and private life is possible, as long as you are willing to make sacrifices.

I don’t think it’s useful or appropriate to necessarily put these two dimensions in conflict. There are several possible and sustainable strategies to make the balance between personal and professional fulfillment: the first one is to prioritize one over the other in different phases of life, a bit like a relay race. The other one requires a great sharing of responsibilities with the partner who can become a fundamental ally even in the path of professional growth. In my personal experience, the relationship built with my husband based on strong respect and support even on the professional front, has proved fundamental: our secret is to be a team both inside and outside the house.

In any case, achieving a balance is never easy and it is particularly for this reason that it is essential to have a great passion for the work and to share the cultural values of the company. In fact, these factors are essential to support the efforts required in order to find the work-life balance.

A woman who has changed the World, and in particular your own?

My mother and my grandmothers are undoubtedly the women to whom I am most grateful for my education and they guided me through my path of personal growth.

Both my grandmothers, born at the beginning of the twentieth century, suffered from not having been able to study as much as their male brothers and sisters So, they wanted to guarantee their sons and daughters equal opportunities for academic and professional growth, encouraging them to do always more and push their limits.

Their strength and independence inspired me to do the same.

I also owe to both my parents the willing to be independent, not to be afraid of changes and differences. They first of all pushed me to study and then to accept work opportunities far from the provincial context in which I was born and raised.

My mother has particularly represented a role model to be inspired by in all phases of my growth, first as a girl, then as a woman and a professional.

Her example guided me and helped me to pursue with great determination and tenacity a path made of courageous decisions: leaving my home and my family at the age of 18 and moving alone to Milan, applying for an international course of study and moving to the United States for a year, choosing a career path based on passion despite the fact that it was concentrated in male-dominated and very competitive sectors, never giving up the dream of creating a family and having children even though this required sacrifices and a possible slowdown in my growth as a manager.

Even as headmaster of several schools and teacher in three universities, my mother has always encouraged her students and, above all, her female students, to enthusiastically accept educational offers and projects of international scope.

I recognize in me the same curiosity, willpower, industriousness, motivation and perfectionism that distinguish her.

What advice would you give, finally, to young women who are approaching the same career path as you?

To all young women who are working with the aim of building an ambitious career path, I would suggest not to set limits for themselves, believing in themselves more than anyone else and being guided by their passions. I would also advice to take into account that the road will not be without obstacles, but that with commitment, determination and sacrifices they can achieve results far beyond their expectations.

Ilaria Tiezzi