GEMOS: a perfect opportunity to promote my professional profile

As an engine without fuel is nothing, MIP can provide the fuel and I will put the engine. That represents pretty well what I thought when I decided to participate to GEMOS, the Global Executive Master in Operations and Supply Chain at MIP Business School of Politecnico di Milano.

I have always considered my professional career as a great opportunity to learn new things, meet people, travel around the world and face stimulating challenges. In the meantime, discovering and testing personal capabilities it has been essential to understand what was the right and next step to do. It requires standing on the forefront of inspiring territories asking ourselves what is beyond the horizon and the best way to get there.

Gregory Bateson, the famous researcher of the University of Palo Alto (California, US), talking about life beings defined the information as “a difference which makes a difference�. I have always made that sentence as mine. I deeply believe that professional and existential growth depends on our efforts to make meaningful choices in the constant confrontation between individual awareness of personal limits, skills, potentials, and global environment, as people, organizations and cultures.

Since my first job in a big FMCG Italian Company, supply chain and logistics in particular represented the right environment to turn aims into reality. Fast pace, continuous operational improvement, strategical mindset and an extremely wide overview of company business on a global scale allowed me to expand my knowledge on different topics and to find my personal balance between life and work.

I graduated in Mechanical Engineering in Florence and I started working soon dealing in logistics in different industries. First important experience was in warehousing and distribution for High Fashion companies in USA and Italy.
After seven years, I decided to turn the page.
In five years, I graduated in Psychology and I moved to a Healthcare Rehabilitation Clinic for psychiatric and neurologic disorders, administering Operations and Quality Management System. I was excited about applying technical expertise in the services industry, particularly in a complex and sensitive environment such as people care.
During that experience, I had the chance to become more aware of the potential and opportunities that many companies have. At the same time, I realized how many companies are not able to make the difference and deploy effectively their resources because of lack of managerial competencies. Using Jim Collins words, many companies were not able to make the leap from “good to great�.

I felt uncomfortable being aware of that because I was not in the right position to change the system and by the time, I realized that time at the Company I was working for was over. I chose to look forward. In March 2016, I applied for the GEMOS Global Executive Master in Operations and Supply Chain at MIP and after a few days, I flew to EADA Business School in Barcelona to attend the first week of the Program.

GEMOS represented a perfect opportunity to embed my competencies into a robust theoretical and managerial framework, to promote my professional profile on a global perspective and to boost motivation for the change. I truly believe that real projects require responsibility and commitment. Otherwise, they can only represent “good wishes�. MIP gave me the right impulse to balance incentives to think big and tools to move fast.

Advanced classes, useful models to apply to real case studies, company visits and testimonials have been key ingredients of the recipe for growth. A stimulating international class of other professionals added the final essential element to the picture. In fact, in June 2016 I had the first interview with a new Company. Other interviews followed and I received several offers.
As of November 2016, none of them had satisfied my expectations. In fact, GEMOS was able to build a sort of ability to detect excellence factors within Companies operations, which I could easily apply while talking with different managers.

In December, I flew to China to attend an amazing immersion program at the Polytechnic University of Honk Kong. I had the perception that time was definitively mature and I was completely right. In fact, as I returned to Italy things speeded up impressively.

I applied for a job vacancy in Amazon and in two days, they replied me by email. After many recruitment interviews and tests, I got a job offer for Inventory Control and Quality Assurance Operations Manager at the new Distribution Center in Vercelli (Italy). It was 9:30PM when I picked up the phone to receive the new. I still remember the intensity of sheer happiness and the intensity of emotions in that moment. The offer was great and I could not believe it was for me. Amazon was even beyond any expectation I could have had: another wonderful opportunity to explore the world that turned my dreams into reality. And the infinite journey continues…