Through foreigners eyes: Hetty de Vogel (I)

Next post Friday Feb 17th

Hetty loves Italy, and she talks about our country in her blog, that you can find in her website fully dedicated to the pleasure of Italian gourmandizes, like olive oil, wine and so on.

You’ll fine a short bio, better say her story at the end of this intriguing interview that is aimed to share what Italy appears to be when seen through “foreigners eyes”.

Since the interview is very detailed and therefore quite long, we will publish it in two separate post.

We would like to thank Hetty for her courtesy and warmly recommend you to visit her website!

How came you were based in Italy?

Actually, I'm not based in Italy, not anymore. I've been living in Italy for about 12 years and now I'm living in Paris. I'm Dutch, I accomplished my studies in the Netherlands and after my graduation I left  for Italy.

Why Italy? Because I've always loved Italy.  Since my childhood, when I went every summer holiday with my parents to Italy.

What do you honestly think of Italy?

It is difficult to answer this question in one sentence. As I said before you can imagine that I'm not very objective. I adore Italy, the Italian people, the culture, its history, the nature, the way of living and of course its food. I can really say that I feel at home in Italy. Anyway, being Dutch with a Dutch education and having lived and worked in Italy and having travelled a lot, I don't close my eyes and I can see some more negative sides of this country.

For example the malfunctioning of the public services, the low salaries in comparison to the Northern European ones, the difficulties for young people to start an independent life without support from their parents

How do you see the future of this country?

In the current unstable economical situation the whole world is in nowadays, it is very hard to tell how the future of Italy will be. I'm not an expert, so it's difficult to make any predictions.

I sincerely believe that Italy and Italian companies have a very great potential and they have such a lot of sources, of culture, creativity and ideas that they can really exploit all.  I'm not only talking about the small and average companies,/industries, but also about individual young people having good ideas and being creative. I think that for one reason or another they don't take advantage enough of everything they have and of all the possibilities there are to create jobs and business. For example internet, internet marketing for the promotion of Italian companies, small and bigger ones, still isn't very much used. 

Which are your hints and suggestions for foreigners willing to make business with Italy and Italian people? and specifically

            a) what to avoid?

            b) what to consider?

Having worked in Italy as an export manager and import manager and now trading with Italy, I can suggest to foreigners who want to start a collaboration with an Italian company to slow down and take their time. I will try to explain my opinion: If foreigners want to work with Italian companies and people, but not only Italy, I believe more generally, when you want to work with a foreign country, you have to know and learn about there habits and most of all adapt yourself to it and respect them.

This means in Italy you have to take your time. Things don't go as fast and quick as they may go in Northern Europe. Business discussions and deals often take place during long "relaxed" lunches rather then from an office. Often stories about their city and region (Italians are proud about there roots), about their family, their holidays abroad, are discussed before getting into the real business.

Italian companies may seem less organized or maybe are organized "the Italian way", but is is just a way of decipher there way of dealing. For example "delivery next week" means maybe next week, but it might be the week after. "There is no way of an early delivery"; just ask again and then they will pick up the phone and do there upmost to speed up things. 

Even if things are changing a bit, Italians don't speak very well foreign languages. The communication might be a bit difficult in the beginning. But with their creativity they find their way of expressing themselves. 

If you realize this and if you take this into account, working with Italy and Italians becomes really pleasant, stimulating and interesting.

Resistance to change

Next post Wednesday Feb 15th

So here is Mario Monti, actual Italian Prime Minister, discussing about the new culture of job.

He said some time before this interview that  Italian guys should be more used to change their jobs frequently and should not be maniac about permanency, which was what their fathers, and especially their grand fathers were aimed to.

He needs to explain because what he said –maybe with a too ironic tone- caused a true hurricane.

I do not want to discuss that diatribe, but I’d like to point out something that Monti said that could be relevant to our goal: understand better Italy for business purposes.

He said “Italians are too afraid of changes, they do not want to change, they mistrust changes”. That’s unfortunately dramatically true.

There are two main mistakes Italian entrepreneur use to repeat constantly, and we can depict them with these two frequent sentences:

“Our products are the best in the world: (si vendono da soli - they can be sold without any effort)”.

“We always did it this way (abbiamo sempre fatto così!)”.

Now when you came to sell to Italy you should understand this and have a very clear strategy to overcome this resistance.

Either you look for those entrepreneurs who are not afraid to change and who, on the contrary, leverage the changes to win an added value

or

find a logical and invincible demonstration why your clients should make a change, explain them that is no more time to sit down, relax and take it easy….

Any suggestions or comment to share?

The coffee ceremony

Next post Monday Feb 13th

We talked about food last time and the importance for an Italian guy to have lunch.

Now there is something also very relevant in Italian “food culture” and it’s coffee.

Coffee for us is much more than just a simple hot drink. It means welcome and care. It’s a pleasure, and even more it’s a ceremony. When we invite someone to have a coffee it’s much more than just an opportunity to spend sometime together, its’ a way to share a profound pleasure.

When the soluble coffee arrived in Italy, it was the Seventies, brough by Nestlé, the Nescafé can, it was a terrible flop. Why? Why it took so long to Nestlé to re-position Nescafé and find a market niche?

Having in mind that the coffee ceremony is a way to welcome a friend into your house, how can you really take care of her/him if you just have to boil some water and dissolve a brown power into it? How much more care and love will you show her/him if you have to set up carefully the “caffettiera”, and prepre a hot and strong coffee for your guest?

That’s why Nescaffé is now presented as a different drink, for young people, competing with liqueurs and soft drink much more than with traditional coffee.

So the coffee ritual is important for an Italian, remember it next time she/he will invite you to have one!

What food means to us

Next post Thursday Feb 9th

What food mean to an Italian? You need to know if you want do business with us. Because it’s relevant.

I once read a book about European habits that open my eyes. It said that when two Anglo-Saxon people met they usually invite each other “let’s have a drink together” so they can talk about their memories.

Now when something similar happens in Italy, when I met a long time lost friend what I would suggest is “let’s have lunch together” or a pizza or a dinner or a “panino”. Never just a drink.

That book linked these main differences to some religion issues, which is not the subject of this post.

Food is.

Sitting around the same table for having meal together for us in Italy it’s really significant: it means we can shelter you, invite you to one of our inner part in (business) life, since we all know that we eat and we drink, good wine, and… “in vino veritas”… that we can translate “wine brings truth”… meaning that when you are even slightly drunk you start talking from the hearth.

Being sit at the same table means for us sharing our problems, find common path, be open to  intimacy, business confidences.

So if you want to improve your relation with an Italian guy, take him to a good restaurant and do not start talking business till he starts doing, or at least after the pasta…

Find your Italian Partner

Next post Monday Feb 6th

Find your Italian partner. Or client. Not so easy.

The Italian government try to ease the process with a new web portal aimed to develop the Made in Italy industry.

You can find there a sort of mall where you can buy directly from the producers and a directory of company looking for foreigner partners, whatever this mean.

This is not the only web page that works on connecting Italian companies with potential suppliers. H2BIZ is working in the same direction opening a Mediterranean hub to ease partnership and sales between companies  based in Souther Europe, North Africa and Middle East.

It could be a good way to set the stage, to understand what’s going on and what you can find. It could be a way of conducting a market research to have a clear picture of the local situation.

Which other way do you know and what to share to find out potential clients and partners in Italy?

The growing Italy

Next post Thursday Feb 2nd

There is an Italy which is growing nonetheless. It’s the Italy of the districts, geographical concentration of companies producing the same kind of products, a typical Italian phenomenon mainly due to spin off and/or historical reason.

There are quite 150 around Italy and they are not just the backbone of the Italian economy but often, and this is the case, its foundation and drive.

The Edison Foundation recently published the results of the first nine months of 2011 showing that a substantial growth was attained in 101 of them, with an increase in export sales of 11,3% compared to the same period of 2010.

What’s encouraging is that 48 districts scored the same level of export sales obtained in the first nine months of 2008, the peak reached before the explosion of the present crisis.

Which are the top scorers?

Number 1 is the industrial machine district around Treviso, which reached a +40% in sales outside the EU; very good results were attained by the machine tool compartment in Rimini, leather goods in the Florence area, textile and garments in Perugia, the paper industry in Lucca, shoe industry around Fermo and the pump and hydraulics components in Reggio Emilia.

What is in for us? Here is a country that is ready to capitalize on its efforts, ready to relaunch the Italian economy, eager to discover new markets and  ready for the battle.

Are you interested to be their partner? Do you know how to approach them? 

Neither Monti nor Schettino: that’s the real Italy.

Next post Monday Jan 30th

Yes, we know, we are used to be described as romantic and unreliable opportunist. A mix between an artist, even in the worst sense of the word, an innovator, a genius, a latin lover with no scruples nor cares and definitely without sense of honor.

We are not that. Not everyone. I’m not saying that the description does not fit to some Italian, but you can find even in Germany people that can be described that way.

The tragic disaster of the cruise ship Costa Concordia unfortunately brought to the scene another dramatic icon, that commander who seems to have played all the nasty and frarful characters of the movie and literature history, from Lord Jim to  commander Philip Francis Queeg. 

Schettino almost become a new insult, if not the label to depict an old way of life.

But the acid journalist who loves to trap Italy in this symbol too easily forgets the members of the crew who stayed there till the end, helping passengers and even giving their life for them.

We are no more an hard working country, we are no more the “italiani brava gente” (nice and good people) as we were known in the XX century, and those who are responsible for this change, this shift toward selfishness will receive what they deserve, but we are still a people that know how to strive toward  the light.

We cannot even be represented by our present prime minister, which is too English and to professorial to truly embody the typical Italian guy. I’m not blaming him neither suggesting a political evaluation, just offering that his sober loden does not exactly talks of Italy.

Who are we then?

The simple, hidden people who wakes up every morning, take a breath to forget all the worries that night set down in her/his hearth, looks outside the window trying to solve the cold winter in a hopefully spring, and start working hard and professionally in whatever she/he is involved, better say committed.

Like this profound and powerful trailer, realized by Fiat, suggests.

We deserve your trust and respect, believe me.