Corporate Vision March 2017

18 CORPORATE VISION / March 2017 , Following their success in achieving the Female CEO of the Year 2016 – Italy award, Best Western Italia’s CEOGiovannaManzi gives a fascinating glimpse into the remarkable success story of this very well-known hotel company, as well as her own story of how she got to where she is today. A Comprehensive, Inclusive and Harmonious Environment Best Western Italia has been active in our country for 35 years. Today, there are 160 affiliated hotels in 120 destinations. At the Italian headquarters based in Milan, over 80 professionals support the hotels in various aspects of the work: financial management, marketing, sales, IT, web quality design, purchasing and training. Best Western is the foremost hotel group in Italy for the quantity and the quality of its hotels. The global presence of the brand with its 4000 hotels demonstrates its solid visibility and capability of building a network that is unquestionably unified. Role and responsibility I have been CEO of Best Western Italia since 2004. After my economics degree, I realised that I wanted to focus my professional career on the hospitality industry. I started in the United States and after my return to Italy I was selected by Best Western to join the marketing department. Two years later, I accepted the offer of marketing manager for Amadeus Global Travel Distribution, an international travel tech company, leader in the tourism distribution channels. During the years of the first ‘Internet Era’, I launched Travelonline, the first Italian travel portal for customers. I then returned to Amadeus until the President of Best Western asked me to come back to the company as CEO. The project ahead was ambitious and challenging: to transform a network of hoteliers into a solid company with clear, measurable objectives and business development plans in a fast-changing market. I built up a new team and today I lead a company that has a turnover of over €87 million in 2016. I coordinate numerous key activities and I personally oversee various projects, such as business development and tech innovation to which I dedicate energy and investments both now and for the future. Last but not least, the design aspect is an important one for me, because this can make a huge difference during a stay in a hotel. Values and principles in staff management I believe that productivity is proportional to enthusiasm. I like to think that by setting a good example both the working environment and results will improve. In my opinion by transmitting my own commitment and by having a creative and empathetic approach, you can indeed achieve good teamwork and thus enable greater empowerment. My motto is ‘never ask for something that I would not do myself’. I therefore always aim for excellence in performance, but that can only be achieved if everyone focuses on what they are good at. I believe that insistence to improve a skill, that a staff member finds difficult or lacks completely, can be a source of frustration as any improvement will be minor and by no means excellent. Yet, by focusing on skills that we already possess and improving on them, I believe that excellence is achievable. This can be reached through a process of profound self-awareness and a knowledge of our own weaknesses and strengths. Recently, the company started to combine welfare and company objectives with a view to cutting avoidable waste where we are all involved in reaching company goals and investing the efficiency savings into a welfare perspective, which contributes to maintaining a comprehensive, inclusive and harmonious environment. Career challenges Being a woman in a predominately male environment, I placed myself in a position to earn respect for my leadership skills and my vision of the future, not by emulating my male peers but by making my insight and emotional intelligence a winning feature. I have always shown commitment and responsibility from an early age as a scout leader and this has positively shaped my mindset. I draw from my scouting experience, its proactive nature, organisational skills and ability to adapt, on a daily basis with my team members, also often requesting organisational and planning changes from them. My son was born in 2007. It was a revelation for me to be able to bring new emotional intelligence into the company, by regarding maternity leave as a corporate opportunity for everyone to grow and not only as a ‘problem to solve’. Relationship with technology I regard technology, and more specifically innovation, as fundamental to the success of a company. By nature, I am curious and like to experiment. Technology and its innate ability to simplify things enthuse me and I always support changes that facilitate procedures and the achievement of goals. Under my leadership Best Western has developed partnerships with important technology companies. Our company is currently developing a chat bot based on artificial intelligence which, I believe is destined to become a killer application in the hospitality industry in Italy. 1701CV72

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