Giuliana Baldo Chiaron is a Professor and Manager, passionate about open innovation, communication and human relations. She is an Adjunct Professor at Sapienza (Rome), a lecturer at Rome Business School and Program Director of the Master in Fashion Management with over 20 years’ experience in the Information Technology, Telecommunications, and Fashion industries.
What influenced your decision towards pursuing a career in your chosen field?
I am the daughter of an entrepreneur, born and raised in north-eastern Italy and this mentality of autonomy and resourcefulness has always accompanied me in every step of my life.
For sure at the beginning, I thought of some significant factors like the favorite job and education and skills required, the salary, and the career prospects. But there were other important things influencing my career choices: my individual attitudes, my personality and interests, my dreams, and the unexpected factor.
I am passionate about innovation, I love communicating and establishing human relationships with people of different cultures, I love sharing knowledge, experiences, and know-how; I love traveling and I love fashion. When making career decisions I have always tried to put all these elements in connection, evaluating the pros and cons, and finding the right balance in that specific moment of my life.
If the choice is well-considered, you usually don’t regret it.
On realigning with COVID-19 realities- How can business complexities be better managed/what strategies can be adopted in transforming the value chain?
The pandemic has had devastating consequences on people’s daily lives and national economies. Almost every single government has introduced emergency measures to save lives and protect businesses and jobs. Who would have imagined that in 2020 there would be empty offices, desolate centres, and blocked borders? From a work perspective, the implications have been different, and work from home has become a necessity for most professionals. As far as global supply chains are concerned, the impact on the manufacturing and production ecosystem has been profound: new changes in global value delivery models, key imperatives for businesses, and policymakers with unprecedented effects for producers and supply chains. To solve these dramatic problems, companies have been forced to adopt new approaches and new forms of collaboration, exchange best practices, develop new collaborations, and incubate responses to value chain disruption. Whether it is to repurpose production facilities, as it has happened for many fashion or manufacturing companies or rethink global models, basically, all businesses have been improving in overall resilience.
Mention your evergreen life quote/ lesson.
“No man was ever wise by chance” (by Seneca, a Roman philosopher, statesman, and dramatist from the Silver Age of Latin literature). Wisdom is the result of a path that involves curiosity, efforts to explore the way ahead, falls from which to learn, and lessons to experience.
What advise do you have for your students?
Dear students, study hard to become bright, capable, and competent. Do not be afraid of becoming wise … but to be disruptive in what you do professionally. You must always keep a small crumb of madness that will turn into originality and uniqueness!