ESCP students interview top managers: Tatiana Rizzante – Reply

Okay, that's a different question to answer. Also because, for me, Reply is like saying what's the big advantage to your kids, so not easy. But anyhow, a few topics for sure. We have an ability or a capacity to keep up with innovation, to change fast and continuously with the changing market. For a company working on technologies or making digital happen in a customer's environment, that's key. This is also linked to our organizational model, which is a networked enterprise, so it's a kind of innovation in itself. It's a very peculiar model which was quite disruptive for a service company. It's a partnership type of company but with a twist that makes us very fast. Third, I would put diversity. We made this European team quite fast, which has a lot of diversity inside. I really believe that is key: diversity of jobs, creative people, technology consultants, gender, nationalities. So really mixed – not like a lot of multinationals where each team is a node that is very similar and then organized centrally. We are really mixed, so it makes a difference, I believe. Okay, thank you.

You know, I am first – I really think that management is not a job. This is the first belief that I personally have. So you have a job, and then growing and learning, you learn how to manage other people in that type of context. So my personal belief is that first of all you have to learn a job. A job of course – in the past it was very easy, you learn for example in fashion how to sew and then you became a designer and so on. Now nowadays it's not like that, but nonetheless I really believe that to manage an industry you have to understand that job, how things are done, to get that experience to really be effective. Of course there is another type of management which is more financial driven, that's not my home turf, right? And I really believe that to make a difference, to do something new, to be an entrepreneur, you have to learn a job, not just how to invest money. That's my personal belief. Okay.

First of all, I grew up somehow with the company, so for me it's a little bit different than in many other cases probably. But one thing I really believe is key is that you always put a bit of yourself in what you do. And people recognize it and perceive it. Some call it passion, dedication, whatever. At the end for me, it's really you put something of you. It's difficult to drive something if you are not engaged and you're not willing to lose something together with the people, the company, whatever. So this is the first thing. Second, I'm always candid. So when I was younger, I was trying to be the perfect whatever: the perfect manager, the perfect speaker, what everybody else thought was a perfect thing. You see this kind of thing and you say, 'Okay, a good presenter does it, I try to be the same.' And then you get the first unsuccess because you're trying to do something you are not, sometimes, and you fail most often. And from failure I personally learned that if you are yourself, you maybe fail, but at the end it's you who fails. So being candid, always transparent, yourself – the organization, the people, the customer – I think it's perceived. Trust is given again. You may fail, we are human and whatever. And the last thing is to be able to take risk, which again is something really difficult: go out of the comfort zone, take risk as an individual and as a company. So these are the three ingredients that, when I talk to people, whatever the nationality, it doesn't really make a difference. Whether you're from one nationality or another, at the end people are passionate, they may have needs – maybe earning some money, maybe recognition – doesn't matter. Everybody is equal, has difficulties. And at the end, the empathy, the human values, what you put often counts more than anything else. Okay.

Of course, like every company, we have some vision and some areas that we are pursuing, so that we put investment and we build new initiatives on following those visions. But also, a lot of the time we simply grab opportunity because things in the tech world are changing so fast. And you may have thought you understood something and the world is going a certain direction, then suddenly poof. So you have to be very fast and grab opportunity, listen to what people come and propose, and be very flexible. That's why it's important to have a job and work because to decide what to do is your ability and knowledge, how you have acquired to understand if something is good or not for the company, for you. And it's instinct out of time.