In November, I had the opportunity to take part in the DIADORA Competition, which was organized by ‘CEU Emprende’ – and luckily enough I even won the competition. The prize: spending one day with Enrico Moretti, CEO of the Italian company.
It took quite a while until the prize was redeemed but it was worth waiting for it. DIADORA chose to take me to Treviso for their International Sales Meeting on the 26th of May. There, all the distributors and agents of the brand from the Italian and international market took part, the new company’s strategy for the coming years and the new collections of products were presented.
When arriving in Italy (at the airport in Venice), I was surprised by the extraordinary landscape I saw on the way from the airport to the offices of DIADORA in Treviso. The area there is very green but completely industrialized; it was only a 40-minute drive but I could get a comprehensive impression of the industrial strength of the North of Italy.
When I arrived at the offices of the company, I noticed its young and relaxed character (of course all the employees were wearing DIADORA shoes). Afterwards, I could attend the presentation of the general strategy of DIADORA for the coming years in which Enrico (CEO), Claudio (General Manager) and Romina (Head of Communication) participated among others.
It goes without saying that I was impressed by the quality of the exposures and the high level of transmission of the company’s values. “MAKE IT BRIGHT”, will be the slogan of the new collections, extraordinarily linked to the company’s strategy and the products for the coming year.
Subsequently, they showed us the new production line, which they had mounted there, and we had dinner together. I sat at the table with Romina and distributors of DIADORA from Spain and Montenegro among others. That was how the first day ended – which was an exhausting day due to the journey, but also a highly motivating one.
On the second day, DIADORA presented all the products of the new collection to the distributors and agents because they will be the ones who are in charge of selling the products to shops, warehouses etc… I attended the collections of Tennis, Football and Running Apparel before having lunch and after lunch I could see Sportswear before I was taken to the offices of GEOX (the company’s president is the father of Enrico Moretti). I was given a guided tour by Juan Carlos Venti, head of the International Relations of the group, who showed me the testing laboratory, the creation areas and the production line where the prototypes of the shoes are developed. It was a really interesting tour, thank you very much, Juan Carlos!
The day had already been very interesting but there was still more to come. When I got back to the offices of DIADORA, I had the opportunity to spend some time with Enrico Moretti, who showed me the offices and the Museum of DIADORA, where they keep historical objects of the brand; he told me about the history of the company and its development since it was acquired by the Moretti Polegato Family in 2009 (which has been a very positive development). It was a nice conversation during which I realized that a CEO of a big multinational company can also be an open person caring for his employees.
In the evening I attended the farewell dinner of the event – a buffet of food and drinks and live music to say goodbye to those great days.
I would like to especially thank Romina for her constant efforts of making my stay in Italy as comfortable as possible, the President for his time (which is rare and very valuable) and for being so open and the University CEU Cardenal Herrera for making those kinds of initiatives possible, which help students in an exceptional way to grow in areas beyond the university halls.
