Where has your experience brought you after BBS? The BBS Alumni tell us about their projects. In this edition of BBS Alumni Network, we present you Maria Silvia Pazzi, MBA Alumnus of 2005/07. The project: Regenesi.
She wanted to study architecture but she did economics. She became an adjunct professor at the University and decided to return to study in a Master. She has always worked at the creation and management of services for small businesses and in the end she has created its own. A summary of 10 years of changes that have revolutionized the life of Maria Silvia Pazzi. And, knowing her, she would say that the mark of her company, Regenesi, has something to do also with her professional rebirths.
In July 2014 in Brussels something important happened. The European Union promoted the so-called circular economy, that is a model that focuses on sustainability, where the waste materials are constantly re-used. Some years before, in 2008 in Italy (Naples was facing again the waste emergency), Silvia took an important decision: “I was at a point in my life where I had taken a very strong decision: to leave a permanent contract in an Category Association and put myself on the market with my own business. With two children to raise. I got a VAT number and I was working as a consultant for companies, I was attending the Executive MBA and I was working as a lecturer at the University.” In that context she decided a shift in direction. “My nature, that of my family roots, is that of an artisan. Being a consultant to others I have been put more and more in the condition to desire the construction of my own business.”
The genesis of Regenesi
Regenesi is the entrepreneurial creation of Maria Silvia. “We create design and fashion products from recycled materials. We do this with a new language, which is not only made of recycled materials. The product is the visible part, but everything behind it is innovation.” Famous designers, materials that are the result of technologies and regenerated after a careful selection, networking among businesses around the world. Objective: turning waste into beauty. “We want to be a niche, research, high-range Italian brand. We are a network company because we were not born out of our own internal technology, but by hybridization of technologies, aesthetics and managerial capabilities. We are rather interested in creating chains and manage the supply of materials to be regenerated with the lowest possible impact. We are looking for suppliers who have products of industrial waste, but processed in a natural way, to get a finished product of the highest quality. “And healthy, also.
BBS
Maria Silvia acknowledges that her biggest vice is to always go the hard way. “It has been a winning Master from many points of view. 106 people from all over Italy, 8 local headquarters for the in-class activities located in various cities, the rest was online. Halfway through the module we had a two-day meeting at a hotel in Bologna with the whole community, a moment of sharing that has gratified me and offered much in terms of relationship.” “Studying by yourself is possible, I was used to do it and it would certainly not be a problem. But the logical steps that are activated during the classroom discussions, work together with the others to the case studies, transfer the theory to daily managerial practice is that plus I was missing. At the end of the Master I felt more mature and I further developed my professionalism. ”
The “social” context
“Obviously in my job you need to read what is going on”; the wind has changed about the themes and products I was working with; what I do is no longer something neo-hippy but it quickly attracts the attention of business executives. So as to create projects in co-branding with the major Italian companies (among others Lamborghini and Dainese); products resulting from the recovery of their industrial waste, not only of high quality style and production of but also with a powerful communicative charge!
But now our competitors are becoming the already structured big realities with which we must learn to interact effectively.
Digital Fair
What made Regenesi atypical at the Digital Fair is that the digital is not the company’s output but it is present throughout its production chain. Regenesi is a brand and a product that lives independently in the market, but it also has numerous relationships in B2B. “At the Digital Fair I have met several managers, all potentially interested to work with us. We are partners with credible content and reliable in the field of sustainability and management of complex projects. Our mission is also the ad hoc creation of products.” But Regenesi is a young company that bases its business on networking and draws its lifeblood from meetings like the Digital Fair. “Working with companies from different areas generates new ideas and increases the turnover of products. Transforming the critical acclaim into sales is perhaps the number one goal. ”
Future
“When I started in Italy there was no one who was interested in talking about remanufactured materials. Now this has become the central theme for sustainable development politics and there exist many different initiatives.” Maria Silvia jokes saying that her surname Pazzi (Crazy, in Italian) can help in giving you credibility as an cutting-edge player in an industry full of risks, but her theme now is the growth of the company. “I am still always in the trenches, thinking back maybe I would do something simpler. When Regenesi was created, along with the company we had to create a market and I still invest a lot of time in the dissemination of correct information on issues related to sustainability. It is difficult for me to give advice to younger people, for me creating a company was more like to have another child (the fifth! In the meantime two more were born) to care about, help him to grow and get the necessary autonomy to be able to conquer with facts further corporate developments.”.
Read here the other projects published.
Are you a BBS Alumnus? Do you have any project you would like to tell us about? Send us an email to marketing@bbs.unibo.it