Leadership talks and Global MBA Supercars, Superbikes and Motorsports

4 April 2022

Leadership Talks are a precious added value for BBS Global MBA students. A unique experience for a Master that aims to train the top managers of the future.

Meetings with executives and prestigious business leaders add to the Global MBA classes the personal experience of professionals working at the highest level. This is an extraordinary opportunity for students to listen to opinion leaders with which they can come into direct contact. Students can learn from real cases and experiences from leading companies in their own business areas.

Several meetings have been organized for the Supercars, Superbikes and Motorsports Global MBA track. Among them, Ettore Musu, Powertrain Innovation Responsible, Maserati, presented a speech titled Mastering innovation in the luxury car market: the Maserati experience.

Mr Musu’s talk focused on some innovative technologies used in the top range automotive sector. According to Musu, “it is essential to understand all the issues that govern the introduction of a new technology” in such a specific industry that is so representative of Made in Italy. It is a complex process that integrates technical and technological aspects with management and leadership.

Maserati, a brand born in Bologna in 1914 and moved to Modena in 1939, in the heart of Italy’s Motor Valley, represents a part of Italian motoring history. Today, in the Stellantis group, it has made of innovation its stylistic hallmark. This commitment has become effective research with the foundation, in 2015, of the Maserati Innovation Lab, a cutting-edge engineering center. The “new era” of Maserati, says Musu, is already here. New models and a slogan that perfectly expresses the brand’s approach: “it’s time to be audacious”.

People are at the heart of the project, as always in Maserati: the 800 employees, the desire to close the gender gap as soon as possible – quite common in the automotive industry – an approach that still makes high quality, reliability, and efficiency its flagship, based on the knowledge of the people who make dream cars. Dreams that must be driven everywhere in the world, which requires careful, continuous, and thorough research so that the end customer is always satisfied. Everything must be perfect.

The opportunity offered by Musu to the Supercars, Superbikes and Motorsports track participants was unique: to follow step by step the application process of the V6-Nettuno Program, an innovation project headed by the new Maserati engine, from concept to development. Musu described each stage of the project, also revealing the critical points of each step and how they were solved.

The need to focus on renewable energies and reduce CO2 emissions both in production and in the use of cars was also at the heart of his speech. Maserati is moving in various ways: hydrogen, photovoltaics and new, still experimental, solutions could help to improve its environmental impact. According to Musu, the demand for a change in this direction will come from the buyers: while maintaining and enhancing Maserati’s sporty character, “it will be the clients themselves who will demand a cleaner driving experience, no longer necessarily linked to the combustion engine. Perhaps luxury will be more related to being eco-friendly than to other aspects”.

The analysis of a real case, presented live by the project manager, is an exceptional opportunity to enrich the training experience offered by the BBS Global MBA.

Other Leadership Talks have already been scheduled with leading names in the industry, such as Marco Brancati, General Manager CRIT – MotorValley Accelerator, who will talk about How startups are driving the car technology revolution; and Luca Stronati, Software Validation Director, Marelli, who will introduce Marelli’s experience in the field of renewable energies, with a speech entitled Powering the future of e-mobility: the Marelli experience.