My Story, Our Story: Enrico Andrini
30 June 2015A BBS Alumnus talks about himselves. What was before, what came after and a memory of the actual experience, to offer a personal story and a narration of one’s own professional experience.
The protagonist of the fifth episode is Enrico Andrini, Operation manager – KCOI, EMBA IX, 2011-2012.
Enrico’s soundtrack is: The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd
Ouverture
“My career? Changing, always and drastically changing. I pull down all the pillars I build, in order to re-erect them elsewhere”. If believing in change is a faith, Enrico received it as a gift and lives the life of the believer. The oral narration of his résumé feels like crossing a landscape, constantly changing, with only one distinct element: the horizon, that faraway line, a geometrical border, defined by the very eyes observing it, where only those who can see through themselves know how to make themselves visible. Just like recognising oneself, in a mirror.
“My career? Changing, always and drastically changing. I pull down all the pillars I build, in order to re-erect them elsewhere”. If believing in change is a faith, Enrico received it as a gift and lives the life of the believer. The oral narration of his résumé feels like crossing a landscape, constantly changing, with only one distinct element: the horizon, that faraway line, a geometrical border, defined by the very eyes observing it, where only those who can see through themselves know how to make themselves visible. Just like recognising oneself, in a mirror.
The story so far
“I started off as an electrician, I mean, I was an automation expert, I have a degree in electronic engineering. Moving from one company to the next, I was able to see it all: fitted kitchens; projects for fire fighting installations; large companies processing fruit. Then I landed in the oil sector, where I grew, career-wise”. Enrico considers himself a builder of empathies and commitment. The way he sees things, 100% of his work is accomplished with others. “I believe the best side of my job is making things happen”. He hates the expression “resource manager”.
Why BBS
When becoming an executive turned out to be a concrete possibility, Enrico was afraid of not managing to tap into all he had or was, of not squaring the circle. Therefore, he made a counter-proposal. “I didn’t ask for a pay rise. I asked to be allowed to attend the Master at Bologna Business School. This changed my life, I was able to put myself to the test and to put all the puzzle pieces in their right place. My gap was competence, the fear of not knowing how to do things. The Executive Master in Business Administration gives you the chance to put everything in order, you get to work with exceptional people who make you play to your strengths. Building leadership processes with the others was fantastic, and funny”.
Creative control-freak
“I’m 100% visual and, basically, a comfortist”. The marriage between a philosophy of flux and the engineering-based search for the sublime was possible only thanks to extensive work on himself. “Essentially, I’m also a control freak. I understood though, that in order to reach specific targets, one needs to change the paradigms with which one deals with them”. Enrico currently works most of the time in Kazakhstan, for the on- and offshore oil drilling. From docks to accommodation, there everything is to be built from scratch, literally. Finding immediate solutions is everyday practice. Is there something driving this process to turn the problem upside down?
Colouring numbers
The bewildering answer comes straight away. “I can do an exercise of logical synthesis mixing up the figures with other sensory elements which I experience on a daily basis, in a place where everything has yet to be built”. Pardon?
“I write it down the way I see it in my mind, I jot down the figures and the words on the sheet, wherever I deem them helpful to be. My office is full of white-boards on which to write, so then to be able to look at what I’m doing in perspective, then erase and reformulate. I take notes on one of those white notebooks watercolour artists use, I use pencils, I write in block letters and basically never amend. When I do presentations, I never prepare slides, instead I talk drawing with Fiftythree in a natural and impromptu way. For me, the combination of colours and figures is fundamental, it also helps me remembering information”. A synaesthesia man, as good as they come.
(Editor’s Note)
“Man is no straight line, he’s made of cusps”. Central Asia, concepts that become experiences to be made, the debate between the faith in change and the need for control. The interview with Enrico is a stroll atop a double sloping roof, astride the ridge. Will I end up describing him like someone out of a Battiato song or a Tin Tin comic book?
I exit my comfort zone and dare defining him: what if I defined you an illustrated person? “I like it. I can recognise myself in it”.
A piece of advice to a student
“Be very humble. Finish your studies quickly and try and put your hands in the dough as soon as possible. Change your job, do it often, pass through companies crosswise. Then build, build yourself vertically and move horizontally again. My piece of advice is: try and see how the company functions in its entirety, taste many different foods without stopping. On the other hand, this is the advice of a control freak”.
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