Valeria Taraborrelli, Alumna of the MBA and of the Sustainability and Business Innovation Master’s

26 January 2021

For Valeria Taraborrelli, Brand Marketing Manager at Aesse Projects, BBS is a life and training companion, which she chose twice to accompany her important professional growth. In this interview she tells us why “a sound training, specific both on general business aspects and on topics like the ones linked to sustainability is essential today”.

 

Tell us about your professional career.

With a law degree and an MBA, in the past 5 years my commitment has been towards the creation of a highly dynamic and multi-faceted profile that would lead me to a better knowledge not only of the dynamics of the development of brands internationally, but in general to an in-depth knowledge of corporate processes.

In December 2014 I enrolled at BBS to attend the MBA, with a “Made in Italy” track, and it was a profoundly enlightening experience for me. As my previous education had been very theory-based and as I’d had very much varied work experiences during my university years, I was looking for an opportunity that could enable me to join a company context through a more practical economic training.

It was precisely thanks to one of the final Project works that I got in contact with my current company. Aesse Projects, Italian excellence, which specialized in the toll production of clothing on behalf of international brands, had indeed identified the need to study a plan to relaunch Antonio Croce Milano, a brand of female apparel in the luxury segment, that had been silent on the international market for a few years.

At the end of the Master’s, the company took the decision to create a division devoted to proprietary brands, entrusting me with the international development of the brand concerning marketing & communication. So, I found myself, side by side with the owners, creating from scratch the entire brand growth plan, touching every single organizational aspect, from the team, to primary goals, to the identity itself of the brand.

In the first 2 years, my responsibilities grew rapidly, hand in hand with the brand’s needs. Besides dealing in person with the complete communication and social channels and e-commerce development plan, I was also entrusted with the coordination of the opening of the first two flagship stores in Italy (Milan and Florence), directly managing the stores themselves and their sales teams.

The need to move across-the-board within the company, to meet requirements not only linked to communication, but also product and distribution ones, determined that in 2018 my role was acknowledged a second time and I was promoted to Brand Manager. I was entrusted with the direct task of coordinating all the activities connected to the brand development, defining its timing and priorities, thus becoming a point of reference for all departments involved in the development of collections, from product office to production, through marketing and communication, and finally the sales network.

Over the last 2 years, some special projects enabled me to get closer, in a significant way, to different types of product and business, like the creation of a collection of niche fragrances, now distributed internationally and the recent acquisition of a knitwear brand in the affordable luxury sector, with a strong presence on the American market, for which I have to study completely a rebranding and repositioning plan.

 

Why did you decide to resume your education and how did you choose BBS?

The experience of the past 5 years has been, up to now, a remarkable professional and personal one, which enabled me to travel all over the world and at the same time, one that allowed me to daily confront myself with the concrete challenges that a company must face to remain in the market in a competitive manner.

The need to maintain an overall view still while working paying attention to details, lead me to decide to put together a young and dynamic managerial profile, that could combine practical organizational skills and a sound training, specific both on general business aspects and on topics like the ones linked to sustainability, essential today for a company to grow.

I strongly believe that in a period of great uncertainty like the current one, it’s fundamental to have the desire to open up to new opportunities, to have the courage to question yourself and rethink your role. It’s knowledge that makes something click in your head that is essential to act innovatively and with awareness; the more you know the more you act, the less you know the more you’re tied to conditioning and habits.

As regards the choice of the school, I had already attended my first Master’s at BBS, therefore in this case too, the choice came naturally, and I decided once again to rely on an educational institution of excellence at an international level.

 

According to you what are the program’s strengths?

I find the program has features of excellence, both from the point of view of the learning methods and the human capital.

The structure alternates a general focus on business, fundamental to understand how the different company areas interact with each other to create value, and specific topics like the ones connected to sustainability and social innovation, which make it a unique program to date in Italy.

It’s most of all a flexible program, as it can provide you with across-the-board skills easy to adapt and to apply to continuous changes and the unpredictable events that companies must face.

Another strength is definitely the methodology, which as it is based on the sharing of ideas, spurs the creation of a new managerial class able to move within the company no longer vertically, but in a circular way, combining the need to decide with the need to listen, in the framework of an inclusive view of all individual company components.

 

What are the added values of belonging to the BBS Community?

Belonging to the BBS Community is, according to me, a privilege, a constant space of sharing and growth which enables you to come in contact with people who, like you, are willing to grow, to be updated and to improve themselves.