EMBA travel diaries from Italy – Florence
5th April 2017-04-09
The great Florentine Renaissance Art and Leadership
Inspiration hunting written by Senior Mentor Eija Kesti, eijakes@hotmail.com
In the morning 7:30 we started the journey to the center of Florence. The sun was rising behind the mountains. We knew that Florence was calling us: Our first place to visit was the Uffizi Gallery. Our aim was inspiration hunting for leadership. We were lucky to have tickets ordered beforehand and to have Laura as guide. Our energy was saved for the art and a big amount of steps. Management idea: it´s good to use time beforehand for planning + delegate + save the energy for next steps. Cosimo I had allowed Giorgio Vasari to build the Uffizi for him and his big family. The word Uffizi means offices. This building was primary meant to get all municipal and regional offices under one roof. Leadership idea: think big.
We walked to the top floor and were in the middle of collection of art. The Medici family had been the most important collectors and patrons in Florence. Leadership idea: what would you like to invest/collect/build/write/paint to be remembered for? The Medici family had shown their richness and power by buying paintings and sculpture. By that way the Medici family gave possibility to artists to show their talent. Leadership idea: help and let your people to succeed by using their best skills and talent. During next couple of hours our team Anu, Anna-Liisa, Aleg, Joni, Mirva and me had great possibility to enjoy big amount of history knowledge and first of all the paintings.
We needed after the coffee break leave this wonderful museum with invaluable treasures of the art. Leadership idea: please see, hear, feel and enjoy the talent of other people. Luisa via Roma was our next place to visit. We had the possibility to hear a successful story from the clothing business. LUISAVIAROMA.COM, online luxury fashion with worldwide shipping. The owner seems to be hands-on manager and leader of his about 200 subordinates. All business activities (among others management, marketing on web, customer service, invoicing, blogging, warehousing, sending) were in own hands and centralized in Florence. 8 languages are in use. Biggest customers live in Asia, US, Germany and Italy. Leadership idea: what a business intelligent, what a passion, what a beauty, what a modernization…when is the right time to delegate more. It was right time to have lunch. We entered to Teatro del Sale. It combines a food store, restaurant and a club. We eat good and delicious meal with wine. Our question to be answered was: find a work of art that inspires you and your leadership and excellence and describe why: After my team´s long and deep discussion
I report only with the picture and three words that were used when she/he described her/his experiences: Anu – Tondo Doni – power and intelligence, modern Anna-Liisa – Eleonora de Toledo and her son – strong and soft, balance Aleg – Baptism of Christ – cooperation and possibility, joint work Mirva – The Dukes of Urbino – moment and live, utilize Joni – The Dukes of Urbino – right and wrong, power Eija- the roof of Uffici – art and knowledge, happiness Reporters from the Future session: Tiina, Olli, Sirpa-Liisa and Eija were ready to study deeper the Florence – 10 pictures for the cooperation and openness with the “orange mystery camera”.
We started by taking the picture from open kitchen and the team behind of our delicious meal. In addition to that we found the flag of European Union, in cooperation with another team we got our team picture and also so called tabula rasa picture for possibilities and openness. Water and the bridge combines, Lama Wine developed cooperation and openness – after a cup of coffee and grappa we were open, cooperative and lucky people sitting together in heart of Florence. And we were ready to do and hear the presentations. Trattorio Il Pallottino offered us real Tuscan dinner in Tuscan atmosphere. Since its opening in 1911 visitors and local have been able to eat and drink by Tuscan way in the city of Florence. The noise of our discussion reached, I suppose, the Tuscan standard. To hear, to see, to smell and to feel the Renaissance – we managed it – thanks to Paolo, Monica and Orsola