Thats me...

Professionally, I am a senior consultant and work/live in Luxembourg and Bielefeld. I was born and raised in East Westphalia, Bielefeld, Germany to great parents who emigrated from Sicily. I am a father of 3 children. More private details are not relevant. 

 

I left home at an early age. I spent a large part of my life learning. Picking up theoretical knowledge and putting it into practice, while continuing to simply educate myself. Of course, there was also a private life for me, far from books, social contacts to maintain.  

 

I studied economics and then postgraduate studies in business psychology in Frankfurt, Berlin and Rome. It was a good time. Learning - working - living - learning - working - living... In all three areas I was one thing: observant. I was always interested in dynamics and processes, causality - cause/effect. In technical issues and in the interaction of people with each other - especially if it was not harmonious.  

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My stations in the profession were in the sectors Finance (dual studies / Economics, Frankfurt), eCommerce, eMarketing, (during this time was the further study of business psychology) Human Resources, Food & Beverage. The last sector has always suited me, since my childhood. 

 

I could apply my knowledge and experience to different management levels in these sectors. My attitude towards Leading? A person who is too shy not to understand the work of the base will always take the easy way out in times of crisis, looking at people like numbers, but he will never be able to build a real relationship with his team, to consider that the easiest solution will probably be the most expensive solution. 

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That's probably one reason why I was an interim manager for many years. My demands were simple: I will come if the job is designed in a socially acceptable way for the team. Hire and fire is anything but a first option. That's probably why I specialized in the areas of transformation, restructuring and turnaround processes. I have proven that several times. What could be better than receiving a thank you after a job from 386 people who had put in the work beforehand, because they were directly involved in the transformation processes without any hoopla? Transparency is the key word:

Where are we now? Where do we want to go? What do we all have to do to get there?

No one is left behind. Sounds trite, sounds so military, martial. Anything but that, I promise. It helps immensely and mobilizes enormous forces. 

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At the end of 2002, my last job was as an employee and crisis manager in a competence team. And the initial parameters shortly after the launch on September 1, 2001, changed abruptly 10 days later.  To stay cool and objective requires enormous resilience and even more empathy. In these 12 months I have learned a lot about people, when things don't run homogeneously, when fear takes hold and when a management team resigns. Nevertheless, we managed the turnaround. Maybe it was my carefree nature. Perhaps because I have the gift of looking at the situation nakedly, soberly and objectively, in order to recognize the beauty in it and see the opportunities that lie dormant. Why it was like that, I do not know. But I do know one thing, that with a secret of team sports we cracked the problem and won this competition. Which team sport secret it was remains unanswered for the time being. And the strategy actually worked out more than well. After that, it was clear to me: I wasn't going on to London, where the next job was waiting. I wanted to go back to the roots, back to the agriculture, back to Food & Beverage, packed my things and went to Italy to a monastery. No, not to drop out. No, to really get into it. It was the time of the Young Savages, who revolutionized the food sector.

 

I visited small craft enterprises that were unique in production and especially in finishing. Across Italy. Just moved me like a student, talked to competencies, from which emerged from the conversations names, manufacturers and their uniqueness. I wanted to get to know them. I wanted to explore the mystery of the craft, where I could see it with my eyes and feel the processes, the dynamics, the passion in it. But studying was also necessary. So I kept visiting the Slow Food University in Bra as a guest, sneaking in as a student and listening to the lectures. Crazy time. Sometime later I met Carlo Petrini in person. The encounter was unique. The conversation with him super. He suspected it quite greening. But I specialized in viticulture and completed another course of study at the A.I.S. to become a sommelier prof. Only I never wanted to become a winemaker, nor a wine merchant. I was interested in the Food&Beverage sector.

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After this productive sabbatical year I went back to Bielefeld, my origin. Bielefeld is magical. Who understands Bielefeld, understands the world. A lot of big brand choose Bielefeld as Test Market. And the region here has power through its people. One reason why the Roman Empire found the beginning of the end here. Human power is not to be underestimated. I had used up my savings and had to start again from the bottom. The high speed highway with the sleek race car under the butt exchanged for an ox cart and cobblestones, the mindset of a designer, a developer and a brain encrustation breaker. And each cobblestone represented a mistake I made, unconsciously, but that had to be made in order to feel life to the fullest and then bring back the experience gained when needed to help others. Just cobblestones, not a high-speed highway. Someone always carries the load. On my way, a truism helped me: "He who digs a pit for others, falls into it himself." And that was a behaviour that did not want to correspond with my identity. Not before and not in the future. 

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Everywhere I looked in my hometown after 20 years that I was away, I experienced resignation and drift into insignificance. The greed for money had gained the upper hand. The diversity in the gastronomic landscape in 2006 - meaningless - circle class. 

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I implemented here what I had experienced before and after, adapted and felt again: authenticity, passion and confidence in my own abilities. First, I helped a friend get his restaurant back on track. For free, without salary. In return, I wanted his kitchen after hours, for free. A barter deal. I produced homemade ravioli. The way I had learned to make it in Naples and sold it in the morning on order to the chefs of the region. That's how money came into the till. Then the Bar della Pace in Bielefeld. Always very crowded in the smallest of spaces, without a concession, just like back in the Prohibition era. Who was not known, had no admission. It went only on recommendation, who stood at the door, otherwise it was said: Sorry, we have a wine tasting, closed society. It was the time of my agency. I had a vision. And mineral water played a leading role. I took over the mandate for Lurisia Acque Minerali in 2006. No export business so far. Just the right brand. 

 

Then came the first real Osteria - the FabrikArt. It was a pub, lovelessly run. Until I came. And then it was IN. A cross-section of society. On weekdays an average of 150 menus were sold; on weekends 230 menus a day. My guests: A cross-section of society. Here I set the tone. Created space for social exchange and taught some guests manners again. Those guests who rely on status symbols and position, I have deliberately propped up the wings, without letting their face lose. How? I reminded them of what makes us human: "We are human beings and breathe the same air." There I showed that less can be so much more. And I invited the gastronomy to adapt elements of the concept, to interact with me and to integrate them into their processes. Some of them did. The third object was Nölkenhöner's Hof. A golf club gastronomy in Enger. That was a thick board that had to be drilled. I gave it half a season and my plan worked. Then came the Scuderia and the birth of my 2nd child. I was faced with the choice: gastronomy and not seeing the children grow up or pushing the agency business forward, giving up gastronomy, with a heavy heart. I decided pro family versus money. As before. Good decision.  What did I take away from this time? A lot of experience and the certainty that anything is possible if you take the daring step. It can work in Bielefeld, it can work in London, it can work in New York. 

 

I continued to look after our olive oil Tenuta Orto and the discovered spring Lurisia Acque Minerali, both of which I accompanied in parallel. Tirelessly until 2018, when Coca Cola knocked on the door. 88 million euros was the transfer fee. And I was allowed to make an enormous contribution to it. I'm proud of that. But it was also a time when I had to make a decision: return to management or continue my work with another product. I decided the latter was the better choice. 

 

Because transformation means restructuring and turning around and being able to create artificial chaos to get the flow back on track. Excuse me? That's right. Science calls it bionics. And until now, divisional thinking has often prevented us from thinking outside the box. That was the beginning 20 years ago after my "personal big reset" at the end of 2002. And I still enjoy my work in it, I know this industry very well in its structures, not only in Germany. 

 

The mental attitude for this career decision? Job done, next one please. Blunt. You have to be able to let go. This company still has to pay the exit fee. At some point, they will pay. A law of nature. 

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Today I am a business buddy to some entrepreneurs. I support them to find back to their visions, to work out the mission statements with them, simply because I am the mirrored truth. Quietly, without judgments. Sometimes we just talk about private problems. Not about markets, not about numbers, just human. Has a different character than saying: I am a counselor or psychologist. Who likes to go to a psychologist? Only, who really has real friends in these positions? There are only a handful of them. 

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First and foremost, I take care of my clients. This is my Job and i love my Job. They benefit from my in-depth experience with corporate strategies, product and market development, and human resources management. I think that my independent position allows me to see from a much more objective perspective, to outline, to plan and then to go into the implementation. 

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And a genetic disease at the beginning of 2020 has made me rethink. Functional in any case.  

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On this page, starting with 2023, I will finally write down piece by piece my impressions, experiences. Why? Knowledge wants to be shared! Experiences wants to be shared. If it helps you personally, because you can take something out, what is between the lines, it just stands to the context of your challenge, it helps you to take this hurdle, go ahead. Write me if you get stuck. There is one thing I do ask: respect the copyright of the author.  

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I am writing anyway about market developments, conduct interviews with visionaries of the industry, which I document and write as a ghostwriter.  

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Personally, I have been fascinated since childhood by the transformation from an industrial to a knowledge-based society, which drives my current studies and research, especially on functioning education and healthcare systems.  

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I don't consider myself an expert by any means, but even at 49, I'm still hungry for more knowledge and insights on the way to catching a glimpse of the Big Picture. 

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Or do you think you already know the entire Big Picture in detail? 

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Yours 

Salvatore