The Managing Director of the group, Federico Ghizzoni, met with Bocconi Alumni during the fourth Dinner Speech at the Four Seasons in Milan.
With the long aftershocks of the crisis that weighs down the sector and with credibility at historical lows, discussing about banks and growth at this time is certainly not an easy task. Federico Ghizzoni, 55 years old, was able to do just that. Since September 2010 he has taken Alessandro Profumo’s position in the role of CEO of UniCredit Group.
The Guest Speaker at the Bocconi Alumni Association’s Dinner Speech, Federico Ghizzoni retraced his career, bringing into focus the difficulties and opportunities of the Italian economy and outlining the new identity of the UniCredit Group.
Two decades spent abroad, including London, Singapore, Istanbul and Warsaw, convinced Federico Ghizzoni of the importance and central role of the trade network and its power on local areas. With these experiences, he outlined three guidelines for the new UniCredit: a "service bank", ready to support clients, which contributes to the growth of the country’s economy and which can debate fearlessly with politics and unions.
Most of all, it is a bank which can give entrepreneurs courage, paving the way to new markets and seeking to combat the skepticism that Ghizzoni sees today as one of the main obstacles to the country’s economic recovery. First of all, said UniCredit’s Managing Director, the spirit of optimism that move economies elsewhere needs to be recovered. With this outlook, working on infrastructures and innovation is essential, with the objective of increasingly being the leading bank for the new Europe.
Ghizzoni’s challenge is also to attract talent from abroad, including Italians worldwide. This is what Piazza Cordusio focuses on: human capital. We want to rejuvenate the organization, he explained, introducing less specialists and more managers: smart, young people who know how to take chances, who are offered salaries in line with the market and who are first of all satisfied employees. Dialogue, transparency, fast decisions, on-site visits and the pleasure of serving clients: these are the main items on Ghizzoni’s agenda and his leadership style.
Getting ready to announce its 5-year growth plan in a few months, the group has placed strengthening its presence and relative strength index in Italy, which today weighs upon approximately 40% of total proceeds, among its priorities. In addition, there are objectives to recover market share and increase investment banking, which represents one of the UniCredit’s distinguishing features abroad (especially in project finance).
This is a considerable but challenging responsibility for a Group that, in the last 10 years, has always set itself apart with good intuitions, and which has 160,000 employees all over the world and 33 million active clients.
