Driving digital transformation without leaving anyone behind
"I have always had the ambition to be a manager, but I knew that to succeed, what counts is half merit and half opportunity. This is why it is essential to enter contexts where merit emerges and opportunities are generated. For me it was Bocconi." Thus begins Barbara Cominelli, CEO for Italy of JLL (Jones Lang LaSalle SpA), a leading company in the services and management of real estate investments, in telling about the professional and training path that has led her to become one of the most influential top Italian managers. For a long time she was one of the very few women at the top in the digital sector and, today, in that of Real Estate.
How do you build a career as a CEO?
Everyone has their own path, but I would like to say that consulting is a step that for me was absolutely fundamental to acquire a strategic vision, get used to open-mindedness and change, learning to innovate through cross-fertilization of ideas and sectors, in line with what is done in universities. Personally, the experiences of strategic marketing and the role in operations were also very useful: managing 3000 people made me grow a lot in the management and motivation of large teams. Today all companies have a big theme on their agenda which is that of transformation, be it a digital revolution, a business change or a transformation to greener operations. The goal of managers in all sectors is to understand how large organizations and complex structures must be guided towards new models. All involving people, leaving no one behind, feeding a common vision, cutting the organization vertically, aggregating, in short, using your head and your guts and staying close to the team day-by-day. This is why I think that to prepare for CEO roles it is essential to also include "practical" experience in a business line and not just staff roles.
A final important aspect to take care of right away is the habit of thinking and working at two speeds. Whatever position one holds, there will always be short-term goals to be achieved and to be accounted for, but, as mentioned, also long-term goals for which the future must be planned in advance with vision.
In order to "leave no one behind", the issue of skills present in the company must also be addressed. In the digital sector that you are familiar with, the problem is particularly evident. Where do you start to catch up?
In Italy there is an evident mismatch between supply and demand for digital profiles; there is a need to create a pipeline that brings new digital talents to all companies capable of managing clouds, working on data, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and so on. At the same time, however, there is a strong urgency to upskill and reskill, that is, to update the skills of those who are already in the company. The ideal is when we are able to graft new skills on managers who already have 20 years of work behind them; for example, an expert marketing manager in the sector, thanks to digital, learns to do a sort of "augmented marketing". This upskilling exercise allows you to bring technology closer to those who use it and to provide them with a new toolbox to do their jobs better. While sometimes we describe technology as something inaccessible, complicated, as if innovation were reserved for only a few followers. In short, the situation requires skills, but also an overview. It is therefore right to encourage Stem degrees but I believe it is also essential to work on the requalification of skills.
Speaking of Stem degrees, the most recent data show that the gender gap in enrollments has narrowed. What is the situation in companies today and what initiatives can be implemented to eliminate the gender gap in the digital professions?
On Stem degrees we still have twenty years of poorly done marketing: we have been told for too long that they were men's subjects and we find it hard to get out of this stereotype. But things are changing and there are positive signs. In my opinion it is necessary to work more on the whole pipeline, from middle and high school. And we need to absorb some "hybrid" models from other countries. In Italy, for example, there are no educational programs that allow you to study philosophy and computer science together... but why? Giving the opportunity to mix disciplines would be very positive, it would help people acquire skills in both areas. Having said that, I am pleased to see that many female digital talents are emerging in companies because the use of technology is not a question of "gender". Furthermore, in all medium-large companies there is now the awareness that having a 50/50 population is a business priority and this is becoming not only a declaration of intent, but a direction foreseen in the operational plans, therefore with targets, deadlines, responsibilities and with a clear focus on three moments that remain critical: recruiting, retention and promotions.
The real estate sector seems to be among the most resistant: few women among top managers, very few among CEOs. How come?
It is true, it is not a particularly advanced sector from this point of view, but it is only a matter of time because it is a very attractive industry and which is faced with important challenges, first of all that of sustainability, because even today about the 40% of the total emissions come from the built ecosystem. It is an exciting transformative phase: the sector is opening up strongly to digital and technology will be a key enabler of the next phase of growth. Finally, the value of diversity, understood not only in terms of gender, but also of background, ethnicity, origin, sensitivity, skills, is also strongly asserting itself.
Where are we in the digital transformation process of the country?
The desire to do it is there and I am very confident that various initiatives of the PNRR will make us take a leap forward. However, if we look at the Desi index, Italy remains for now more or less at the same point, in the lower part of the European ranking. I believe that, together with investments in infrastructures, it is time to invest with the same conviction in skills and human capital, because in the long run we will be able to make the difference if we have talents capable of exploiting the infrastructures available. Otherwise, we will always be chasing others or getting dragged off by technical evolution.
Driving innovation or being overwhelmed ... is a never resolved but increasingly topical issue.
Technology is an enabler, like electricity. No one is afraid of electricity, but many are afraid of artificial intelligence. How come? Because we are unable to build a digital culture, based on the idea that technology is a tool, it must be governed: we must not only ask ourselves what technology can do, but what it must do, what we want it to do, thus building a long-term vision, outlining guidelines, programs and rules within which to run innovation.
From whom and where does this process begin?
I would like to make a "call to action" that involves the leaders. Curiosity, the desire to invent the future, the sensitivity to inclusion, the empowerment of new talents, the affirmation of a sustainable vision and a new capitalism, are all elements that must guide the action of a leader today. It is from them, from us, that the change starts. We are the ones who have to change the rules, the responsibility is ours. It also happens to me, on occasions when I find myself talking to young people, to encourage them by saying that the future is theirs, but this does not absolve me of the task of dedicating all my energies to preparing for them the best context in which to be able to make the difference.
Biography
A Bocconi graduate with 110 cum laude, and a graduate of the CEMS-MIM Master in International Management from Bocconi and ESADE in Barcelona, Barbara Cominelli (CEMS Senior Alumni 2021) has been CEO of JLL Italy since 2020. She has studied and managed important multicultural teams in Italy, UK, USA, Spain and the Netherlands before holding her current position. She was also Digital, Commercial Operations and Wholesale Director of Vodafone and Chief Operating Officer at Microsoft Italy. "But it all started right at Bocconi," comments the manager. "I remember the years there as an exceptional experience of extended study, that is of discipline but also of relationships, of student life (she was the student representative, ed.). It was a decisive moment not only to connect the dots, to cross-fertilize knowledge, but also to absorb the desire to always stay up to date and to be part of an international community. The experience of the Master in particular, which I did partly in Barcelona, is the one that made me feel truly European for the first time. Living in a "Spanish apartment", like the one in the famous film, I felt part of a larger community and I had the proof that we have many more - and more important - things in common than we have differences."