The Kind of Corporate Leader I Chose to Be

“I looked for the model of leader I wanted to be and then I found it. When I moved from the role of General Manager to that of President and CEO, I understood that I would have to be an example, a model for others. It wasn’t about being presumptuous, but I simply wasn't the number 2 anymore, who had to look to the CEO as a reference and report to him. In the future I would now set the example and I had to set it my own way. I had to be a source of inspiration for my colleagues. I think it was an important choice to make because it could also prove useful for younger people," says Silvia Bagliani. President and CEO of Mondelez Italia, she joined what was then called Kraft Foods in 1997. Ms Bagliani followed a path of career continuity until she became Managing Director of Mondelez Italia, but there was no lack of previous experience in other professional organizations such as Henkel in Paris and Reckitt Benckiser. Today, she contributes to mentoring programs, both internal and external to her group (including Bocconi's CEO Connect), but she quietly admits that the first six months in her new role of CEO were not easy: "I was looking for a leadership model different from the male one I had known up to that moment, even in an open and forward-looking company like a North American corporation can be, where I did not experience gender prejudice," explains the manager. “I understood I had to reveal personal traits of mine that hadn't previously emerged. I was thinking, for example, about creating a more communicative and partly informal ecosystem inside the corporation. But more in detail, I decided to experiment with the short week. In 2022, I was thinking about how to truly strengthen corporate wellbeing and then I made the unusual decision to introduce short Fridays, with working hours until the lunch break, without having to take time off for the remaining hours. This is still what happens today."

The President and CEO of Mondelez Italia, born in Milano and mother of two children, does not deny that sacrifices must be made to find one's path. Sacrifices are made but they must make sense to each one of us. Passion can and must coexist with work on the job, too. This is what she reminds the younger women who, perhaps, believe that only outside the professional environment can they live their personal inclinations. Bagliani remembers having made "gut" choices, always seeking the difficult balance between career and family. “There are still only a few women in top positions in companies and family balance cannot rest only on women’s responsibility. My luck? An understanding and supportive husband, who worked in the same sector (FMCG) as me; we managed to share the most burdensome moments and both have our careers."

What she was clear about her path right from the start was that she wanted to give voice to her communicative nature; it is no coincidence that she studied languages during high school. "Through languages I could indulge my spirit of enterprise and curiosity," the Milanese executive recalls today. She started working in trade events already during her high school studies and was an exchange student at a US high school. However, she ended up at studying management "not out of initial passion. I chose Bocconi after canceling all other possibilities. But those studies ended up projecting me even deeper into the world of work. In my first experiences, I also covered positions in sales but I soon realized that I wanted to be a brand manager. My world would be marketing and consumer analysis," adds Ms Bagliani, who has a degree in Business Administration from Bocconi University, with a specialization in marketing.

So you have to make choices and sacrifices but always on the basis of your personality and above all – advises the chief executive of Mondelez Italia – "without self-limiting yourself, learning to not always feel unprepared in the face of the overall burden which, between family and work, can be truly demanding."