Stefano, who never forgets to give his clients a gift
"Organizing an event for a Chinese client means that you have to make an impression: everything must look showy, the food must be amazing and – very important – there should always be gifts. Gifts have such a symbolic value that I've had to cut a part of an event's production budget just so I could have a bigger budget for purchasing gifts." This is the China which Stefano Ritella has been working in since 2006. He graduated in 2004 from Bocconi with a degree in Business Administration and a specialization in Business Consulting, and after a work experience at Deloitte he left Italy for Shanghai. "As soon as I arrived I started studying Chinese. It was during the language course that I met the woman who I would eventually marry: a Dutch woman with Chinese origins. We've chosen to make our family here: we have a two-year old girl and my wife is expecting our second child."
After living in China for a few months, Stefano Ritella registered HLD Events, an event planning and video production agency which has offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore. He manages the agency himself, supported by a team consisting of Chinese and other professionals from abroad, though he founded the agency with a friend from Bocconi, a Chinese, and an American. "It was quite easy to get started: China was like an open frontier, with plenty of space for many new ideas. Today the situation has changed, because costs have risen and to get ahead you need to be very skillful at offering top quality at moderate prices."
It's increasingly difficult for entrepreneurs to find new market niches to fill, yet Stefano Ritella believes that the creative sector can still offer opportunities: "there are only a few places that are searching for candidates with creative know-how, and professional schools which train product managers specialized in the events sector are practically nonexistent. This is why we often have to train the young people we hire; to make the most of the time used for training, we try to encourage a long stay in the company." This is possible also because the Chinese regulations regarding work contracts offer good guarantees for workers and flexibility to entrepreneurs. "In any case, we tend to recruit people through word-of-mouth and personal relationships or through websites like www.creativehunt.com, which showcases potential candidates from all over the world." Ritella admits that he misses Italy's bella vita, but in China he has discovered opportunities which allow him to look forward to the future, beyond China's borders: "I'd like to see the agency expand into Southeast Asia, but also into Korea, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand."
Stefano Ritella is one of the over 500 Bocconi alumni present in China - where on March 11, in Shanghai, will be held the 4th edition of the Bocconi Alumni Global Conference.
Click here to learn more about the Bocconi community in China and read the stories of other alumni living there.