As a Young Woman, Her Only Goal Was to Be Independent

“For years I was one of those people who had many interests but no special passion. After high school, my only clear desire was to build my own autonomy. I chose Bocconi betting on the open-mindedness it’d give me and the many doors it’d open for me. And I can’t say I was wrong. Even though I returned to live in Como…” Bianca Passera, president of the LarioHotels Group, ironically sums up a professional trajectory that led her to go through very different roles and sectors to finally return to her hometown and the family business. 

“After having filled my baggage of experience with all the trips abroad I could take as a student, I initially sought jobs in line with my studies, but those were the years of the advertising boom and that world exerted a much stronger attraction. I worked in advertising agencies in both Milan and New York until I felt the need, more or less at the age of 30, to ask myself if I really wanted to have children and a family, because that aspiration seemed incompatible with the life I was leading. It is totally a question of personal sensitivity. I know that being able to choose among many options is often a luxury many don’t have and I don’t expect my experience to be shared by everyone, but I know the fear that a woman can have at the idea of ​​managing both family and a professional life. I would like to reassure young women today that it can be done, however. You must not let yourself be frightened by difficulties that do exist, at least for the first few years, but we as women have unsuspected strengths.” The desire to start a family was accompanied by the decision to resign, return to Italy and accept the proposal of two partners to found a service and packaging company for designers together, relying on the genes for entrepreneurship present across the entire Passera family. "I wanted to create something on my own and be independent. Furthermore, I wanted to show the rest of my family, where there were already two entrepreneurially successful brothers, that I was capable of creating something, too."

Over time, Bianca Passera added the role of volunteer in Milan to that of mother and entrepreneur. That dimension grew until it turned into a new chapter of her professional biography with the creation of the Siticibo project, an association that redistributed excess food to the needy. "My experience in the not-for-profit sector improved me as a person and as a manager and taught me a lot, in addition to giving me time to travel, get to know the new boutique hotels that were spreading at that time and write about them in magazines and newspapers. This, together with the desire to help my brother in renovating the hotels, created the conditions for my return to the family business, which deals precisely with hospitality. It seemed like the right time to do so: the age of uncertainty had passed, I had gained a lot of experience and this gave me the confidence to be able to have my say and was more than aware of the pros and cons of working with the family.”

Today a fourth generation has entered the family company, bringing an injection of ideas and enthusiasm that has opened a new phase of growth for the hotel group and for the career of Bianca Passera who, with her nephew Luigi, has created the Vista brand, a top-of-the-range boutique hotel that brings luxury to cities where a suitable proposal is still lacking. “Today I feel I am in the right place,” concludes the manager. “I suggest to young women to have a little patience and also humility: you don’t know everything straight away and there is always a lot to learn. It’s all right to change your type of job. You have the right to do it, because you acquire important skills even by taking different paths that may seem apparently inconsistent. In reality, they help you open your head and heart to also take in what simply sits in front of you. Often, you understand what you want to do after the fact.”