We only recruit sensibly mad people - Christmas 2008 Edition

Here's what Value Partners' founders wrote to all employees this evening.

Dear friends,

Eid Al Adha Holiday had just passed, Christmas and Hanukkah are around the corner, and Chinese New Year is soon to come: our warm wishes for joyful days in the arms of your families.

For once, nothing mad about it, just very sensible.

Let me wish the same to you all.

We only recruit sensibly mad people - Calcetto Special Edition

A collective edition, for our fans.

Not only do we recruit them, but we get them to do sensibly mad things together, too!

This edition is a tribute to the Value Partners official 5-a-side football team, put together by Capitan Melani for the prestigious Champion's Chip. Despite incredibly poor fitness levels, no clue on roles and tactics (there's 25 of us in the team, and 5 playing at a time!) and no training whatsoever, we are at the top of the scoreboard after two matches! Two solid wins against two of the strongest teams in the league!



To prove we are truly sensibly mad, Foscarina played as goalkeeper for the first half of our second match, replacing injured No.1 Valerio. Not only did she emerge unscathed (yes, we finished the first half up 3-0), but was also nominated "player of the week" by the authoritative (?!) Zabetta dello Sport!



Will the record hold after tonight's match!?


Disclaimer: I am a proud member of the team, with no impact whatsoever on performance. That's a good thing, because I am useless! ;-)

In the digital age, does censorship work?

Campaign by Telefono Donna against women abuse.



Censored by the Milan local council, blogged all over Italy

I guess more children have seen this because the campaign was censored than if fifty posters were put up on walls around Milan

Thank you my friends

As quickly posted on Facebook, I have been seriously overblown by the number of people who have wished me a happy birthday via calls, SMS, e-mails, wall posts, messages, etc. Seriously, I am flabbergasted!

Here's my personal sign of gratitude to (in some-sort-of-random order): Andrea B, Marzia, Dino, Silvia O, Valeria L, Matteo V, Laura G B, Giulietta, Daniela, Lalla, Luciana, Dido, Anna, Stefano, Paola (Z), Katrin, Micol B, Titta, Grazia, Gioia, Pitta, Lucia, Elisa, Davis, Alberto, Marta, Alexia, Sophie, Lesley, Barbara, Fausta, Ann-Katrin, Carlo, Benedetta, Gianmaria, Pietro, Paul, Mino, Davide, Ivan, Alessia, Agostino, Fabrizio, Giulia, Alessandra, Ico, Cristina, Papa', Mamma, Michele, Lora, Andrea, Matteo, Sylvi, Nonna M, Nonna I, Ila, Ans, Ga, Alessia&Ugo&Max, Federica, Pier, Alberto, Enrico S, Anna M, Stefano S, Tina, Valentina C, Monica, Manuela, Mirko, Micol, Karin, David, Renata, Titti, Bruno, Marco, Vivi, Fabri, Fucka, Robi, Raffi, Chiara, Valeria B, Akim, Taia, Maddi, Andrea S, Luca B, Andrea aka Antonello, Ilker, Elena, Ilan, Luca G, Carlina, Ada, Gio, Amandine, Pia, Carlottina, Filo C, Mati, Mattia, Ale, Valentina, Chicco, Bea, Michele Z, George, Andrea FDA, Valerio, ...and all those who called before 4pm (the ones that really cared) but disappeared from the BB's memory, because that damn device works on chronological not emotional memory :-(

A special thought goes to those who forgot and regret it ;-)

We only recruit sensibly mad people - 2008 Retreat Special Edition II

Ladies and gentlemen,

Please welcome Nicoletta, winner of the "Showgirl of the Decade" award at the VP 2008 Med Retreat @ Djerba.

On the way to dinner, the microphone in the last bus soon gets hijacked by a handful of wannabe singers. After some not-so-inspiring attempts, Riccardo Monti takes the scene with his memorable O'Sole Mio. At this point, Nicoletta grabs the microphone, and begins a world-class show..."Liza Minnelli is nothing!"

Full coverage of the event - including full versions of the songs and the heartbreaking confessions - exclusively on VP Inside. But don't despair - a glimpse at the Night of the Oscars @ Djerba is soon to be shown on these screens.

We only recruit sensibly mad people - 2008 Retreat Special Edition

(The first of a series from the 2008 Med Retreat @ Djerba.)

Riccardo Monti, Director of Value Partners, in a memorable performance of O'Sole Mio, co-starring Laura Cattaneo with cameos from (in order of appearance) Tina Guiducci, Valentina De Luca, Paolo Marinelli, Enrico Schiappacasse, Enrico Lanzavecchia. Amazingly, this was recorded on the way to dinner, before having any drinks.

Note the impeccable 2nd verse, too often forgotten by pseudo-experts of Neapolitan folk songs. Paraphrasing a famous Italian movie from the 1980s, "Pavarotti is nothing".

More to come...which ones and how many depending on how many personal threats to my life and career I receive in the coming days ;-)

Beatrice Borromeo - Bruno Vespa 1-0

(in Italian)

In un'intervista rilasciata alla Stampa, Beatrice Borromeo dice la sua su Porta a Porta, oltre che su diversi programmi d'informazione tv:

«Ridicolo. All’estero lo prendono in giro. È privo di qualsiasi dignità. L’episodio di Vespa scambiato da Berlusconi per il “dottor Fede” è significativo. Il conduttore mette a proprio agio al di là della verità, non ponendo mai obiezioni per amore della poltrona. Per questo i politici vanno lì e non da Santoro: sanno che non gli succederà nulla. E questo, giornalisticamente, è inaccettabile».

Bruno Vespa risponde a stretto giro, citando i grandi apprezzamenti per Porta a Porta ricevuti da diversi politici e disprezzando l'opinione di Beatrice Borromeo in merito:

«Beatrice Borromeo - che passerà alla storia della televisione come fugace valletta di Michele Santoro - ha avuto il privilegio di un’ampia intervista alla Stampa. La signorina dice a proposito di Porta a porta: «Ridicolo. All’estero lo prendono in giro. È privo di qualsiasi dignità». Pochi giorni fa, alla Venaria di Torino, Josè Maria Aznar, già carismatico primo ministro spagnolo, ha lodato Porta a porta definendola la migliore trasmissione europea del suo genere e rammaricandosi che altri Paesi, a cominciare dal suo, non la imitino.

Era presente la presidente del Piemonte, Mercedes Bresso, che potrà confermare (in realtà negli anni scorsi la seconda rete della tivù pubblica francese importò il format di Porta a porta nel programma “Un’ora per convincere” in cui sfilarono i grandi di Francia). Aznar chiese espressamente di essere invitato a Porta a porta durante una sua visita ufficiale e lo stesso ha fatto il primo ministro rumeno che verrà in ottobre in Italia. Yasser Arafat e Simon Peres si incontrarono a Porta a porta per l’ultima volta.

Lascio al lettore, dunque, il commento sul cinguettio della giovane e promettente valletta, troppo innamorata di Santoro per poter snebbiare il suo cervellino e impegnarlo in una ricerca prima di esprimersi.»

Beatrice non molla e gli risponde per le rime:

«Ho detto che non mi piace Porta a Porta perché è sempre al servizio dei politici, anziché dei telespettatori, e che un programma come quello sarebbe impensabile in una televisione pubblica estera. E Vespa che fa? Tenta di smentirmi rivelando che un politico straniero, il "carismatico" Aznar, gli chiese espressamente di essere invitato. Appunto: piacerebbe ai politici di tutto il mondo poter disporre, com'è per i loro colleghi italiani, di un salottino comodo comodo dove pontificare senza una domanda scomoda. Purtroppo per loro, all'estero non si usa.

Sono infatti i giornalisti stranieri, e non i politici, che trovano ridicolo un programma d'informazione con serate dedicate ai formaggi, alle gambe delle donne o all'Isola dei Famosi. Che quando condannano Previti in primo grado sulla Sme, fa una puntata sul Viagra. Ricordo solo il commento della corrispondente in Italia del Nouvel Observateur, Marcelle Padovani, intervistata da Sabina Guzzanti nel film Viva Zapatero: "Io sono incapace di raccontare Porta a Porta. Non riesco a sintetizzare che cos'è Porta a Porta per il pubblico francese, perché non c'è l’equivalente, non c'è un personaggio che gestisce una tale quantità d'informazione di potere, non esiste". Anche un cervellino annebbiato capirebbe che questo non è proprio un complimento.»

Non mi risulta una contro-replica di Vespa. Ha meglio da fare che dibattere sulla qualità di Porta a Porta con una ventenne? O ha capito che ha ragione Beatrice?

Io propendo decisamente per la seconda. Viva Bea che, avendo la possibilità di dire certe cose, le dice chiare e tonde (anche se a volte potrebbe smussare un po' i toni, no?!).

Da non perdere anche la lettera aperta a Bruno Vespa pubblicata qua

(Disclaimer: conosco Bea e spesso non la pensiamo allo stesso modo. Stavolta si.)

Codice Internet

(in Italian)

100% agree on the premises, can it make a difference?

Yes, we can?

We only recruit sensibly mad people - Part III

After Federica and Foscarina, here's Alessia - another brilliant example of how smart professionals suddenly reveal odd sides of their personality.


Here's her story.

I had been working late one Sunday night, and had a 9am meeting on the Monday morning. The only way to be sure I did wake up in time was to ask my team member Alessia to call me in the morning. I sent her an SMS (sorry this doesn't work very well in English)

"Assicurati che sia sveglio max alle 8" (Make sure awake max at 8am)

A minute later, in the middle of the night, I receive an SMS.

"Chi e' Max?" (Who is Max?)

No comment.

PS Baby Max is expected in August, congratulations to Ugo and Alessia!

You, this blog's surprising audience

It all started in mid-April...this blogging thing looked like fun. Quite frankly, I didn't have a plan, nor any expectations. What should I post? Would anyone read this, and why? Did it make sense to tell all my friends to look at it, only to lose their interest after the first visit? How many people would actually be interested?

After 7-8 weeks, I find the stats from Google are quite surprising...you are a real audience! Here's a snapshot of you, the 227 people who visited up to this moment.

• You visited 434 times, viewed 782 pages and spend on average 2.59 minutes reading this
• You came from 20 countries across the globe: Italy (obviously), various European countries (from Spain to Hungary, from Turkey to Sweden), US (from California to Massachussetts to Texas), Latin America (Mexico, Brazil and Argentina) and Asia (China, India, Singapore, UAE)
• You often came by clicking on links to here (FaceBook, LinkedIn and other blogs) but a surprising number typed the address by hand, and 50 of you found this on Google

Now, here's the scoop. 55 of you have visited more than 10 times! This blog has a loyal audience! Who are you?!?!? Please don't be shy, leave a comment...I'm dying to know!

Brechin Place SW7 vs. Via Savona 20144

Random friends knocking on the window to say hi? Twenty times in a weekend, around the clock, literally!?!
That didn't happen since the good ol' times at Brechin Place!

Brechin Place today...not-so-different from 10 years ago!

Thanks to Design Week and to:
- David
- Debs
- Teo
- Andrea
- Cecilia
- Andrea
- Anna

- Luca
- Pietro

- (who else?! can't remember...)

We only recruit sensibly mad people - Part II

Here's Foscarina. During her working day she's a smart resource of VP's R&I office...then transforms into multiple personalities! In the picture above she's enjoying the Germany 2006 World Cup Final in Berlin. Notice her sober attire and attitude: a true example of Olympic spirit?

Blogging lesson with Zampe (aka funkyprofessor)

Here's Zampe (aka funkyprofessor) acting as a blog teacher....doesn't he look like a real one?!

We only recruit sensibly mad people

Federica Friz is one of the latest recruits at VP, boasting and excellent CV and an MBA at INSEAD.

Just before joining she anticipated she would be spending a week in Guadeloupe...what she did't say is that she was filmed, broadcast on Sky and published on YouTube...roughly 2.30 minutes into this video you can see her introducing herself, and then getting involved in all sorts of interesting (!?) sports.

(in Italian)

UPDATE: Here's Fede's profile...have a look at her sporting preferences!

The glorious picture people keep asking me about (Croatia 1998?)

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1614171&id=663815202