Here is Giulia! She is our intern and in the process of finishing her internship at Crossings People, remotely and totally locked down (till a few weeks ago) in Valencia, Spain.
Not originally from Spain, but from Italy, she landed herself in the Netherlands for the first part of her internship, starting on October 1st, 2019.
Online marketing, business planning and website development, there was a lot to do and learn, for all of us. Giulia’s presence and contributions accelerated the execution of the plan, broadened the horizon of our thoughts and lit up our offices at Spaces in the Hague. Whatever challenge popped up, her curiosity killed the cat (obviously well meant in this sense). She loves solving complex puzzles.
In January she decided to extend the internship with us, working from Valencia on the strategic business plan for Crossings People. Such a strategic business plan becomes even more strategic when it is your graduation thesis and when, of course on the side, you also decide to develop your sales skills and in addition, on top of that, want to learn how to set up a business in Spain. With the help of some amazing, genuinely interested teachers at the Universidad Europea in Valencia and supported by our online campaigns, Giulia is going where she still can go, while most doors are closed due to the total lock down in Spain.
Developing sales skills has become a purely online activity in these troubled times. Videocalls with clients, following up on campaigns, improving SEO ranking with Semrush, drafting proposals and last, but definitely not least, playing the corporate politics on the weekly update calls with our headquarter in The Netherlands. Somehow the Alicia Keys song, ‘Superwoman’ comes to our mind (https://youtu.be/-AphKUK8twg) and will probably continue to be associated by us with Giulia in the coming decades.
In the meantime she has become an expert on professionally collaborating on shared documents. With skills not inferior to legal professionals from famous companies like Broseta, Grant Thornton Spain and Andersen Tax and Legal Spain she continues to work on her strategic thesis, making a precise distinction between comments and changes in the text. It’s making us more efficient and effective in new ways of working.
Giulia needs to defend her thesis this July. Her focus on this one is very much in line with defence as it was employed by the Byzantine military, leveraged in medieval hillforts and concentric castles. The inner layers of defence will have to support the outer layers of defence with projectile fire. An attacker must breach each line of defence in turn with the prospective of significant losses, and the defender, by this we mean Giulia, has the option to fall back to fight again. Giulia is working on this, we fully support her (as a second line of defence) and we wish her teachers (the attackers) all the best. We trust it will deliver an extremely valuable process for all of us and are looking forward to the end result in June.
Are you now wondering what Giulia will bring in the coming months? We have no doubts that passable roads, even if they are unpaved, will be found by our dear colleague in Valencia. The lock down has not stopped her so far and will not stop her in the coming months. We wish Giulia and all Spanish friends a lot of strength and creativity in these exceptional times. By prevailing over all obstacles and distractions, one may unfailingly arrive at his chosen goal or destination, as pronounced by, Giulia's fellow countryman, Christopher Columbus (Genoa 1451). Born in Italy and sponsored by the Spanish he found new ways and blazed new trails. Fortunately, some things never change.
Her latest blog on ‘retaining top talent in times of crisis’ will be published soon. We suggest you keep an eye on Giulia in the coming decades.
In case you would like to (online) discuss executive search or interim assignment with Giulia in the areas of Strategy, M&A or Restructuring you can reach her on giulia.tegas@crossings-people.com.
As our local research analyst in Valencia she will gladly help you to find the right people; the people with a true passion for transformation.