Alessandro Bertoldi: “Before asking, it is necessary to give!”
The entrepreneur from Cuneo, who has made the care of human resources and good training a reason for living with the brand “EVE”, reveals his philosophy
Born in 1968 in Cuneo, Alessandro Bertoldi is an entrepreneur who can legitimately be defined as having a long history. “Long” for the multiple experiences gained in various product sectors; “long” for an innate universalistic capacity for success, which has ranged from Italy to Spain, passing through the former Yugoslavia and Malta, especially between 2014 and 2016.
He is a “citizen of the world”, as he likes to define himself, raised on bread and work by separated parents, at a time when divorce was still a heresy, and fascinated by a multiculturalism cultivated in his free time, between swimming, tennis and enduro, especially in his beloved Côte d’Azur, where he perfected his use of the French language.
Nicola Zanni: “In Zug, if you want and work hard, you get everything”.
From his father’s business in Milan to the status of commercial agent and financial promoter (1992), the step was more than short, as was his rise in the professional field.
Already a sales manager, first in advertising, then in the telecommunications sector (1996), it didn’t take long to turn his professional attitude around, starting in 2002 as a management consultant and business organization, as a deep connoisseur of individual performance within the dynamics of the group, to set up his own business in 2006 on the push of a strong vocation.
In March 2016, a momentous step: the establishment, with his wife Ana Alvarez and the owners of a client company, of Elite Academy Srl, a company that as a family they will fully acquire at the end of 2019 and that embodies their flagship in the field of education, with offices currently in Florence, Perugia, Seville, Belgrade, Podgorica, Sofia and Valletta.
He says about himself: “I am in charge of revolutionizing the world of human resources in small and medium-sized companies, i.e. between forty and one hundred employees, where people are the center of my attention, creating conditions for the evolution of human potential. My team is composed of temporary managers and multidisciplinary and multicultural consultants, able to work with all kinds of individuals from different ethnic groups, cultures and religions.”
In December 2016, just before creating together with current partner and friend Misa Pavicevic the companies Restart Enterprise, Elite Balkans and Sport Success Academy, respectively in Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria, there was the publication of a book drafted by six hands together with life partner Ana Alvarez and “historical” mentor, Antonino Puglisi. The evocative volume is entitled “La Visione” (The Vision), faithful testimony of a career projected to get the best from himself as well as from others…
Full video, “The secret gateway to Switzerland”
On LinkedIn you often come across “EVE Elite Value Exchange” content. How would the founder, Alessandro Bertoldi, describe this reality to someone who knows nothing about it?
“EVE is a place where entrepreneurs, professionals and managers can meet, evolve and increase their knowledge through the skills of other participants, which are made available online and offline; online through special webinars and offline by promoting the meeting between these three categories of people, in which EVE is the denominator. We try to make sure, for those who have specific skills in the proper management of business, to make them available to the market that is looking for them, favoring the contact”.
What are the long-term goals of this network of companies and professionals, at the moment only virtual?
“EVE has the ambition to become the reference point of knowledge and its dissemination among people who share values such as freedom, respect, solidarity and trust and generating the right economic return for those who are part of it.”
Who is Alessandro Bertoldi and how does he earn his living?
“From a working point of view, I can define myself as a professional in the organization and enhancement of human resources within SMEs; the result of my work is to obtain more productive companies and happier people within them, starting from the entrepreneur and gradually spreading this philosophy to all areas of the company. Over the years I have become a ‘serial entrepreneur’, spreading the activities related to my profession in other countries, starting from Italy and exporting what I know in the Balkans (in all the states of the former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria), Malta and Spain; the next country of my interest is Switzerland, then France and Morocco. Finally, thanks to the many relationships developed in thirty years of activity and to my liberal and multicultural vocation, I work as a facilitator of relationships. So I earn my living by obtaining results from my clients, normally medium-sized family-run businesses”.
You have activities in Italy, Spain and Serbia: how do you manage a multinational entrepreneurial “empire”, in general and remotely, especially in times of pandemic?
“The historical period in which we find ourselves has on the one hand disrupted and on the other made my work easier: after a period of adaptation I was able to seize opportunities, EVE is one of them; having invested in previous years in the growth of my reference collaborators in Italy and the Balkans, I had the privilege of being able to focus on the design and implementation of this new initiative, which already sees many people of great value involved. More than an ’empire’ I have created a large network of relationships, where I put myself at the disposal of those who wish to take advantage of the abundant opportunities that exist, finding the right people to do so, and then helping them to achieve what they want”.
The choice to move to Seville, which we know was dictated by reasons of love, how did it change your life. And why?
“After 25 years of work in Italy, facing first Malta and then the Balkans, allowed me to understand how many obstacles there are in living and working, today, in Italy; then together with my wife Ana in 2017 (met in 1993 and married in 2002, ed.) we decided to move to Spain (with their daughters Isabel, 12 years old, and Eleanor, 4 years old, ed.), where we observed first and then found that the services rendered to its citizens are qualitatively superior, in a more relaxed and pleasant climate compared to the Nation where I was born. My life has changed because instead of the car I started to use the plane and, now with the existing conditions, I can work very pleasantly from home. For these reasons I definitely say that my life has changed, for the better”.
What differentiates the network of “EVE Elite Exchange Value” from other similar ones existing in the world?
“Once we have identified the appropriate professionals to handle what is needed, we are also able to provide the Entrepreneur with a ‘Construction Manager’. Too often I have observed the failure in the management of professional activities in the company due to the poor ability to communicate with each other of the professionals involved or their inability to communicate effectively with the entrepreneur; here in EVE when we work we do it as a team, with strong benefits for the customer; finally, our professionals collaborate knowing that, before asking, it is necessary to give”.
How do you see the economy of the planet, and in particular that of Italy where you come from, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, when everything will be over?
“Will everything be over tomorrow? Without bringing up so-called ‘conspiracy’ theories, it seems to me, although my ability to observe is limited to about ten countries, that those who govern Italy are making entrepreneurs lose the desire to undertake and I observe a nation plundered under various aspects; I foresee, without a decisive correction of strategy, rather challenging times for everyone: first for those who have no real protection and, finally, also for those who today feel safe; but I hope I’m wrong”.
What was the greatest satisfaction you took with “EVE Elite Exchange Value”, the most bitter disappointment and what, instead, was the biggest surprise?
“Seeing professionals accustomed to working individually make themselves available to others; not being able to make many professionals involved in the initial phase understand how necessary it is to ‘give before asking’; immediately finding the interest of many entrepreneurs and managers in our initiative.”
What human resources does your organization make use of and what are the qualities that are most present in your collaborators and that you are looking for, also taken individually?
“We make use of traditional Professionals, such as Lawyers, Accountants, Labor Consultants and non-conventional ones such as Trainers, Coaches, Organization Consultants and others, who normally have a strong verticalization of their skills, coordinated precisely by a Project Manager who coordinates the activities rendered to Customers; there is also a priority aspect, in fact, if the competence has become “Commodities” there is an aspect, the behavioral one, that in my opinion makes the real difference, today; for this reason our Professionals have a high level of empathy, an element that I believe, alone, is worth the ‘Ticket Price'”.
What is your relationship with Switzerland at the moment? Has your opinion of this country changed over time?
“For my generation Switzerland has always represented an example of organization and efficiency; today in Europe I think it’s the only country where whoever governs, at a federal or cantonal level, clearly has the citizens’ interests at heart; I hope, with time, to be able to start my activities in Switzerland and to create the conditions so that my daughters, if they want, can become citizens, thank you!”
