THE QUEST FOR THE BUSINESS HERO: Alessandro Farina

Ethics, sustainability, creativity: these are the values that Alessandro Farina, founder of ITL Group, aims to spread by founding Atlas World.
In this community, the Hungary-based Business Heroes join forces in order to make the world a better place.

We interviewed Alessandro Farina to learn more about his history and his expectations for the future of the society. Read the article or watch the interview here!

The prize for the winner is the Atlas Award, the annual price since 2019 for the competition winner. 

We also interviewed Michele Orzan, President of EuCham, Gabor Marton, a Peak-performance coach who works in Finance and Business, Gabor Levai, Entrepreneur, Economist and Coach, Omar Balducci the Sales Director Central and Eastern Europe Lucart Group and Lucart Kft Spokesman, and Luigino Bottega, coach and author of “IO – how to win the game of life”.

1. Please introduce yourself (who you are, what you are doing, what is your profession…)

Hi everybody, I am very pleased to be here with you today. I am Alessandro Farina, I’ve been living in this country for the last 30 years. I was coming at the age of 24 to Hungary, so I was one of the young guys in this country and let’s say one of the few that have remained with love, with pleasure, with passion, and I could develop my profession in this country. So after I started as an intern with an English consulting group, I’ve moved to a second English consulting company and then I have started my own business. Since then we have been growing and enjoying working in this market and providing services to international companies in the field of tax and legal accounting, HR and so on. 

It’s a country that gave me the pleasure to try out myself to make a lot of experiences, meet a lot of people and every morning I wake up with the joy of coming back to my office and look and expect what’s next. In this philosophy and this field we are also pleased to be the finder of the new project that we are going to talk about, that is the “Atlas World”.

2. Let’s start with an easy game of word association. What comes to your mind when I say “business”? And what comes to your mind when I say “hero”? There are no wrong answers!

The definition of business is not an easy one; because it is a very common word that has been used in a way too much, but without always thinking about the meaning of it. I would say that business is creating values, it is creating values for the business society and for the society that we’re living in. 

So, it’s something that is well done, is well presented, when it creates and satisfies needs for the business society, for the society itself. So, it needs to be useful for people. 

And therefore it’s something that is constantly changing, because every year people are reinventing, redefining the values, using creativity, sustainability. 

It is very often about ethics. It’s changing according to the needs of the market and people are perceiving. 

And each one of us is doing it in a different way, and is doing that according to their own characteristics and character. Very often business is associated immediately with money, I would say that money is the consequence for a good business, but cannot come as the cause or the principle of it. 
Hero, that is the second word that you mentioned, is something completely different, not so easy to link to the word business, because we always have the imagination of the hero like somebody that is flying, arriving and saving the world, so they are protector, is somebody that is taking care of the others without any personal benefit. This is the key of the hero. The hero is not being paid to be a hero. They believe in what they are doing and they do it for a good cause. So, it’s a very interesting profession if you want to see it from this point of view. And I would say that the world always needs heroes around.

3. Now, let’s combine them together…what do you think is a business hero?

That is always an interesting and tricky question because the combination of business and hero gives a new picture that is very often still missing. Business heroes are those people that are able to combine their skills, their business skills, but with a very strong impact on the future of our society. As we were mentioning, the hero is somebody that is protecting, somebody that has the call to save the world or to make our world better, a better place. And the business heroes are those people that will make a better place. We see more and more of these examples coming up in redefining what is needed and leaving a fantastic message to people, to the next generations to come. For example, in 2019  when we launched the first Atlas Award, we wanted to represent, to give our recognition, for the first time in our project, to the business hero. And the business hero we chose was a fantastic lady, an entrepreneur, who was able to represent all those values that we strongly believe in. So what we want now for the future is creating a community of those people that we love to call business heroes, that have a deep feeling about what the values of the society will need for a better future.

4. Every business person goes through a journey: when did you hear your call, and how did your journey start?

I think that my journey started a long time ago, as you can imagine, once I decided to try my own destiny and to build my own business. That was back in 1995 when I decided to set up the company. In my case, I think that the background where I come from made it easier to feel, to hear the call, because I come from a family of entrepreneurs, where everybody in the family, from father and mother side, cousins, uncles, whoever, was creating and doing its own destiny in its own setup of business in completely different fields. So one day I realized that my moment was there. I had to build and to go and to try for my own adventure. 

I thought that Hungary was a wonderful place for me to do it, so I was able in this country to try out all my skills, all my mistakes too, I have to say. But it was a learning-by-doing experience, that went on and on and it’s still not finished, of course, that I really do with big love. So, the call was a kind of natural call in my case, and when you feel it is absolutely fantastic. It gives you that energy adrenaline that you never lose during the whole way. And of course, the promises are not missing.

5. Which obstacles did you encounter during your journey?

Probably the question is “Which non-obstacles did you encounter during your journey?”, Because obstacles are basically daily obstacles. Of course some of those are very small, some of them are real challenges, but even the small ones sometimes look like giants or like a mountain. And that depends very much, of course, how you start your day; you’re not always with the “top” powered energy, and so sometimes you also feel the small things as “Oh my God, what should I do?”. I have to say that from this point of view, sometimes you need to think about. Maybe you find the answer the next day or a week later, and very often you look around. So, none of us always has all the answers in their own pocket. And so, we need to digest the problems and look at the obstacles with a kind of cold distance. And to look around who was able to solve already such obstacles, and inspire each other or ourselves from the experiences of other people who did it the right way. And once again, there’s no right receipt for that, so I went through a lot of obstacles, with a lot of mistakes, and a lot of good learning out of them. In Hungarian they call it the “Tanulópénz”, so it’s the money of learning, because each mistake always costs energy and sometimes financial resources but that’s such a great way to go through and to feel stronger every obstacle that you cover and you go through. There is a moment in which it seems that nothing is scaring you in life because you went through, more or less, all of them. So, it makes you stronger. Everytime it gives you new challenges. Challenges very often give you a lot of new ideas, because the company was able to change, my business was able to change very often thanks to the obstacles. It was a moment of rethinking what I was doing, and with whom I was doing it. And very often new people joined, bringing fresh knowledge and ideas, helping me very much to go further. So unfortunately, obstacles are needed, that’s not easy to say but when there are no obstacles, something is not working.

So, we have to wait for them, we have to look at them and especially we have to learn from them. 

During these last three decades more or less, I realized that every more or less 5 years, that was teaching one of my uncles, you should look back and look at what has changed. And in a way that was true, because if I split down in 5 years pieces during this period, I realize that every 5 year I was reaching a kind of tipping point where I was not able to grow or to develop it further. So that was the moment when I had really to change what I was doing, or the way I was doing it, and that was the moment when new colleagues joined the company and thanks to their presence, so the value of the people and the people working with you is amazing, is a master, we were able to build further, and to develop it. So, the lesson is that without the right people next to you, it is very difficult to go further. 

One of the interesting things, for example, for us was that during the crisis in 2008, or during the covid, recently, those moments I was in a way scared, like probably a lot of you too, I mean, “what is going to happen? What is going to be in the future?”. There is a moment in which we get so many negative messages and so much pressure from the environment around us that we really have no clue what’s going to come. Those were the periods for example, to my very big surprise, that we were able to grow more in our activity, our business. “And why?” Well, we have been lucky for sure, I had the right people for sure, so all the right combination of elements  of course, is always an advantage. But it’s also true that in a moment when others were probably not pushing forward, or they were more conservative, we took a very positive enthusiastic approach. That was the moment when we have been probably more visible, even, to our clients, to the market, and helped us a lot to develop our activities. So I learned that fear is the mind killer, and that is one of the things that we very much believe, and people need positivity, and need trust to develop what they want.

6. Did you find a mentor or inspiring leader to help you go forward?

Yes, now the question is “what is a mentor?” or “what is a leader?”, because very often we think at names, that of course we can read them out but they’re not close to us. I am inspired by lots of these people, in each one of them probably by one piece of what they were able to create, to develop. But I prefer to look at the people closer to me. 

I still remember in 2006 or 2007 more or less, a very good friend of mine that has worked with me for several years, a little bit older than me but just by the age, not about his character. He was the one that convinced me to change the office where we were working, and it seemed like small things but we went from a very tiny, old-stylish place to where we are now. And that was a brave move with a very heavy economic impact. This happened in 2007, with the crisis of 2008 coming next. 

So I was a little bit scared as you can understand, because I still had to digest the whole change, but he was very much present during this period, next to me, and we did absolutely great together in the situation. So, I think that we need to always find the best part of the people around us, because there is always a lot to learn by listening. And I don’t believe that we always have to look for the biggest names in the world to be inspired, but we have to look with different eyes around us.

7. What important lessons did you learn, and what is your contribution to society?

The two things that are not probably going to be together, the lesson I have learned is that I tried probably too many things. I tried out myself too many times, in the sense that I went from offering services, that is my main profession, and that is a business that I understand. 

I tried myself out in a production company once, and realized that I wasn’t understanding at all the economic cycle of the business. 

I tried myself out in other commercial activities, because during the last 30 years it happened that I entered into other business lines, and I failed a lot of times. 

But every time I entered with a lot of enthusiasm and passion in these activities. But I realized that sometimes I was a dreamer. So there is a moment where you have to learn yourself basically, and probably that is when they call the wisdom and the age are helping. Is to try to avoid those announced mistakes that are going to come. So, a lot of my failures in business terms have been wonderful experiences, because I loved and don’t regret them. 

But now I know what I should do again, and some of those I definitely learned the lesson. My contribution, our contribution to the society, when I say our I mean it as the lot of people that are working with me and believe in our company values. 

It is a kind of natural path for the company. We have profit and non-profit areas in what we do. By now we have separated completely, also from the internal definition “what for us the first and the second one?” The non profit area is not intended to be like a foundation or association, but where we put a lot of our energy and beliefs, in transmitting and transferring our knowledge in favor of the society. 

What do I mean by that? 

It is in 2008 for example, that we established the first newspaper in Italian language speaking about business for the Italian companies, Economia.hu. 

And that was an absolutely kind gesture to help entrepreneurs or people working in Hungary, to better understand the country. 

Then we realized in 2010 the database of Italian companies, because once again, nobody had a clue of what company was present. We wanted to facilitate them to network with each other and to have the chance to know each other, to help their presence once again, in this country. In 2015 we published a book that had been very much appreciated by the institutions of the two countries, in Italian of course, once again, that’s where we come from, we start especially with Italian business. 

But now we have become more international. 

Then in 2012 we established the Budapest Business Party, which has become the iconic networking party in Budapest. That was our answer to the crisis of 2008. Everybody was just giving negativity as a message and we wanted to give positivity. Then covid arrived, and we created the storytelling platform that is called “fear is the mind-killer” because lots of people were blocked by the fear of “Oh my God what should I do tomorrow?” “How should I go out?..” so we wanted to create the feeling of “Yes, we can’t avoid difficulties but let’s learn how to manage them”. 

And then we created in 2019 for the first time the Atlas Award, that was this award given to the common people, that are around us, so not necessarily from multinational environments, but good people that have to be taken as an example for a better society. And we very much believe that for the future we want to pride these people and recognize them, having them recognized by all of you. So we want to put them under the right spotlight to say “Hey, we have good people around us, let’s see them, let’s share with them, let’s understand their motivations, why they’re doing this for the society”. 

Then, unfortunately covid was coming, we could not make it again, we were going to restart it now. And now we created this “Atlas World”, that is the wish to create a community of like-minded people that believe in the values of ethics, sustainability and creativity, because we think that these three main words, are going to inspire, to create, to embrace those values that we very much believe in. 
And I have to say with satisfaction that in a very recent networking business breakfast full of Hungarian entrepreneurs, there were the three tematics to discuss, if they wanted to speak about the development of the business, challenges, or business integrity and management, the integrity of management. And with great satisfaction I saw that the large majority of the people decided that that was the area they wanted to talk about, because that is what they started to feel the need for, so business integrity is becoming more and more relevant to people that already developed their business but still have to strengthen, to change it, to create the right value in the company, and you need to speak about business integrity very much. So I would say that our contribution in that case is the creation of the right environment where like-minded people can meet. Because very often those people, maybe they have everything in their head, so they have those values that we were talking about, but they don’t find that place where to share them or other people to discuss about these topics. So we wanted to create a platform for them, to give more visibility to these people, especially these topics. It is like a business culture, like when you want to create a change in the business culture. So let’s put together these people, let’s use the positive energy for these people, let’s shake it together, and I’m sure that we will give a grateful contribution to the business society where we live for this generation and the next to come.

8. Atlas World is looking for business heroes with an Ethical, Sustainable, and Creative approach: can you think of someone that embodies these qualities?

Surely it is difficult when you have to make names, but as I mentioned I don’t want to make it too easy calling Ghandi or the big names of history. As I mentioned, I prefer to keep the example of people next to us who, in a way, are contributing to making a better society. 

If you ask me the question in this way, in my mind comes my cousin, she’s not here in Budapest, she is in Italy. I’ll tell you why: because I have the feeling that sometimes the new generation are thirsty and hungry for change, much more than our generation. My young cousin started her own business activity just one year ago, and she started in the field of sustainability, with sustainable products, bio products, but in such a way, in such a fantastic presentation and collection of products, that she has already been interviewed by several televisions and newspapers because she’s bringing a new fresh message, and a new business model I would call it also from this point of view. 

Of course I wish fantastic success for the development of what she is doing. 

So, everytime that we look at the business heroes that we have in front of our eyes I have in a way a kind of generational gap that I feel a little bit. Or you have a big entrepreneurs who reached the big success and once they reach they ask themselves what’s next, and that is the moment when they start to create something completely new, something that very often is in favor of the business society: something ethical, sustainable, they create their own foundations, they create lots of activities that are absolutely valuable and important for all of us. 

All we have, let’s say, the very young generation, and very often we look at the new start-ups, the new business, we see how much they are linked to sustainability, to ethics, to social impact, to inclusion, to a lot of those things that we are in a way now, trying to create the platform, to create the business community, to put together. So it will be very interesting to see which kind of business heroes we are able to include in this, so I’m very much looking forward to that.

9. Do you consider yourself a business hero?

Due to the fact that we are creating this whole project about the concept of business hero, let’s say that I dream of becoming a business hero, because I feel more and more the wish to do it. 

I consider myself a little bit a business hero, for all those activities that I have mentioned in favor of our business society. Of course you know it’s all drops in the ocean, pieces that are not really visible to the rest of the world and I don’t think that is the key point. I think that if, as always, each one of us makes its own contribution in a way or in another one, and nobody of us is perfect so I don’t wish to be seen as the “perfect man”, that’s not the point. I just think that if I will be able to keep this enthusiasm about projects, about creating the community, about continuously giving back to the business society what the environment is giving me, because if I get, I can donate, if I give I can receive, so yes, a little bit yes, I wish to be considered a little bit of a business hero, or at least, I hope so.