Corrado Cimino, Country manager in Peru thanks to the MBA

FROM ENGINEER TO TERNA'S TOP MANAGER ABROAD: WHEN I STARTED EMBAWE I ALREADY HAD TWO DAUGHTERS AND I WAS TRYING TO CONVEY TO THEM THE IMPORTANCE OF THE INVESTMENT I WAS MAKING IN MYSELF, HE SAYS.

From electrical engineer to Terna's country manager for Peru. From Naples to Lima, passing through SDA Bocconi. The turning point forCorrado Cimino, 44, is contained in that EMBAWE he learned about in an almost fortuitous way, from an advertising banner on Il Sole 24 Ore, just as he was looking for a tool to invest in himself. But let's take a step back: "My training was purely technical," says the alumnus.

"I got an apprenticeship at Terna, and as I consolidated my career, moving to positions of regional responsibility and then to Southern Italy in asset management, I realized that I lacked the right tools for a role that was becoming more managerial. Above all, I did not see myself in any other business area and in any other position that was not, at best, that of my manager." Corrado felt a need, but having never even heard of a Master in Business Administration, he didn't know how to satisfy it.

"Until I read an advertisement in Sole 24 Ore, which promoted the EMBAWE formula, which would allow me to continue working." Corrado knew Enzo Baglieri and his team: "For me, especially at the beginning, it was a wonderful carousel, I couldn't believe I was part of it," he recalls. "I already had two daughters and I was trying to convey to them the importance of the investment I was making in myself. I succeeded, although at first it was strange for them to see a father studying at home."

Months of hard work "in which I experienced first-hand how much what I was learning in Milan completed me as a manager and how much, before the Master, it would have been reckless to go and claim positions in the company without that preparation." And since, as Corrado points out, "There is no luck, but only the moment when merit meets opportunity," the creation of a small 'emergency' within Terna was an opportunity for him. "In 2019, the need arose to identify a country manager for Peru. 'Who better than Corrado?' Thought the HR." They call him one afternoon, while he was in the car with his daughter, who was ten years old at the time: "she immediately told me to accept.

"In that moment, when they thought of me, I immediately glimpsed the possibility of putting into play all that new world of knowledge that I had learned. Furthermore, SDA Bocconi gave me inspiration and, as Mandela says, inspiration is needed to exceed one's expectations. Before the master I would not have had the courage to set myself certain goals. After that I was able to do it, to promote myself and to convince others to believe in me."

by Andrea Celauro