Her Story
About Michela
I've spent 25 years in consumer research, and my most significant role was at TetraPak, where I worked for 18 years leading all consumer research globally. I'm very proud of what I accomplished there, since I changed and developed many things in the way research was done in the company. When I joined, consumer research was relatively basic; I introduced important methodologies such as Need States and portfolio mapping, that had never used before. Before TetraPak, I worked on the consultancy side for three different companies as I moved across countries - starting in the UK, then Singapore, then China, before going back to Italy, which is my own country. A year ago, I decided to step out of the corporate world and start my own freelance consulting business. Now I work on a project basis for different clients, doing consumer research projects that involve analyzing data, transforming them into insights, preparing reports and presenting strategic recommendations. What I find so exciting about this field is that it's a good mixture of different disciplines - it's business and strategy, but there's also a lot of cultural understanding and psychology involved in understanding consumers. Working at a global level means understanding how an American consumer reacts to something as opposed to an Italian consumer or a Chinese consumer. I studied foreign languages and literature, but I wanted to do something in business, so global consumer research has been a great career for me - being strategic while continuing to understand people and global differences. I'm Italian, married to an American, so I've been multinational all my life, and understanding consumers from different countries is so exciting and intriguing to me.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Michela
01What do you attribute your success to?
I'm gonna say something that people always say to me, and I think it's that I'm very positive, so I try to see the positive side of things. I don't complain too much, so I think that helps. And maybe the other thing that I would mention, which is fundamental in my job, is being curious about things around you, so curiosity, probably that's the other thing.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Just to be aware of yourself, to know your strengths and weaknesses. Leverage on your strengths, but remember that we all have at least one weakness. And we need to be very aware of that, and just make sure that we work at that, and we keep the right balance between our strengths and our weaknesses. Be aware, not too humble, not too arrogant, just very aware of yourself and what you can do with who you are.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
Being a freelancer is a new way of working and I'm learning about that.
The big challenge is managing workload. You can have a month when workload is very low and then, suddenly, you can have multiple deliveries within 2 weeks
So, it's really about understanding how to manage the inflow of business, which is very new for me
It's a positive challenge, I'm definitely happy about it, but it is still a learning curve
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would like to mention 2 things
The first is balance. Balance is very important to me - just trying to balance different things in your life. In our life we can have work, and family, and sport. Especially for a women, finding the right balance among all these aspects is a key thing
Many choices in my last 10 years have been driven more by my family than by my career, but that has not been always the case. There was a moment in my life when I decided that I wanted to find that balance. I like to consider myself a professional, but also a good mother.
The second value that I would like to mention is empowerment.
I've always managed people, and I always try to make sure that they had the right visibility. Empowering people has always been a key driver in my career. Good managers in the past empowered me, and I have always wanted to give it back to people and reports that I truly believed in.
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