Italian managers: fired by a company, they found a new firm and become entrepreneurs
Tens of thousands of managers were fired between 2008 and 2011. How did they restart? By becoming entrepreneurs or partners of an existing company
Investing their own money - often the gratuity as former managers -, setting up a new business or becoming entrepreneurs of a small existing company seems to be the most effective solution for those 50-year-old managers who have lost their jobs and want to be back on the market.
This is what 52 year-old Carlo Bassi did a few years ago, though he underlines, only 30-35 per cent of the managers that have lost their jobs succeed in getting back to work.
"Meritocracy, experience and skills are not appreciated in our country. Therefore managers of troubled companies who get fired and are often replaced by younger people with no experience. Those who would have the expertise to make the firm recover from the crisis are in fact too expensive for the companies. Leaving them at home is not the smartest choice if you consider that without a good leadership there is no chance to succeed in business" Bassi says.
Nevertheless, more than 43.000 managers were fired between 2008 and 2011 in Italy and Bassi was one of them.
He was laid off, all of a sudden, when he was 47 year old, with years of experience as executive producer of TV channel Canale 5 news programs and as managing director of Expo Cts (a company linked with the Milan Fair,) and with a family to maintain.
After a first moment of panic, Bassi decided to turn himself into an entrepreneur and took over a tailor's shop for men, later renamed "Sartoria di Milano Acquadimare," then he bought out a health centre in Milan and after that, he became partner of Borile, a company that makes motocycles by assembling the pieces by hand. Shortly after he also became partner of Sciallino, that produces and exports typical Ligurian fishing boats all around the world.
On the strenght of his experience, Bassi has now decided to launch a website that gives the opportunity to those that try to get back on the work market by connecting managers and companies.
Bassi believes in his creature, the "Back to Work" portal and describes it as "an evolution of my personal experience."
The idea of connecting managers looking for a position with small companies comes from the awareness that in Italy "there are human resources available (professionals with 20-25 yeas ofr experience) and on the other side small but valid enterprises that, because of the crisis, cannot afford too hire a manager," he explains.
Therefore, the "Back to Work" website connects managers and companies. With 150.000-200.000 euros, it is possible to become managers and partners of companies that have a turnover of several millions.
100 companies and 500 managers are currently listed on the website and several successful matches have already been made. "An amazing result," says Bassi proudly.
