What did you do last Summer?

This is the question everyone has been asking me as I am transitioning between two jobs. Therefore, I decided to give you all a summary here and explain how these 3 months have been a fantastic opportunity to rest and pivot.

In fact, resting is a fundamental moment for all of us. I love this paper some scientists published a few years ago on ATP Tennis players, trying to find what was different between the top 15 ranked players and the following 185 in the top 200. After months of tests about their physical and mental capabilities nothing significant came out, and by observing during several additional months they finally ended up discovering that the top players had one, unique, additional capability: “resting between two points”. As a matter of fact, each of them had a little technique to focus their mind on something different than the game itself, just for a few seconds, before engaging again into the next point, but that was enough: this mental break had a significant impact on their physical status, with their "heart beating rate" falling 15 beats per minute more than the players that remained concentrated on the game. This is spectacular, and it's interesting to translate this learning into our personal and professional life as well.

We always underestimate the importance of taking breaks during the day and focus on something else, this would make us more effective and efficient.

We also underestimate the importance of taking long breaks and produce something completely different from our usual work, this is an incomparable source of energy, and a moment of truth about our life, balance and direction.

So, what did I do last Summer? First, I took a month off with my family traveling in France and Italy. We started with a beautiful house on the French Riviera, with enough space for our two beautiful dogs to run free for hours every day, which is fantastic to see. I have never seen so many pieces of wood all gathered in one place, just in front of the veranda, as this was their favorite occupation for the day. They also found quite a significant amount of plastic in the garden, so I think their presence has been very beneficial to this piece of green!

At the end of those two weeks one of my nephews came to Nice and we travelled by car to Italy, a few hours and we discovered the house of my grand grandfather built in 1902 and that my sister and my father have completely renovated at the beginning of 2021. A fantastic surprise, with great interiors entirely decorated with refurbished furniture, and a beautiful countryside all around. The dogs particularly liked the Stella river, just 15minutes walk from the house, and a great place to have a full immersion with nature!

Next was a necessary stop in Milan, mid-august, just to allow the dogs to discover the new apartment I am renovating and decorating there. Great walks in the city, which is totally empty in August, especially with the Covid pandemic, and great sightseeing. Useless to say that Elliot & Owen preferred by far Parco Sempione and the Giardini Pubblici Indro Montanelli to il Duomo, la Scala and all the other buildings in the center!

Finally, a week in the Alps with my cousin, and again long walks and most of the day in contact with an amazing nature. The dogs have been super happy to discover the mountains for the first time, everything smells different, the villages are super clean and the number of dogs per person in the area is probably three of four times higher than in the city. For them it means an intense social life, which they need and love. We also had our part of social life with some fantastic restaurants in the Valleys around Monte Bianco.

During the months of July and August I could also dedicate some time to reading books, a dozen in total, with a mix of essays about economics and leadership, but also a lot of fiction, as I could finally find the time to open so many novels that were waiting for me! I also could use a lot my beloved Leica to take pictures all around and sometimes publish them on my Instagram page.

I came back to Paris at the end of august to start concentrating on the activities for this Fall , and also to support my husband in the pre-launch activities for LURE, a Home-décor and lifestyle company he has created in the last few months. I have to say I am very proud to see the amazing work he is doing, and all the steps to bring these new products to market later this year, with the e-commerce site and the showroom in Paris at the end of November! Stay tuned!

Beginning of September, I went to Cernobbio for a great Ambrosetti Forum, a very interesting event every year, but I would say particularly insightful this year after a couple of years of Pandemic crisis that has changed so many things around us. I explained in an article a few weeks ago my main takeout of this meeting.

I also went end of September to Matera to participate to a panel at an event organized by EY, called Data to Value, and focused on the digital economy that is driving value creation all around the world. It was also an opportunity to visit this incredible Italian city, so old and so modern in the mentality, with a span of activities from culture to digital which are very interesting to see.

I have started traveling every other week to Milan, partially to spend some time and organize my new apartment there, but also, most importantly, because I have recently joined the Advisory Board of two companies in Northern Italy, and it has been a great opportunity to meet them and deep diving on the strategic initiatives they are both taking. I will come back on this later in the coming months!

Finally, the whole month of September and now the month of October will be dedicated to writing a book! I had the idea of writing my thoughts about the speed of digital transformation already back in 2016 when I was working in Milan. But life at Microsoft, as you can imagine, is very demanding, and I could never go beyond those 40 initial pages I drafted then. Time has come for me to accomplish this task! I am now quite advanced on the work, and I think these last couple of years came with a lot of fundamental learning points that will be very useful to shape a vision and articulate some recommendations for Governments and Companies especially in our beautiful Europe which has such a great potential but also such a slow rhythm of innovation right now. More to come in the coming months, stay tuned on this as well!?