Mauro Porcini – “Creativity Is The Answer”

On the occasion of the launch event of the first book by Mauro Porcini – SVP & Chief Design Officer of Pepsico – our editor in chief Tommaso Cartia had the chance to converse with the entrepreneur sharing precious tips for the creatives and the innovators of tomorrow. The event was wonderfully hosted by journalist Francesca Di Matteo, Founder & CEO of the Our Voices broadcast and StrategicA Communication at the enchanting Pinko Boutique in Soho. Special attendees at the event were Mr. Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in NY, and the Director of ITA – Italian Trade Agency – Mr. Antonino Laspina

By Tommaso Cartia

Mauro Porcini
Journalist Francesca Di Matteo in conversation with Mauro Porcini during the book launch event at Pinko Boutique in NYC. Photo by Francesca Magnani

“This day for us is about rebirth,” exclaimed with pride and emotion Francesca Di Matteo presenting StrategicA Communication’s very first in-person event after one and a half-year of pandemic. And it was, truly, a day filled with trepidation, also for me getting dressed and happily ready to experience again the aliveness of a community getting together to share ideas and perspectives for the future, shaking hands and exchange those vivid glances, thirsty for life, and those smiles, that could reassure you, that perhaps, the worst has been left behind. Not even the violent tropical storm that flooded the NYC’s subway on that day, intimidated or tamed the urgency to be together of the more than 100 guests who bravely traversed Manhattan to be present at the event. And the occasion to listen to Mr. Porcini talk about creativity, innovation, and the future of our business models, was certainly, unmissable, for everybody and particularly for us of Creative Point-On who have been “starting up” our business venture not too long before the pandemic hit. How many times, during this still time of our lives and our economy, have we thought about the concept of starting up, of starting over, how many times during this interminably long year have we stumbled and started all over again?

Mauro Porcini
Mauro Porcini’s book; “L’ETÀ DELL’ECCELLENZA (THE ERA OF EXCELLENCE)”. Photo by Francesca Magnani

“Creativity Is The Answer,” that’s the first thing that catches my attention when I’m introduced to Mauro Porcini for our interview, a sentence written in cubital, sparkling letters on his sweater. A sentence that resonates, profoundly, with the philosophy of our company. During the pandemic, Creative Point-On produced a web series entitled #CreativityWillSaveUs, an initiative born to support the artists’ community during the lockdown, and “creative” is the fundament of our name and business identity. It really feels like this encounter with Mr. Porcini should have happened somehow, sometime, and I’m very happy that it happened now, now that we all need, more than ever, to start-up and think about creative ways to take our next steps into the future.

“We need to be students of life and students for life”

Mauro Porcini
Consul General of Italy
Fabrizio Di Michele, Consul General of Italy in NY, takes the stage to congratulate Mauro Porcini. Photo by Francesca Magnani.

I’ve never met Mr. Porcini in person, although of course I’ve been knowing him by his exceptional professional journey and I’ve been fascinated by his entrepreneurial story and rise to success. I think that any upcoming entrepreneur who is serious about his/her career today should study Mauro Porcini, and I’m confident that his book: “L’ETÀ DELL’ECCELLENZA – THE ERA OF EXCELLENCE”; will be that trusted companion in the development of any contemporary enterprise. I have a feeling that it will serve the same purpose to the future generations that Steve Job’s book served to Mauro Porcini when he was an upcoming entrepreneur himself.

What struck me about Mr. Porcini when we started talking was his kindness, his politeness, his flowing rhythm in responding to my questions, his poised elegance and those vivid eyes, thirsty for life, and that smile that can reassure you that, perhaps, the worst has been left behind.

Full house at the Pinko Boutique during the event. Photo by Francesca Magnani.

“One should always feel curious and receptive, 24 hours a day.” Tells me, Mauro, when I ask him what kind of tips would he give to young entrepreneurs. “We need to understand the shades of trends and how they change. Some macro trends have been gone on for quite a while, the pandemic has accelerated them. For example, the health & wellness field, or the personability of brands, digitalization, sustainability, and many more. We need to understand this acceleration and what could be the unique point of view. Often the unique point of view is offered by technology. For example, in our field, food & beverage, we are now utilizing wearable technology that monitors your body and gives you tips on what you should eat or to make your beverages personable, based on your taste, but also your emotions and physiology.”

But technology per se is not sufficient, and it shouldn’t and it can’t be disjoint from the human factor: “This is what my book talks about. You can’t just commission a market research or go online and read stuff on social media or blogs, you need to be there, “on the road”, you need to be present and understand what it is happening. To rely just on the A.I. without the human factor and our ability to interpret and decode what we read in the data, it’s a limit.”

“To rely just on the A.I. without the human factor and our ability to interpret and decode what we read in the data, it’s a limit.”

Mauro Porcini

And for Mauro Porcini, “Creativity Is The Answer” to this decoding. “If you don’t work on yourself, on your education, on your training, if you don’t nurture your natural talent you will not get anywhere. In my book, I talk about the inventor of the IQ test who says that people who have been properly educated, formed, who study a lot, can even increase and surpass the ones who have a hereditary IQ higher than them.”

Mauro Porcini
Mauro Porcini signing a copy of his first book. Photo by Francesca Magnani.

A native of Gallarate, a city and comune of Alto Milanese, close to Milan, Mauro Porcini has a strong humanistic and classical formation, which is the quintessential and most distinctive trait of the Italian Renaissance culture. That educational foundation has been for Porcini an inexhaustible resource of inspiration but also a model, a way of living, a modus operandi.

Mauro Porcini
Mauro Porcini with Francesca Di Matteo outside the Pinko Boutique in Soho NYC. Photo by Francesca Magnani.

“We need to be students of life and students for life,” is, in fact, the motto that he coined and it is one of the fil rouges of the book: “We need to be students of our life and the life around us, we need to analyze the past and attempt to decipher the present. Curiosity, humility, and kindness are the keys to be truly successful.”

These are some of the traits of the so-called “unicorns”, a term with which Porcini metaphorically identifies the innovators of tomorrow. “Many make the mistake to think that once they achieved some sort of success, they know everything and they are done learning. I see this as a sign of weakness, because you fear that if you don’t prove to yourself and the people around you that you know everything, you lose credibility. On the contrary, I believe that strong people, who have great confidence in themselves, are not afraid to ask things, to a collaborator, to a child, to the people in the streets. When you start asking questions nurturing your knowledge every day, your business will naturally grow stronger. We should be, indeed, students, for life.”

Waiting for Mauro Porcini’s book to be soon released in English, entrepreneurs of all ages will now have in their hands another essential book to treasure in their “students for life and students of life library” to co-create all together this new era of excellence.

Can We Learn Business Secrets From Artists?

For our ON-Business column, our Business Innovation Strategist and Artistic Director Daniela Pavan distills tips on creativity and success in times of COVID-19.

For years people in creative roles were kind of left out of serious business conversations, which instead used to take place only among the upper management in boardrooms. More recently, it looks like Creativity is knocking at the door of those rooms and has gained the right to sit at the decision-making tables as a driver of innovation. The creative spark that used to be just an aesthetic abstraction and somehow light and breezy concept, is now an important leadership quality that is dramatically transforming the way we do business.

By Daniela Pavan

The challenging scenario created by the pandemic emergency is giving creativity an even more crucial role in our lives. We’ve been through so many changes during the past months: we changed the way we work, the way we interact with each other, the way we shop. Change looks always scary, and facing change can throw us in a state of chaos. In times of crisis like these, who should we turn to, and learn from? My answer is: from creative minds, from artists. You may remember Darwin’s evolution theory about “the survival of the fittest”. It’s not the strongest or the smartest one who survives but the one who can adapt more quickly to change and to new contexts. The ability to adapt to change combined with resilience (the quality of recovering quickly from failure and adversity, and using the opportunity for your personal development,) seems to be the best match to navigate this unprecedented scenario. A set of skills that are part of artists and creatives’ natural attitude. 

Darwin

The Creative Pois-On #CreativityWillSaveUs video and podcast series wants to demonstrate this exactly. We started the project to give voice to prominent figures from the world of art, culture, and entertainment during the COVID-19 emergency, inviting them to come together to reflect on the central value that art brings to humanity during the harsh quarantine times. We have been blessed by so many great contributions from artists from all over the world: 50+ artists for 10 episodes plus a special one celebrating Pride Day. Following these artists and watching them from a privileged point of view, we realized that even between their differences in terms of disciplines and artistic attitudes, they all have two fundemantal traits in common: resilience and adaptability. In fact, they all managed to keep their creative spark alive and produce arts against all of the odds. Even the performing artists who have seen their venues abruptly shut down, basically overnight.

#CreativityWillSaveUs – Follow our Series on our Official Youtube Channel Creative Pois-On

So now the question is, how can we learn to be ourselves, as resilient and flexible? Here are some of the reflections that our series #CreativityWillSaveUs inspired me:

1 Change the narrative: when something bad or unpredictable happens, many of us spend a lot of time in a “rumination mood”, reliving the event over and over in our heads. This way we don’t allow ourselves to move forward. What I learned from our artists is the importance and the courage to change a story by building a new one. How? By writing, singing, playing music, painting, acting, there are infinite creative ways that we could all explore. The goal is to be brave enough to face our deepest thoughts and feelings, and not to necessarily produce a memoir-like masterpiece, courage as a first step is already a big accomplishment. And precisely about this topic, I found out that there is a study from 1988 that demonstrates how a sample of people who embarked in an Expressive Writing program for four days was healthier six weeks later and happier up to three months later if compared to some others whose task was to write about some more random topics. This is valid, in my opinion, for any form of art because it forces us to deeply analyze each one of our ideas and allows us to see things from new perspectives. I personally enjoy changing my narratives through acting and dancing, because they both allow me to explore the story from different angles.

2 Practice Meditation: you may already know that usually, our most painful thoughts revolve around our past and our future. We may regret things that went wrong or we are anxious about the things that will happen or not happen to us. Practicing mindfulness and meditation keeps us centered and concentrated on the present. being, the now. You may think that our main concerns are attached to the present time we are living. You might have this sensation, even though really, our lives are made of a series of circumstances that often we can’t control. Therefore meditation can help us stay focused on what we can control, accept what we can’t control and think more clearly about our next steps. The past months have been very painful for me as well, on a personal level. I want to suggest a practice that I like to do: mindful breathing. I usually get very anxious because I am always projecting my thoughts into the future of what might happen. This exercise can be done for 5 or 7 minutes a day, or every time you feel under stress. Find a comfortable position. You can be seated on a chair or on the floor, on a cushion. Keep your back upright, but not too tight, with your hands rested comfortably. Allow yourself to relax and become aware of your body seated, the sensations that it experiences, the connection with the floor or the chair. Remove any tightness or tension. Simply breathe. Feel the natural flow of breath, while inhaling and exhaling. Notice how you feel while you breathe. See if you can feel the sensations of your breath, one breath at a time. Now as you do this, your mind may start to wander and think about different things. It’s very natural, so no worries. When this happens, gently redirect your attention right back to the breathing.

IKIGAI
Photo by Mayank Baranwal on Unsplash

3 Find your Ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese word that means purpose in life. We can say that Ikigai is the secret ingredient for happiness. Ikigai is about finding fulfillment, happiness, and balance in life. Many of us think that our job, family, and passions are different solos, like separate aspects of life. The Ikigai philosophy instead puts the accent on a fundamental truth: nothing in life is a solo… but everything is connected… as we always say here at Creative Pois-On. So yes, according to the Ikigai, it is possible to be true to what you love, live a fulfilled life, and make a positive impact on the life of others. So let’s dive in, what’s the definition of Ikigai. The Ikigai is the intersection between what you love, what the world needs, what you can get paid for, and what you are good at. Take a few minutes to write down some keywords, concepts, and ideas that come up to your mind for each of the four categories above and for overlapping areas. Think about how these elements may relate to each other. And then, leave space in your mind to whatever element, word, category, may naturally emerge by bringing these four elements together. So when you have this centerpiece clear in your mind found it, think about what is the first very simple step you can immediately take, and that it could be a practical expression of this centerpiece, which is your Ikigai. Are you curious to try? Artists, creative minds as well as successful businessmen all over the world, have in common the fact that they have found their Ikigai, that they are crystal clear about their purpose in life. That is what keeps them motivated, resilient but also flexible and perseverant.

Now it’s up to you. Ready to take your first step? 

Learn more about Creative Pois-On Business Services HERE.

About Daniela Pavan

THE STORYTELLER WHO CONNECTS THE DOTS OF CREATIVITY, INNOVATION, AND BUSINESS

Daniela Pavan

Born and raised in Italy, Daniela Pavan is now based in NYC. This is one of the reasons why she is blessed with both Italian artistic passion and NYC’s unique edge. With 20 years of experience working in the world of digital, design and communication with big companies, agencies as well as small start-ups, Daniela has also a strong collaboration with the University of Venice (Italy) where she won a grant for a research focused on understanding if and how creativity and design can be drivers for innovation. Co-Founder, Artistic Director, Creativity Curator, and Business Mind of Creative Pois-On.  She is also our resident “bridge builder” as she is fluent in both business and creativity! Our creatives would be lost without her! Follow her Creative Bridge episodes on the Creative Pois-On Podcast.