New Entrepreneur (NE)
Name & surname: Gaetano Renato
Country: Italy
Sector of activity: Business Advisor, Operational Risk Management, Training
Have you already started your business? Yes
Name of business/website: AGRsicurezza Analisi Gestione Rischi – Be Ready Be Smart / www.agrsicurezza.com
What is your business? Business Consultant
Host Entrepreneur (HE)
Name & surname: Herta Toedtling-Schoenhofer
Country: Austria
Sector of activity: EU Programmes and Policy Development
Experience in running a business (in years): more than 20
Name of business/website: Metis GmbH / www.metis-vienna.eu
What is your business? Metis through evaluations, research and analysis, consulting and training contributes to improving the dialogue between European institutions, national authorities, regions and beneficiaries of EU funds.
Period of Relationship: 24/04/2019 – 23/08/2019
Duration of Relationship: 4 months
How did Gaetano, expert in risk management, learn essential skills for his new business in a totally different sector?
The New Entrepreneur from Italy started up a business venture after previous working experience as an employee. The NE was willing to open company boundaries looking for understanding new markets and enlarge his business vision.
The Host Entrepreneur from Austria, holding an extensive experience in running a business, was willing to connect with a NE to open her views on new markets and updates about new technical skills.
At the beginning having been connected through EYE, the two entrepreneurs analysed their expectations and also forecasted a realistic view on how they could both take advantage from the connection in a relationship. Consequently, the entrepreneurs moved on thinking about how to organize their experience and set a plan which considered their availability of time and business needs.
For the NE spending time abroad with an experienced entrepreneur during the exchange, has reinforced the business idea and confidence to run his own business. This helped him to reshape the activities and concentrate in some fields. The HE provided guidance to feel more comfortable with future business, meanwhile the NE supported the HE to achieve a better understanding about Risk Management tools and techniques that can be used in the HE’s business and resulting in a framework to manage risks.
The collaboration supported the new entrepreneur in understanding challenges, issues and possible solutions to approach new business activities on the market. For the host entrepreneur, the exchange supported her awareness about Risk Management tools that can help her business to improve risk models in her future project activities.
Concluding remarks
Gaetano Renato (NE): “During the exchange I had the possibility to reflect and develop the business model for my company, in dialogue and discussion with Herta. We discussed my plans and visions for my company. Herta enriched them by reflecting the development of Metis. This has been a combination between accumulation of know-how, entrepreneurial spirit and risk taking, working with good experts and finally also being lucky in some stages of the evolution. Both agreed that a business needs planning, but one has to react fast to adapt the plans if necessary.”
Herta Toedtling-Schoenhofer (HE): “The collaboration with Gaetano has been an interesting experience, as we both come from very different backgrounds. As an ambitious young entrepreneur he is focused on risk management and risk mitigation. Gaetano taught us the concept of risk management and how to apply it in different contexts. He adapted his risk management tools to the needs of our consulting company. Through his support, we achieved a better understanding about the Enterprise Risk Management approach and a new comprehensive Risk Model, which we can apply in our projects in future.”