Multicultural entrepreneurship and immigration
Brain drain or new mobility of Italian migrants? Defining the new generation of people who travel and work abroad is often a matter of personal interpretation. Nowadays, many Italians still look for a job in Switzerland as their grandpas did a few decades ago. The difference lays in their training and education, both top level and highly specialized.
On January 3 the RSI, the Swiss Italian television, aired a reportage on the Italians who take their chance in Suisse Romande, a Swiss area which features a multicultural environment conducive to the success of entrepreneurial projects and initiatives. Among them, Luigi Matrone.
Interviewed at a recent gathering of entrepreneurs organized by the Camera di Commercio Italiana in Geneva, Luigi expresses his appreciation for the networking opportunities that Geneva offers, as they foster the connection among entrepreneurs for new business projects in Geneva and, more broadly, in Suisse Romande. His Italian origins have not prevented him from being a leading entrepreneur in the digital sector in this area of Switzerland as well as a broad-minded individual who constantly seeks to have a positive impact on the Geneva’s local community.
Networking, connection among cultures, and the importance of giving back to the local community where he lives are the drivers of his actions. Luigi’s Swiss story starts in 2009 when he decided to leave Italy and move to Geneva: the reason behind this decision lay in his passion for the digital and technology industry and e-business-related solutions. In 2012, after spending a few years with P&G, a multinational consumer goods corporation, Luigi transformed his passion into his own business. He founded a consultancy firm exclusively focused on allowing multinational companies to stay ahead of time and on structuring, scaling and standardizing their digital transformation. Indeed, “ideas beyond the basics” and “inspiration beyond the obvious” are among the driving commandments of his firm.
Furthermore, Luigi has been part of the amazing group that founded the Geneva Hub and recently has served as its curator.
With him, the Hub went through disruptive transformation, became a model for other hubs, and strengthened the engagement of its shapers coming from more than fifteen countries towards the Geneva local community. Under his lead, the Hub was among the five hubs that won the “Shape a Better Future” Challenge by the Coca Cola Company (2015) with Reading for Change, a project aimed at improving integration and at giving more people access to information and education. As a prize, the Geneva Hub received $ 10,000 in acceleration funding and scaled up the project globally by partnering with other hubs in the Global Shapers Community.
At the end of the RSI’s interview, Luigi’s personal note casts light upon one of the aspects that ignites purpose-oriented networking and triggers the interest of forward-looking entrepreneurs like him in this city: in his words, “the multicultural environment that characterizes Geneva is the first and foremost stimulating factor” leading him and many others to choose this city as a professional and personal home.
