Can you tell us about the development of your academy?
At the end of March 2023 we will conclude the edition started in the last quarter of 2021, during which we trained 41 new business coaches. In the last quarter of 2022, we launched the new edition of the course and selected 30 candidates. In fact, it is important for us to select candidates by choosing from those who have applied to join. At the presentation there were about 160 people, of whom we received 67 applications and selected 30 to enrol in the course. The goal is not only to train them, but also to collaborate with them by sharing the increasingly numerous customers that we are able to acquire.
Are there any recent client success stories that you can share with us?
In fact, we have at least 130 success stories among our customers, because our method leads us to select only customers that we see from the beginning that we can help, and this leads us to always achieve interesting results.
For example, we work with a lawyer who wanted help on marketing when he came to us, but we immediately understood that, although there were things to improve in his marketing, this lawyer was not exploiting his full potential. In fact, he did not see the possibility of creating a company around his profession, as he did not believe it possible to systematise his activities and delegate to more people.
When we started, his law firm consisted of two people: himself and his wife, also a lawyer. Today he has a team of 54 lawyers and has grown by 2,000%. He helps people get out of situations of over-indebtedness and therefore his work in this historical moment is very important for Italian families. Beyond the economic success, the real success was the fact that this lawyer is bringing the issue of over-indebtedness of Italian families to parliament and is strongly influencing politics and public opinion in order to change things in our country.
Another success story is that of Andrea and Francesca, who have a consulting company in real estate investments and also worked as professionals. In 2022 they saw their turnover grow by five times and this year we expect a doubling of turnover versus 2022. The organisation of the processes allowed them, among other things, to create a small team, freeing up their time and allowing them to also open a new line of business: a club deal of real estate investments that has just been created for the northern Italian market.
Another story we are proud of is that of a company in the fashion world that contacted us again after the pandemic. In the past, we had already worked together to help them to grow from Û8 million in revenue to Û18 million. The COVID period had decreased turnover; 2022 was a time of transition and in March 2023 we started working again. After only one month of business coaching, they closed the month with a growth of 21.92% Ð very interesting, if you consider that we did a few hours of work together!
Of all your achievements to date, which are you most proud of having accomplished?
The success I am most proud of is that of the next client that we will attract and help grow.
This is not rhetorical. I really believe in what we do and I strongly encourage my coaches to work hard to concretely help our customers. Perhaps this maniacal focus is the reason why we have collected positive feedback from over 700 clients from 2021 to today. But apart from that, I am proud of my team, because creating a method, making it standard, teaching it to entrepreneurs and enlisting them to follow my personal mission is, I think, the greatest work I have ever done.
Another success I have just achieved concerns a television broadcast, which I started recording in April for a Sky Italia channel. In this 12-episode broadcast we talk about leadership, how to create corporate culture, process organisation, sales, marketing and corporate finance. The goal is to give valuable content to TV entrepreneurs, which I think will also give a further boost to our brand here in Italy. In each episode I also invited some entrepreneurs, international managers and coaches of Olympic universities, who gave their point of view on the topics covered.
Do you have any other projects in the works at the moment? What can we expect to see from you in 2023 and beyond?
During 2022 we focused on assessing the state of small and medium-sized Italian companies, taking into account that with fewer than 10 employees, these companies that are true lifeblood of our production system have a considerably lower production capacity than other European member states; they generate an average added value of Û30,000 per employee, compared to Û46,000 in France and Germany and Û35,000 in Europe in general. Increasing competitiveness and reducing the production gap with respect to large companies is the key to unlocking the vast potential, still unexpressed, of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric.
Digitalisation is certainly necessary, but another aspect must be corrected: the poor managerial culture of our country. To try to concretely measure the current state of managerial preparation of small and medium-sized Italian companies, Business Coaching Italia is conducting a detailed study which currently involves 4.654 small and medium-sized Italian businesses, but which in the coming months will further expand. The ultimate goal is to create a national observatory, updated in real time, on the health of the Italian entrepreneurial fabric.
The research was conducted by submitting to entrepreneurs a questionnaire that aims to measure how competent the entrepreneur himself feels on certain issues necessary for the health and prosperity of his company. There are five macro-areas: leadership, business organisation, sales, marketing and finance. The results collected so far tell of an entrepreneurial class that, in terms of finance, is still not very attentive to numbers; only 40% of respondents know in which month of the year they will reach the break-even point, fewer than 30% have a business plan written to achieve their budget and fewer than 23% calculate the ROI of their investments.
In terms of company organisation, on the other hand, the most interesting data concerns the lack of defined procedures relating to both the tasks and the objectives of the individual employees. Only 27% claim to have written metrics to evaluate the work done by their employees and fewer than 40% rely on collaborators able to work independently.
A healthy company also needs concrete, efficient and responsible leadership that is able to guide employees. Unfortunately, it emerges that only 25% of companies have clear and measurable objectives for their employees. The same evaluations of the work, carried out by half of the sample, are not tracked and disclosed.
These aspects, combined with the lack of incentive systems known and clear to all, contribute to making the employee less involved in the success of the company and today, in times of great resignation, in which it is increasingly the worker who chooses the company and not the other way around, it makes it very difficult for the company to retain the best resources.
The issue of sales, which should be crucial for the economic stability of a company, has shown important shortcomings. The main one concerns the absence, for about 70% of the companies interviewed, of a written sales model, as well as individual scripts for each person in charge of the sale. Moreover, scripts for responding to objections are often missing, leaving the management of the problem at the mercy of the individual employee, something unthinkable for a company that wants to grow.
The questionnaire, completed by over 1,500 entrepreneurs, clearly shows a low propensity to systematise and organise processes. Too often the company's numbers are unknown and rarely monitored, with the risk that corrective measures for the business strategy are not taken in time. The lack of strong leadership also means that the weight of the company falls on the shoulders of the entrepreneur, undermining the sustainable scalability of the company.
Who or what is it that inspires your work as a coach?
I am inspired to be a business coach by my own clients. They are the ones who push me to keep working so hard. In fact, the birth of my company was inspired by my customers, so it is a choral project.
When I started this business, I was alone. Business Coaching Italia was a brand in my head, and I was just Antonio Panico, business coach. 'Business coach' because I chose my positioning from the first moment. In fact, I could not do otherwise; it was my clients - entrepreneurs, professionals and managers - who expressly asked me. Then, with time, Business Coaching Italia srl was officially born in 2018. Again, it is not just a company; it is a choral project.
The Business Coaching Italia team is made up of professionals, entrepreneurs and managers who have had successful results in their careers and who have chosen to train in my academy. There follows an 18-month-long journey during which they learn to know and apply my strategic and operational protocols: that is, everything that constitutes the BCI Method, and I will tell you... sometimes they know and apply it better than me!
The people who work with me and become part of the BCI project are professionals who are already successful in their field and who want to put themselves at the service of other entrepreneurs and managers to help them prosper. And so they decide to embark on this long journey together with us.
My academy is not free. The economic and time commitment is important and involves sacrifices, but I read satisfaction in the eyes of every entrepreneur, professional or coach who participates. Satisfaction and a lot of enthusiasm.
I always remember this quote from Steve Jobs: 'Great things in business never come from one person but from a team of people.' I really believe it. Business coaches are increasingly in demand. Many companies and professionals have the extreme need for concrete help to reorganise the workforce, optimise processes and start measuring and analysing their numbers.
We BCI business coaches do this every day. We guide entrepreneurs and managers towards their results, making them autonomous and helping them grow continuously over time. Every business coach in my team is able to do this because there is a method that can replicate successful results, because there is supervision and because we care about the objectives set by each of our coaches.
As we always say, we do whatever it takes to bring everyone to their goal.
