HOMEPAGE NEWS INSPIRING STORIES
24 May 21

1.What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
I see entrepreneurship as a multiplication that includes three factors: vision, pragmatism, and responsibility. None of the three taken individually, is sufficient to obtain a successful entrepreneurial story: you have to start from a vision and be able to look beyond, towards the future, multiplying it thanks to an extreme underlying pragmatism accompanied by a strong sense of responsibility. The latter represents a very wide territory, encompassing different spheres of action: responsibility towards the social area, planet and people. 
2.What is the biggest experience or lesson gained on your growth journey so far?
Considering my whole journey so far, there is one element on which I dwell and that I think is both the lesson and the greatest experience that I have absorbed and that I always carry with me: the ability to plan a result, of any kind. It's one of those elusive skills that you cannot learn at school, but you acquire when you start working in the field. During my professional life, I have always recognized this fundamental ability in successful managers and companies – observing those who put it into practice is a source of inspiration for me.  
3.How is your company acting as a game changer in the landscape?
In addition to a model based on omnichannel and, therefore, on the ability to satisfy consumers through personalized products and services in every purchasing channel, Lenet Group stands out mainly for its strong corporate social responsibility. People, profit, and planet are the axes on which our very essence is based: through our business we generate value and culture for the communities we interact with, as well as for the environment where we operate, in a responsible manner. A concrete example are the ceramic-therapy initiatives created and organized by the Lene Thun Onlus Foundation.
4.What should your Life Motto be?
"Approach, method, and competence" is the motto I have always repeated to myself and on which we would like to model Lenet Group, adopting the approach of a start-up, the method of a listed company, and the competence of a specialist. In this way, we would achieve a programmed flexibility that would translate into the ability to reinvent ourselves. In this growth path, those three elements would make a real difference: the approach, which is based on continuous development; the method, which guarantees the quality of work; and the expertise, which comes from an in-depth knowledge of the sector and is fundamental for a conscious progress. I also remember a mantra that one of my managers would obsessively repeat to me, "When something works, change it." After years of experience, I have recognized the true value of this mindset, which I try to pass on today. The secret is to never feel as if you have made it: the arrival point does not exist, it is always one step further.
5.What kind of ELITE entrepreneur do you want to be known as? 
I would like to answer as an enterprise, without impersonating an entrepreneur. I would like to represent a company that is comparable to a start-up, but with 70 years of experience. Let me explain – years ago the market was hostile, and it was necessary to defend oneself; today it is not necessary to defend oneself from the market anymore, but rather to become its ally. In order to reach this goal, you have to forget your certainties and be ready to constantly redesign everything. This is the kind of flexibility typical of professionals who work in start-ups. To this factor, I would also add the advantage of those who have gained solid experience.
Based on this aspiration and as CEO of Lenet Group, I would therefore like to help entrepreneurs to give a structure and a strategic approach to their vision. A theme that, in my opinion, also cascades down to the people sphere and relates to internal growth. The latter, for example, means giving managerial positions to people under 40, or having an adequate number of women in executive positions, not to distinguish genders, but for a specific approach to management we believe in.

In this picture: On the left, Simon Thun (Vice President Lenet Group) and Francesco Pandolfi (Group CEO)





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