Gabriella Scapicchio,
Chief Executive Officer,
Le Village by Crédit Agricole

By Gabriella Scapicchio

Chief Executive Officer,
Le Village by Crédit Agricole

WGF: What specific have you done towards nation building?

Gabriella: The evolution of my work has led me to focus on innovation, which was also my passion. Today, I work to support startups: not only to make them grow and become companies, but also to accompany companies in their process of change in terms of internal culture, processes, products and services. This means helping the Italian nation to become innovative, to have sustainable growth and to be competitive in the European arena, and also outside Europe. Italy has been a trailblazer in innovation for many years, but if we look at the growth of startups, these have gone from just over 12k at the end of 2020 to more than 14k (+17% in 18 months). Well, I believe that my work helps Italy to become an innovative and sustainable country.

WGF: What is your vision of a new Italy?

Gabriella: I see Italy as a country in turmoil and Milan as one of the most important innovation hubs in Europe. Italy had a GDP growth of 6.7% in 2021, a record in the last 26 years. And, this shows that it is changing profoundly while maintaining its deep and rooted historical culture, an approach to saving by families, and an entrepreneurial fabric made mainly of SMEs.

WGF: Please describe yourself as a person.

Gabriella: I am an Executive with 15+ years of experience in Marketing, and 3 years as ‘Head of Innovation’. Now, I’m in charge of a company ‘Le Village by Crédit Agricole’, with the aim of enabling innovation, supporting startups, connecting people, ideas and opportunities.

My objective has always been to give a tangible support to company goals and long-term success with an effective, strategic and also a hands-on approach. I am intuitive, result-driven, pragmatic with a leadership attitude. I have the flexibility to work well as part of a team and the capability to create positive working environments. I have passion for problem-solving and finding ‘out-of-the-box’ solutions.

I am also a Board Member with an attitude for resilience and tenacity in times of difficulty, and the ability to manage conflicts.

I am passionate about technology and innovation. I can relate well with people. I am an adventurous traveller who has studied in the USA and has carried out several work projects abroad. I am an open-minded person and very curious with the aim of ‘giving back’ my experience to young managers and entrepreneurs, and with a view of female inclusion and empowerment.

WGF: What is your success story?

Gabriella: I graduated in the South, and this gave me a competitive disadvantage. Moreover, I am a woman – this was the second competitive disadvantage, because I chose to work in the banking world that is very masculine and male-dominated. I studied economics and graduated with the dream of a career in marketing. And it happened! I worked really hard, and I became an Executive and Head of Marketing at a big company 15 years ago. However, this was not enough for me. So, in 2016, I started feeling that I was in my comfort zone, and I was too young to stay there. So, I decided to leave everything I had studied for, with a degree and a Master’s degree, and all the effort I had made to get there, to create something new, to leave a trail in the company and follow my passions, even sacrificing what I had conquered so hard. Because, I realized that good things happen outside the comfort zone. And so, amid so many difficulties, I found myself one day, in 2017, following a project that I had so dreamed of, to open an innovation hub in Milan for the Credit Agricole group, for which I was already working. After a year, I opened Le Village by CA in Milan, and I was asked to become its CEO. Three years ago, that was a dream for me, and I never thought I could achieve it.

You can watch my TEDx with English subtitles: Gabriella Scapicchio: INNOVARE O ESTINGUERSI | TED Talk

WGF: What is your inspiration in life?

Gabriella: What inspires me in life is to leave a trace in everything I do, even small. I have many passions; one is innovation, which has taken me where I am in my career. I also love traveling, and I try to learn from it: cultures, populations, people and places inspire me in my everyday life and also in my work. No one can truly understand oneself and one’s country without having travelled and having confronted different people and cultures. This is my source of growth. I’ve visited more than 120 countries, and I’d like to see them all within the next 15 years.

Then, there is the ‘give back’. What I’ve learned in my 50 years of life, I like to make it available to others, guide them to take a direction, and help them not to make the same mistakes as myself. This takes care of most pro bono activities.

WGF: Please share some challenges you have faced in life.

Gabriella: Being a woman has made my career more difficult: even today I earn less than a man with the same role. However, this did not stop me from fighting to be considered equal and to be evaluated for my abilities and for the goals I had achieved, and not penalized as a woman. When I became a manager, it was 2011, and in Italy there was still no law that forced companies to let women on the Boards of Directors and top management. I’m very proud of that.

That’s why today I help many women entrepreneurs and managers facing challenges every day, trying to find a balance between professional life and family life without having to give up one of the two.​

WGF: What reforms do you think must be brought into your field of work?

Gabriella: I believe that we need a reform that supports innovation: that helps those who have an idea to easily open a startup, facilitating the bureaucratic part and helping young entrepreneurs in the early years of life with tax breaks and access to public funds in an easy way. In addition, it is necessary to invest public money in the intermediary bodies of ‘trust’ (incubators, accelerators) that can generate a climate of confidence in private investors and VCs, who are still very reluctant to invest in Italian startups.

WGF: What reforms would make a new Italy?

Gabriella: I believe that the world of companies still has few women at the top (only 30%), and it is proven that women can better manage the work teams, better understand the needs of the consumer, and leverage their emotional intelligence, even if they are less risk-like. If we look at the female presence in the world of innovation, in particular of startups, the percentage of women founders and co-founders is only 13%. We, therefore, dispel the myth that the younger generations are more inclusive, it is not so. But above all, the access of students to STEM subjects is still very low, and this means that the demand for new professions (data scientist, data analyst, AI and blockchain experts, and so on) penalizes more women in innovation.

I believe that it is necessary to work on the school and university system to help girls to study STEM subjects and generally to embrace entrepreneurial paths as much as risky through dedicated training right from schools. In addition, the social system should be in support of mothers to allow them to be able to rely on public and private services, such as nurseries and company nests, to return to work even without having families to support and help with economic possibilities and high spending.

WGF: What message would you like to give to people in general as a nation builder?

Gabriella: Innovation is a state of mind that concerns not only companies but above all people, managers, and entrepreneurs. It is necessary to be in a state of continuous learning and change to become ‘non-replaceable’. The paradigms of work as they once existed no longer exist. The half-life of professional skills has passed from 30 years in 1984 to 5 years today. Half of what the students in scientific and technological studies learned during their first year, will be surpassed when they will be in their third year. And, we do not know what the professions of the future will be.

That’s why the message I want to give is to go back to being the ‘entrepreneurs’ we were when we were cavemen, when we were getting food, clothes and more to survive. So today, we must adapt to the continuous changes, to the exponential technological and social progress, because every day the market conditions and competitors, change. But above all, follow your own passions!