Gabriella Ruggieri & partners’ business venture began by sheer chance following an encounter/clash with a very important American businessman (whose name will not be mentioned here by his own request and to completely and totally respect his privacy). A clash because he accidentally spilt coffee over the brand-new pair of beige grosgrain shoes I had bought the previous day. I am sure you can imagine what went through my head at that moment, but instead of looking at him scathingly with an icy cold stare, I just looked at my poor old shoes and burst out into uncontrollable laughter….. Even shedding some tears! The coffee had ended up on the toes of the shoes, covering them with a perfectly symmetrical pattern that looked as if it had been specially designed that way! Astonished by my reaction and pointing out that if it had happened to his wife she would not have spoken to him for an entire week, we ended up having a quick chat which ultimately led to a profitable and extremely pleasant business partnership that is still ongoing. He was looking for a buyer willing to attend leading trade fairs on his behalf, in order to keep him up-to-date with the latest trends and, most significantly, to scout around Italy in search of the very best of 100% Italian products and designs. Looking for the kind of uniqueness, background, culture and tradition that often cannot be found in the best-known brands and sales channels. His mainly private clients are not looking for things that are beautiful because they are expensive or well-known, but because they are genuinely VALUABLE and unique. Things that cannot be bought off the production line.
From this chance encounter we have now reached the point where Gabriella Ruggieri & partners works with other clients (investors, builders, private parties, architecture firms, multi-brand stores and, generally speaking, a wide variety of customers) and, taking my own clients’ advice, I recently decided to provide an overview of our particular approach to authentic Italian products and design through the “social media”, a website that is not just an address, and, in the very near future, a blog.
Going back to that chance encounter that set Gabriella Ruggieri & partners’ business operations underway, in line with my own ethical views, I am trying to return that initial favour by promoting US products or designs that are brought to my attention by our American friends. They asked us, and keep on asking us, what our mission is……. Well, it is hard to sum it up in a couple of words. Just as hard as it is to describe our business operations. I will try and provide an answer based on an interview we gave some time ago.
Gabriella Ruggieri & partners is a business enterprise and in business it is certainly results that really count. As an example (without in any way daring to compare ourselves to him...), we might say that we were inspired by Brunello Cucinelli. Have you ever read his biography? About how he began? Make sure you do! It is certainly worth reading!
I wanted to create something from scratch without making any investments. Something beautiful and useful for everybody interested in flying the flag for everything 100% Made in Italy and for all those people who manufacture genuinely 100% Made in USA products!
Just think about it….. How would you feel if you went to the USA and, after buying an article Made in USA, you then discovered it was actually manufactured somewhere else?
What would you think if you came to Italy and bought an expensive item of designer clothing only to discover that the only thing Italian about it is the label?
How would you feel if, when you got home, you found out that your extremely expensive lamp or extremely expensive sofa had nothing Italian about them except the packaging (and maybe not even that)? That would not be very nice, would it? Well…. that is exactly what we do NOT want to do. Promote empties, with no content, to be sent back or returned.
But we would like to make it very clear that we respect any businessman’s decision to relocate their production (often for very good reasons!), however, as a buyer, I would like to know all about it! I would like to know exactly what I am buying. Is it made in China? Fine! What is wrong with that?? Nothing, provided I like the product…. But I would still like to know where it came from, otherwise I would feel duped.
This, for better or worse, is our mission. We firmly believe that this will make a difference in an environment in which making compromises often seems the easiest option when doing business.
We have often asked ourselves and tried to find out from others, whether there might be a DIFFERENT WAY OF DOING BUSINESS. The answer we got is: “yes, but it is hard! Are you sure you want to go to all that trouble?
Well, nothing is easy in life, and so, having pointed out this rather obvious fact, why not take up the challenge? Is it possible to promote a company on the social media without the company in question actually being one of your advertisers or paying you to do it? Yes, it is. But will anybody believe what you are claiming? Well, we are just going to have to take that risk.
So what if a company you are promoting or talking about free of charge in an absolutely disinterested way takes advantage of the situation or refuses to acknowledge the work you have carried out? (Believe me, all the trips, photos, translating written material, creating albums/captions and publishing work…… takes plenty of energy and money!) Yes! That can happen! There have actually been cases .... (and it may well happen again) of companies that could not be bothered to even say “thanks”. Sometimes, when browsing through social networks, their hands are so stiff they cannot click on “like”. In any case, what is the big deal? You talk about them once but then never again! You leave them thinking they are the next Salvatore Ferragamo or latter-day Leonardo da Vinci. After all, people are very often delusional! Anyway, there will certainly be lots of others ready to follow them and promote them free of charge! Or maybe not?
Okay, okay, it means they will just have to find publishers who will want paying for organising a fantastic advertising campaign for them.
Gabriella Ruggieri & partners promotes excellence, something which cannot be dissociated from ethics and good behaviour. Respect for other people’s work. After all, there are lots of companies of the very highest order both in the USA and Italy, and our work, our curiosity and our travels are all focused on discovering them.
Can excellence be brought to the fore without badmouthing somebody else? Yes, it can. Of course scoffing and mockery is the easiest option nowadays. Wherever you turn, you find somebody badmouthing somebody else, but what is the point? None whatsoever. So let’s start talking about successful things. But can excellence be accorded with environmental friendliness? Luxury and green-thinking? It is, indeed, possible. What could be more exclusive than something that, as well as being fabulous and unique, respects the environment throughout its manufacturing processes?
This, for example, is what encouraged us to create and use the hashtag # SaturdayRecycling on social networks. Anybody who has green ideas over the weekend can post something of their own or something borrowed from the Web that has inspired them and might inspire others. A nice idea, do not you think? (I would also like to thank Ellen DeGeneres for her hashtag #throwbackthursday, which gave us this idea). As buyers and agents are we afraid that some people might bypass us and get directly in touch with the companies we are promoting?
No. That would be really stupid. The discount rates we get come from the sheer numbers involved, which means they are quite different from those available for individual orders by one single buyer getting directly in touch with a company.
Are not we afraid that some of the companies we are promoting might get directly in touch with our private customers and major retailers or just bypass us in their contracts?
That can happen, in fact, to tell the truth, it already has…. We simply cut off all business relations straightaway. As I have already said, excellence and ethics move hand in hand. Gabriella Ruggieri & partners promotes excellence in the realms of fashion and accessories, design and furnishing accessories, bijoux and jewellery, art, music connected with events and, to some small extent, food and tourism, all very different industries that need to be approached in different ways and which raise different issues, but which all share one common denominator: excellence, as we have said. We will never tire of repeating that, for us, there can be no excellence without ethics. And any business person behaving in such a bad way is really just a scoundrel, don’t you think?
Do not get me wrong, these what we might call unpleasant aspects do exist and have always existed in every walk of life (affecting everybody: from students to great captains of industry), but if we allow scoundrels to change the way we think, then it means they have been proven right and for us that is quite unacceptable. We firmly believe that BUSINESS CAN BE DONE DIFFERENTLY, that it is possible to work as a team while respecting the distinctive traits of every individual. It is possible to work very hard while having fun. You might have all kinds of troubles but…. why do not you use your head (however brainy or otherwise you might be) and try and solve them? Who does not have problems in life?
Do you want to hear something funny? Immediately after I set up Gabriella Ruggieri & partners, I began working with the United States even though my English was terrible.. and I would really like to stress the word TERRIBLE! Do not you think that might have been a problem?? Of course I began studying English again and I still am, despite how difficult it is to remember vocab, but…. do you think that has stopped me?? Do you think I allowed myself to be influenced by those people who were against me? Who teased me? Those who told me that Americans would not take me seriously?? No! Anybody who really believes in what they are doing can make it, provided they work with passion, enthusiasm and a touch of madness (as Steve jobs used to say)!
You can read all about it on our blog and on the social networks. Do not miss out!
