The manager:  Aurelio Calicchia
The job: Managing Director for Ericsson Telecommunications Bulgaria  and the Ericsson Representative Office in Macedonia
In brief: Ericsson is a Swedish telecom company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and is present in more than 140 countries. It  started operations in 1876 and today Ericsson still holds to the principle that communication is a basic human need. Ericsson provides end-to-end solutions – from networks and multimedia solutions to telecommunications services and core technology for mobile handsets. Ericsson employs 65 507 people, of which 80 are in Bulgaria. Among its main clients are all three Bulgarian mobile phone operators and a number of Government   institutions.

“The tape recorder choked,” I said as my glance caught the motionless tape. My eyes then swiftly moved to my watch that showed we had started the 15th minute of our conversation.

With a gallant and appeasing smile, he stopped me short of more apologies, saying: “Such things happen. Every day. Shall we start all over again?”

Just as unperturbed, he said any problem could be solved once its cause is identified.

Then he flipped to beginning the five-page answer sheet that his PR assistant, Anelia Surlekova of Broks Vision, said that he had drawn up the night before, on receiving the tentative interview questions.

Little in his behaviour showed traces of a sleepless night. His lively eyes exuded freshness and full focus, a sign that overnight preparations are a frequent part of his routine. His interview posture resumed, and the tape recorder working, we started afresh.

Indeed, while waiting in the reception lounge, minutes before the interview, in my peripheral vision I saw a pale blue and black wave dash from my right-hand side to my left in what imbued veracity to the man-of-this-business-outfit’s words that he is “always on the go”.

And he is not one to waste time.

In his inaugural meeting with the Bulgarian media, Calicchia told The Sofia Echo that his agenda was full of dozens of meetings with officials from the authorities that are important to the local office of the Swedish telecom giant, with existing and potential customers and with partners that operate on local turf.

Meetings are essential. He is a person to whom corporate practices at Ericsson and its subsidiaries are not a new thing.

“Working practices [at a global corporation such as Ericsson] have been the same. It is all part of a standard business process,” Calicchia said.

For this reason, at the top of his agenda is to learn the specifics of the local environment, perceiving it as the shortcut to having a complete grasp of information, a must in achieving operational efficiency in business dealings and in identifying new business opportunities.

“However, you do have the different culture, you do have to adapt to a different culture,” he said.

Expatriation evokes memories for Calicchia.

“I have had the experience of a native Italian living in the US, who has had the opportunity to travel to other countries,” he says.

Throughout his 19-year career at Ericsson, his CV starts and ends with positions in the Swedish telecom equipment maker, he has done culture and job orientation twice. After a short stay in the New York office of NEC America, the graduate in Electronic Engineering from New York Institute of Technology headed toward his native Italy to spend nine years with Ericsson in Rome. After, he moved to Greece to the local Ericsson organisation, to look after the Telecom Italia Mobile business, in the local market.

LOCAL BASED ON GLOBAL
On his third relocation, this time to head Ericsson’s operations in Bulgaria and Macedonia, Calicchia is ready to act. Yet one should not expect revolutionary changes to managerial style. Rather, his would be action in line with the telecom’s global corporate practices.

At his company, he said, it is the company and its established practices rather than personalities that shape the managerial style in each country of operation.

“The [managerial] style is the same everywhere,” he said. “You do commit to the market and customers in each country of operation. Ericsson is present in 140 countries and, of course, markets differ from one another, but at the end of the day it remains the same everywhere: its primary goal is to develop and make telecom services available to everyone and to create and offer exciting services, to be innovative and drive the business in our field of operation.”

Calicchia will work, and is working, to meet the same goals in Bulgaria, which he described as “a developing and exciting market”.

“Technology-wise, we have come very far, yet we can do much more and make the services available to everyone, to each home. We plan to offer multimedia services, which are exciting and fun for people while at the same time opening the internet world to everyone and its potential to all Bulgarians. In that sense, we are assisting and bridging the gap between Bulgaria and Europe,” Calicchia says.

Bringing global services to the disposal of locals requires tuning in to the need of each and every end customer. In the case of Ericsson, however, it often boils down to the sale and deployment of equipment to companies of analogous global stature, which, for their part, offer their services to “all Bulgarians”.

Hence, it appears that to be quick and efficient in project implementation, the global player needs to be operationally consistent from country to country. Bulgaria is no exception.

Therefore, keeping the gap in country-specific operational approaches to a near minimum is fundamental or else disconcerted action could backlash on the overall track record, Calicchia said.

In this sense, he believes processes and people alike need to be of the “Ericsson type”. And Calicchia himself is, and has to be, the local epitome of a senior manager at Ericsson.

WHY ERICSSON
Asked why he had chosen to work for Ericsson, Calicchia has no hesitation in saying that it had been a marriage of mutual accord because he found that the company’s principles, field of operation and aspirations converged with his own.

Going back to 1987, the year he joined the company, he said the corporation moved the  telecom tide worldwide. All the more, it allowed individuals to develop within their specialty, an irresistible combination for an ambitious graduate like Calicchia.

“Ericsson is a company investing in people, creating leaders, giving a fair chance to all,” Calicchia says. “It creates a challenging and flexible environment to work in, known for its ability to make a difference and to work in diverse environments. And this is very important to people like me.”

To produce cutting-edge technologies and “make a difference”, a corporation needs people of cutting-edge expertise. And individual development happens through a plethora of methods, Calicchia says.

One of them is on-the-job development, according to the executive, adding that – like for many of his peers – this corporate forte was the most important point that made him first join, and then opt for a potentially lifelong commitment to Ericsson.

According to Calicchia, routine work at the company with colleagues of solid know-how and potential, pushed to 100 per cent fulfilment, has been both his teacher and source of inspiration.

“There has not been a particular person in my 19 years of work at Ericsson to have guided me along the way,” Calicchia said. “I’ve used every person I’ve met as an example to learn from. It’s rather the ever-changing environment, challenging atmosphere and day-to-day work with both customers and colleagues that have given me this experience and inspiration to remain with the company.”

Faithful to his belief that his guiding light is the corporation as a whole rather than individuals within it, he refers to the sophisticated training programmes available at the company.

“It is a company that provides people with constant opportunities for development,” he  says. “It has given me the opportunity to attend leadership courses, executive management courses [which included key account manager executive courses at London Business School], which obviously will not stop here and I will continue attending them.”

He says that the courses are conducted both internally and externally. In addition, training is not restricted only to top managers. It is open to personnel at all levels.

Competence development and individual performance management (IPM) programmes are the “tools [that] allow us to evaluate the current status of the individual and in which direction they should be going, by filling the training gaps and assigning them to the relevant training courses.”

Another expertise enhancing tool has been job rotation, he says.

“We apply job rotation at every level, from the technician to the senior management. We use job rotation for the transfer of know-how from country to country, but even more – we try to do cultural changes. Being present in 140 countries, we believe that people should be ready to adapt to changes whenever necessary. In this way, we try to bring together the cultural differences.”

ASK TO ERR LESS
Job rotation is not the sole method of knowledge exchange or information across Ericsson’s offices worldwide. The corporation has found it useful, Calicchia says, to create sites for sharing information to speed up work on projects and eliminate mistakes from the past.

“We do share information. We have created sites, areas where people can go and share experience and it is not only for people in Bulgaria and Macedonia but also for the whole world where Ericsson is present,” he says.

He would not mention any particular figures on how such exchange of information has affected operational efficiency. Nevertheless, Calicchia said the very fact traffic on these sites is busy speaks volumes about their perceived value with employees.

OPEN COMMUNICATION
Open dialogue happens at the Bulgarian office as well. This is a core approach Calicchia subscribes to. As does the entire corporation, judging by the design of Ericsson Bulgaria office’s interior. Glass is dominant and the eye can see from one end of the hall to the other. The office of the top executive fits within the overall solution, as again the wall separating the office from the secretaries’ space is made of glass.

“I want to create an open communication environment so that people share their experience,” Calicchia says. “Because in each and every team it is vitally important that each and every person is clear about their role and responsibilities. Having this in place, it is easier for everyone to co-operate on a day-to-day basis.”

Having an unobstructed and two-way flow of information between teammates is essential.

“I believe in sharing information and it can surely be done in a more versatile way such as hanging out, socialising. So I believe in going out to lunch together, having a drink after work where you can share daily experiences, among others,” Calicchia says.

COMPETITIVE EDGE
With experience driving operational performance at high levels, innovation is Ericsson’s overriding principle for keeping on top since its inception back in 1876.

Says Calicchia: “I have been proud to work for a company setting industry standards and driving developments.

“We respect the research resource we have in the telecom field today and that’s our business. Hence, we are very committed to R&D.”

In that vein, a huge budget for research and development (R&D) goes along with the company’s philosophy.

“In 2006 alone, Ericsson invested 28 billion Swedish krona (about 2.99 billion euro) in R&D, which is a substantial amount of the corporation’s total annual turnover,” Calicchia said.

The consistency with which the company pursues new services and products has its roots not only within the company’s rationale but also in the industry and the major players that comprise it.

“Competitors are very precious because they are the engine of development,” he says, adding that he finds no difference between the pool of competitors in Bulgaria or Macedonia and that elsewhere.

“Our competitors here are the same competitors we find globally,” he adds, but discretion prevented him from mentioning their names.

SOCIALLY YOURS
As a manager of a global and corporately responsible company, Calicchia says that he will definitely be involved in social and charity events.

“Charity is something we are doing by belief, within the heart and not advertising it,” he said.

A number of charity projects are underway. Among those is assistance to Nadezhda (Hope), an orphanage in Sofia.

“We will continue to provide food, repair their homes,” he says.

Again education, the buzzword at the company, is of topmost importance when it comes to assistance.

“We are very committed to aiding educational evolution. We have good track records with the Technical University in Sofia, with which we have had some co-operation.

“We have donated equipment that enhances the learning process of students. We are having meetings with technical universities to see how we can contribute to the technical evolution of their curriculums.”

AND WHEN OUT?
Though the personality of an individual is clear even when at work, his hobbies allow fullerpicture of Calicchia. Sports is an indelible part of his routine.

Bulgaria and his native country, Italy, sharing the same landscape, help him continue skiing and mountain hiking in winters and swimming and tennis in summer. To the question of whether Bulgaria would add a hobby to his list, he said: “I am eager to understand the culture even more and this will actually define my future interest in the country.”

Bulgaria will be home to Calicchia for at least the next two years.