Why I Decided go Back to School for a Master’s: 8 months later...

My journey back to school and across the world to Milan has flown by! 8 months ago I hopped on a plane with my girlfriend, next stop, Milan. When we met we both talked about getting a Master’s or MBA. She was about to graduate with a Degree in Design, and I had just bought a town home and was working in B2B Sales and Marketing for almost 5 years. What changed?

ME. I had always thought about it and I wanted to travel the world. This provided the opportunity for us to do it together. Since moving here, the question more than any other that I have been asked….. “Why Milan?” 

When you think about schools and education, yes most logically would be to go to a good school in the USA. But what people don't account for is the experience.Milan provided the perfect mix of design, business, fashion, and opportunity. And I wanted to study in a truly multi-cultural environment. And I wanted to challenge myself in a country that I couldn’t speak in. I also wanted to get a different view of business, marketing, and running a business. Now 8 months later I can tell you that the experiences have been worth it.

I truly have learned a lot about myself, as well as have a better idea of what is important to me. As a sales guy I always craved more support and materials that would help me sell. Now I am passionate about working in Content and Digital Marketing providing communication that does just that. I love managing social profiles, interacting with customers, and creating content for a brand. I have had the fortunate opportunity to obtain an internship with an Italian Startup called Beast Technologies. I am managing all the Content and Digital Media for the company as well as managing high level partnerships with affiliates, clients, and sponsors across the enterprise. 

Outside of this good fortune I had the chance to study for 2 weeks in the amazing city of Barcelona, Spain at one of the best Business Schools called eada Business School. What an amazing experience it was. Between experiences with partner companies like Nielsen, IBM, OTB, and Universal McCann, to studying in Spain, as well the friendships created, experiences say it best. 

My Business Innovation Design Team @ eada in Barcelona

As I am now officially done with classes and now working on completing my final project I can say that the experiences to this point have been amazing, but not without struggles. But those struggles have turned into learning experiences. Living in Italy is a challenge, but nothing great comes easy. 

IM4 Team in Barcelona

Grad School Adventures- "J'Adore Paris"

Bonjour!

Over Christmas my girlfriend Christine and I spend 3 very magical days in Paris. What a vibrant and amazing city. It was a great experience and a Christmas to remember! We decided not to plan too much of our trip to Paris ahead of time, until the night before. We googled things to do, outside of the obvious, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, etc. We also are traveling on a budget, so we try to find things we can do for cheap or free. It is also a lot of fun to read blogs, and travel guides to get insider tips etc. For those who are planning a trip, make sure to allow time for things to not go as planned, and take it with a smile and not get upset. My Grandma Griggs once taught me that it is okay to get lost, that is where memories are made! We used to get in the car and drive and take turns telling her what direction to go next and just get lost. This is a great lesson when traveling; Allow yourself to get lost while traveling, you might just find some of the coolest places, and make the best memories by getting lost. 

We had a blast taking in the Eiffel Tower, walking the streets of Montmartre, and exploring Christmas Markets. Below is our adventure!

Paris was simply amazing, it was a wonderful, magical, and beautiful city. We absolutely enjoyed our 3 days in Paris and want to go back!

Our journey started on the morning of December 23rd, a date never to forget as it is Christine’s birthday. We got up at 6 am that morning to make our journey from the hotel in Munich, to catch a train to the airport and on our flight shortly after 8 am. We landed in Paris around 11 am and jumped on the AirFrance bus that shuttles you into Paris. That was a long bus ride as we were ready to be there and tired from an early morning of travel, finally around 1:30 pm we arrived to our AirBnB in Paris with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tour out front of the building! We spent our first afternoon in Paris by stopping into a restaurant called Carmine and had a great burger for lunch and shared a bottle of delicious French wine in celebration of Christine’s birthday. We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower and wandered through a Christmas Market. As the sun started to set the Eiffel Tower was lit up and man, it was GORGEOUS! It was a great way to spend the afternoon/evening in such a beautiful city.

The next day we got up and grabbed a delicious Starbuck’s and headed on our journey to Montmartre famous as a “village of sin” from the movie ‘Moulin Rouge’ and is known as the Red Light District and the village of the artists. This is a beautiful part of the city across the river and is set up on hill. We started by wandering up the hill to the Basilique Du Sacre-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart). Cool story about this Church that we learned from my sister-in-law Kelly is that there are bullet holes in the side of the church. During one of the wars, this part of France was heavily bombed and much of the area was destroyed, except this church, which is why it is known as the Sacred Heart. We climbed up the 300 steps to the top of the dome to see beautiful views of the city as the sun started to come out. It was an awesome church and started our day off right. The night before I read a travel guide of Montmartre because I am a fan of Moulin Rouge and wanted to experience that part of the city, the guide goes on to explain how many tourist take the main road up, walk the stairs, tour the church, get pestered by artist sketching them, and come back down the way they came, “wondering what all the fuss was about”. The guide insisted that we get lost down the side streets and wander around as many famous artist once lived and were inspired in these streets. We started our trip down to find Picasso’s studio, there was only one other tourist that stumbled upon this cool piece of history and we took a picture for her, then Christine rubbed the door knob for some creativity from the great artist! From there, we travelled down Rue Lepic the major street of Montmartre that leads from the top of the hill to the river and stopped by Van Gogh’s apartment where he lived for 2 years. Again we took a few pictures and Christine rubbed the door handle for some inspiration and creativity. This was a very cool part of the trip for both of us as it was such a beautiful village and is not very travelled to by tourist as they all flock to the Louvre, Notre Damn Cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower. For her as an artist and a designer this was such an awesome experience and I could tell her creativity and spirit was buzzing from the energy there. We walked down to the bottom of the hill as it started to rain and we were hungry and craving a beer so we looked around at a couple places and decided to back track to a pub that Christine had pointed out called Pub Montmartre. We were just attracted to it for some reason and as soon as we walked in we knew we made the right decision! When we walked in everyone was standing around drinking wine and everyone was speaking French, which when you are traveling is what we always look for because you know that it is not a tourist trap and bound to be good food! The owner of the bar was working, he spoke very good English and took care of us. Christine had a great bowl of soup while I had the best bacon cheeseburger I have had abroad! As we were about to leave we notice a movie poster on the wall, “The Bridges of Madison County”, everywhere we go somehow we end up with some reference back to Iowa! It is crazy. After that we finally made it to Moulin Rouge! The area there is full of bars, pubs, hotels, sex shops, and other tourist shops and food joints. It was really cool to see this iconic landmark and added to my bucket list; see a show at the Moulin Rouge.

That afternoon did not turn out as planned as were trying to make our way to the Arc of Triumph and ended up across town at the newly built Great Arch. We decided that since we wanted to go to Notre Damn and check out the Church of Saint Chapelle, we went home to change and made our way to the other side of town. Once we got to St. Chapelle we realized that visits were now closed for the 5:30 mass. Christine was really disappointed because this church is one she studied about in school and she has always wanted to see. We headed over to Cathedral De Notre Dame- Paris which was full of armed guards, tourists, and church goers. We got in cue and made our way into the Cathedral to take our places for Christmas Eve Mass. This was such a wonderful experience and was really cool to attend mass in such a beautiful and iconic Cathedral. It was a great way to end the day, on our way home we walked over the Pont de L’Archeveche which is the bridge with all the locks where we saw a couple that had just gotten engaged. We made our way home trying to find a place to eat dinner on Christmas Eve, which is hard to do. We stopped into a restaurant and sat down, we both had a feeling about this place but it was the only lit up shop on the street so we went in anyway. Once we sat down we saw that Christmas dinner was 75 Euro, and most of it was fish (Christine is not a fan) so we embarrassingly got up and left and headed towards McDonald’s as I was getting hangry (hungry angry) at this point and just wanted something easy and cheap. As we got to McDonald’s I saw off to our right a sandwich shop with the cook sitting out front smoking a cigarette, so we changed course and had a very good and cheap meal of a cheeseburger and doner kebab for dinner. 

On Christmas day we got up and headed up to the Sommet of the Eiffel Tour. It was beautiful to see the city from the top. It is such a cool experience, minus that there are SO many people that bug you trying to sell you everything from sketches and selfie sticks, to laser pointers and Eiffel Tower replicas. We then walked to check out the pyramid at the Louvre and walked down Avenue Montaigne which was a beautiful street full of 5 star hotels and all the top designer stores, Gucci, Versace, Armani, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and others. It was a really cool street similar to Montenapoleone in Milan. From there we wandered through their HUGH Christmas market on Avenue Des Champs Elysees and enjoyed some street food and finally making it to check out the Louvre which was pretty cool.  By this time after 6 days of exploring 2 amazing and beautiful cities we were exhausted, we headed back to pack up, take a small nap, and head to the airport back to Milan.

When we finally got back to Milan we were exhausted and thankful that for the first time in over a week, we did not have to wake up to any plans, or an alarm..!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, or as the French Joyeux Noel! I hope you have a Wonderful and Happy New Years! May 2016 bring you a year of blessings, joys, accomplishments, and happiness!

Feel free to connect with me if you haven't already on Facebook (Robby Napoli) on LinkedIn :https://it.linkedin.com/in/robert-napoli-a5839119 or on Twitter @RobbyNap.

Grad School Adventures: Week 7 and 8: "Finals round 1"

Week 7/8: November 2nd-15th

Lesson of the Week: 

Week 7 and 8- November 2nd- 15th

Lesson of the Week:

Travel- as much as you can! 

There is so much to see and do, go experience it!

DONE WITH FINALS!!! That is how I said it in my head as I walked out of MIP- Graduate School of Business around 12:45 pm on Wednesday afternoon to a beautiful sunny day in Milano, uncommonly warm and sunny as everyone would say for this time of year. 

As I was walking back and waiting on the train I reflected on my view of my performance on the finals. I believe I did well, it wasn't too earth shattering or hard, I wish I would have added a few more diagrams using Marketing tools etc but all in all I left feeling good about how I did. 

Finals week is always a hard week for students, always trying to cram in the last bit of knowledge and hoping it sticks… The thing about our program at MIP is that, it isn't always about the answer, but it is in how you get there. Marketing in essence is about generating profit by providing the customer value. There are multiple ways to achieve this goal but how you go about it is different. Just like companies, for example Apple challenges you to “Think Different” and markets to you as a person creating a brand that you want to be a part of. Where as Samsung targets features and functionality as it doesn't have the same type of brand culture that Apple does. This also makes it stressful for students who want to be able to answer right or wrong, where there is a lot of grey area in this field. But at the end of the day it is about applying principles that allow us to assess and analyze a market, not always easy to condense into multiple choice. Instead we had to analyze cases and discuss our vies, opinions, etc. I find it fascinating to read about how different companies attack different problems. 

Now that our finals over Basics of Management, Marketing Analysis, and Strategic Marketing is completed we now shift focus from Corporate Strategy, BCG Matrix’s, Porter’s Value Chain, 5 Forces, and STP to putting into practice and adding the Marketing Mix, the 4 P’s to the equation in Marketing Decisions. I am looking forward to lectures on Product Management, looking at Trends, and the new age of Digital Technology!

With studying abroad, challenges will arise! Such as back to dealing with the Italian Post Office. My mom sent me a care package full of Hot Tamales and Twizzlers (which I am still waiting on, I cant tell you how badly I want those Hot Tamales), as it has not arrived. Around the same my mom sent that package, her sister, my Aunt also sent a care package full of Twizzlers, beef jerky, and Mac and Cheese! The difference is that with my aunts package I happened to be leaving as the post delivery guy showed up, apparently from what I interpreted (he was rocking Italian and I was trying to listen for key words, while using broken Italian, and a lot of pointing) to show him which button was ours to call down, as he did not ring the right apartment the first time. Clearly the name Napoli on the box and matching it up with the name Napoli on the sticker next to the all button isn't easy. Anyhow I also have to call the Post and figure out why we are receiving much mail as we have been asked from multiple family and friends if we received their letters. I have entrusted an Italian classmate of mine to help in the interpretation as I have not mastered the Italian Language. 

Last week we took an awesome city tour of Milano, it was a guided tour that took us through the Duomo Cathedral, Sforza Castle, through the Brera Neighborhood, which is a beautiful art district (although it used to be the Red Light District of Milano), and finally to see the famous "Last Supper" painting by Leonard da Vinci. We had the absolute perfect weather and it was amazing to not only see Milan, but also be able to learn about it as well!  This past Sunday I traveled to Verona with my girlfriend Christine and her Master’s of Interior Design Class at Scuola di Politecnica and I have to tell you, it was GORGEOUS. Verona is a stunning town with so much charm, from beautiful Piazza’s and fountains, to sweeping views of the city! They also have L’Arena which was constructed prior to the Coliseum that is still in very excellent shape! We also visited the balcony of Juliet from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and singed our name on the walls of the entrance. We made the day trip on Sunday and although a little foggy, still beautiful. Milan is a very good city that is located very well for quick day trips and short weekend getaways. I am here to study and get my Masters Degree but I also want to travel and experience as much as I can now, while I still can!

Have a fantastic week and hopefully I will get to enjoy my Hot Tamales soon!

Duomo Cathedral

Juliet's Balcony

Signed our name on the wall at Juliet's

Verona L'Arena

Beautiful Verona

Grad School Adventures: Week 5: "Never Stop Learning"

Week 5: October 19-25

Lesson of the Week: 1) Never stop learning- it is okay not to be the best at everything

**Fashion tip- Puff vest and jackets are back, seriously, just you wait USA

This lesson was definitely a more personal development lesson for me this week, and I needed the reminder. Historically, I am able to adapt, learn, and pick up things quickly, or I am just naturally good at them. It has been awhile since I haven't been one of the best in whatever I was doing; work, sports, networking, etc. A lot of things came natural and I was in the upper half of all my social circles. But living abroad has humbled and grounded me. There is a great big world out there and I was only scratching the surface. When you move abroad, you have to learn a new culture, and in most places a new language. In doing this you have to learn and practice, and then practice some more. Picking up a new language isn't something that I have been able to naturally pick up. It is proving to take work, like a lot of work. I am also continually learning to become a better listener. As I am working with classmates who’s native tongue is not English, I have to really listen and help connect the dots. And when I respond it is so easy for me to talk fast, and use more American references, rather that speaking so that I am connecting. That being said, it is also proving difficult, but then again I am sure I could use the lessons of slowing down a little bit. If you want to excel you need to continue to learn and adapt, it is easy for me to forget that sometimes. 

This was a short week of lessons, we had a Professor come in and doing a great job presenting Business to Consumer strategies. At MIP we have had the pleasure of learning from multiple professors and professionals to get a rich experience. B2B and B2C markets both fascinate me and offer similarities but are very different in the way you connect to the users. Next week is dead week and the following week is our first round of finals. This first section has been a very lecture intensive segment providing the class with the basic tools of Marketing to set the stage for what I call the sexy part of Marketing, Branding! But for now, not to get too excited and focus on studying!

In my free time, I finally got set up with a gym membership, so I can get back to training like a silverback! (inside joke for all my lifting friends) I also had the wonderful experience of going to the Italian Post Office, (which I still do not trust), but alas I had to ship a package to my mom. To send a package to the states wasn't too bad 13 euro. But when you get to the Post Italia Office you have to take a number based on what service you need, so we took our number and waited for it to be called. Shortly after we were called to the counter and were in process of sending the package, but I also wanted to sent 7 postcards to family and friends back in the States, however she was unable to help with those she only dealt with sending packages, oh and recharging your phone, she could accommodate that. So from there we had to go to another line to send postcards, which are pricey at 2 euro each. So we had to wait in line for about 15 minutes as some small company was trying to send out flyers and were arguing on price, and if you know anything about Italians they talk in circles, what could take 5 minutes, they take 20. Another 14 euro and we were out the door. Long story short, good luck in the post office, as you might have to wait in multiple queues to accomplish your visit. Another interesting tip on the Italian Way… Laws, like driving, parking, etc. they are more like suggestions, good to follow but no one does. There are not designated driving lanes, mopeds and go wherever and whenever they like, cars can and do park on sidewalks and even create parking lots in the middle of street intersections. But if you ask for food in a to go box, break a social custom.. its like you are breaking the law!

One thing that is awesome about a city like Milan is there is always something going on, from the World Expo that ends in October, to Milan Fashion Week, to this week hosting the European MTV Awards. Last night we went to a free concert at Piazza Del Duomo with Ellie Goulding and Duran Duran. It was absolutely gorgeous! 

As always I have attached some pictures!

Grad School Adventures Week 4- "Challenges"

Week 4: October 12-17th

Lesson of the Week: “As you enter the business field (first time/going back into) what value do you bring in regards to industry trends?”

This was a quote directly from one of the Executives from the Board of Directors for IBM Italia. We had an excellent seminar from IBM on the concepts of Big Data. Coming from the IT Staffing world, I spent a lot of time discussing with a large Forbes 100 company what their Big Data/ BI Strategy was and what they were looking to do. I find the concept of Big Data fascinating. I am not by any means a number guy, but the applications of Big Data and the tools that are developed/being developed to source, manage, and implement data that is relevant and useful. One of my passions is the concept of Digital Strategy and interactions online. With the use of Twitter and Facebook, businesses can launch a campaign of a new product line with a #IT (for example) and the consumers can use that to talk about that product, ie; “In line waiting to buy a new #IT” “I am loving my new #IT” or “#IT was not what I expected, very little updates or features added, #overhyped”. The company could use tools or booleans to simply search #IT on Twitter and Facebook and hone in on how customers react, and can make move accordingly. It is fascinating how a simple # has changed the face of social media marketing for business and consumers. 

In regards to the lesson, I think that for anyone looking to move jobs, change careers, or walk into an interview should prepare and walk in with this mindset. After working in staffing over the last 5 years, I have learned how to interview people, build resumes, and set people up for success. But as I was looking at my CV and working on it, I realized it has been a very long time since I was on the other end. I have spent a lot of time and with a little help of MIP Career Services, have been able to concisely and accurately present my experience. I have never felt more confident about my CV!

Switching gears, I have had the opportunity while in Italy to join an American Football Team, the Milano Seamen, and join as a Coach. I have been practicing with them during their offseason training to help coach and show techniques etc. It has been a fun experience for me to teach the game I love to a culture that does not understand or embrace it as largely as we do in the States. It has been a great way to connect to the culture and language and using it to help improve my Italian skills.

The one thing that people in blogs, and travel articles, magazines, etc don't tell you, is how hard it is to move abroad. The first few weeks were a blur sure, we had our challenges, but you still are in that “vacation” feeling phase. It is not for everyone, you have to be able to adapt and rely on yourself. You have to immerse yourself and build a network from scratch. If you are willing to overcome the fear of being afraid to try and fail and you put yourself out there, moving to another country is a rewarding and fulfilling experience and will really improve you as a person and in my case it has improved my relationship with Christine. It has allowed us to grow stronger personally and as a couple.  Understand that living abroad has so much to offer and is extremely rewarding, but those rewards are not without risk and struggle. Nothing worth having or experiencing is easy. 

*Christine and I took an amazing day trip up to Lake Como and visited 2 small beautiful Italian towns, Varenna and Bellagio,  located around a Lake at the base of the Swiss Alps. The views were absolutely stunning, definitely a must go if you are in Milano and want a day trip out of the city that is extremely affordable, the train tickets were 12 euros each for round trip! While in Varenna, I ran into an old friend from back in elementary school that I haven't seen in 20 years by chance. We live in a big beautiful world that has a way of being so small at times. When you travel, you will be amazed at how dynamic this great big world is.