Purest – consciously precious

Guest speaker: Mr. Patrick Garbini, Founder and Managing Director at Purest
USI Degree: Faculty of Economics, 2001
Title of the speech: The transformative power of sustainability

When: Friday 9 February, 2024, 6 PM
Where: Blue Room, Executive Center

About Purest
Purest’s journey starts, unsurprisingly, with a journey. In 2007, while visiting Nepal, the founder Patrick Garbini came across a family-run atelier where a small team of skilful weavers made cashmere shawls and scarves of amazing quality. He was instantly blown away. However, it would take another two years and many more trips for the business plan to begin unfolding. It was a difficult yet very exciting challenge – to start a business producing top-quality cashmere scarves, travel and home accessories, hand-woven by skilled craftsmen based on original Italian designs and using the finest cashmere yarn. Eventually, 2011 saw the creation in Lugano of the brand Purest – a name that alone echoes the values it embodies: purity, quality, authenticity and, above all, the desire to create beauty through a virtuous, transparent process, producing luxury accessories that are also ethical to people and the environment.

Sustainability

Purest emphasizes the importance of Wind, Water, Earth, and Fire as metaphors for their commitment to sustainability.
They focus on reducing emissions and carbon neutrality in their operations, partner with organizations like Eden Reforestation Projects to plant trees, and use innovative technologies to preserve water resources.
Their selection of Grade-A cashmere from natural fibers, use of natural pigments, and zero-waste initiatives reflect their responsible stewardship of Earth’s resources.
People, especially in Nepal, are at the heart of their operations, and they aim to achieve ethical labor practices certification. They also prioritize low energy consumption and utilize renewable energy sources like solar power. Sustainability is not just a part of their business; it’s the essence of what they do.

Special Keynote Speaker: Ernesto López Pino

When: 12 January, 6 PM, Executive Center, USI

Ernesto López Pino, HR Director, DXC Technology

Topics:
Employee life cycle
Change management
Succession planning

Experience:
Global HR Director JAB HOLDINGS: Jimmy Choo, Bally, Belstaff (2012 – 2018)
Global Talent Manager Loewe (2010- 2012)
Development Manager L’Oreal (2002 – 2005)

Education
IE Business School, MBA (2000 – 2002)
SDA Bocconi, MBA (2000 – 2002)
Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Degree in Business Administration (1994 – 1999)

DXC Technology
DXC Technology is a Fortune 500 global IT services leader.
They use the power of technology to deliver mission critical IT services that drive business impact.
DXC is an employer of choice with strong values, and fosters a culture of inclusion, belonging and corporate citizenship.

They provide world-class IT services at scale from our Global Innovation and Delivery Centers in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
With globally distributed teams and rich engineering skills, DXC offers competitive solutions to address customers’ cost, regulatory, language and business continuity requirements.
By combining strengths and expertise globally, they create solutions and deliver greater outcomes for customers across their entire IT estate.

To participate, email us: emba@usi.ch

Join us for the opportunity to attend one of our EMBA courses

HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT : 13 & 14 January 

The course focuses on the management of human capital, which in today’s economy appears as essential for the success of a company as much as an effective production systems or a well-designed marketing strategy. Many managers now recognize that a critical source of competitive advantage comes having an effective system for obtaining, mobilizing, and managing the organization’s human assets. Thanks to digitalization to new tools are also available to manage human resources. The purpose of the course is to introduce you to the challenges and opportunities that firms face today in managing HR. The course will do so by not digging much into the technical detail of issues such as the psychometric of test validation, the specifics of doing job evaluations, the mechanics of interviewing – issues well covered by many human resource professionals. Rather, the course adopts the perspective of the general manager and addresses human resource topics from a more strategic perspective – i.e., as a source of competitive advantage. The flow of the course follows a macro-to-micro approach. In the first block we will discuss the overarching framework of the course and we will deal with motivation, job design and compensation. In the second block, the ways to improve recruiting, reducing the outflows of personnel within an organization and properly manage retention will be discussed.

The topics include:

1.The strategic importance of HR
2.Alignment and consistency evaluations
3.High commitment firms, motivation by job design, teamwork
4.Recruitment and selection
5.Performance evaluation ad compensation
6.Training and retention

Book your session: emba@usi.ch
Next EMBA edition starts in November 2024!

Professor Carlo Wezel

Filippo Carlo Wezel was appointed Professor of Organization and Management at the Faculty of Economics of USI in September 2009. He is currently Director of the Institute of Management and Organization at USI, permanent visiting Professor at emlyon (France), and Research Fellow of the Judge Business School (Cambridge University). Filippo is also a Senior Editor at Organization Science and sits in the editorial review board of Organisation Studies, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, Strategic Organization, and in the Advisory Board of Research in the Sociology of Organizations. With a PhD in Management from the University of Bologna, he previously held appointments at the University of Groningen (post-doc) and at Tilburg University (assistant and, then, associate professor). He acquired further academic experience as visiting researcher/professor at the Wharton Business School, Cambridge Columbia and Duke Universities, and at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). His teaching interests include organizational theory and organizational behavior, which he has taught at the undergraduate, master, PhD and executive levels.

The winner of this year’s Boldbrain Startup Challenge is Foldcast, a remarkable spin-off from the Academy of Architecture at USI.
Foldcast has introduced an ingenious solution to revolutionize the construction industry by significantly reducing concrete usage.
This innovative startup not only received a CHF 40,000 cash prize but also secured our full scholarship of CHF 54,000 for the USI Executive Master in Business Administration, in addition to consultancy vouchers from Bär & Karrer and Fidinam.
The project is developed by an outstanding team composed of Prof. Ena Lloret-Fritschi (USI), Fabio Amicarelli (PhD candidate, USI), Andrea Realini and Elia Quadranti.
The pitch of Fabio Amicarelli has also convinced the Award Ceremony attendees, bringing Foldcast the Audience Award.

Foldcast ( Andrea Realini, Fabio Amicarelli, Ena Lloret-Fritschi)

18th Annual Meeting of SFI

The Annual Meeting of the Swiss Finance Institute (SFI) is one of the leading events in the Swiss financial community’s calendar and an exclusive discussion platform. It brings together the finest minds in academia and key financial market players.
The widely respected event enables practitioners and academics to exchange the knowledge and expertise that will keep Switzerland at the top in banking and finance.
Impact investing supports non-financial goals in addition to financial returns. This year, the keynote speakers will be Sergio P. Ermotti, Group CEO of UBS Group AG, Stuart Kirk, Columnist, Financial Times, and Prof. Andrew W. Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as keynote speakers.
USI Executive MBA is pleased to announce the participation to the 18th Annual Meeting in Zurich, Lake Side, on 16 November.

Program of the day:

• 12:30	Doors Open, Registration & Sandwiches
  13:30	Opening Remarks & Welcome Prof. François Degeorge, Managing Director, SFI
  13:40	Keynote Presentation I : “Can Financial Engineering and Data Science Cure Cancer?” Prof. Andrew W. Lo, Charles E. and Susan T. Harris Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  14:00	Q&A Round
  14:15	Break
  14:45	Keynote Presentation II Sergio P. Ermotti,  Group CEO of UBS Group AG
  15:05	Q&A Round
  15:20	Break
  15:50	Keynote Presentation III Stuart Kirk,  Columnist, Financial Times
  16:10	Q&A Round
  16:25	Panel Discussion Stuart Kirk Prof. Andrew W. Lo
  17:10	Closing Remarks Dr. Stefan Seiler,  Group Head Human Resources & Corporate Services, UBS AG; Chairman of the SFI Foundation Board
  onward	Aperitif