Piero Iacomoni is an extremely peculiar entrepreneur. An adventurous life, several experiences that shaped and forged him, and that somehow boosted his histrionic, selfless character.
He established Monnalisa in 1968, and thus created the first luxury kidswear fashion house. A project that has remarkably evolved in Italy and around the world by understanding the market needs while never losing its identity.
Alongside his entrepreneurial endeavors, Iacomoni has worked on important corporate social responsibility projects, with a special emphasis on educating the youth.
Last week saw the celebrations for the first anniversary of the Arezzo Ethic Academy, one of the latest projects carried on by the Monnalisa foundation, cleverly and professionally managed by Lucia Fanfani.
Lucia, the heart and mind of the Monnalisa foundation. In order to create your Ethic Academy, you networked with many local businesses. It is a recurring choice in your management strategy. Skills, persuasion, and hard work. How do you create these value chains?
For many years, I put all my passion and liveliness in coordinating and managing a network of businesses where we strived to make everyone’s added value a shared value, while leaving all self-interests and competitions aside in order to promote our network together. Over the years, we have opened branches and shared showrooms, and encouraged twenty kidswear companies to face complex foreign markets together, like China, Iran, Brazil and Japan.
Our motto has always been: “Alone we go faster, together we go further.”
This important initiative abroad – influenced by my younger years as a student, when I lived part in France and part in Canada – has not just directly involved entrepreneurs, but also partnered with various public institutions that have believed in our projects of integrated promotion for the Italian fashion.
My recent professional experience at the Monnalisa foundation has gone in this direction too, with projects that have sustainability and ethics at their heart, as the “core value” for the development of a new economic community that starts from Arezzo’s youth, in central Italy, and spreads as a model that can be applied to other intervention areas.
Piero Iacomoni, a challenging project designed for Italian talents?
I believe that anyone with any experience should share it with others, particularly with the youth. This is why we have been carrying on several projects with the Monnalisa foundation – last but not least, the Arezzo Ethic Academy, a professional school that offers premium educational and entrepreneurial opportunities to young startuppers looking to take on the establishment of new businesses, with a special emphasis on the green sector, ethics and welfare, and the circular economy.
