Leave Your Mark: the experience of Vincenzo Cammarata, an alumnus serving the community

Leave your Mark is a project that involves managers, professionals, and young talents trained at our Business School, giving them the opportunity to put their pro bono skills at the service of non-profit organisations committed to promoting a more equitable and inclusive future. For each participant, this is a chance to make a concrete contribution to the common good and, at the same time, a valuable opportunity for personal and professional growth.

In this interview, Vincenzo Cammarata — an alumnus of our School — explains what prompted him to apply, what skills he chose to make available and the meaning he attributes to this experience.

What prompted you to apply for Leave Your Mark and what impressed you most about the initiative?

What I like most about Leave Your Mark is its positioning as a system that encourages the generous use of knowledge and experience. Not only does it “give back” part of the value we’ve been lucky enough to receive from society, but it is true altruism, that is, spontaneous action rather than something owed. I applied to participate for two fundamental reasons. On the one hand, to lend a helping hand and say that many things in the world around us are neither market nor State, but citizenship, belonging and caring for the communities of which we are part in a more or less direct way. On the other hand, to encourage those at POLIMI GSoM who conceived the project and have been leading it for years, so that it can grow and have influence, and ultimately to spread the idea of an active way of thinking and acting that invests, creates value and shapes a better society.

What skills or experiences do you think you can offer to the non-profit organisation with which you will be collaborating?

Given my age and a long professional career in large multinational corporations, during which I have worked in production, sales, marketing, communication and institutional relations, first and foremost I can offer the non-profit sector a cross-sectional view of the organisation’s facts and objectives, the ability to translate its raison d’être into prospects and actions, priorities, available options and foreseeable outcomes. Secondly, there is the network of professional relationships that I have built up over decades of work, where this would be useful for telling the story and explaining the significance of the non-profit organisation with which I am collaborating.

How do you think this experience can contribute to your professional and personal growth?

There are many ways of learning and contexts in which to do so — formal and informal, institutional and relational, individual and collective — and today it seems to me essential to embrace a lifelong commitment to learning. Participation in Leave Your Mark is a great way to broaden your horizons and learn, internalising the goals and methods, problems and solutions of a non-profit organisation that cares for people and communities of which we know little. I imagine there will be practical examples of everyday life to study and solve, and from which to draw useful inspiration, but perhaps it is in leaving a small, concrete and useful mark on the community that the real value of this experience lies.

To find out more about Leave Your Mark and how to participate in the project, visit the dedicated page.