In December 2023, Maison Moderne will celebrate its 30th anniversary. What were you doing in December 1993?

Well, I was still a teenager, in high school. I remember that was my best school year of all time—1994 was still nice but hard and it taught me unforgettable things before I graduated. But let’s go back to 1993. Everything seemed perfect like in an American teenager’s movie and I (secretly) decided that I wanted to leave my home town and study in the capital. So, I outlined a plan that turned out to work well the following year. When I refer to ‘the capital’, I mean Lima, as I was born in Peru. I’m originally from the South Pacific coast. 

Do you have any article, magazine cover or event from Maison Moderne that has impacted you?

Now that I have taken the time to reflect, I realise that I have participated, in one way or another, in several projects with different Maison Moderne teams almost since I moved to Luxembourg. However, I can definitely recall at least two of them. The first was a 10X6 event (thanks to which I discovered this unique format) back in 2013. It was focused on entrepreneurial projects born in Luxembourg. At that point I was working for a bootstrapped Luxembourgish start-up that developed a software for content publishing—and that was the beginning of my torrid and intense relationship with content marketing, but that’s a different story. Thanks to it, I had the chance to get closer to the Luxembourg start-up ecosystem that was vibrant already 10 years ago. 

The second project I remember is the Paperjam/ALFI Dossier dedicated to the fund management industry that has been published for several years almost in parallel with our Global Fund Distribution Conference in September. In 2022 I had the chance to work directly in the project and the result is a remarkably good piece of valuable content.

Print media or digital media?

It would be nice to say both in equal proportions as consuming printed content has become ‘chic’, but I would be lying scandalously. It must be an 80% digital and 20% print, and the latter is mainly reserved to books and some magazines (including the ones displayed on airplanes!). To review content though, I still use the old-fashioned way especially if it is a long content piece, so I print it out while being conscious that my green karma may want to take revenge somewhere in the future. But my eyes are definitely more accurate when I review printed content. 

What does your office look like and what does it say about you?

ALFI’s communications team sits together. We share the same office that, by the way, has been in the process of getting a nice ‘facelift’. I have had the chance to give it some southerner flavour. I like colour, light blues, gentle greens, sunset oranges and maybe some reds. And if there is need for greys, they have to be light or there is a ‘no go’. And, above all, diaphanous, uncluttered spaces. We are adding some plants and my team and I are planning to add some wallflowers. There are a couple of simple sofas to sit down and chat. The world would be a better place if we discussed more and send less emails. By the way, there is a nice cactus potpourri, all in one pot, on my desk. 

What is your morning routine?

I think it isn’t hard to guess. Having Italian origins, I cannot skip a nice, short and intense espresso each and every morning, including weekends. Well, quite frankly, it’s really two of them. And I like the 8 to 10 intensity. After that, I open my email provider and go through all the online magazines I’m subscribed too, chat for five minutes with the colleagues that have already arrived and then I kick off my day. 

At night, what’s the project that keeps you awake? 

I wish I could say that there is only one. This year will be busy (but certainly exciting) with some initiatives that will help us to evolve our approach to user experience and our content strategy. Other nice projects with third parties are also in the pipeline. But there is also the human part too. Iam planning to build an even stronger communications team in terms of cohesion and collaborative work. We are good but like a quote on the back cover of a NYT’s best seller book could say: ‘Good is only the beginning’ (Hey, I have patented that one, don’t copy it!).

A good practice that you have recently learnt and you want to share with your colleagues and our readers… 

Although the practice I’ll share with you isn’t new, the more time goes by, the more I live by it. To me, being a good manager equals being a mentor and a guide to the people we are responsible for. Indeed, we are where we are hopefully not only because of the years of experience, but also because we have developed a sense of people management that is the ground for any successful team. Being a toxic manager isn’t a good thing and it isn’t cool either. A second practice I would recommend is giving certain room for failure at work. Run the communication practice as a lab. Launch projects in beta mode over a decent period of time and kill the ones that don’t reach the minimum acceptable. 

Grading ALFI’s CEO (Director General) on his strategic vision about communication? 

Now we have got to the tricky question. I joined ALFI 9 months ago so my evaluation span isn’t that long. ALFI is going through a transformation of the communication function that is similar to the ones I have seen in other organisations, large or small. Accompanying that transformation is precisely one of my goals. Since the booming of digital content and social media, organisations - and more precisely their brands – have been more and more bound to become content creators. From the role of handling media and put out some publications and press releases to become strategic sources of content that informs and educates via various channels and formats that are more accessible and consider how users consume that content. Our CEO (Director General) is ‘all in’ to support this transformation that requires resources, time and technology. 

Tell us three campaigns “coup de cœur”…

Quite frankly, this has been the toughest question to answer so far. I could mention campaigns I have seen on YouTube, at metros and bus stops or in magazines. I haven’t watched TV since 2015 I believe, so that channel is out of my scope. I recall the recent ‘Là où ça fait mal’ from Médecins sans frontières. It’s really touching. A second one, also very recent is the one that the Ministère de la Mobilité et des Travaux Publiques au Luxembourg has launched, the ‘zéro alcool au volant’ campaign. I saw it on YouTube some weeks ago. One can also see the large ads on the highways. And a third campaign, smaller, but one that has stayed in the vault of my nice memories with my former employer PwC Luxembourg, is the 2018 ‘a bit mo’ campaign intended to introduce the new partners by using avatars. The project was nice to put together, it was different, fun and challenging.  

You’re the new editor-in-chief of Paperjam or Delano. Who do you want to feature on the cover?

Hummm. You caught me off guard with this one…next cover? I think it has to be someone or a team who has been key to supporting people affected by the invasion to Ukraine. I don’t want to mention any association specifically because I may be omitting some other although I’ve got one in mind. 

You can also read this interview in French .