“A woman, the people, a brand”. This was the title of the conference during which Cristiana Tadei, Calliope Brand Manager, told about her experience at Teddy, starting from her decision to work in the family business to her will to make Vittorio’s Dream “her own dream”, getting into the “second-generation mission” more and more, day by day.

On last august 23rd, Cristiana Tadei was one of the speakers at the International Meeting for Friendship among people in Rimini, one of the most important and popular cultural festivals in Europe, with conferences, exhibitions and music and theatre shows. Cristiana was called to speak about her work experience as a woman, an entrepreneur and a mother.
The audience soon filled up the conference room to listen to Cristiana’s story: she openly told about “her own” Teddy, speaking about her “ordinary” human and professional path, which however was marked by passion and curiosity at the same time. And the first thing she said candidly was that she had no intention to work at Teddy when she was young.
Here following you can find some excerpts of her speech.

A passion developed by following some signs

“I am here because my ordinary story as a worker, a mother and a woman may help and support those who have to deal with complex decisions.
What do I have to do with Teddy? Teddy is the company my father established. When I finished school, the only thing I was sure about was that I did not want to work at Teddy: on the one side, I was a bit tired of it, on the other I did not have a clear idea yet about what to do after graduation. I went to Milan to study law and, after my graduation, I simply started following some “signs” reality put in front of me.
In Milan I met Alessandro, the man who later became my husband, and after graduation, for the first time, I started to think seriously how to deal with real life, to wonder what there was for me: I knew I wanted to marry Alessandro and go back to Rimini. I had a chat with my father and decided that the family company was something interesting, so I attended a 12-month MBA and later started working in Teddy administration department.
Besides following those little “signs”, I have always let myself be driven by what I have discovered to be my inclinations, that is a special love for beauty, harmony, order: if I am the daughter of an entrepreneur, I have also to say that my mother was a fashion stylist.
Later, I therefore took on the challenge of managing the image of our brands, first Terranova and then Calliope”.

Shared entrepreneurship: Teddy engine

“I developed a passion for Teddy increasingly more only when experiencing the everyday life of the company, in particular some aspects.
The first one is that Teddy can be for me, as for every one of us, the place where your dreams come true, when you combine your own dream with Teddy Dream. Inside Teddy, we try to promote a shared entrepreneurship: our work is built on the wish everyone has to build something great, beautiful, useful for yourself and for the world.
Every one of us has the opportunity to regard his job not just as list of tasks but as if the company was yours. Teddy was established and could develop thanks to the trust we have in people, because every person can be a creator. You only need to trust him or her and they’ll move and act.
We are aware that what changes our company, what moves it are not just procedures (which are necessary) or perfect systems (which do not exist), but what moves it chiefly is a person aware and passionate of his or her own entrepreneurship, creativity and responsibility. This is what makes our company work.
So I got my “hands dirty” personally, taking on the risk of being wrong, but with the opportunity to say my opinion and leave my hallmark in what I did.
My father Vittorio, who was a pragmatic person, not superficial, always used to tell us that “you die of image”, but the challenge we face today is that you can die of image, but you can live of beauty, as beauty “strikes” and attracts you. So, starting from my education on beauty I took on Calliope’s challenge, taking on the responsibility of an entire brand."

Dressing people to make our dream come true

"Another aspect is that my passion can make the difference: for my father the ultimate goal of the company was the most important thing, the Dream. When joking in our family, we used to say that there was no difference in making bolts or clothing to him: the important thing was to create jobs, help others, and give a meaning to his own life through work. For us it is different: we will never make bolts! We are aware that we can achieve the ultimate goal of our company, the Dream, dressing people and doing it in a beautiful way that makes us happy, enthusiastic and rewarded.

Lastly, I have always been attracted by the fact that Teddy is the place where it is possible to “breathe” a different humanity. The way my father treated his collaborators always struck me because to him they were more like his own children rather than his employees.  As any good father he “launched” his children into the world, challenged them on great enterprises, spurred them not to be satisfied with little things and, above all, he made them grow safeguarding the common good of the company rather than his own personal interest”.

Watch the video of the conference here.