This week in Italy I have done so many fun activities. To start at my internship at Tempocasa, me and Jon began working more on our presentation on the current workflow of the customer care division. We have outlined what we want to talk about and are now doing more research on what’s the best way to bring about interactions between customers and the company. One of the challenges in this project is that while we have a perspective from what we know, there is a cultural difference that we don’t want to offend by making decisions. With that in mind, we are carefully treading on Italian culture in a workplace and how we should rationalize some suggestions we are making. So far, we are making great progress and hope to finish this presentation up in the following week.

 

In class, I have learned so much more about corporate responsibility. In particular, this Monday we discussed a lot more on ESG and whether or not companies should care about stakeholders more or shareholders. There are great arguments for both sides of this case, and the approach the class took was on the Business Roundtable Statements made in 1997 and 2019. In the 1997 statement, it was clarified that shareholders are prioritized but stakeholders will still be aided such as employee training and increasing consumer value. In the 2019 statement, an emphasis on stakeholders was made and that the whole is more important than just focusing on the shareholders. Personally, I am conflicting in choosing a side currently as both slides of the argument made very good points. The discussions we have in class really help me to create dialogue on important subjects in the business world today.

 

This week, I traveled to both Florence and Naples. In both of these places I learned so much more about Italian culture. First in Florence, I was able to see the Statue of David and see all the other paintings in the museum. I found it very interesting to read up on the various paintings by Italian artists throughout history. David itself was impressive in its own right due to its sheer size and details. While I’ve seen many pictures of the statue itself, I thought seeing the real one lived up to the hype and I am so glad I got to see it. At the end of the night in Florence, I got to eat a famous Florentine steak. This steak was one of the best I ever had and I could see why it is world famous. In Naples, I got to visit Pompeii. Personally, I was looking forward to this the most of all the trips I went on so far because of the history this one village has. The buildings that were left standing, the amazing architecture, and finally just the atmosphere of the place is something I’ve never experienced. Overall, this was an amazing week to see all of Italy.