Hi All,
I wrote the attached recommendation letter and I need someone to review it, since I am italian and I'm not english mother tongue.
The letter is preatty long, but I hope it is quite well written.
Thank you very much for your help.
Best Regards
Lorenzo
________________________________________________
Question N.1 - How
long and in what capacity have you known the candidate?
I met Lorenzo at the University
in 1998 and since then we cultivated a strong friendship culminated in 2006
when we structured a mutual agreement in order to manage some business related
projects. From that year our
professional relation has emerged reinforced by the fact that his
knowledge of corporate finance is more advanced and systematic than mine, while
I am more used to deal with fiscal matters. I collaborated with Lorenzo in two
different projects: during the first project, that lasted for six months, in
January 2006 we performed a merger of two companies operating in the field of
industrial plant design creating a new company with an asset of 150 million € and 1200
employers; with the second project, that lasted for four months, we
created a Trust with an asset of 85 million € in real estate, stocks, bonds and
cash.
Question N.2 - If this is a work
related reference, in what position is/was the candidate employed and for how
long?
While being involved in
these projects, we worked closely together for ten months, five days a week,
twelve hours a day. In both projects Lorenzo was the manager and I was in
charge of optimizing the fiscal impact on the corporate structure in the first
project and in the second I was in charge of studying and designing the Trust's
fiscal structure.
Question N.3 - Please
elaborate below or in a separate letter on the evaluation you have given above
and provide any additional clarification about the applicant, which
you consider would be helpful to the Admissions Committee.
Intellectual or Academic Ability
Lorenzo has an
extreme flexible and vivid intellectual ability. I realized his attitude to
study, research and in-depth examination when we were at the University and
now, I found the really same approach in the projects we structured,
characterized by very specific technical issues where intellectual and academic
ability background sits on the first place. His intellectual ability relates to
match a rigorous training with managerial skills and ability to adapt to
different conditions.
Competence
in current position
Lorenzo's competence
as project leader and manager clearly demonstrates to be live up in every
situation. I had the clear perception that our clients entrusted all the
actions proposed by Lorenzo. When our clients asked Lorenzo specific questions related to our work, he
always managed to demonstrate confidence and precision thanks to the competencies
he has.
Oral
Communication Skills
Lorenzo has a very clear and concise way
to express his point of view. He is able to do that thanks to an innate ability
to enter into dialogue with others. His approach does not change whether he
speaks with a colleague or with the CEO of the company. Lorenzo always
personalized his style knowing how to put his counterpart in confidence and at
ease. Particularly, I remember as during one Board of Directors he was asked
too many questions about every single detail of the merger that was planned and
he answered all the questions in a flawless and confident way that everybody
felt more secure in conducting the operation in the direction Lorenzo
prospected.
Written
Communication Skills
Lorenzo has excellent writing skills, as
he manages to synthesize and explain very difficult concepts simply producing
clear and easy-to-read documents. The very technical vocabulary of our work
tends to be difficult to understand; therefore, it is very important to make
sure that all the documents delivered to our clients are easy to understand. I
remember that once, while we were monitoring the merger of companies, Lorenzo
was the person that prepared informally the minutes of the Board of Directors
that were used later as formal documents presented to the notary.
Analytical
Skills
Lorenzo’s analytical skills are very
important and effective in our field of work. Particularly, he is very skilful
in conducting economic-financial analyses. Having said that, I would like to
acknowledge that thanks to his excel file we were able to develop a model, and
using this model we simulated the effects of the merger of two companies in
terms of accounting, and with this model we also were able to analyze the first
year’s net circulating capital of the new company resulting from the merger.
Evidently, such a task requires mastering and modelizing of the different
aspects of balance sheets of the two companies.
Leadership
Potential
Lorenzo definitely possesses great
leadership qualities. He freely shares his skills and experience with the team,
making them look to him even more as a leader. Lorenzo exhibits the courage of
hard decisions and stand by them, thanks to his solid theoretical and practical
preparation. Lorenzo is not intimidated by much, but he has also good judgment.
When he has considered the facts of a situation and is certain he is on solid
ground, he will not hesitate to take a strong stand. Lorenzo realizes that in
any group everything is ultimately about persuasion, negotiation, and
compromise. He is such a good leader, looked up by others, because they know he
will accept a decision that does not go his way if he feels he has had a fair
hearing. Lorenzo leads by listening to others and building consensus.
Teamwork
Lorenzo
knows how to lead and orientate a group of people in the day after day life in
order to obtain the desired results. At the same time Lorenzo is able to adapt
to the different characters of the team members because he has an outstanding
attitude of hearing, of motivating, of respecting and of communicating with all
the colleagues. It's not easy to develop a project from the design phase till
implementation but Lorenzo is able to give the right attention and the right
amount of responsibility to all team members in order to drive the team to reach
the final result.
Problem Solving
In
managing problems Lorenzo always proved to be very proactive and ready to
anticipate aspects that could impact on our projects. His ability to manage both complex situations
and supply solutions is driven by his attitude to do analogies with similar
cases already solved and also by break up a complex problem in a series of multiple small
themes more easy to be solved.
Maturity
Lorenzo’s maturity is exceptional in our
field. I am sure that his maturity comes from the fact that he graduated very
early and, consequently, had an opportunity to get involved in many different
kinds of situations from which he learned a lot. His maturity is proven by his
communication skills, his motivation and his ability to take a deep and careful
approach to everything he does. Particularly, I refer to his ability to put all
his interlocutors at ease, as, for instance, once I saw him negotiating with
the banks very favourable terms for our client’s company, which was possible
only because during these years of hard work he has distinguished himself as a
trustful and professional person.
Management Potential
Based on my
experience the most important factor that I can observe in Lorenzo is that he
gets things done. He is able to get the most from different situations by
controlling all the critical aspects that a good manager must have: organization, charisma, leadership, teamwork,
vision, integrity. All these are part of his character and are evident in his
personality, given that have always been recognized also by our clients. To
deliver concrete results to companies is our mission and the only was to reach
this goal is to be good managers serving our clients.
Question N.4 - What do you
consider to be the candidate’s principal strengths/talents?
I consider Lorenzo's principal talents
his attitude to create a collaborative working environment, his competence in analyzing and solving problems, his
extremely oriented to teamwork personality and his willing not to be satisfied
by the results achieved and always looking for new ventures and new
opportunities.
Question N.5 - What
do you consider to be the candidate’s weaknesses or areas that need
improvement?
A weakness that Lorenzo might have
compared to other team members that I regularly work with is related to his
high moral standards. Lorenzo tends to trust the people with whom he works, and
this is why he expects to be treated the same way. If a person disappoints him,
Lorenzo tends to distance himself and does not treat this person in the same
way.
Question N.6 - What is
your opinion of the candidate’s motivation towards, and suitability for a
career in management?
I think that Lorenzo is the right
person for a career in management and I can say that because I saw him in action.
Lorenzo already has a very successful future ahead of him. I believe that this
is the right time for him to get his dream of doing an MBA in a prestigious
university like Manchester.
I'm sure that his knowledge and competencies would benefit from the MBA and
together with his actual level of management practice he will gain an absolute
level of respect in the management field. We spoke a lot about his willing to
gain the MBA and even if against my own interest, that is to hold him in Italy
to continue to collaborate to new projects, I believe that for his ambitions
the right thing is to go in a place where both theory and practical experience
can allow him to fully develop his enormous potentialities.