A World Champion at SDA
An amateur leading a team of professionals. It might sound strange, but even if the "amateur" in question, Federico Albano, doesn't live for sailing, he spends almost all his free time on board a boat and has advanced sailing skills, participating in regattas all over the Mediterranean. Twenty-eight, from La Spezia, with a marine engineering degree and an MBA from SDA Bocconi, Federico is the helmsman of the Italian boat that won the world title for offshore sailing in the class ORC I b. 130 boats from 27 countries participated in the June event in Cres, Croatia. "I wasn't planning on participating," says Federico. "A member of the crew invited me to take part in a few regattas with them and, since we did well, the owner of the boat Giuseppe Giuffrè asked me to be a part of the team for the World Championship."
 Federico Albano |
Federico is not new to big-name competitions. In 2010 he led the SDA team which won the MBA Cup, but in that competition he worked with a team of professionals accustomed to major races: "For example, the tactician Lorenzo Bodini participated in the Olympics," says Federico, who works at his family company that constructs offshore petroleum rigs. "But for me it's still just a passion." The World Championship was an exciting but challenging experience, requiring both physical and mental exertion, natural skills that require training. "You need to be sangfroid, sensible and able to concentrate. During the Championship we were on the water at least 10 hours a day, on boats around 11-15 meters long weighing around 6 tons, and the helmsman's smallest error could compromise the work of the entire crew." To make his explanation clearer, Federico uses this anecdote: "One day, during the exciting initial stages, we found out that we had been disqualified. We stayed on task and continued sailing until, a few minutes later, we heard that the disqualification was withdrawn. If we had lost our concentration after the first communication, we would have risked losing the Championship."
It is often said that sailing is the perfect metaphor for the world of business. Federico's experience seems to confirm this theory: "A sailboat is like a company and everyone's input contributes to the success or failure of the team. But the most important aspect is strategy. If you're in the lead and the second-place boat chooses an alternate course, do you follow that route to keep an eye on that boat, risking that the third-place team gets ahead? Or do you stay your course, confident that it's the better choice? A company often has to make similar decisions." Federico has great memories from his MBA experience, "both professionally and personally, which resulted in solid relationships that continue to this day. In addition, my role as head of the Sailing Team was like a Master within the Master."
Next year's World Championship will be held in Finland, with very different conditions compared to the conditions in Croatia. It is now time to celebrate, but the possibility of defending their title needs to be planned well in advance: "Right now we're enjoying our success, which made us famous in the field. For next year we're thinking about participating again with the same crew, but we know it will be hard to match. In sailing you can plan on competing at a certain level, but victory depends on too many factors, not all of which can be controlled. Just like in the world of business."