Company Overview

Huawei Technologies is a Chinese multinational technology group, founded in 1987 and is now one of the world's leading players in ICT technologies, with a corporate model entirely owned by its employees. Within the group, Huawei Digital Power is the business unit dedicated to integrating power electronics and digital technologies for clean energy, with solutions ranging from smart photovoltaics and storage systems to mobility electrification and data center infrastructure. The division operates in over 170 countries, supported by an international network of research and development centers and boasts an extensive patent portfolio in the field of digital energy. In Italy, its solutions serve hundreds of thousands of residential buildings, thousands of companies, and hundreds of utility-scale plants, making a concrete contribution to the country's energy transition. It is within this division, in the management of major global European clients for delivery and service solutions related to solar and batteries, that the role of Rosa Bava, Chief Operations Officer and the subject of this case study, is situated.

Participant Role and Experience

Rosa Bava is Chief Operations Officer for Huawei Digital Power, with a role dedicated to major global European clients in the renewables sector: as she describes it, she handles “the delivery and service side of Huawei’s renewable products, specifically for solar and batteries.” She brings twenty years of work experience and an engineering background, a mindset that led her from the very first day of class to translate the program's methods and objectives into an Excel spreadsheet.

Her role brings her into contact with highly international business environments on a daily basis: she manages and coordinates teams of over five different nationalities, and often finds herself interfacing with cultures she has never encountered before or only knows in part. Her profile combines technical rigor with the need for leadership capable of adapting quickly to complex cultural contexts, the premise from which the entire journey with Wibo began.

Before the Program

Rosa’s starting point didn't stem from a specific issue, but from a deeper question: gaining a clear understanding of where she stood in her leadership journey and what concrete tools could make her more effective. This curiosity immediately intertwined with the reality of her daily work, which involves international contexts and cultures that aren't always familiar. This created a need for tools and awareness to handle complex situations with greater speed, effectiveness, and personal peace of mind.

During the Program

What made the experience truly different, according to Rosa, was the combination of theory and practice: sessions experienced firsthand, not just a simple lecture, but a journey that also included role-playing and practical exercises—very different from other programs she had taken in the past, including an MBA at the Politecnico di Milano. Among the tools introduced in the classroom, one in particular stood out to her from the very first moment: the trust triangle, or collaboration triangle, a model for identifying the pillars necessary for effective communication and, where the context allows, for building an environment of genuine trust.

After the Program: Application

Once the classroom sessions were over, the most practical phase began for Rosa: the systematic self-assessment of the methods and objectives she had learned. The transition from theory to practice allowed her to independently manage online meetings for a group with over five different nationalities, which had previously been coordinated in a different way. It was an immediate test for the tools she had acquired, approached with the stated intention of applying them transparently by explaining to the team what was being done and why.

Value and Final Testimonial

When asked what the most tangible benefit of the program is, Rosa has no doubts: a leap in self-awareness, the opportunity to reflect on her past behaviors, understand how she acted in corporate and multicultural contexts, and gain the tools to move toward increasingly ambitious challenges. A leap that, in her experience, rarely happens, with the last one occurring at the Politecnico di Milano. The fact that it happened again now, with Wibo, is a sign to her of how significant the program has been.

To anyone asking why they should undertake a Wibo program, Rosa would start with a principle the course itself taught her: the value and the duty of recognition. For her, speaking openly about the benefits received is not only useful for colleagues who could benefit from them, but it is part of every manager's responsibility toward their people and those who invested in their training.

Closing the conversation, she is asked to summarize the experience in three adjectives. Her answer captures the essence of the program: universally applicable, because it concerns the leader but, even more so, the person, explaining why we act and what we can do to improve our actions; effective, because it provides practical and concrete techniques; and inspiring, because the more inspired a person is, the more motivated and happy they are to apply what they have learned.

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