{"id":224747,"date":"2024-02-22T09:28:39","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T08:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/?p=224747"},"modified":"2024-02-22T09:28:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T08:28:39","slug":"a-ceo-without-borders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/a-ceo-without-borders\/","title":{"rendered":"A CEO without borders: Nazzareno Gorni&#8217;s digital nomad experience"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CEOs often travel for work. But what if such a key corporate role <strong>travels by choice<\/strong> and not just by need, while continuing to work? Would they still be able to guarantee presence and safe guidance to the rest of the company?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The answer is yes. The <strong>digital nomad lifestyle<\/strong> has gained enormous popularity in recent years. Thanks to developments in technology and the increase in remote work opportunities, more and more people, regardless of their job level, choose to <strong>break free from traditional office locations<\/strong> and embrace the possibility of working from anywhere in the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Being able to travel while working is not a limit to performances, quite the opposite, it provides a <strong>great opportunit<\/strong>y for both the company and employees themselves. It allows the development of new skills and contributes to the happiness of individuals who, by feeling more satisfied, improve their work performances.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>The digital nomad experience of Nazzareno Gorni, CEO of Growens\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Thanks to the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">WoW (Way of Working) program<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, any Growens employee can freely choose <strong>where and how to work<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such opportunity is open also to the top management and for this reason, in December 2023, Nazzareno Gorni <strong>set out to work in Bali<\/strong> for three months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here is his experience.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>How did you get the idea of working from Bali?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I chose this island because of its reputation of being one of the <strong>best places in the world to work remotely<\/strong>. Now I understand why: breathtaking landscapes, cheap cost of life, plenty of services and excellent connectivity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-224752 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"388\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner-300x97.png 300w, https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner-1024x331.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner-768x248.png 768w, https:\/\/www.growens.io\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/nazzareno-interview-banner-70x23.png 70w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><b>As a CEO working remotely, what challenges are you facing?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For what concerns working remotely, the most complicated matter is <strong>arranging conference calls<\/strong> that include people from different time zones, such as Central Europe and California.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sometimes this means that I have to be awake and operational between 11 pm and 1 am.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, for what concerns my personal life, the toughest part is the <strong>lack of face-to-face interactions<\/strong> with my children (who, however, joined me for the Christmas holidays), colleagues, friends and work network. Fortunately, however, over a three-month period these difficulties are easily manageable.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>What are the opportunities and the advantages?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Broadening one\u2019s horizons and discovering new cultures is a definite plus. I can<strong> explore a part of the world not so well known<\/strong> and that it is very different from what I am used to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having this kind of knowledge can be very useful, for example, for future business expansion in Asia or for evaluating and communicating with companies from this part of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Asynchronous work<\/strong> is another advantage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Oftentimes, we hold meetings where an email or a collaborative document can be enough. It is often much more productive to discuss asynchronously, because it encourages <strong>mental discipline<\/strong> and focus in expressing one&#8217;s thoughts in a clear and concise manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Do you have any advice for anyone wanting to go on a similar experience?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First of all, in Bali, as well as in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and sandals are enough, you <strong>don&#8217;t need to overdo<\/strong> it with your luggage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Furthermore, it is better not to pay attention to the weather forecast, it seems like it is raining constantly but instead it is the opposite. To try this experience, I recommend going in the <strong>low season<\/strong> because it allows a lot of flexibility. You can avoid booking anything in advance (accommodation, restaurants, travel arrangements and so on).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I also recommend getting a <strong>mobile phone that supports eSIMs<\/strong>, which are very useful for activating data plans with apps such as Airalo, Nomad or Holafly. It is also essential to choose a data plan that allows you to activate the Hotspot on your computer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In terms of personal productivity, in addition to the classic advices typical of remote workers, here is what I find useful when spending time in a time zone far away from the European one for a long time:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Adding two \u201cout of office\u201d periods<\/strong> on my calendar: one after dinner &#8220;only for urgent meetings&#8221;, and the other during the night as &#8220;night time&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Activating the double time zone function<\/strong>, in Google Calendar, in order to always have the two main time zones at hand<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Using the free Chrome extension Timebuddy<\/strong> which allows to cross-reference up to 5 different time zones<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Taking notes<\/strong>, for pen and paper enthusiasts like me, using Remarkable. I also tried Supernote and Onyx Boox but my final choice was Remarkable<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Bringing an extension cable<\/strong> as light as possible<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Getting a VPN that supports Italian IPs<\/strong> because some apps and sites are blocked, given that I am connecting from South East Asia<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Taking advantage of tools that promote online collaboration<\/strong> such as Google Workspace, Confluence\/Jira, Slack, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/beefree.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beefree <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and so on<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><b>Ultimately, what is the best thing about choosing where to work from?<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Without a doubt, it\u2019s the <strong>ability to balance personal needs with work<\/strong>, and to reduce transfers.This means more free time, more money saved, less stress and less CO2 emissions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <strong>quality of life improves<\/strong> dramatically thanks to flexibility. You don\u2019t have to &#8220;clock in&#8221; from 9 am to 6 pm and with a little attention and awareness, you can be much more productive and at the same time spend more time with your family and on your hobbies outside of work.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Would you recommend leaving and working remotely, like you did?\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For sure. I also recommend it for an <strong>economic reason<\/strong>: transfers and the cost of living, as I describe in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/pulse\/possible-remote-ceo-my-two-cents-working-from-bali-nazzareno-gorni-d0hre%3FtrackingId=xVQb2AMagJrHPjJdbdEpLA%253D%253D\/?trackingId=xVQb2AMagJrHPjJdbdEpLA%3D%3D\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">my article on LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, are absolutely accessible both in Indonesia and even more so in Vietnam.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who said a CEO can&#8217;t be a digital nomad? Nazzareno Gorni takes advantage of the WoW program, working for three months from Bali.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[111],"class_list":["post-224747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-senza-categoria","tag-wow-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224747"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":224755,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224747\/revisions\/224755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.growens.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}