Sales Ethics & Silicon Valley: is it possible? Let’s ask Matteo Fabiano of BAIA

by Alice Alessandri e Alberto Aleo

We met Matteo Fabiano in 2015 in Silicon Valley during the trip for the launch of our book “Sales Ethics” in US. Matteo is a board member of BAIA – Business Association Italy America, an organization whose aim is to create connections and opportunities for Italian Business people working in the US. As principal at FireMatter, Matteo’s professional work includes consulting for international technology companies and multinationals. We would like to ask him some details about his job and experience as an Italian business man working and living in Silicon Valley.

• How would you describe your job and why did you choose to do business in the US? I am a market development consultant and service provider to international companies in Silicon Valley. My clients are international technology companies entering the US market and international corporations interested in sourcing technology-based innovation.  I arrived in Silicon Valley in 2004 after having worked for some large US corporations in Europe, such as IBM, Procter & Gamble and Hewlett Packard. At the time I was working for HP in Belgium and, after getting an MBA, I moved to the company headquarters in Palo Alto. Shortly after landing in Silicon Valley, I was headhunted by a startup funded by KPCB and Intel Capital and run by a former Siebel GM. That was too attractive to pass on and I got onto the startup path, which eventually led me to start my own business. I realized I could use what I had learned, including from my own mistakes, to help international software companies navigate the US market and Silicon Valley.

• Are there connections between the Silicon Valley business philosophy and ethics? Very much so, I think. The Silicon Valley business culture is rooted in the 60s’ counterculture ideals of freedom and community. The belief in the freedom of individuals to pursue their dreams, in the communal sharing of knowledge and resources, in the acceptance of innovative ideas regardless of where they come from are all part of the business culture here. They are the reasons behind flat hierarchies, flexible working arrangements, the co-mingling of professional and personal life and employee equity-sharing schemes etc. Overlaid on top of that is an almost religious credo in the superiority of technological progress, Darwinian competition and free markets. And if ethics is the discipline of what is “right” vs what is “wrong”, you can see how Silicon Valley can be schizophrenic about it. On one hand you have the ethos of “don’t be evil” and “making the world a better place” on the other you have entrepreneurs being advised to “fake it till you make it”, the glorification of extreme ruthlessness, aggressive discrimination and groupthink.

• The digital market seems to be more focused on short term results rather than long term relationships. Is there any room for a customer-centered approach, and sales ethics? That really depends, in my opinion, on how the performance of a business, digital or not, is measured. It is true that technology-based, digital-based companies in general face faster obsolescence and more aggressive competition and so they may not have the luxury to think too long-term, especially if they are venture-backed and must grow enormously fast. So that creates incentives to “bend the truth” to close a sale, or cut corners to get a product to market. To counter that, in Silicon Valley at least, there’s a network of trust among a relatively small number of key players. If an entrepreneur or an investor behaves dishonestly in dealings with other people in the valley, eventually their reputation will be damaged to the point that they will no longer be able to operate.

• Young people and companies in Italy see Silicon Valley as an Eldorado, but is it always gold that glitters? In short, absolutely not. The great California Gold Rush of the mid-19^th century saw the population of San Francisco grow by a factor of 25x (!) in less than two years. Some became fabulously wealthy, while most lost everything, including, sometimes, their lives. Today living and working in Silicon Valley is certainly safer! Still, a very small percentage of those who try their hand at success make it. All that said, if you have skills that are in high demand and the economy is in an up-cycle, you can find yourself at home here.

• In your opinion, are there any differences in the meaning of business ethics in Italy and US? I don’t necessarily think there are any major fundamental differences. Culturally, both Italy and the US espouse similar “Western” values. In addition to that, so much trade and direct investment has taken place between Italy and the US in the past 70 years that business practices and etiquette have been adopted by “osmosis”, both ways. Still, I think that there are different sensibilities about what it acceptable in the workplace and the precise boundaries of “right” and “wrong”. Just think for example about the role of women in the workplace or the degree to which merit and performance are rewarded or the inclination to favor someone for a promotion based on their belonging to a certain “clan”.

• What would you like to suggest to Diario di un Consulente’s readers that desire to come to the Silicon Valley? There is plenty of advice out there on the “what to do” if you want to work and live in Silicon Valley. I’d like instead to encourage everyone who has that dream to really think long and hard about the “why”. Almost everyone I know that moved to Silicon Valley had some difficult time at some point. Having a very clear understanding of why you moved in the first place is what will get you through.

On the 26th of May we will be the guests of BAIA and Istituto Italiano di Cultura in San Francisco for an open talk about Sales Ethics and the role of relationships in the digital business. It will be an opportunity to share the results of our research and to underline how the Italian style in relationships could also make a difference in the Internet and digital age.  Visit our brand new Youtube Page to learn more about Sales Ethics and to have news about the event.

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