WHEN SPORT BECOMES A SCHOOL OF LIFE
Interview with Benedetta Azzerboni
«The most important life lessons I have learned came from my coaches. In the gym, you learn how to cope with pressure, manage expectations, and not give up when things do not work. It is an incredibly demanding school, but an extraordinary one.» Born in Bergamo in 1995, Benedetta Azzerboni now works in product packaging development at Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella. However, her approach to work, responsibility and relationships is deeply rooted in volleyball, the sport that has accompanied much of her life.
«I am a deeply dynamic person, someone who struggles to stay still, and I found in sport an important outlet,» she explains. Volleyball came into her life relatively late, during middle school, but it soon became her natural language. «In the gym everything was much easier; that is where I met my best mentors.» Sport thus entered her life as an educational environment even before a competitive one. It is a structured and demanding setting, where talent matters less than consistency, and where every improvement comes through daily effort. Benedetta developed as an athlete in one of the most competitive areas in Italy for volleyball. She wore the shirts of important clubs such as Lurano Volley, Brembo Volley and Warmor Gorle, reaching Serie B2 and B1, just one step below the top division. More than the results themselves, however, it is the personal journey that has left a lasting mark on her.
«Volleyball has made me a disciplined and hard-working person,» she says. «Spending long hours in the gym was normal. We trained with broken fingers, with a fever, with back pain. Not because we had to, but because we believed in it. I missed many of my friends’ eighteenth birthday parties, but I also saw many highly talented athletes give up because they did not want to give up going out in the evenings.»
However, at the age of twenty-six, the time came to make a difficult decision: Benedetta realised that, although she deeply loved volleyball, that sport would not be able to guarantee the future she desired. «I realised that I would not be able to live the life I wanted by playing volleyball alone. At a certain point, I had to choose.»
The decision to stop was not a surrender, but an act of clarity. Benedetta chose to begin building a professional career, taking with her everything that sport had taught her. She spent a year in London as an au pair, seeking independence and new perspectives. Upon returning to Italy, she chose to move to Florence, retracing in reverse the path of her paternal grandfather who, originally from Florence, had moved to Bergamo in the 1960s to work as a geologist at Italcementi. It almost seems as though fate enjoyed guiding her along the same path in reverse: at the end of 2021, Benedetta found a seasonal position at Officina Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella, which had recently been acquired by the Italmobiliare Group.
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She began working in e-commerce during the Christmas period, handling order preparation and logistics. At the end of her contract, she was asked to stay and moved into incoming quality control. This proved to be a pivotal step, enabling her to develop an overall view of the product. «Working in quality means learning to analyse errors, trace them back to their causes, and build solutions that stand the test of time. It allows you to understand which details really make the difference.» Benedetta proved to be talented and highly motivated, and after one year the company offered her a role in quality assurance, where she was also responsible for complaint management and customer relations. «I like to think that I have grown alongside the company,» she notes — and this is indeed the case, as following its acquisition by Italmobiliare, the company has undergone a period of significant evolution and international expansion.
After a few years, she developed the ambition to move closer to product development, as a natural progression of a path built step by step. She therefore joined the R&D packaging area, effectively contributing to the structuring of a function that was still taking shape. Today, Benedetta works closely with marketing teams, creatives, formulators and suppliers, turning ideas and insights into concrete products. «Developing packaging means balancing creativity, technical requirements, costs and timelines. It is a constant balancing act.» Her role requires continuous research and learning. «It is essential to stay up to date with innovations, solutions and materials, also to make our packaging increasingly sustainable.» Communication skills and a strong team mindset are equally essential. Once again, sport emerges as an implicit reference: «In volleyball, no point is ever scored alone. Work is the same: if one part of the system does not function, the result will not come.»
Alongside her professional career, Benedetta has also chosen to resume her studies, enrolling in a university course in Product Design. She approaches this commitment with the same discipline she once applied to training, applying what she learns to her professional practice on a daily basis, and vice versa. Looking ahead, she envisions a gradual progression, built on increasing responsibilities and the creation of value. «I like the idea of further growing and developing this function, also through the creation of a team.»
Clear and tangible goals, for a career that — much like a match — is built one point at a time.