Article taken from the April 2024 issue of Forbes Italia. Subscribe!
After his scientific high school diploma he attended the conservatory and graduated in economics and marketing at Bocconi. So Alessandro Salimbenigeneral manager of BMW Motorrad Italia, pursued a career in the automotive industry. “I have accumulated experience in sales and after-sales, as manager of an Italian geographical area and of a group of dealers,” she says. “I immediately developed a strong orientation towards the customer, towards quality and towards achieving results. This was fundamental for joining BMW Italia in 1997. Here, starting as an area manager in the sales department, I ended up covering the role of regional director”.
In 2008 Salimbeni became general manager of BMW Milan, the direct subsidiary of BMW Italia. “In this role I gained experience on all four brands of the group: BMW, Mini, BMW Motorrad and Rolls Royce. At the beginning of 2015 I took on the role of customer support director. Finally, in September 2022 I had the opportunity to return to my ancient passion for motorbikes and became general director of BMW Motorrad Italia”.
What were the most difficult challenges you faced in your career and how did you overcome them?
I start from the assumption that challenges never end and that facing them is one of the reasons that push me every day to give my best, also asking it of those who work with me. In my journey I have always accepted – indeed, I have always actively sought – change, to get out of the comfort zone. I have always tried to influence reality to achieve goals. Creating cohesive and winning teams, to which I can transmit the culture of quality, results and change as an opportunity, has always been my modus operandi. I faced all the challenges with passion and courage, shaping my leadership model on these values. Finally, in a dynamic and competitive professional context, one of the most important challenges was finding a balance between work and private life. My family is international, as my wife is Japanese, and we have a teenage son. We are open-minded, oriented towards the future and, in some aspects, outside the traditional mold, also thanks to our cultural differences.
How is BMW Motorrad Italia adapting to change in the mobility sector and what are the main strategies to remain a leader in the sector?
We are working on various fronts to ensure maximum satisfaction for our customers, who are at the center of our strategy. We focus on expanding and customizing the product range to attract new customers, as well as working on vehicle innovation, with both internal combustion and electric engines, such as the BMW Ce 02 and the electric eParkourer that we are about to launch in 2024. These efforts prepare us to be leaders in every scenario and to follow every market trend. Furthermore, we maintain solid relationships with commercial partners, dealers, who represent a key element of our success, because they are the direct link with the market.
How are you tackling the transition towards more sustainable mobility and what are the company objectives in this area?
Sustainability has been at the center of the group’s strategy for over 20 years. In the motorcycle sector, today there are no regulatory constraints, so we are approaching the electric transition as an opportunity. We prefer electric propulsion in applications where it offers customer experience benefits, such as urban mobility. At the same time, we continue to develop internal combustion engines with increasingly higher performance also from an emissions point of view. However, the concept of sustainability is not just limited to the environment. We also extend it to a very important topic for us, which is safety. Building increasingly safe and accessible motorcycles is a pillar of our product strategy.
What are the main product innovations and the most important recent initiatives from BMW Motorrad Italia?
In recent years we have worked a lot on the range. On September 28th we presented the new BMW R 1300 Gs, which, especially on the Italian market, remains the undisputed queen among large displacement motorcycles. This year we are launching several new features. The new BMW F 900 Gs enduro and its derivatives will allow us to strengthen our position in the medium off-road market. The new BMW R 12 and R 12 nineT take up the baton of the BMW R nineT, a model from the highly successful heritage range. The world of high-performance crossovers will see the arrival of the new BMW M 1000 Xr and the renewed S 1000 Xr. Finally, the BMW Ce 02 will join the Ce 04 in our urban offering. Then there are other news which it is premature to talk about.
How are you leveraging technological innovation to improve customer experiences and stay ahead of the curve?
We want technology to be at the service of the experience and pleasure of driving, without compromising or diminishing it. We offer high-performance and safe products, in which safety is an essential element. An example is the new R 1300 Gs, which represents a return to origins, simplicity and accessibility. However, despite this return to its roots, it incorporates the state of the art of our technology, with features such as the active chassis, ride stability controls, lighting system and sophisticated aerodynamics.
What is your vision for the future of BMW Motorrad Italia?
I lead a strong brand, whose prestige emerged in all its strength on the occasion of the 100th anniversary celebrations in 2023, when countless customers, fans and enthusiasts came to the events to be with us and celebrate the common passion for the two wheels. We want to be leaders among premium brands and achieve excellence in customer engagement, that is, that approach to business that is not limited to customer satisfaction, but aims to guarantee them an experience so authentic and engaging as to transform them into fans, making them feel part of a large community. The way to do this is to all work together with passion and courage.
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