Giuseppe Cuciniello

International Business Development and commercial planning

Italy

Guiseppe was born in Milan but has his roots in Napoli where his family are from. He has been working with NTT DATA since early 2013 after he graduated from university. He is a very family-oriented person and loves nothing more than to assist his father and uncle in their Napolitano bakery in Milan when he has some free time from work. The bakery has been a central point of his family’s life for about 50 years, and it gives Giuseppe a chance to help make the pastries while spending quality time with his family.

Making my goals come true on a personal and professional level.

Tell us about an interesting project

I am currently responsible for international business development and commercial planning for a global design studio called Tangity. Basically, we engage with various design disciplines such as User Experience design (UX), User Interface design (UI), Service & Business design, Content design, Copywriting, Motion design and Industrial design.

Seven years ago, the team started with just a few people in Milan. It then expanded to the UK, Germany, and China, and now includes more than 300 people. The most memorable part of the growth of the design studio for me was when I was asked to help set up the office in Japan. As part of the set up, I lived in Tokyo from July 2018, for about 18 months. It was great to introduce the concepts of design thinking to my colleagues in Tokyo and to see the business grow to the point where the office could run itself, and I returned to Milan.

Describe a regular working day

In my case, although I started out as an analyst and then moved into design practice, my current role is to manage a team and facilitate design operations, acquire international design projects, and make Design-Thinking grow inside NTT DATA. For that reason, I love to work in the office, in fact I can say that I’m a real people person. I think that all designers crave to work in a collaborative and inspirational environment, and so that is what we have tried to establish here in Milan.

Most of my days are spent attending meetings either in the office or with our clients. I love to have those discussions and to think positively about how we can design better outcomes that makes a difference to people in the world. Of course, like everyone else there was a period when we had to work at home. But, as soon as I could I came back to the office.

How have you grown with NTT DATA?

Although I didn't train as a designer in university, not long after starting work at NTT DATA I decided that design work was something that I could make a career out of. Originally, I worked as an analyst for two years and during this time I was assigned to work on an important project for an Italian bank. This project got me hooked on design, and so with the encouragement of my manager, I learned about design thinking and was eventually brought into the NTT DATA design team here in Milan, which has grown into what is now known as Tangity.

I know from my early experiences in NTT DATA that it is the company for me. I think it’s a place where I can learn and grow, and the concepts of meritocracy, creativity and diversity are well aligned with how I believe a company should be run. I’m very happy to be ‘smile working’ every day at NTT DATA.