The native Italian (and Swiss citizen) holds a leadership position at the technology giant ABB, where she drives digital transformation, change management and strategic initiatives as Head of the Salesforce practice. Despite lacking a technical background, she rose to a leadership role at ABB, largely due to her exceptional communication skills and willingness to challenge herself in many roles in different domains.
Calls for digitalisation and cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence, are one thing – but ensuring acceptance and knowledge transfer within the company is quite another. “Even in large organisations, you need to bring everyone along on this journey; otherwise, you risk stifling change and innovation, which are crucial in today’s world.”
Simona Gabetti reflects on serendipity, empathetic leadership, and why it’s essential for leaders to occasionally ask for help.
Ladies Drive: Tell me three things about you that I wouldn’t find on Google, please!
Simona Gabetti: Oh, well – I did one not so common sport at professional level, which is artistic swimming. It used to be called synchronised swimming, and now it’s artistic swimming. That’s something that – because of the level that I achieved – brought me to be result-oriented, to perform at my best, to be disciplined. After practicing it, I trained the professional synchronised swimming team starting at a very early age. When I was 18 years old, I was responsible for leading the team of 12 athletes. That was my first experience as a leader. And this really brought me also to not be afraid of talking in public. And I learned a lot about discipline and focus. I’m, of course, passionate about the water – I’m a certified PADI Rescue Diver, too, and I played the piano for almost ten years. Another thing you might not find when you Google me is that I’m a mother of two. Also I decided not to include that fact on my CV.
Oh! But – why?
Well … it was because I think it’s not everywhere in the world as well accepted as it is in Switzerland, so to say. It’s important to mention it because I also believe that certain leadership skills are something that you learn by being a mother as well.
What exactly changed when you became a mother for your role as a leader?
As a leader, I want to ensure that all my team members are feeling well where they are, I create an inclusive environment, I want to make sure that they are motivated, that they are happy in what they do. This is the same principle that I try to apply to my kids. What you will not find when you Google me is also the way I lead people, my managerial style. I’m quite empathetic and I’m also result-driven. As a global leader you must empower your team, to trust them, even more when you have remote teams around the world.
May I ask you what drives you in your career? As a human being, as a leader?
People who know me well say that I’m a very positive and energetic person. For sure what drives me is the motivation. I put a lot of passion into everything I do. At least I try to (smiles). This is something that many people tell me I’m very good at. Being motivated even in some things that I don’t necessarily like. And I believe that if you have the passion and you’re able to influence the others, the other people will follow you better. And this is also what I try to teach to my kids. I think it’s very important because I try to lead by example in everything I do. So that’s something important, to have a positive environment. I don’t have an issue with anyone at work. I have issues with people that are very negative (laughing) and that see the glass as half empty. I’m also a believer of how a leader should place the team member in the team to the point that they can blossom the best.
Why are you with ABB?
That’s a good question. It happened by coincidence. You can almost write a book about it. I was freshly graduated, and I was already working at the Allianz Group, the insurance company. My mum found the advertisement for the Global Training Programme in Finance and Controlling at ABB. I had no idea what ABB was because I was not an engineer. I graduated in business in Italy, and I studied in France as well, lived in Milan, lived in Paris. I was thinking of going more into the fashion environment. So, my mum found this advertisement and it looked very appealing because of the six months in Italy, six months in Zurich and six months in another country. I applied and one of my best friends applied, too. There were a lot of applicants, apparently more than a thousand.
And guess what? We arrived, me and her, in the final. And they needed to select either me or her. But we both ended up working at ABB and still are. So, this is a story that is very, very funny. So that’s how I ended up at ABB. And I celebrated my 20th anniversary in October 2024. It’s a great company. I’m grateful for the great opportunities I had because I had basically changed not only position but also domain every couple of years. Now, I have my dream job, to be honest, and I can imagine staying for quite some years in this position.
Tell us more about your dream job and your challenges you face now!
I’m leading the Salesforce practice – so I’m basically responsible with my team for the Salesforce strategy and delivery, globally. We use Salesforce at ABB as our CRM, Customer Relationship Management tool, and we have a little bit less than 30,000 users globally of Salesforce in the marketing, sales and service areas. So, we are dealing with different stakeholders. So, for example, if there are new Salesforce capabilities, new technologies, I’m also the one that should propose to the ABB stakeholders to adopt those, because at the end it’s about buying new technologies. My stakeholders are, among others, the Chief Information Officers of the different businesses within ABB. When we launched Salesforce many years ago, and I was part of this project, the company was very much centralised.
A couple of years ago I went away from ABB because I was part of a carve out to Hitachi, and when I came back at the end of 2023 the company had changed the business model because there was a different CEO and is now very decentralised, and within my team we are still in the process of adapting our set-up to the ABB operating model … the other challenge is that I would like also to make sure that within the company there is the awareness on what the Salesforce capabilities are and how they can support the business. So, at the moment for example, Salesforce has a lot of AI features. And I need to ensure that there is awareness within my main stakeholders’ groups on what can be done. And, also, that they understand what the company can achieve if we can better use AI. So, what we are doing is to build the business cases around it to make sure that we make them more tangible for the people to understand the direction.
It’s for our team to bring this message to them on what AI can do to support the business growth, the better productivity, the more automation of everything. Though I’m not an engineer, I’ve always been working with lots of engineers. I’ve been asked many times, how can it be that you as a woman, non-engineer, are in this position? My answer has always been I have good communication skills. And I can be a bridge builder between the technical side and the application.
How do you use artificial intelligence at the moment?
For sure I work with ChatGPT. I also work with the Copilot solutions, that help, for example, with the transcripts, to summarise the minutes of meetings, suggest actions. At ABB we are now also looking into the modernisation of the contact centres and how we can better route the enquiries from the external customer. In the near future we shall reduce the “waste” of what is non-business-relevant and focus on how we can better serve our customers: increase the customer experience, increase the internal productivity. Everybody’s talking about AI, but in the end, AI can be quite expensive. I am very much challenged every time to show the return of investment and the benefits. Coming back to Salesforce: we have been working for ten years with them – and for me Salesforce as a technology is an enabler. We use it in different areas of the organisation: marketing, sales and service. It’s one of the best tools on the market that also offers AI tools to make sure you are digitalised but you’re also able to connect the dots.
What have been your best learnings as a leader?
Oh, I’m very humble. That helped me always to be accepted, especially not having a technical background. For instance: in a meeting I don’t talk if I don’t have anything to say. And another strength has always been the networking. I’m extremely good in networking and bringing all people together. And this helped me because people tend to like to work with me and they help me when I need support, even if I need assistance with working tools like Excel (laughing). I love to help others, and many do the same thing for me in return. So, I have joined mentorship programs as a mentor. Whenever I could, I chose to have young ladies as my mentees. ABB is a great company, but like many large businesses, there’s a lack of female leaders at a certain level. And that has been something that I missed, to have a role model in some situations. To encourage our future female leaders, I try to be a role model for the younger ones.
If you want help, don’t be afraid to ask. Right?
Oh, yes. A lot of people, maybe also more women than men, are afraid to ask because they think it’s not appropriate. Or they are too shy to ask. Or they think they make themselves vulnerable, because they show that they cannot do something. That’s why I love to ask others for help, be a role model for collaboration. That’s super-important for the younger generations. So, please do that. Dare to do it!
