Video transcript

Sometimes I take a moment to look at things from a different perspective. These days I’m in New York, a city I visit often, several times a year. I’m here because this city represents the international dimension of my work.

I’m not here for tourism. I’m here to do what I always do: study, observe how companies prepare for the future, how they build and nurture international relationships, how they evolve in order to face their markets.

I am Andrea Barchiesi, and I am a business strategist. My role is to help companies challenge their own market, or open new ones. This is not just about marketing and communication: it’s about making an organization ready, solid, coherent, and understandable.

This means working on structure, on decision-making processes, on the overall vision. Starting from what is certain: a deep and rigorous analysis of data.

Because strategy is not a document. It’s a way of thinking. And in a place like New York, where every element is the result of a precise choice, strategy becomes visible: in brands, in stores, in products, even in the streets.

At a glance

What. I prepare Italian companies for the U.S. market and stay with them until they are set up there; I assess Italian projects for investors.
For whom. Italian small and mid-sized companies, usually with 20 to 50 employees and revenue above €20 million; family offices and companies investing from the United States.
Where. Today mostly in the United States: in New York about four times a year, since 2023.
With whom. American accountants, lawyers and finance professionals, for the parts that are theirs to handle.
How to start. You write to me about your project, and we decide together how to meet.

International work starts in Italy

It began with an Italian company I had to take abroad: that opened the door to American investors, companies and agencies. Today most of the work is taking Italian projects to the United States; the work for investors grows every year.

In Italy this work is called internationalization: for an American partner, it is a company entering the U.S. market.

A company goes before an American partner or investor after a process that brings it up to the standards they expect, and that process is strategic work.

Getting the company ready

The companies I take to the United States are often already my clients. With them I first carry out a medium- to long-term consulting engagement, like the one described in My work: the company improves where it needs to and reaches international standards. When it is ready, I introduce it to the U.S. market.

In practice the preparation covers eight areas, which we work on together with the company:

A business plan for the United States: market, customers, competitors, prices in dollars, sales channels, financial projections over three to five years.
Financials an American can read: audited financial statements, a few key indicators, reconciliation to U.S. accounting standards (US GAAP) where needed.
Governance: clear roles and delegated authority, regular reporting, succession in family-owned companies.
Legal entity and taxes: the U.S. company, transfer pricing, the tax treaty between Italy and the United States, handled with American professionals.
The product and its rules: industry certifications and standards, such as FDA rules for food, labeling, a trademark registered in the United States, product liability insurance.
Logistics and duties: the warehouse or logistics center, customs, duties and shipping costs built into the price.
People: who runs the company in the United States, the distributors and the local partners.
The documents a partner asks to see before deciding, gathered in a data room, and a presentation built on the numbers.

I write the business plan with the company, properly and in full: it is the document everything else rests on.

In the United States

Italian companies come to the United States looking for different things: entering the market, finding distribution, opening offices or a logistics center, making agreements with American or international suppliers. I go with them to the meetings, and my work does not end there. In the months that follow I oversee the company’s setup until it is complete, and I look after the strategic relationships that make it possible.

It is a kind of translation: adapting an Italian company’s project to the rules of the U.S. market, and carrying all of it across.

For investors looking at Italian projects

Family offices and companies investing from the United States increasingly ask me to assess Italian projects. They work in the United States and are of different nationalities, Asian among them.

On a project I handle the strategic part of the review, the strategic due diligence; the legal, tax and financial due diligence is done by American professionals, often on the same project. My question is whether the plan holds up. First I look at the structure: goals, numbers and resources have to fit together, and they have to hold up in the system the project is entering, with its market, its competition and its rules. Then I look at how it will hold up over time, which is what the documents show least: who decides and how, the people, the culture and principles of the company.

At the end I deliver a written report and walk through it in a series of meetings, so that the people who have to decide can discuss it point by point.

Who I work with

The companies are usually small and mid-sized, with 20 to 50 employees and revenue above €20 million. They come from very different industries: manufacturing, but also restaurants.

In the United States, culture and diplomacy often mix with business. That is why I also work on cultural projects for large institutions, and with American agencies and companies that work with Italy in the cultural field.

Where we meet

Each stay in the United States lasts from ten days to two weeks, depending on the appointments. We meet almost always by invitation: at private meetings between family offices and companies, at roundtables or over dinner; at business meetings between Italian and American companies organized by chambers of commerce and trade promotion agencies; at trade shows, in meetings set up on the sidelines; at events held by Italian institutions in the United States; at private presentations, where a single company meets a small group of selected people.

Working with U.S. professionals

I work as part of a team with American professionals. Matters that call for legal, financial and economic expertise specific to the U.S. market, and U.S. bureaucracy in particular, are handled by highly qualified specialists. Sometimes the company chooses them, sometimes the investors do, and I work with all of them; if the company does not have its own, I bring them in. I do not handle these matters myself, because I could not offer an adequate service. I take care of the strategy and the overall structure of the project; they take care of the parts that call for their specialization.

Confidentiality

As a rule, this work is covered by a nondisclosure agreement (NDA). That is why you will not find the names of companies, investors, institutions or meetings here. It is the condition that makes these engagements possible. How I handle confidentiality in general is explained in How do you handle confidentiality?

Questions

The simplest questions about my work, answered in plain words, are on the page So, what do you actually do? Three questions that come up often about this work:

The others are in Questions.

How to start

Write to me to send me your project or to set up a meeting. I will suggest the best way to meet: online or in person, in the United States or in Italy. You can also email [email protected] or call +39 331 178 6035.