Interview to Giorgio De Nardi, Founder & CEO Aton S.p.A.,a technological company, born in the 80’s, grown in one of the most competitive markets and managed to become a benchmark in the Enterprise mobile and distributed computing market.

What does “entrepreneurship” mean to you?
It means creating values, always looking for something new, diverse and better to offer markets: without adapting or
settling up for what we have achieved, without being subjected, resting on our laurels or accommodating.
It means believing we can contribute to improve our world, striving to make our ideas, capacities and values
appreciated.
In my opinion, a leader is someone who devotes every single day to build a better special world, doing it in a way that
makes people desire to contribute to such construction.

What is the biggest experience or lesson gained on your growth journey so far?
I believe it is better to make mistakes while following your own ideas than renouncing to them.
We are more likely to succeed if inspired and motivated than if straining to do things in which we do not really
believe, mocking others or seeking contrived compromises.
The satisfaction produced by realizing your own beliefs, like some famous publicity emphasizes, is priceless.
Never give up, keeping self-critique and situation control high.

How is your company acting as a game changer in the landscape?
Aton is a technological company, born in the 80’s, grown in one of the most competitive markets and managed to
become a benchmark in the Enterprise mobile and distributed computing market. We have been through
innumerable phases of development and market recessions, of changes in standards, products and ways of making
business.
This ability to adapt comes from solid rooted values (passion for innovation, trustworthy relationships, reliability in
time) and from its own reason for being, which is not mere profit. Aton exists because it desires to contribute to
improve our world by means of its example, products and services, with constant attention and respect towards
people and environment.

What Should Your Life Motto Be?
“Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground”.

This sentence by Theodore Roosevelt dominates New York Natural History Museum entrance and fully represents my
philosophy of life, both private and entrepreneurial. My zodiac sign is Cancer, famous for its dreaming dimension, but
my family roots emerge from peasant sacrifice and practicality. This metaphor, evoking today and tomorrow, what
has been achieved and what we dream of achieving, our needs and desires, securities and ambitions, represents a
perfect synthesis of the Aton essence and the “Atonpeople” project. A proof of all this, the fact that Aton has been
included among the 50 Best Places to Work in Italy, the extraordinary and tangible results already obtained and
incoming, the stability in its growth exigencies in the short, medium and long run.

What kind of ELITE entrepreneur do you want to be known as?
I feel I am a young entrepreneur. Young mind-set, expert due to the “kilometers” run from 1988 till today.
Aton succeeds because it manages to provide unprecedented mobile and distributed computing solutions, sooner and
quicker than its competitors. That is what we call “qualified innovation”. To be able to do so, I am particularly involved
in R&D as well as in improving and promoting people in an all-round real team game, to make our work environment
increasingly genuine and stimulating.