Italian biathlon world champion Dorothea Wierer -

2025-01-28

share the secrets to success

Analyzing and optimizing resources for success on the world stage: Paolo Poma, the man responsible for Lamborghini’s financial management, and Italy’s two-time world champion biathlete Dorothea Wierer, share their experiences of sport, its parallels to the corporate environment, and how results crucially depend on a culture of preparation, planning, daily management and delivery.

In this episode of “Beyond: a Lamborghini podcast”, the pairing of a finance director and world-beating athlete share surprising synergies. “Precision in Performance” celebrates the Lamborghini podcast’s philosophy of exploring challenge, innovation and going beyond limits, through Lamborghini people meeting inspirational individuals from outside the automotive environment. Dorothea and Paolo, together with presenters Giulia Salvi and Tim Bravo, discover how two people at the top of their field come from unexpected backgrounds but practice a similar mantra in their daily lives.

Dorothea grew up on skis, discovering rifle shooting along the way and choosing to focus on becoming a biathlete. “I was in love with sport,” she says. “My parents helped facilitate my training of course, and I eventually went to a sports school. But the passion and the fastidious discipline had to come from me. One must have one’s own motivation to succeed.”

Paolo, on the other hand, started as an engineer before an MBA in Milan opened his eyes to the discipline of finance, where analytical skills are so important: “Meticulous scrutiny, planning for evolution, the next challenge, the targets of forecasting and finally the results: these are the skills of a finance director, month in and month out.” As an athlete at the pinnacle of achievement, Dorothea acknowledges this too: “In my complex discipline we have seasonal training, and every week brings something different and is equally important. Each day of the year, we focus on bringing together the sum of so many parts and every element adds up to success, producing the results.”

Paolo Poma is also a long-distance runner in his spare time, and he and Dorothea Wierer agree their physical and metaphorical journeys are definitively a marathon rather than a sprint. “For a marathon you need to prepare and have a solid base, focusing on each target and every aspect of your sphere of being, and today’s CFO must also have passion and aptitude for building relationships with other stakeholders. This is part of our company culture and in my seven years with Lamborghini we’ve built on these results: our most recent percentage of net profit/ROS is best in class,” says Poma, “and we can be singularly proud of that.”

Dorothea laughs: “Yes, the journey can be heavy. It’s not just the meticulous planning and training, it’s fulfilling my responsibilities with my team. Like Paolo, I’m definitely not alone in my journey to producing results. I have people supporting me from trainers to physios to people I practice with. I also have commitments with sponsors, the media: it’s a very diverse and demanding environment and it can be 24-seven with lots of travel. And if you’re not in a good team, with the right people around you, it would be impossible.”

Both agree life is constantly evolving for everyone, but both have immediate challenges on the horizon. Dorothea is involved in the design and marketing of a new competition rifle, and Paolo is immersed in the evolution of the automotive industry during an era where carmakers are shifting to electrification. Both protagonists concur on the importance of the correct psychological and physiological approach, not only when on a successful personal trajectory but especially when facing change.

“Of course, sport is important to me in this respect, and I strive to make time for it!” says Paolo to Dorothea, “whereas I guess your down-time is exactly the opposite!”