Gianluca Gentile
What did you want to be when you grew up?
I’m very lucky because, somehow, my kid dream has come true.
I remember writing an essay, during my 4th grade, explaining that I wanted to work for Bill Gates. He was quite a complete stranger at the time, but let’s just say that makes a good point about how clear my path was already.
Of course I dreamed of working in an IT company. Nevertheless, over the years I had to change my mind. Nowadays my field is fundamental in every company which is looking to be innovative. That’s why I’m in Laser Lab.
11 years have passed since that day and I would say that we have come a long way.
I guess you can feel satisfied!
Absolutely! My job is very challenging because each project is different from each other, with different issues and requirements to meet. I started when I was 18, doing e-commerce for small businesses in my little town. Today I’m almost 40 and I can guarantee you that the curiosity, the desire and the passion to work are unchanged.
But let’s take a step back: why Bill Gates?
When I was little my father ran a vivarium. He used a computer to manage the invoices. On that desktop first there was the dreary DOS and then obviously landed Windows (v. 3.11) – Microsoft’s operating system, Bill Gates’ company.
I abandoned the Nintendo joystick for the PC keyboard and I have to thank my grandfather for it. He believed in my passion until the end and bought me my first computer.
So who are the people who have influenced you the most along your journey?
Generally speaking, I can say I don’t have a real mentor or reference figure. My role models are those people who don’t flaunt their achievements, who work quietly but get great results.
In Italy there are many IT figures, working in multinational companies, whose products are widely used. I have to mention for example Luca Mezzalira, Principal Solutions Architect in Amazon Web Services, Michele Stieven and Fabio Biondi, both Google Developer Expert in Angular, and last but not least, Marco Minerva, Microsoft MVP with whom I have the pleasure and honor of working.
These figures are important because I’ve learnt everything from them.
And what about on a more personal level? What about family?
I was lucky enough to have parents who never chose for me: high school, university, off-campus home… it was always up to me. I was used to it and raised that way.
The person who has radically changed me is Letizia, my wife. She has managed to make me concrete and mature. A better person.
Then I must mention my uncle, who unfortunately passed away. He represented for me the right way to live: remove superfluous stuff and think about substance.
Has anything changed with LabAnalysis Group arrival?
I initially resigned! *laughs*
Let me explain. At that time I had submitted my resignation to the Management, but almost at the same time the company was acquired by LabAnalysis. So I decided to stay.
So much has changed since then. From the software used to the mindset, nothing is the same as before. The arrival of LabAnalysis Group completely changed the approach to work, bringing out productivity and efficiency.
LabAnalysis is a family business that thinks more in terms of generations than in year quarters. This gives a lot of stability to employees.
Stefano (Stefano Maggi, currently CEO of Laser Lab, ed) has been strategically good at understanding my potential and my nature. He made me work on innovative projects that every year grow and support the company.
I’m lucky enough to work side by side with key people in the company, who are able to expose their needs in the best possible way. This really helps my job, because the goodness of a software is directly proportional to the goodness of the specifications. The moment the person adapts to the software, is the moment in which the advantage of using it is lost.
Who’s part of your team?
There’s Lorenzo and, recently, Leonardo.
Lorenzo Rizzacasa is mainly in charge of the hardware and of the IT tickets related to the Laboratory Managements System. Leonardo Buscemi and I develop external solutions to the standard software used in the company.
I also have a very good feeling with Fausto (Fausto Galati, LabAnalysis Group IT Manager), with whom I often meet and with whom we take decisions related to our industry.
What are you looking for in someone to add to your team?
I’m definitely looking for the human aspect. I’ve evaluated candidates with good hard skills, but little dedication or poor soft skills. In those cases we’re talking about wasted talents.
Obviously, when I talk about human qualities, I’m not talking about respect for colleagues only. I’m talking about attitude, punctuality, availability and dedication.
And where do you see yourself in five years?
I would like to have a team of developers. Stefano’s projects are so many and a company like ours can’t reason like it’s enough that it works.
Fortunately they’re all interesting projects, so time, responsibilities and code lines seem a tad more manageable!
What’s the project you’ve worked on that you’re most proud of?
With no doubt the design and implementation of the IT infrastructure of the new location (current Laser Lab location, ed).
It was an experience as stressful as satisfying. I’m proud to have designed it entirely, with no help from outside companies and with the sole presence of the electrician and the indispensable support of my colleague Lorenzo.
In addition, I would also like to mention MyResults, the Customer portal realized last year (at the end of 2021, ed). This portal wants to create a common online space between company and Customers to view samples status, results, documents, etc.
MyResults was a challenge because it involved replicating the internal structure on the cloud. Obviously with all the problems that this entails: security, costs, performance. There are a lot of data and finding an effective solution that does not weigh down the internal system and does not affect the usability Customer-side was really challenging.
Finally, another great project was to automate the acquisition of the weighing data on the Laboratory Management System, directly from the weigher via mobile app. There were many variables involved: brand, decimals, sensitivity, functionalities.
What’s the result? We’ve gone from operations that used to take minutes to seconds, with an extraordinary increase in terms of efficiency.
Ultimately, what’s your motto?
There’s only one way to do things: do them right.
In computer science, that’s critical. If you don’t get it right the first time, you’ll come back to that code thousands of times. It’s better to invest time in it at the beginning, rather than do it later.
I have one more motto, which is Dare Mighty Things. It’s the message encrypted in the Perseverance (NASA’s Mars rover, ed) parachute and is taken from a 1899 speech by Theodore Roosevelt: Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.
I like to think big. Always.
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