Ottavio Sartori: long-term vision, quick decisions: behind the scenes at ArredissimA
From the “pergament” of a fax kept as proof of viewing to a method built in the field: customers, internal culture, training, growth
There is an object that Ottavio Sartori keeps like a parchment. It is not an award, nor is it a plaque: it is a six-page fax. Inside, in black and white, is “80% of the vision” of what would become ArredissimA. Not a half-finished dream, but a direction already mapped out—and above all, a commitment: to write a plan and then execute it.
That document was created at a specific moment: the first leap “outside the territory,” towards Turin. Sartori recounts calling his accountant and laying out a plan: open offices, build economic strength, invest in TV and radio, transform ArredissimA into a brand, and create a recognizable and differentiated product. Then a fax — page after page — to set out his ideas, as you do when you don’t want to leave room for interpretation.
The parchment: when vision becomes discipline
There is a huge difference between “having ideas” and “managing them.” In Sartori’s story, the vision does not remain up in the air: it becomes a document, a sequence, a priority. The paper is not nostalgia: it is discipline.
This is where we see the trait of someone who decides quickly but thinks long-term: the urgency is not to rush, but not to waste time going in the wrong direction. When the course is clear, choices become faster.
The question that changes everything: “How do we attract customers?”
Every business story, at some point, boils down to one simple question. Sartori says it without romanticism: in the beginning, the company was “poor in economic resources and notoriety.” And so the question could not be theoretical. It had to be operational: how do we attract customers?
There is an implicit lesson here: when you don’t yet have fame and budget, you can’t “try everything.” You have to understand which step unlocks the others. The flow, first and foremost.
A system, not a stroke of luck
Sartori and Rinaldi’s answer is a replicable mechanism: create multiple channels to bring people into exhibitions, intercept them, and build a service experience that stands out from the competition.
It’s not just about “advertising.” It’s about building a machine where marketing doesn’t stop at attention, but accompanies the customer toward a relationship: showroom entry, consultation, experience, trust.
This is how a company stops depending on lucky breaks and starts depending on method: a system that works even when you replicate it.
ArredissimA, however, was not born from a solo effort. In the official history of the brand, there are two founders: Ottavio Sartori and Franco Rinaldi, described as friends and former colleagues. The company narrative attributes the commercial side to Rinaldi and the administrative-management side to Sartori: two complementary areas that help to understand how the project was able to transform itself into a model and not remain a one-off.
This is an important detail, because when a company grows as a network, vision and communication are not enough: it also needs a solid commercial presence, capable of translating the flow into results and making what works replicable. In this balance, Rinaldi is not a marginal figure: he is a structural part of the machine that allows ArredissimA to function as a system.
Meritocracy and internal culture: the driving force behind the network
Every model holds up as long as the people hold up. And here Sartori talks about internal culture in very concrete terms. He explains that the idea of meritocracy stems from personal experience, from when he worked as a warehouse worker in a “negative” environment, and from his decision to create a different kind of environment.
Meritocracy translates into a system of incentives and bonuses linked to performance, in a context that he defines as “healthy, dynamic,” and competitive in a positive sense.
And then there is training, which becomes a structural part of growth. “ArredissimA Plus” is described as a multi-level program: videos, tests, step-by-step progress, with an element of competition between locations that resembles gamification—but with a very clear managerial function: to standardize quality and raise the bar.
When a company grows, this is one of the points where it often loses control: culture becomes diluted, quality becomes fragmented. Here, however, culture is treated as infrastructure.
Speed as innovation
Ottavio Sartori often uses the word “speed” in the most useful way to understand a retail company: speed of innovation. Continuously updating, anticipating trends and bringing them into homes, maintaining constant energy within the group.
Translated: it is not enough to build a system. You have to keep it alive. And to do that, you need rhythm, attention, the ability to read the market and adapt your offering without losing your identity.
2032: the declared direction
Finally, the horizon arrives. Sartori talks about a “historic display” of growth and points to goals concerning people, presence, and economic size by 2032, also supported by national communication.
Here, the important thing is not the number itself, but the posture: setting a direction and using it as a daily compass. It is the same logic as the “parchment”: make the vision verifiable, and then work to make it happen.
Behind the scenes at ArredissimA, there is no stroke of luck, but a sequence: long-term vision, operational questions, replicable method, internal culture as infrastructure. And when the trajectory is this, the secret is not to “think a lot”: it is to think well — and then decide quickly.
