General counsel | Robert Bosch
Manuela Dimase
General counsel | Robert Bosch
Team size: Six
Could you share an example of a time when you came up with an innovation that improved how your legal team works and did not come at a large expense?
Over the past year, we launched a departmental knowledge hub, consisting of standardised documents, a library of internal and external opinions, training material and guidelines, in order speed up and make our legal service more efficient. It is a state-of-the-art knowledge system designed to simplify our daily work and provide an excellent legal service to our clients. In addition, we started working with a Kanban tool to monitor incoming requests, deadlines, deliverables, and workload distribution in the department. This helped us improve our efficiency and increase the department results’ orientation approach.
Can you foresee any key developments to the way general counsel work over the next five years?
In the future we will have to act not only as risk managers, but to anticipate and shape legal developments, by providing excellent and practical legal advice and by taking responsibility. We want to help the business by staying true to our values and ensuring compliance with relevant laws and regulations, and to achieve this, we need to focus on “deep work” while investing in tools that support our legal operations and further improve our efficiency.
What are some of the main trends impacting the industry sector you work in in Italy?
In the simplest terms, I would say, digitalisation, automation, and electrification.
How do you stay updated on the evolving regulatory landscape in Italy and ensure compliance with domestic laws, EU regulations, and industry-specific regulations?
Every year we invest in training, in Italy we have an excellent internal training school called TEC – legal database. We participate in conferences and collaborate closely with teams of experts and companies located in the region and in the headquarters. We also have a good network of external consultants offering training courses.
What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, you are passionate about, and why?
I am fascinated by the new era of mobility regarding digital transformation, electrification, and automation. The car of the future will increasingly be a software-defined and “intelligent” car, capable of offering innovative maintenance solutions. This transformation requires new legal expertise within technology law. Other topics that I find very interesting are the ever-increasing demand for semiconductors, with all its geopolitical implications, fuel cell electric drive solutions for sustainable mobility for passenger cars and commercial vehicles, and the use of hydrogen to generate electricity.
General counsel | Bosch Italia