TENALPINA TOOLS: THE ENTREPRENEUR'S DILEMMA You would not believe what just happened!" Giulia shouted when herfather answered the phone. "It may just be the opportunity ofa lifetime; 1 just need to work through the numbers to see what I'm getting myself into." Background It seemed that Giulia was fated to go into a business related to rock-climbing. She loved challenging herself to ascents on sheer rock walls and liked to tell her friends that she was born to it. It might be more precise to say, however, that she was born near it. Giulia Ferrato was born in Pieve di Cadore, in the foothills of Italy s beautiful Dolomite Mountains. The region is famous for its Alpine skiing resorts like Cortina, but she was more interested in the mountains in the other seasons. The Dolomites are filled nith sheer rock cliffs that are covered with ledges and caves. muen she was a young girl, Giulia was on a drive with her father and he pointed out some of the caves on a nearby mountain. "Those were used by soldiers during the war as lookouts and gun emplacements," he told her. She asked how the soldiers got there. "They climbed up, I suppose," he replied. From that time on, Giulia was fascinated with climbing those sheer rock walls. As a teenager, Giulia spent two summers with her uncle and aunt in London. Thus, by the time she left for university, she was proficient in four languages: Italian, English, French, and German. After receiving a degree in engineering, Giulia returned to Italy and got a job as a manufacturing design engineer at Indesit, the multinational Italian appliance manufacturer.