Italy is a great industrial country, but Italians do not know this and prefer to consider it in terms of tourism
We are the second biggest industrial country in Europe, immediately after Germany. But Italians don’t know this. In some sectors of excellence (mechatronics and robotics, fine chemistry, high-speciality pharmaceuticals, automotive components, luxury yacht construction, etc.), we hold positions of international prominence. However, public opinion largely believes that tourism is the prime driving force that ensures the wealth of our territories. We are among the five largest exporting countries in the world, thanks to our industry, particularly the mechanical sector. However, citizens are looking to the future with confidence in hotels and commercial opportunities, especially in shopping. “Cognitive dissonance” is the name of this phenomenon, in which an opinion clashes with the reality of facts and data. In other words, Italy does not know who it is and how its wealth is produced and therefore does not have a solid idea of where to go.
These are the thoughts that come to mind when reading the data from the latest “Monitor on Work” (Mol Community Research & Analysis) for Federmeccanica, which Daniele Marini reports on in Il Sole24Ore (15 November) commenting: “Industry slips to the margins of the collective imagination, it occupies a peripheral role in the social representation of development”.
This “cognitive dissonance” is therefore a real problem. Because the EU (and therefore also Italy) is in the midst of a season of transition and radical transformations, caught between the heavy political and economic competition between the USA of Trump’s “MAGA” era and an expanding China (while the shadow of India can also be glimpsed, looming, growing on the horizon). And in order to hold off the competition and safeguard its precious political-social model (which brings together, in an original way, liberal democracy, a market economy built on individual enterprise and welfare systems, with widespread well-being) a new and ambitious shift in economic policy is needed, and specifically in industrial policy.
Here’s the deal: Europe can continue to remain anchored to its values and its civil culture if it maintains an industrial force with a global weight and scope. That is, if it addresses the environmental and digital transition by focusing on the green industry, in which it already boasts high-level production achievements. And if it therefore invests in new technologies (infrastructures, research, education and training processes) and in the well-structured and guided use of Artificial Intelligence, with those 800 or even 1,000 billion a year for the next decade according to the indications of the Draghi Report.
In short we must insist on industry, also in the name of our democracy. We must aim to have “more Europe and a better Europe”, despite everything. And avoid the risk indicated a few weeks ago by the “Financial Times”: losing the competitive challenge with the USA and China and ending up being “the Grand Hotel of the world’s rich and powerful”. A place of historic elegance. But devoid of weight and power. Incapable of deciding on its own future.
Talking about industry is therefore essential. As is working hard to overturn, in a short time, the opinions of those Italians who, according to Federmeccanica’s “Monitor on Work”, think that Germany is the country with the greatest industrial influence on the economy, followed by France and the UK (Italy is only fourth, with 12.4% of the opinions in the survey) and believe (in 27.7% of cases) that the sector that has contributed most to the development of the territory so far is tourism, followed by industry (17.4%), trade (15.4%), agriculture (14.9%) and then gradually craftsmanship, construction, banks and public administration. And for the future? Tourism rises to 30.5% and trade to 16% while industry falls to third place, with 15.7% of opinions.
This phenomenon of underestimating our industrial weight has very deep roots. It originates from a widespread anti-business culture, hostile to the market, factories, but also to technology and science (to have documented awareness of this it is worth reading “La modernità malintesa – Una controstoria dell’industria italiana” by Giuseppe Lupo, published by Marsilio). From a lack of cultural awareness about the phenomena of industrial labour, seen especially during the 1960s and 1970s, primarily from the perspective of labour and social conflict, rather than from that of positive modernisation. From a reluctance of the business world itself to open up and tell its story (‘we are people of action, not of words,’ was a distorting refrain favoured by many industrialists). But also by a public opinion that favoured anti-industrial clichés and was marked by an evident information deficit. And from a tendency, deeply-rooted in economic and academic circles, to insist on the decline of industry at the end of the twentieth century, to give way to the “advanced tertiary sector” and finance.
Data and facts, especially after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, have disproven these false constructs of a distorted imaginary and have instead restored importance to the real economy. And Italy has grown, more and better than other European areas, in the post-Covid years, precisely thanks to its “industrial pride”, investing, innovating, insisting on the green economy and on environmental and social sustainability, not as a clever communication choice but as a real “paradigm shift” in production, making it an asset of competitiveness and quality in the markets.
Here it is, then, the reality of Italy’s high-tech and sophisticated quality industry (the exhibition on ‘The Italy of patents – successful inventions and innovation’, which was inaugurated yesterday in Rome at Palazzo Piacentini, the headquarters of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, is proof of this).
The shift needed to overcome the ‘cognitive dissonance’ we have discussed and to assign Italy a leading role in the EU’s industrial future also involves complementing ‘knowing how to do’ with ‘making known’ and telling, especially the new generations, about the importance of industrial work, high-tech factories supported by technological services, and science and research laboratories.
This is confirmed by the theme chosen for the Business Culture Week, from 14 to 28 November, organized by Confindustria and Museimpresa, to talk about “Artificial Intelligence, art and culture for the relaunch of the company”. A very clear theme: “Thinking hands”. Hands, that is, the central element in manufacturing, in the company that knows how to make “beautiful things that the world likes”, to repeat the striking short description offered by Carlo Maria Cipolla. And alongside the wisdom inspired by craftsmanship that nourishes even the most sophisticated new factory, there is ‘thought,’ meaning knowledge, research, and the original experimentation of new and better productive, economic, and social paradigms. Essential in times of such radical technological changes, disruptive digital transitions, and environmental shifts. Full of risks and opportunities for positive change.
Now in its 23rd edition, Business Culture Week entails over a hundred initiatives throughout Italy, mostly in museums and the historical archives of companies (debates, meetings, guided tours by students and teachers, exhibitions, literature and video festivals, such as the Made Film Festival in Bergamo on business cinema, which ended on Saturday, etc.). And it aims, with increasing commitment each year, to make the enterprise ‘popular,’ positive, and creative, countering the hostile or otherwise sceptical sentiments towards business that we have mentioned.
So the doors of our factories are flung open. And they interact with the public. The Business Culture Weeks tell how much industries are, indeed, productive actors but also social and cultural ones. Physical and mental places where the past and the future meet, memory serves as the cornerstone of innovation, and competitiveness is tied to social inclusion. And economic value is achieved and maintained precisely thanks to the focus on the moral and social values, rights and legitimate interests of stakeholders. A culture rooted in the history of every company that perceives the essential role it plays. And a commitment to choices on sustainability, quality of work and people’s well-being. With a growing focus on combatting all types of discrimination, from those based on gender, violence, and alterations of the civil values of a community.
Of course, all of this is not enough to quickly resolve the ‘cognitive dissonance’ from which our reasoning began. There is a need for political choices regarding the primacy of industrial policy and productive capabilities. For cultural commitments (making corporate culture the cornerstone of knowledge of the importance of material cultures: a suggestion for the new minister Giuli). For educational activities on the importance of work. And for challenges for those in culture and communication to go beyond the stereotype of the Fordist factory as “ugly, dirty and bad”.
Essential challenges. Also to prevent a lack of knowledge about Italy’s industrial sector from fuelling those failures to focus and false perceptions of reality that would contribute to the risks of economic, and thus social and civil, decline of our country.
We are the second biggest industrial country in Europe, immediately after Germany. But Italians don’t know this. In some sectors of excellence (mechatronics and robotics, fine chemistry, high-speciality pharmaceuticals, automotive components, luxury yacht construction, etc.), we hold positions of international prominence. However, public opinion largely believes that tourism is the prime driving force that ensures the wealth of our territories. We are among the five largest exporting countries in the world, thanks to our industry, particularly the mechanical sector. However, citizens are looking to the future with confidence in hotels and commercial opportunities, especially in shopping. “Cognitive dissonance” is the name of this phenomenon, in which an opinion clashes with the reality of facts and data. In other words, Italy does not know who it is and how its wealth is produced and therefore does not have a solid idea of where to go.
These are the thoughts that come to mind when reading the data from the latest “Monitor on Work” (Mol Community Research & Analysis) for Federmeccanica, which Daniele Marini reports on in Il Sole24Ore (15 November) commenting: “Industry slips to the margins of the collective imagination, it occupies a peripheral role in the social representation of development”.
This “cognitive dissonance” is therefore a real problem. Because the EU (and therefore also Italy) is in the midst of a season of transition and radical transformations, caught between the heavy political and economic competition between the USA of Trump’s “MAGA” era and an expanding China (while the shadow of India can also be glimpsed, looming, growing on the horizon). And in order to hold off the competition and safeguard its precious political-social model (which brings together, in an original way, liberal democracy, a market economy built on individual enterprise and welfare systems, with widespread well-being) a new and ambitious shift in economic policy is needed, and specifically in industrial policy.
Here’s the deal: Europe can continue to remain anchored to its values and its civil culture if it maintains an industrial force with a global weight and scope. That is, if it addresses the environmental and digital transition by focusing on the green industry, in which it already boasts high-level production achievements. And if it therefore invests in new technologies (infrastructures, research, education and training processes) and in the well-structured and guided use of Artificial Intelligence, with those 800 or even 1,000 billion a year for the next decade according to the indications of the Draghi Report.
In short we must insist on industry, also in the name of our democracy. We must aim to have “more Europe and a better Europe”, despite everything. And avoid the risk indicated a few weeks ago by the “Financial Times”: losing the competitive challenge with the USA and China and ending up being “the Grand Hotel of the world’s rich and powerful”. A place of historic elegance. But devoid of weight and power. Incapable of deciding on its own future.
Talking about industry is therefore essential. As is working hard to overturn, in a short time, the opinions of those Italians who, according to Federmeccanica’s “Monitor on Work”, think that Germany is the country with the greatest industrial influence on the economy, followed by France and the UK (Italy is only fourth, with 12.4% of the opinions in the survey) and believe (in 27.7% of cases) that the sector that has contributed most to the development of the territory so far is tourism, followed by industry (17.4%), trade (15.4%), agriculture (14.9%) and then gradually craftsmanship, construction, banks and public administration. And for the future? Tourism rises to 30.5% and trade to 16% while industry falls to third place, with 15.7% of opinions.
This phenomenon of underestimating our industrial weight has very deep roots. It originates from a widespread anti-business culture, hostile to the market, factories, but also to technology and science (to have documented awareness of this it is worth reading “La modernità malintesa – Una controstoria dell’industria italiana” by Giuseppe Lupo, published by Marsilio). From a lack of cultural awareness about the phenomena of industrial labour, seen especially during the 1960s and 1970s, primarily from the perspective of labour and social conflict, rather than from that of positive modernisation. From a reluctance of the business world itself to open up and tell its story (‘we are people of action, not of words,’ was a distorting refrain favoured by many industrialists). But also by a public opinion that favoured anti-industrial clichés and was marked by an evident information deficit. And from a tendency, deeply-rooted in economic and academic circles, to insist on the decline of industry at the end of the twentieth century, to give way to the “advanced tertiary sector” and finance.
Data and facts, especially after the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, have disproven these false constructs of a distorted imaginary and have instead restored importance to the real economy. And Italy has grown, more and better than other European areas, in the post-Covid years, precisely thanks to its “industrial pride”, investing, innovating, insisting on the green economy and on environmental and social sustainability, not as a clever communication choice but as a real “paradigm shift” in production, making it an asset of competitiveness and quality in the markets.
Here it is, then, the reality of Italy’s high-tech and sophisticated quality industry (the exhibition on ‘The Italy of patents – successful inventions and innovation’, which was inaugurated yesterday in Rome at Palazzo Piacentini, the headquarters of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, is proof of this).
The shift needed to overcome the ‘cognitive dissonance’ we have discussed and to assign Italy a leading role in the EU’s industrial future also involves complementing ‘knowing how to do’ with ‘making known’ and telling, especially the new generations, about the importance of industrial work, high-tech factories supported by technological services, and science and research laboratories.
This is confirmed by the theme chosen for the Business Culture Week, from 14 to 28 November, organized by Confindustria and Museimpresa, to talk about “Artificial Intelligence, art and culture for the relaunch of the company”. A very clear theme: “Thinking hands”. Hands, that is, the central element in manufacturing, in the company that knows how to make “beautiful things that the world likes”, to repeat the striking short description offered by Carlo Maria Cipolla. And alongside the wisdom inspired by craftsmanship that nourishes even the most sophisticated new factory, there is ‘thought,’ meaning knowledge, research, and the original experimentation of new and better productive, economic, and social paradigms. Essential in times of such radical technological changes, disruptive digital transitions, and environmental shifts. Full of risks and opportunities for positive change.
Now in its 23rd edition, Business Culture Week entails over a hundred initiatives throughout Italy, mostly in museums and the historical archives of companies (debates, meetings, guided tours by students and teachers, exhibitions, literature and video festivals, such as the Made Film Festival in Bergamo on business cinema, which ended on Saturday, etc.). And it aims, with increasing commitment each year, to make the enterprise ‘popular,’ positive, and creative, countering the hostile or otherwise sceptical sentiments towards business that we have mentioned.
So the doors of our factories are flung open. And they interact with the public. The Business Culture Weeks tell how much industries are, indeed, productive actors but also social and cultural ones. Physical and mental places where the past and the future meet, memory serves as the cornerstone of innovation, and competitiveness is tied to social inclusion. And economic value is achieved and maintained precisely thanks to the focus on the moral and social values, rights and legitimate interests of stakeholders. A culture rooted in the history of every company that perceives the essential role it plays. And a commitment to choices on sustainability, quality of work and people’s well-being. With a growing focus on combatting all types of discrimination, from those based on gender, violence, and alterations of the civil values of a community.
Of course, all of this is not enough to quickly resolve the ‘cognitive dissonance’ from which our reasoning began. There is a need for political choices regarding the primacy of industrial policy and productive capabilities. For cultural commitments (making corporate culture the cornerstone of knowledge of the importance of material cultures: a suggestion for the new minister Giuli). For educational activities on the importance of work. And for challenges for those in culture and communication to go beyond the stereotype of the Fordist factory as “ugly, dirty and bad”.
Essential challenges. Also to prevent a lack of knowledge about Italy’s industrial sector from fuelling those failures to focus and false perceptions of reality that would contribute to the risks of economic, and thus social and civil, decline of our country.