Ideas to help everyone to grow
A book that has just been published contains seven interviews with representatives from as many large companies, who discuss the steps that need to be taken in order to resume real development
In order to face the future, we need serious ideas that can actually be put into practice, rather than grand strategic plans. These must be things that we can do immediately, and not projects that could (perhaps) be implemented in the medium-to-long term. Of course, these are necessary too, but they do not represent the right starting point for a trajectory of growth like the one we need. Especially in the face of today’s anguish. This is the fundamental philosophy behind Proposta per l’Italia, a book edited by Alberto Orioli and just published.
Like any good reporter, Orioli’s aim is not to write a scholarly book on economics, but rather a useful volume that offers up a series of proposals of how we could relaunch the country. Proposals (and not a strategic plan) that are derived from the experience of a small, highly-successful group of entrepreneurs. From individuals who are confronted on a daily basis with the problems that go hand in hand with production – but also with the opportunities, which do exist in Italy – as they look at both the former and the latter with great practical insight, with a view to overcoming the (many) obstacles that still exist.
So it is not for nothing that the subtitle of the book – a short volume of just over 150 pages that can be read almost in one breath – is “Seven leaders of the economy for the country of tomorrow”. A number of important names – Silvia Candiani, Andrea Illy, Emma Marcegaglia, Federico Marchetti, Carlo Messina, Renzo Rosso and Marco Tronchetti Provera – contribute to the work: they are interviewed by Orioli without any form of advance interposition, and the interviews are followed by a series of questions and answers. In other words, the reader is left as much space as possible to reflect upon the concepts that emerge as they turn the pages, and either to find themselves in agreement with the ideas presented of the interviewees, or to rail against these with no pressure from the outside. The core rule for everyone is that all discussion must be based on real-life experience gained within companies. “In terms of method, concreteness must be pursued unrelentingly”, writes Orioli in his (appropriately) brief introduction to the book.
Each interview is characterised by a kind of basic idea; this is how the proposals put forward by the various figures play out: Candiani (who reflects upon artificial intelligence), Illy (who speaks of the arrival of a sort of “era of altruism”), Marcegaglia ( (who sees education as the first emergency that needs to be addressed), Marchetti (who talks about the potential of luxury and beauty), Messina (who argues that we must make good use of the wealth that does exist in our country), Rosso (who combines fashion and a sense of civic duty), and Tronchetti Provera (who extends his gaze across the entire world, beginning with the complex face-off between the USA and China). The interviews, then, are not limited to the key ideas that support them; they extend to cover topics such as the state and bureaucracy, school and young people, digitisation and work.
It’s all there to read (and reread) in the book edited by Orioli which – although written on the crest of the wave of the Covid-19 pandemic – has the staying power to remain valid and applicable well beyond the current emergency.
Proposta per l’Italia. Sette protagonisti dell’economia per il Paese di domani
Alberto Orioli (ed.)
Einaudi, 2020
A book that has just been published contains seven interviews with representatives from as many large companies, who discuss the steps that need to be taken in order to resume real development
In order to face the future, we need serious ideas that can actually be put into practice, rather than grand strategic plans. These must be things that we can do immediately, and not projects that could (perhaps) be implemented in the medium-to-long term. Of course, these are necessary too, but they do not represent the right starting point for a trajectory of growth like the one we need. Especially in the face of today’s anguish. This is the fundamental philosophy behind Proposta per l’Italia, a book edited by Alberto Orioli and just published.
Like any good reporter, Orioli’s aim is not to write a scholarly book on economics, but rather a useful volume that offers up a series of proposals of how we could relaunch the country. Proposals (and not a strategic plan) that are derived from the experience of a small, highly-successful group of entrepreneurs. From individuals who are confronted on a daily basis with the problems that go hand in hand with production – but also with the opportunities, which do exist in Italy – as they look at both the former and the latter with great practical insight, with a view to overcoming the (many) obstacles that still exist.
So it is not for nothing that the subtitle of the book – a short volume of just over 150 pages that can be read almost in one breath – is “Seven leaders of the economy for the country of tomorrow”. A number of important names – Silvia Candiani, Andrea Illy, Emma Marcegaglia, Federico Marchetti, Carlo Messina, Renzo Rosso and Marco Tronchetti Provera – contribute to the work: they are interviewed by Orioli without any form of advance interposition, and the interviews are followed by a series of questions and answers. In other words, the reader is left as much space as possible to reflect upon the concepts that emerge as they turn the pages, and either to find themselves in agreement with the ideas presented of the interviewees, or to rail against these with no pressure from the outside. The core rule for everyone is that all discussion must be based on real-life experience gained within companies. “In terms of method, concreteness must be pursued unrelentingly”, writes Orioli in his (appropriately) brief introduction to the book.
Each interview is characterised by a kind of basic idea; this is how the proposals put forward by the various figures play out: Candiani (who reflects upon artificial intelligence), Illy (who speaks of the arrival of a sort of “era of altruism”), Marcegaglia ( (who sees education as the first emergency that needs to be addressed), Marchetti (who talks about the potential of luxury and beauty), Messina (who argues that we must make good use of the wealth that does exist in our country), Rosso (who combines fashion and a sense of civic duty), and Tronchetti Provera (who extends his gaze across the entire world, beginning with the complex face-off between the USA and China). The interviews, then, are not limited to the key ideas that support them; they extend to cover topics such as the state and bureaucracy, school and young people, digitisation and work.
It’s all there to read (and reread) in the book edited by Orioli which – although written on the crest of the wave of the Covid-19 pandemic – has the staying power to remain valid and applicable well beyond the current emergency.
Proposta per l’Italia. Sette protagonisti dell’economia per il Paese di domani
Alberto Orioli (ed.)
Einaudi, 2020