More Europe or no more future, as Gianni Agnelli – historical industrial leader with deep Italian roots, a confident European attitude and strong American ties – was fond to say. And today, 20 years after his death, just as we find ourselves right in the middle of a period marked by dramatic political and social transformation, as well as extraordinary economic challenges, his words are worth remembering, as they corroborate the need to focus on Europe, in spite of it all, and therefore look towards a future defined by greater and improved European integration, towards a sustainable development that will benefit the next EU generation, in the full awareness that economic growth, social cohesion and the safeguarding of that great European heritage – liberal democracy – need to be closely interconnected, to form a tight system shaped by values and bold political choices.

“More state aid support means less Europe. More shared industrial policies mean, on the other hand, greater and better development”, unanimously maintain Italian companies belonging to territorial entrepreneurial association Confindustria. Companies that, some time ago, launched an initiative aimed at counteracting the impact of those protectionist winds that are blowing on a global scale (as discussed in our blog from two weeks ago) and threaten to weaken international trade and thus general growth. Indeed, the initiative seeks the collaboration of French and German entrepreneurial associations, too, in order to exert shared pressure on the EU Commission in Brussels for the attainment of wider and better competitive conditions for all businesses across Europe.

In fact, considering that even now Germany and France account for over 77% of state aid provisions, increasing them would merely end up exacerbating the inequalities between countries and national business frameworks. Basically, the risk is that the EU internal market could fragment and be hit by a crisis, and that only countries whose economy has sufficient room for an enlarged public debt would benefit from it.

Better, rather, to focus on the idea favoured by EU Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager – a “sovereign fund” aimed at supporting strategic sectors at a European level, confining state aid provisions to “targeted measures”, as safeguarding the common market is “a red line” not to be crossed.

An “EU sovereign fund”, then – a tool to be integrated as part of the decisions concerning industrial policies currently being discussed in Brussels with key contributions by the Commission’s vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis and Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni. A green industrial policy, as Ursula von der Leyen has been maintaining for a long time, choosing environmental and social sustainability as a pivotal policy to boost competitiveness within the entire European economic system – issues that will be discussed more in depth at the EU summits scheduled for the beginning of February.

Indeed, Europe currently finds itself at the heart of a crucial shift in the global economy: a “globalisation to be reframed”, as long preached by The Economist. What needs to be addressed are China’s closed economy policies that favour its internal market, as well as the insidious strategies implemented by the Trump government, which, through the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act), the CHIPS and the Science Act have triggered public investments worth hundreds of billion dollars in support of American enterprises and any international businesses willing to move to the United States. And to avoid a trading war between Europe and USA (also considering the political impact this would entail in the current geopolitical framework, already strained by severe tensions and alarming rifts), we need to protect the European industry from the threats of crisis and decline, in the awareness that market, free enterprise, social responsibility, people’s well-being and thus employment, welfare and democracy, must remain closely tied together.

From this angle, the significance of EU industrial policies appears much more far-reaching and as such needs to be conceived within a wider context that includes a review of the Stability and Growth Pact and the notion of a more incisive European role in the Mediterranean region and in relation to Africa.

Confindustria believes that the MES could also be oriented in this direction (president Carlo Bonomi recently mentioned this at a meeting in Venice; Il Sole24Ore, 28 January), and according to reliable sources, Palazzo Chigi is also – finally – discussing the “go-ahead” for the ratification of the MES as part of a more efficient use of all available European tools and structures, including the EIB, the European Investment Bank (La Stampa, 28 January).

Development remains key to all of this, and all available resources – those that the EU can reap on the financial markets and those that can be collaboratively raised by the various states – should be allocated to ensure its growth, as part of a common response whose attitude is anything but protectionist, as a neo-Keynesian decision concerning the quality of public investment.

Its mainstay could be an agreement between Berlin, Paris and Rome (as asserted by Giulio Tremonti as president of the Italian Senate’s Committee on Foreign Affairs; Corriere della Sera, 26 January), an agreement that could drive new European industrial policies but also focused on promoting European competitiveness, technological innovation, research, training, the relaunch of the European industry and all its connected services. And after the Recovery Plan, an EU fund dedicated to energy, strategic raw material – starting from rare earth materials and basic industrial components such as microchips – could really become an essential tool to bind together safety, autonomy and development.

(Picture: Getty Images)

An Italian group has taken part in setting up an Argentine company in the past few days, as you may already have seen in the announcement…

These are the opening words of a letter sent by Alberto Pirelli to an engineer, Mauro Herlitzka, at 188 Calle Esmeralda in Buenos Aires. A copy of the letter, which was sent to Argentina on the Lloyd Italiano steamer Indiana, is now kept in the Archives of the Pirelli Foundation. It says a lot about the attention that Pirelli was already paying to Argentina over a hundred years ago. It was 9 November 1911 and Alberto Pirelli was keeping his trusted agent up to date on the work being carried out by the company for the production and distribution of “Italo-Argentine” electricity. The event well illustrates the company’s interest in expanding overseas on a number of fronts. Starting with Argentina, but also going further afield.

Primarily with rubber, in all its various forms. Tyres but also, before them, telegraph and electric cables. It all started with the connections that were made between the Italian islands in the 1880s, and continued with the cables that were laid on the floor of the Red Sea and then across the Atlantic, and the lines that were made to South America.

Pirelli arrived in Argentina with a sales agent in 1898. The next step came in 1910, when the company took part in the Exposición Internacional in Buenos Aires, which paved the way for the opening of a commercial branch with offices in the capital at Calle Esmeralda 940. As we can see from the letter that Alberto Pirelli wrote to Mauro Herlitzka a year later, the company’s interests had already moved well beyond rubber.

In 1917 came another step forward, when the parent company set up Pirelli S.A. Platense, which produced electric cables and started a whole series of expansions in Argentina. A new factory was built on the outskirts of the capital in 1919, and in 1921 a factory that was already in operation in Calle Costa Rica was taken over, making it possible to expand and diversify the range of Pirelli’s rubber products. These were manufactured from 1930 at the La Rosa factory in the porteño district of Mataderos. In 1948, after brief lull in expansion lasting just over a decade, Pirelli created Industrias Pirelli SAIC, which had the task of manufacturing cables, rubber items and tyres. But the company did not stop growing, for in 1950 tyre production moved to the Merlo plant. This was the outcome of an agreement on an equal footing with the US Rubber Company for the incorporation of the Compañia Platense de Neumaticos (COPLAN), which was taken over in its entirety by Pirelli a few years later, and which is still operating today.

The constant attention to quality has never waned, also as regards corporate communication and company welfare. This can be seen in the Paginas Pirelli, the monthly magazine that, from 1955 to 1975, helped make known the corporate culture of the parent company, together with news on what was going on in the factories and about the employees themselves. In addition to information about production, the Paginas also included news, for example, about the sporting activities of the Centro social y deportivo, as well as information concerning the family life of employees. The magazine periodically held photography contests for the employees and the winning pictures were given prominence in the magazine or on the cover. Cultural articles were published along with other ones about the company and, as the years went by, the format and the paper changed, and the names of the editorial board also appeared.

Argentina and Pirelli: a story spanning a century and more, and a story that still continues today. In 2021 Pirelli celebrated its first 111 years in the country with considerable new investments and the opening of a new motorcycle tyre production department. A significant step that, in just one year, increased the number of employees by 300, putting the number now at around 1,400. How right Alberto Pirelli was when he wrote, way back in 1911: “we trust that we have done the right thing”!

The fundamental importance of oral history in understanding industrial evolution

Watching and listening, observing and understanding: different ways, in addition to reading, that nonetheless, and often more effectively, lead to a deeper understanding of human affairs, including those related to factories and offices, and those pertaining to one’s working life. This is the great contribution that all oral sources bring to history, though they need to be well comprehended and put to good use. Reading “Il lavoro tra fonti orali, sonore e musicali: lo stato dell’arte in Italia” (“Work and oral, acoustic and musical sources: the current state of play in Italy”), a research paper by Elisa Salvalaggio, can provide some guidance on the path undertaken by those who wish to gain a better grasp of industrial history.

The study is based on an assumption: oral history, i.e. people’s stories, allows to explore historical phenomena through the eyes of those who lived through them, with a focus on the protagonists’ subjective viewpoints – it means listening to the voice of experience. This leads to uncover different perspectives on events and places, different impressions that, taken all together, build a picture that more faithfully represents what really happened (or is happening). Here, sounds are understood as words that can provide the missing pieces to even the most comprehensive account of what went on. True oral culture, conveyed through narratives that, though not committed to paper, is nonetheless significant and leaves its mark. Stories that, in relation to workplaces, capture an important production and corporate culture that might otherwise get lost.

Elisa Salvalaggio writes that the value of this research method in terms of corporate history – which is indeed what her paper is about – allows to shed some light on less known areas and better understand the internal dynamics of work and production sites: the relationship between working and getting organised, professionalism and its connection with knowledge and understanding, culture, identity, social and familiar dimensions, different generational and gender viewpoints.

An innovative, though not new, way to build historical narratives that, in terms of production culture, may hold great significance – especially in our era of social networks and new technical and cultural knowledge tools.

Il lavoro tra fonti orali, sonore e musicali: lo stato dell’arte in Italia (“Work and oral, acoustic and musical sources: the current state of play in Italy”)

Salvalaggio Elisa, in LabOral: storia orale, lavoro e public history, 2022 – editpress

A book collects the best experiences of good corporate management

Merit, above all. Merit for real, identified with care and fairness. A method that should be implemented at all corporate levels, but that needs to be well understood, so as not to disrupt good practices to introduce something that might have little to do with actual merit.

It is around these concepts that Silvia Stefini’s recently published book La governance meritocratica. Storie di talento e d’impresa sostenibile (Meritocratic governance. Stories about talent and sustainable enterprises) revolves.

The author starts by posing some questions: how, for example, can one distinguish between good or bad governance? Or, what are the qualities and requirements of a properly competent board of directors? Or, again, how can we really unleash all positive potential of those at the helm of a company?

Beginning with the accounts collected by the Forum della Meritocrazia association, the book attempts to provide concrete answers to these questions, taking as examples people and experiences from the Italian economic sphere, and thus from both family businesses and major international leaders. Thus, the pages curated by Stefini feature the stories of entrepreneurs and managers from Deloitte, Santa Margherita Wine Group, Zambon and many other businesses. A number of well-reasoned accounts highlighting the elements that really determine meritocratic corporate management, elements that range from a genuine willingness to pursue a shared objective to the daring required to separate ownership and corporate goals, from true executive guidance of management to methods for raising capital, from an effective ability to attract talent to an actual care for the environment and the company’s well-being. Thus, courage, sensitivity and resilience stand out as the real competitive elements in enterprises that do not merely want to focus on profits and losses – and Silvia Stefini’s work covers all of this.

La governance meritocratica. Storie di talento e d’impresa sostenibile (Meritocratic governance. Stories about talent and sustainable enterprises)

Silvia Stefini (curated by)

Guerini, 2023

It’s always worth reading the papers, in print and online, with attention and perseverance, devoting some time to facts and data, reports and comments that are well-documented and competent, in order to build an earnest and reliable image of the real economic and social conditions of Italy, and thus become part of a public opinion able to apply well-informed critical thinking – the essence of democracy.

How is Italy doing, then, in those first weeks of 2023? “A turning point is in sight, companies are starting up again” writes IlSole24Ore (22 January), explaining that “the drop in gas prices has spurred factories back into gear” and that “the economy is better than expected”, though it’s still too “early to celebrate”, as “inflation is still high and the increase in rates is stifling investments”, while “employment is fine” with 280,000 new jobs filled since January 2022 (according to data by the Centro Studi Confindustria). A growth of 0.6% is foreseen for 2023 – it might not sound like much, but it’s still a growth.

2022, asserts the Bank of Italy, went better than expected, with a GDP growth of almost 4%, which brings the country’s cumulative growth – between 2021 and 2022 – to almost 11%, a phenomenon unseen since the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s, and one of the highest in the G7 group after the pandemic crisis. Stock market trends confirm this: still in 2022, corporate earnings of companies listed in Piazza Affari, have risen by 37%, and thus, “the recession is far from reaching the stock market, too”, comments IlSole24Ore (22 January).

After so much talk about a forthcoming recession, with widespread concerns about a European and global economic crash (energy costs, inflation, war in Ukraine, the slowing down of international trade), both the major global economic players who met in Davos last week and Monetary Fund’s executives have adopted more reassuring tones, though still pointing out some precarious and worrying circumstances (such as China’s troubling trend in terms of demographic decline and its scarce economic growth), as well as fears that geopolitical tensions between Russia and the West might escalate. No catastrophes, however, and perhaps no recession even, just a mere “slow down”, especially in Europe.

We’ll see what happens, well aware, in any case, of the impact that mental attitudes and “expectations” can have on the actual economic development. Indeed, insisting that a crisis is coming just paves its way for it, turning it into a self-fulfilling prophecy, while continued emphasis on “confidence” will strengthen a positive – albeit wary – attitude towards the recovery, driving consumption and investments.

As regards to this, newspaper Il Foglio is actually running a keen campaign, taking into account insights from reputable international news outlets and talking about an “anti-catastrophist agenda” (21 January). It’s also exerting pressure on prime minister Giorgia Meloni to renege on her beloved electoral campaign’s promises and, instead, keep tight bonds with Europe and make productive and competitive – as opposed to statist and protectionist – choices that will place Italian enterprise in a position to grow, innovate and work better. Starting with large state corporations (such as Eni, Enel, Leonardo, Poste Italiane, the Italian railways, Fincantieri, etc.), the main cornerstones in extensive production chains of international importance: these need to be well governed, through competitive and efficient decisions rather than shared out amongst the powerful, which would only undermine their competitiveness.

Here’s the deal: dynamic enterprises. Manufacturing enterprises in particular have been driving this extraordinary economic recovery, attested by that +11% GDP increase we mention above. Their success, over such a long period of time that started with the Great Crisis of 2008 to the inception of the pandemic, is the result of innovation, investments, export, the establishment of factories and acquisitions abroad, as well as of the ability to take advantage of the fiscal stimulus introduced by forward-looking governments to ease the digital transformation of Industry 4.0 (and hindered by incompetent governments – especially the “yellow-green” populist one led by Giuseppe Conte).

Manufacturing companies, in other words, have relaunched productivity and competitiveness, and succeeded in harnessing a key feature of Italian industry: the attitude of “producing beautiful things that the world likes”. Quality, design, “tailored” products (from clothing to the boating industry, from robotics to the building of production plants and machine tools, from chemistry to pharmaceuticals), a close relationship between high-tech and beauty, an original bond between unique historical roots and a sense for the future, a sophisticated ability to adapt and good taste in global niches featuring the greatest added value.

This is confirmed by the Mediobanca Report on “mid-cap” companies, companies with medium market capitalisation – the so-called “fourth capitalism” – whose “performance in 2022 has been 20% higher than that of equivalent French and German companies” and which are expected, for 2023, to show “a 3% aggregated growth in profits as compared to the -9% expected of large companies”. Hence, “Italian medium companies top EU ranks in terms of productivity” is the headline of IlSole24Ore (19 January), and “Resilient medium companies will drive the growth”, confirms Corriere della Sera.

Just now, these medium companies are dealing with the complex digital and environmental twin transition and as such they need national and European industrial policies (in terms of security, energy, raw material, high-tech components production, as discussed in last week’s blog) that can consolidate their competitiveness, also with regard to other European enterprises. In such selective markets, they need to be able to keep on investing in innovation and social and environmental sustainability, keep hold of the best production chains (thus, the role of large companies as prime contractors is back on the scene), and continue to grow on European and global markets.

In such a difficult period of crises and opportunities, and avoiding the lures of an easy optimism, the Italian industry shows excellent prospects in terms of development – and the responsibility of not wasting this opportunity lies in the hands of political powers and social actors.

(Photo: Getty images)

One of the most iconic photos of twentieth-century Italian industry is that of Alberto Pirelli, Vittorio Valletta, Giuseppe Bianchi and, smiling on board a white compact car, Gianni Agnelli. They were there as outstanding witnesses for the launch of the Bianchina, the result of a partnership between Fiat and Pirelli. This was yet another milestone in a shared history between the two companies that began in the early years of the twentieth century and that still continues today with the Stellantis Group.

Pirelli and Fiat – industrial and manufacturing expertise in the world of automobiles in all their forms. The historic partnership between the two companies has involved much more than just an outstanding range of tyres supplied by the company with the “Long P” logo to the car manufacturer in Turin.

It all started with the races and victories that Fiat clocked up with its Pirelli-shod cars. This was the case, for example, of the “Pneus Pirelli” mounted on the Fiat car that Felice Nazzaro drove to victory in the 8th Targa Florio, or the Gran Premio d’Italia Vetturette on 3 September 1922, which was won by the Fiat 1500 driven by Carlo Salamano. In other words, races in all their various forms. Including rallying. Here, the debut came in 1970 with the Italian Championship won by Paganelli-Russo in his Fiat 124 Sport Abarth, and this was followed up in later years by an endless series of cars fitted with Pirelli tyres: the Pinto-Macaluso team won the European Rally Championship in 1972; other teams took over from 1973 to 1975 and were often victorious, such as in the Portugal rally, winning twice. All the cars raced on Pirelli CN36: a legend. In the second half of the decade came the Fiat 131 Abarth Rally and a new Pirelli tyre, the P7. Once again, there was a slew of teams and victories: in 1977 with the cars driven by Markku Alén, Jean-Claude Andruet, Fulvio Bacchelli, Michèle Mouton, and Timo Salonen; in 1978 with the Fiat team, which saw the addition of Sandro Munari and Walter Röhrl. The decade ended with the third Constructors’ Championship title for Röhrl-Geistdörfer’s Fiat 131 in 1980.

In other words, plenty of racing. And victories. And, of course, industrial developments, which were transferred from the circuits to everyday cars, in the most authentic tradition of Pirelli, which has always combined research for racing with applications for the rest of its production. This was also true of the Cinturato CN54, which was directly derived from the experience acquired in rallying and which transferred the features of high-performance tyres to those mounted on medium-small cars such as the Mini, the A112, the Fiat 127 and the Fiat 500. And the Topolino before that: all unforgettable milestones in Italian mobility. From the day it was born, in 1936, the Topolino was equipped with Pirelli Superflex Stella Bianca tyres measuring 4.25-15. When Fiat decided in the mid-1950s to ask Dante Giacosa to design a new runabout, the results – the Fiat 600 and the Nuova 500 – were fitted with Pirelli Rolle 5.20-12. And so it was for the Fiat models that came later, all fitted with Pirelli tyres, all named after the most famous Alpine passes: Cisa, Rolle, Sempione, Stelvio, and many others.

The two companies have been working together for over a hundred years. And their industrial and entrepreneurial accomplishments have had their effects also on national and international history. In the 1960s, Pirelli and Fiat joined up with Agip and Italcementi to create SISI (Società Iniziative Strade Italiane), a consortium company that promoted their shared interest in the road network after the construction of the Autostrada del Sole. Also in the 1960s, Pirelli invested in Eastern European countries after Fiat signed an agreement for the construction of a factory in Russia. And about ten years previously the two companies, together with Edoardo Bianchi, had created Autobianchi: a decision that was part of their broader strategy of participating in the creation of companies that could then become good customers. And it was this that gave life to the Bianchina from which Agnelli’s confident, smiling face can be seen emerging. Today, twenty years since his passing, we remember the Avvocato.

“Documents on the History of Pirelli Industries” is the name given to the core collection that formed the basis for the company’s Historical Archive. The collection was put together in 1942-3 by Mario Luzzatto, a former Pirelli executive, with the aim of retracing the history of the multinational group, which was celebrating its seventieth anniversary at the time. Luzzatto went through the archives, picking out the documents that he considered would give the greatest insights into the historical evolution of the company: he collected the originals and, where this was not possible, he made photographic copies or transcribed them.

His work came to a tragic end in September 1943, when Luzzatto and his family were arrested by the SS. He had completed the work up to 1920, and it was continued by Gaetano Sermattei, who had worked with him. He followed Luzzatto’s notes and completed the work up to the 1940s.

After the war, the Historical Archive that had been created up to that point was entrusted to the staff of the Mail and Archive Office, who continued to collect documents year after year. These, however, were only standard printed documentation for internal or external use, such as circulars, notices, price lists, catalogues, brochures, and advertising publications.

In 1972, when the Soprintendenza Archivistica per la Lombardia declared the Archive to be of “significant historical interest”, the material was reorganised. Each one of the over 3,000 documents dating from 1872 to the 1980s was given an individual progressive number in chronological order, and they were arranged in 168 folders and listed in a “Register of Historical Documents.”

The work of inventorying and digitising the collection has never ceased, with a view to constantly promoting this precious heritage, and today the documents of the 1920s and 1930s are being made available in the online Historical Archive. These were important years for the company, which was growing rapidly and which celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1922. It made its mark in the cable sector with the “fluid oil cable” invented by Luigi Emanueli, in the tyre sector with the launch of the Superflex Cord and Stella Bianca models, in the miscellaneous articles sector with its ever-expanding production of sponges, soles and heels, and rubber floors. The documents of these years include various patents, product catalogues, photographs of Pirelli stands at national and international trade fairs, and foreign travel reports written by the brothers Piero and Alberto Pirelli and by executives such as Luigi Emanueli and Giuseppe Venosta.

There are also many diplomas certifying participation in trade fairs and exhibitions, as well as the results achieved by the Pirelli Sports Group and the Dopolavoro in sports contests in gymnastics, tug of war, bowls and football, to name but a few.

An immense cultural heritage that helps reconstruct not just the history of the Pirelli Group, but also that of Italy and the world.

Recent experiences by a few Italian enterprises provide some examples of resilience and the ability to restart

Flexibility, or, resilience – the capability to adapt and respond with deliberate and prompt actions. These are the features of enterprises that want to be ambitious, not just in terms of survival but also of growth, in a complex environment such as ours is today. It is around these topics, and especially that of resilience, that Giocare d’anticipo. Le aziende italiane e il vantaggio di una resilienza costruita nel tempo (Planning ahead. Italian companies and the benefit of resilience built over time) revolves, a recently published book of just over 150 pages collaboratively written by Marco Moretti, Davide Arpili and Federico Severi.

The book starts with an observation: if, before COVID-19, the war between Russia and Ukraine and the energy crisis, the key requirement of enterprises was sustainability, now the activities of production organisations must be founded on resilience. In other words, the pandemic first, and the war and energy and raw material crises later, have forced enterprises to reassess traditional management strategies, to accelerate innovation and, above all, to adopt a new mindset and managerial attitude geared towards change.

The book includes two well-differentiated yet interconnected parts. First of all, also according to the analysis of corporate results undertaken by the Boston Consulting Group, it highlights how resilience and a faster recovery were guaranteed, even in the most complex situations, by the ability to “plan ahead”, anticipating events and, most of all, getting the entire organisation ready to face a possible crisis. In other words, the ability to always be ready for anything – at all times.

The second part, on the other hand, includes a number of interviews with managers of large companies, who narrate their journey towards that kind of resilience that kept the business afloat. Thus, we find the stories of Alpitour World, Coop Alleanza 3.0, Hitachi, Recordati, Valentino, and many others.

Moretti, Arpili and Severi’s work is ideal reading for those who wish to better understand the positive evolution of Italian industry in recent times.

Giocare d’anticipo. Le aziende italiane e il vantaggio di una resilienza costruita nel tempo (Planning ahead. Italian companies and the benefit of resilience built over time)

Marco Moretti, Davide Arpili, Federico Severi

EGEA, 2023

A research study undertaken by Nomisma analyses what really happens in offices and outlines a possible, better future

Workplaces, factories and offices, warehouses and yards have always been sites of labour and toil – but living spaces, too. Spaces that can, and must, be improved, by getting to fully and better understand them. This is precisely what “I nuovi luoghi di lavoro” (“New workplaces”) does, a research study undertaken by Nomisma to assess the key elements that distinguish an ideal workplace in terms of the employees’ mental and physical well-being. A survey that is just a starting point for now, but that has nonetheless engaged, through in-depth interviews, human resources managers from ten enterprises and about 500 workers based in Milan’s metropolitan area. A research study that betrays a production culture in evolution, and whose guidelines entail not only the well-being of people but also safeguard and care for the environment.

The study sums up this new approach within a single concept: an organic office space able to integrate people with their surroundings, and especially with nature. This is an element that almost all workers find essential – a space that can reconcile productivity and well-being, health and efficiency. A rather new notion, even if some instances already exist, and that nonetheless must wrestle with costs and margins, legacies of the past and objective production conditions. A vision that, however, is worth pursuing.

This is precisely why the research outlines possible developments on the one hand, and reality on the other. In particular, Nomisma analyses the relationship that people have with their workplace and how forward-looking the latter is. Only 37% of workers, for example, feel inspired when in the office and only 17% feel happy there, while 30% of the interviewees stated that they feel anxious, and 38% feel bored. Additional data also indicates how much there is still to be done, but also provides guidelines for choosing the ideal company premises, in material terms – such as structure and spatial organisation – as well as ideal ones, in relation to people as well as the company image.

The study undertaken by Nomisma is certainly not exhaustive (one only needs thinking about factory and workshop environments to see how far we still need to go), yet it at least outlines a path that is indubitably worth exploring.

“Progetto Welcome. I nuovi luoghi di lavoro” (“Welcome Project. New workplaces”)

Various authors.

Nomisma, 2022

“Beware of protectionism. History teaches that it’s never a good idea.” Raghuram Rajan is one of the most distinguished economists in the world (former Governor of the Bank of India, he held a prominent role at the International Monetary Fund for a long time). And, from Davos, during the work undertaken at the World Economic Forum, he observed with concern the political decisions taken by major global economic players (the measures implemented by the Biden administration to safeguard American enterprises, China’s activities to prioritise its internal market, the shadows cast by the many ongoing trading wars) and insisted on the need of open and competitive markets: “Excessive dependency on any country (in terms of energy, raw material, component manufacturing) is wrong. The issue is to avoid this while also maintaining a balance that won’t poison international relationships. We need to cooperate in certain areas, such as ‘green’ investments. And with regard to microchips, having every single country manufacturing their own is really not that wise. Thinking about the American Inflation Reduction Act, we should rather focus on strategic questions, not merely give the impression of wanting to contain China, even at the risk of hurting ourselves, of harnessing growth” (la Repubblica, 17 January).

Rajan is absolutely right. Protectionism is harmful, slows down economic development, warps the optimal allocation of resources through open and competitive markets. Behind the smokescreen of safeguarding the people’s interests, it increases economic and social inequalities within those same countries whose businesses it claims to protect. And it feeds negative political delusions (populism and sovreignism – the great evils of our struggling modern times – which, in the medium term, actually damage the more vulnerable and precarious social classes whose approval it instrumentally seeks). Reading some of his books, especially those highlighting the role of global trade – such as Fault Lines. How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy, published in 2010 by Princeton University Press (and recipient of the Financial Times & Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award) or Saving capitalism from the capitalists, written with Luigi Zingales and published in Italy by Einaudi in 2004 – is a good way to get solid evidence of this.

It’s precisely in a period in which globalisation needs rethinking, knowing however that “we can’t go back” and that we need “common regulations” (Giorgio Barba Navaretti, la Repubblica, 9 January), that acknowledging the crisis arising from closure policies and protectionist fences is worthwhile (indeed, The Economist’s cover of 13 January read “The end of magical thinking. How Britain can build a better relationship with Europe” referring to the failure of Brexit). Thus, the challenge that political and economic players must be able to overcome concerns the implementation of more balanced and socially acceptable sustainable development conditions, which would also have a positive impact on the attempts to untangle the knots of growing geopolitical tensions (the war in Ukraine is the most tragic instance of these), armed with the knowledge gained by a timely rereading of Frederic Bastiat, forward-looking French economist from the 19^th century – “When goods don’t cross borders, armies will.”

Basically, we need to enhance the interconnections that still mark global economies, shifting from a free trade ideology (global trade at the mercy of the most powerful, privileging raw material and high-tech components oligopolies) to a much better fair trade system, seeking some balance between different needs and interests, and reassessing and relaunching international bodies such as the World Trade Organization, with its regulations and sanctions.

Precisely the opposite of those buzz words so cherished during the Trump era – “America First” – and the pressure to “Buy American”, which still affect the Biden administration, too (with its rather alarming Inflation Reduction Act, with its $369 billion budget to support and subsidise American enterprises and investments).

Under these circumstances, Europe could play a key role. Not only to avoid ending up powerless and vulnerable amongst giant countries like America and China, with negative consequences on the entire world economy, but also to assert itself as a positive, conciliatory model between economic growth and widespread wealth (by reforming the welfare state infrastructure of the various countries), economic freedom, liberal and market democracy, current competitive businesses and future sustainable development. And, further, promoting another important principle: the need to coordinate national interests at the urging of European bodies, thus consolidating the economy and enhancing the quality of life and employment. The EU, with its history of Treaties, the European and Steel Community, the ECM and then the “Currency Snake”, the Euro and the ECB, is indeed a prime example of it.

The ongoing discussions in Brussels and in the chambers of the main European governments (including Rome) on “state support”, the EU’s industrial policies and a “European Sovereignty Fund” investing in strategic security – that is, the provision of energy, raw material and cutting-edge technologies – seem to point in this direction. A Fund that the issue of Eurobonds could also plump out: the beloved brainchild of another supporter for a united Europe, Jacques Delors, which is back on the table for public debate. And, Carlo Bonomi, president of territorial entrepreneurial institution Confindustria, is strategically insisting on it, too (la Repubblica, 18 January).

It is than hoped that the open negotiations with the US and Brussels’ political steadfastness in demanding a relaunch of transatlantic relationships will lead to a good outcome.

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the EU Commission, is well-aware of this, and from the Forum in Davos asserted that the European Union “needs to make this net-zero transition creating new dependencies” and announced, “a Green Deal industrial plan”. A plan to be financed by the EU and the market, as “state aid would only be a limited solution.” Rather, a better solution to avoid a fragmentation in the single market would be to increase EU funding and thus “in the medium term, we will prepare a European sovereignty Fun as part of the mid-term review of the 2023 EU budget”. This is a position that Italy supports – as the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance Giancarlo Giorgetti well explains: in response to the American Inflation Reduction Act “a mere easing of state aid regulations is not a solution because disproportionate, as it would only benefit those member states with a larger budgetary margin while exacerbating the economic inequalities within the EU and subsequently fragment the internal market.” Hence, what’s needed are some common European tools and after the Recovery Plan, the EU Sovereignty Fund is a key strategic decision. A Fund, it should be maintained, supporting all the production supply chains in a Europe that’s strongly oriented towards industry and quality manufacturing.

Thus, crisis makes for wiser decisions, and those who are familiar with European history will remember, right at this moment, the far-sighted words that one of its fathers, Jean Monnet, voiced in 1954: “Europe will be forged in crisis, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises.” – an extremely up-to-date lesson in good politics.

(photo: Getty Images)