What slows down productivity in our country is the system-Italynot the workers. To say it is Ferdinand Beccalli Falco recently became, after 40 years of honorable career in General Electric, the president of Enav, the body that manages air traffic in Italy. Per Beccali Falco, interviewed by Frediano Finucci for the periodical Without filter "the steps that must be taken to comply with the rules and laws are so many that an Italian manager - public or private - automatically finds himself at a disadvantage compared to the same colleagues in other countries where the rules are simpler".
“The Italians – continues the president of Enav – are not slackers but their results are held back by the system, which is the real problem”. A "plastered, blocked, constipated" system, which is holding back the competitiveness of our companies despite Italy's recent leap forward of 6 positions in the World Economic Forum's competitiveness ranking. But, warns Beccalli Falco, "often the rankings can be misleading".
To change, according to the president of Enav, it will take time: “We need to learn from the most agile systems, we don't necessarily need to change but correct and streamline. However, it is not done overnight: it takes at least two generations to change things”. And above all it will be necessary to act against corruption, since there is a "clear connection between corruption and recovery".
Thanks to his experience in GE, which led him to cover important roles in the United States, Japan and Germany, the president of Enav can easily compare these economic systems to ours. The American one, which although "aggressive and brutal, is accepted by all parties and effective". The Japanese one "in which the company takes care of you until you die" and the German one which is based on an efficient balance "between unions and entrepreneurs: everyone understands the needs of others".
One of the problems of the Italian system (“halfway between Japanese and German”) for Beccalli Falco is the “too much conflict between the Social Partners: one must always be “against” someone. And that doesn't lead to decisions that favor progress."
The president of Enav then also spoke of the task to which he is called, the privatization of 49% of the company: “in Italy we have a company with a significant turnover, excellent revenues and a technological content coveted by others. Among other things, ENAV's business model – for a whole matter linked to the reimbursements that the airlines have to pay in the event of missed traffic – is in fact risk freerisk-free for potential shareholders".
"We'll go on a road show between January and February: I have to think carefully about how to present the company, I'm reflecting on the slogan. Modern marketing techniques must be used to make ENAV known in the financial sector. I would say this company is a hidden gem.”
