In less than two weeks there Board of Confindustria will designate the person who from May will replace Marcegaglia at the helm of the Entrepreneurs' Association. A delicate passage due to the changed internal and international panorama in which companies have to operate, the crisis in Italy of intermediate associations that no longer have the political role they played in the past, and the same changes in the political system that have just begun.
As often happens in times of crisis, this time the Confindustria system brings it into play two purebred horses: Giorgio Squinzi and Alberto Bombassei. Different in temperament and in the intentions with which they run to preside over the business association, they nonetheless have very similar personal biography. Both are over 65 years old, thus interrupting the drive towards youth which has led to an increase in the weight of association professionals to the detriment of those who instead base their leadership on their entrepreneurial history and on that of their company. Both have brought their businesses to international success, Mapei and Brembo, making them two examples of those pocket multinationals that today are the backbone of our industrial system. But there are also marked differences between their programs both on the organization of the Confindustria system and on the attitude to have towards the trade unions and the political world in general.
Squinzi believes that Confindustria does not need major changes beyond some rationalization in order to save a little and, if possible, offer more services to members. At the trade union level he affirms that it is necessary to avoid confrontation and that better results can be achieved with dialogue, something that has certainly been achieved by companies in the chemical sector, but which is much more difficult in mechanics. As for the relations with politics Squinzi rejects any party label and insists a lot on the need to go ahead with the reforms and above all to reduce the weight of the bureaucracy that hinders many entrepreneurial initiatives, just as it is essential to achieve the containment of the tax burden.
Bombassei insists more on the need for a real re-foundation of Confindustria, not only of its bureaucracy, but of its way of being in Italian society, of its cultural approach and of its operational practice. With this perhaps scaring many association presidents and many bureaucrats who find their operational space in the current routine. Compared to the unions, Bombassei appears more determined to obtain profound changes in the contractual arrangements by shifting the weight from the national contract to the company one where it is easier to make exchange agreements between wages and productivity. On relations with politics, Bombassei remarked, like Squinzi, his distance from the parties, but even in this case it seems more inclined to give battle to obtain a real and lasting reduction of the role of the State and local authorities which have by now occupied enormous spaces which instead must be left to the market.
Then, there is the Fiat question. There is no doubt that Marchionne's departure from Confindustria was a serious wound in the life of the association. For Bombassei it is a wound to be healed as soon as possible leading Confindustria to accept many of the requests for flexibility posed by Fiat, while for Squinzi the fracture can only be healed if Fiat falls within the association rules and adapts itself to patiently seeking agreements with the trade union counterpart without going to confrontation. In short, Fiat is the litmus test of very different approaches both to trade union problems and, more generally, to the problems of modernizing the country which for Squinzi can only be solved with consensus, while Bombassei seems to lean towards more decisive attitudes, perhaps taking into account some more or less sensational breakup. After all, it is ancient history. Even in 80, when there was a month of occupation of Fiat which was then concluded by the march of the forty thousand, Confindustria remained on the sidelines and only after the fact did it approve Romiti's work. Just like the unilaterally declared cancellation of the escalator by the then president Lucchini, it aroused a series of reproaches from the political world and many fears and perplexities even within the Confindustria system. In short, in Italy every now and then some breaking action is needed without which one cannot take a step forward on the discussion tables. And Squinzi should be careful not to repeat the mistake of Montezemolo (whose presidency he criticizes in other ways) who effectively handed over the keys to any negotiation to the CGIL, thus remaining for four years waiting for Cofferati to be ready to sit down at the table! And thus irritating Cisl and Uil.
Finally there is the theme of the respective presidency teams. Both should dispel suspicions that they have traded the vote in the Junta for the promise of a vice-presidency or some other post in the organization. Such behaviour, if it were actually implemented, would give a new blow to the image and credibility of Confindustria, bringing it closer to party practice which today does not enjoy much esteem among Italians. Just as promising Margegaglia the presidency of Il Sole 24 Ore would be a further step towards the professionalization of the Confindustria career by marginal entrepreneurs or scions of industrial dynasties who do not find a place in family businesses, which certainly does not benefit theassociation that must mark its diversity with respect to the Italian system based on consortia or bonds of membership that do not depend on merit. And Marcegaglia has already demonstrated, with its appointment as director of Riotta, that it cannot boast of particular expertise in the publishing sector.
This time the choice of the new president of Confindustria is of great importance. The associates are faced with two top-level candidates. People who can bring to the association the prestige they have earned over many years of work in their respective companies. The profound meaning of the decision that will have to be taken concerns the way in which Confindustria which represents, or should represent, the most innovative part of the country, wants to participate in the effort to change habits and mentality that the Monti government is seeking with its measures , to induce in many categories of citizens.
