The Viale dell'Astronomia bills and the difficult financial situation that imprisons the entire Confindustria system in general are the first real obstacle that President Squinzi finds in his way. The Giunta on Thursday is the first stage.
The 500 million euros that are presumed to be the cost of the system, the golden liquidations enjoyed by the top management and the expenses that cannot be reduced, contrast with a financial and organizational structure in continuous slimming due to the crisis that grips our economy and the defections of hundreds and hundreds of associated companies.
Hence the decision to take the bag "at the top" with cuts of "at least 25%" as stated by an authoritative entrepreneur. “Even by 30%…if necessary”. But if the path of linear cuts were taken, Squinzi's bet for a structural recovery of the system would quickly vanish.
Cash savings would not bring out the widespread pockets of privilege, the intertwined niches of waste and inefficiency, the real situation of the local associates and their assets and of the sector categories that live, in this respect, their own autonomous life and opaque.
Such a situation arose in the first half of the XNUMXs. The weight of the debts left by Sirio, the imposing computer moloch wanted by Guido Carli; the anarchy of contributions that regulated the territorial belonging of companies to sector associations, the widespread insurance and pension privileges of a large part of the managerial staff, increased and made uncontrollable by agreements signed locally or with "ad personam" interventions, the absolute opacity of currency exchange of the entire representation in Brussels put a strain on the Presidency of the time.
Mythical remains the substantial "annual prize" that gratified the director of Assobirra in kruggerand-gold. The elimination of the privileges of Brussels, the emergence of substantial resources from the coffers of Luiss, careful management and a more precise functioning of the double classification prompted the system to carefully evaluate the financial question and to support Luigi Lucchini's choice on autonomy del Sole 24 Ore, providing it with its own company for advertising sales. This was the choice (as opposed to Publikompas and Manzoni) which guaranteed important resources aimed at supporting the activity and the recovery of the system.
The contestability of all the associative offices and the presence of the former public companies, monopolies and concessionaires, formed that mix of economic security and individual solidarity between consortia not extraneous to politics that held up until a few years ago.
Today things have changed and the choices are very difficult. Large or small companies) look at the membership cost with growing skepticism, even at that of the sector to which they belong. Many leave, others do not pay, hundreds die or go bankrupt. Ordinary income becomes a lottery and is also called into question due to the scarcity and mediocre quality of services that the machine provides to its subscribers.
The home newspaper stopped paying dividends a long time ago. An editorial-media policy and an improvident vocation for real estate gigantism has dried up the river of resources of the Sole 24 Ore which, like all mastheads, is also measured by restructurings and layoffs.
In some territorial associations there is open talk of recourse to layoffs for their employees with rare cases of cancellation of the rich consultancies that make the old ones of the system eternal. There is not even news of a targeted use of the rich real estate assets of the same.
President Squinzi must not go down the road of linear cuts and their percentages. He does what his mind as a great entrepreneur suggests: sink his hands into the dough, get to know, evaluate and decide. Quickly. But he must immediately give some central examples, such as reducing the regiment of vice presidents and delegates, addressing the issue of real services to companies stolen by a plethora of consultancy firms that have invaded the associations, looking into the accounts of companies parallel to the system that ranging from specialized publishing, to foreign missions and trade fairs, to raise a little cash needed for restructuring by placing part of the shares of Il Sole 24 Ore with the still rich local and trade associations.
The headquarters in viale dell'Astronomia would become thinner and the central bureaucracy would lose strength, but it would be easier for Confindustria to regain its role of representing the real interests of manufacturing companies.
PS: Bring Squinzi back to the house in viale dell'Astronomia in Rome for the annual meeting. Return that appointment to the agenda of the country and of companies. Immediately away from the Musics Auditorium chosen for a gigantic audience of onlookers, presenters, fixers and parlor ladies, experts in public relations or in that network of acquaintances that characterizes and has made our capitalism so slippery.
