“Today Enel is a bit like a mirror of a country that has finally rediscovered the desire and taste for change”. Who speaks is Patricia Grieco, a life in telecommunications and information technology first as CEO of Italtel, then of Siemens and Value Partners and finally of Olivetti, and for a year and a half new president of Enel. Between the Enel-Enel Green Power merger and the newco for ultra-broadband in telecommunications, the electricity group is demonstrating in these times a speed of change equal to that which the Renzi government has imprinted on the country and also for this reason it is a privileged observatory of new air that is breathed today in Italy. Here's what Patrizia Grieco thinks about it in this interview with FIRSTonline.
FIRST online – Doctor Grieco, it seems in your personal destiny to deal with telecommunications as in the days when you were CEO of Italtel and then of Olivetti. But since the early days in which you were in the Telecom group, Italy has lost a lot of ground in telecommunications and now international competition must also contend with the over the top (the giants of the Internet): Enel can really help bring the share back to the country in telecommunications and ultra-broadband?
GRIECO – In fact, telecommunications have been my world for many years. Compared to Telecom and the other telephone operators, Enel has a different job and, as our managing director Francesco Starace clearly explained, it has no intention of changing it but, having a large infrastructure such as the electricity grid, it can put it at the service of the Country for the laying of the optical fiber at the time of starting the replacement of electronic meters. In this way, Enel can accelerate and reduce the costs of ultra-broadband development through the necessary synergies with all telephone operators who wish to participate in the project.
FIRST online – Will this be the mission of the newco Enel for telecommunications that has been entrusted to the leadership of Tommaso Pompei?
GRIECO - Exactly. There is a natural convergence between the electricity and telecommunications network infrastructures which we aim to share without confusing the roles and without going into the contents and making the country system make a leap in quality. If, as I think, the operation works, there are all the conditions for successfully exporting it abroad as well.
FIRST online – In full accord with the line of the Renzi government, Starace recently argued that Enel will go ahead with its newco for ultra-broadband with or without Telecom: but is a qualitative leap in this area realistic without Telecom?
GRIECO – In the ultra-broadband project, Enel's newco is open to all telephone operators who want to act with competitive quality, costs and speeds and, if they wish, Telecom Italia will naturally be welcome. Frankly, I don't see why there should be vetoes. Surely Enel will go ahead anyway, carefully evaluating the different areas of intervention.
FIRST online – The telecommunications project is not the only novelty that Enel has put on the table: the merger by incorporation between Enel and Enel Green Power is another sign of the renewed dynamism of the group you chair. Is the ratio of integration more financial or more industrial?
GRIECO – It is first of all an industrial project that will not fail to guarantee us financial benefits as well. But let me tell you that the Enel-Enel GP merger and the newco project for telecommunications are two sides of the same coin and two essential steps for the reconfiguration of the entire Enel group in a profoundly changing economic and industrial context. In particular, the integration between Enel and Enel GP responds to Enel's increasingly 'green' vocation which, in the new strategic plan just presented, directs over 50% of future investments in renewables, therefore precisely on EGP. However, the latter, in a 'stand-alone' logic, would not have sufficient strength for the growth to which it is called while, brought within Enel, it will be able to count on important financial and industrial synergies. As regards Italy, where we are already the absolute leader in renewable generation, the operation between EGP and F2i will finally overcome the pulverization of photovoltaics and develop a business model which on the one hand will contribute to modernizing the country and on the more will also be exportable abroad where Enel is very present in various areas of the world.
FIRST online – Enel's speed of change actually seems entirely in line with the change imprinted on Italy by the Renzi government: even from your observatory one perceives that in Italy the tide has finally changed and that the economy is breathing an air of recovery ?
GRIECO – In a certain sense, Enel is today the mirror of a country that has rediscovered the desire and taste for change and we are trying to do our part. The signs of a change of pace in Italy are perceived and go far beyond the GDP numbers. The renewed confidence that Italy is regaining on international markets is striking and the greater ability to attract foreign investments that the country has regained is striking.
FIRST online – On what, in your opinion, does the new climate that surrounds Italy depend?
GRIECO – Reforms have been and are fundamental, both economic ones - from the Jobs Act to cooperative banks, from the PA to schools - and, above all, institutional ones that make the decision-making process and the system more efficient. The country has finally embarked on a virtuous path that can strengthen and increase growth: however, we must continue on this path without setbacks by attacking the system's still weak points, from justice to the PA itself and a more effective spending review.
FIRST online – In the previous interviews of the FIRSTonline weekend, almost all the interlocutors, who are an expression of the country's ruling class, indicated Renzi, Draghi and Marchionne as the main architects of the Italian turning point: Do you agree?
GRIECO – Although I have a conflict of interest because I was appointed to the presidency of Enel by the Renzi government and because I am a member of the board of directors of CNH of which Marchionne is president, I have no reluctance to admit the evidence. The desire for change and the speed of implementation of the reforms of the Renzi government have no equal in the last thirty years: it may well be that not all the steps succeed in perfection but compared to the immobility and crystallization in which the country had sunk the turning point of the premier is undeniable. In this it has benefited from the better international situation and also from the intelligent and farsighted action of Mario Draghi as president of the ECB.
FIRSTOnline – And Marchionne? Perhaps the feeling of the CEO of FCA with Renzi is not accidental: what do you think?
GRIECO – They are both driven by great dynamism and a desire for change. I've seen Marchionne at work up close and frankly I've never had any doubts, even in the most difficult moments, that he would have succeeded in relaunching the Italian Fiat Chrysler factories with new rules up to the new international competitive challenge. I have great admiration for what he has done but I also have great faith in what he will be able to do with the consolidation of the automotive industry. Like Renzi, Sergio Marchionne is not afraid to make decisions and challenge his initial unpopularity in view of ambitious development and modernization objectives.
FIRST online – Enel will have a say in the choice of the future president of Confindustria: whoever he is, don't you think he will have to try to recover Fiat and take up the competitive challenge that Marchionne has been launching for years?
GRIECO – I think that the future Confindustria should ask itself this problem but also others. It must proceed with its organizational reform in order to be able to give the further added value it can express towards its associates and towards the institutions. In other words, without confusing roles and without clouding its independence, Confindustria too could accelerate its pace to contribute without hesitation to the modernization that the country has started and to which the association has in any case been able to contribute in recent years.
FIRST online – President, in all of your professional activity you have always fought for the affirmation of women and female managers in Italy too: something has been done with the new law on women's attendance on boards but much remains to be done. In your opinion, what are the next stages of women's governance?
GRIECO – It must be recognized that the Golfo-Mosca law on gender quotas in corporate governance has given gratifying results not only in the increased presence of women at the top of companies but in the quality that women managers have been able to express in the renewal of the ruling class. However, we need a hinge that acts not only top down, but that promotes the value of women from below through truly meritocratic growth. There is still a lot to do both in terms of rights (I am thinking in particular of maternity) and in reducing the pay gap, which remains a scandal and an offense for women, if we consider that on average a woman, for the same work, earns 7% less than men in Italy and even 16% less in Europe
FIRST online – But at Enel what have you done or what do you plan to do for women?
GRIECO – Let me tell you that I am proud to have led our Diversity Project in the 32 countries where Enel is present. and which, with regard to women, for example, provides that gender equality must be represented in an egalitarian manner in the various stages of the assessment. Where this is not possible, the motivation must be indicated, according to the 'comply or explain' logic. The road is long but I think we have taken the right one.
