Who won the big public nominations game? Matteo Renzi, Paolo Gentiloni or Pier Carlo Padoan? It has been two days since the tarantolati of Montecitorio, those parliamentary journalists and those politicians accustomed to looking at the events of politics only through the keyhole and weighing everything on the balance of power, have been asking themselves questions that leave the time they find and that do not touch not even remotely the heart of the matter, which is only one and that is whether or not the managers chosen by the Government to lead the large public companies are up to the task that has been entrusted to them. And it is on this that it is worth reflecting.
Since the Government has confirmed the top management of ENI, ENEL and ENAV (barring the change of president), who had reported satisfactory or more than satisfactory results in the previous three-year period, the problem mainly concerns the three large groups (Leonardo- Finmeccanica, Poste Italiane and Terna) where there was the changing of the guard. And where Renzi's imprint certainly emerges (Alessandro Profumo at the helm of Leonardo) but where Gentiloni and above all Padoan also counted in the choice of the new helmsmen of the Post Office and Terna.
The central node is obviously that of the surprise appointment of Profumo. Can a purebred banker, unanimously recognized, but without industrial experience lead a high-tech manufacturing reality like Leonardo's, which ranges from the defense industry to aerospace and electronics for security? Is there perhaps a plan to dismantle the Italian high-tech manufacturing represented by Leonardo?
In truth, Finmeccanica has already been led very well in recent years by a financial extraction manager such as Alessandro Pansa who the Renzi government, despite the different opinion of Minister Padoan, was wrong to replace with Mauro Moretti, the restorer of the State Railways who stumbled in the sentence of first instance at seven years for the Viareggio disaster and for this reason not reconfirmed. However, Pansa had time to get to know Finmeccanica in depth, having been its financial director before becoming its managing director. However, Profumo's choice is not a leap in the dark but is the flagship of the new public appointments.
It is quite clear that the first reason which, on Renzi's personal suggestion, prompted the Government to call Profumo was to drop an ace with a candidacy of extremely high professional profile and undisputed international fame to replace a top manager of the caliber of Moretti and to relaunch the image of the Italian system. The first polls on Alfredo Altavilla, who in the end preferred to stay alongside Marchionne in FCA, had already revealed the identikit of Leonardo's future boss.
Profumo does not have industrial skills but has a great deal of managerial experience, knows how to work as a team, knows how to manage complex situations, has first-rate international relationships, has a spirit of independence and unquestioned morality (fundamental quality in the insidious world in which Leonardo must operate) and, over the years, he has greatly softened those temperamental excesses which at the beginning of his rise in Unicredit had induced critics to nickname him "Profumo di arrogance".
The former banker is the first to know that Leonardo cannot be alone in command. And in fact he will be supported by a general manager who knows Leonardo well as Fabrizio Giulianini, the head of defense electronics, and by a president of Gianni De Gennaro's experience. The curiosity and passion for work that distinguish Profumo will help him. But will the mission be to dismantle the former Finmeccanica? There are no elements to suppose that a few months after the elections this could be the objective of Renzi and the Government, but certainly we will need to think about Leonardo's future, focusing on and strengthening the activities in which the group can excel in Europe and seeking alliances or dismissing those where the game is lost: And here Profumo's experience and all-round international knowledge could prove to be invaluable.
And the new appointments at the Post Office and at Terna? It is a pity that the Government has deemed it necessary to replace the CEO of Poste Italiane, Francesco Caio, who had greatly increased profits, but the differences on the savings pole and the constant disagreements with the president Todini were probably fatal for him. Fortunately, the couple who are now at the head of the Post Office are first-rate both for the choice of Matteo Del Fante as the new CEO and for that of Maria Bianca Farina as president. Del Fante, who in three years has considerably strengthened Terna and who is one of the most promising public managers of the new generation, knows the postal and financial business perfectly, having already dealt with it directly when he was director of Cassa depositi e prestiti. This is why Minister Padoan, in agreement with Gentiloni and Renzi, has bet on him. La Farina, who is also president of ANIA, is at home at the post office where she has produced profit after profit in the savings management and insurance business of Poste Vita.
Finally, Padoan also left his mark in Terna, where, resisting the political pressures of the Democratic Party and others who pushed for candidates from local utilities, he opted as new CEO for Luigi Ferraris, outgoing financial director of Poste Italiane and in the past of Is in the. For the Minister of Economy this time it didn't go like it did three years ago when he entered Renzi's office at Palazzo Chigi with the list of candidates but found the premier determined to do his own thing and scrap everyone.
