It is not an economics book. It's a political essay or rather of political culture. The new work by Antonio Calabrò, former deputy director of Il Sole 24 Ore and currently director of the Pirelli Foundation, almost provocatively entitled "The reformist enterprise" (Bocconi Editore) in bookstores these days, is above all a challenge to the many clichés that are impoverishing the public debate, spreading fear and uncertainty towards our individual and collective future, and unleashing resentment and hatred towards presumed "castes" who have paid attention only to their interests to the detriment of those of the people. A story, that of the populists, which certainly contains some crumb of truth, but which on the whole leads us to think that there are easy solutions to complex problems, which prompts many citizens to look with nostalgia to a past considered beautiful and safe even if it is not never been, even going so far as to convince them that it would be right to give up many of our democratic freedoms in the name of greater security.
Calabrò shows that not only is there a different response to our fears, but that this is more convenient for the community as a whole and also for individual citizens. The heart of his reasoning is the enterprise, in particular the manufacturing one, which is already today a reality of excellence but which finds it hard to be recognized as such by many compatriots misled by at least distracted information, and by populist politicians who accentuate the negativities of our system (which of course there are), to feed a dull grudge against all those who have been successful thanks to their skills and their merits. The result, and it can already be clearly seen after a few months of yellow-green government, is tragic. We have a policy incapable of making the most of our strengths, which imagines itself working to favor the people, not caring about Europe, the blackmail of the spread, the bankers, and ends up hindering innovation and work, condemning the country to a eternal stagnation. Thus that "happy decrease" is achieved which, however, according to all the polls, the Italians do not consider happy at all and absolutely do not want.
A book of political culture, it was said. And in fact Calabrò guides us in a well-designed path along which we encounter the most positive aspects of our economic and social reality and we can find comfort in the analyzes and indications of many writers, economists and politicians who have seen the real issues in time, even if often they have not been heard. The company must be fully aware of being the fundamental protagonist of the new season of change. Already today, after the great crisis, we are the second largest manufacturing power in Europeafter Germany. We have an export volume that exceeded 450 billion last year, largely thanks to our manufacturing. But above all many companies in recent years have made not only a technological and managerial leap, but also strengthened their founding values of communities of people who act both to achieve maximum profit and to build a collaborative relationship with their employees and to consolidate and export its corporate culture outside the factory. In short, the company is not only one of the few remaining social elevators, but also, and increasingly, a set of values and culture that must tend to infect the entire country.
In this sense, the company is and must continue to be a political subject, ie a strong player in society with which it engages in an intense exchange of values and cultures. The values of the company, such as merit, competence, competition, the market as a set of rules, trust in science and innovation, must be able to be transmitted to the social body in the belief that these are beneficial for the entire system . But from society companies must be able to incorporate the aspirations for maximum transparency, those of environmentalism not ideological but based on a realistic aspiration to improve the quality of life, those of occupational and workplace safety. In this sense, the company is an authentically reformist political subject, not in the sense that Confindustria must transform itself into a party, but as an actor responsible for indicating to the political system the most convenient cultures and paths for the development of the entire society. And the entrepreneurs themselves cannot be long in becoming fully aware that their responsibility must also be exercised outside the factory gates. Not everyone on the outside will welcome these ideas. But we must not withdraw for fear of battle, on the contrary, it is precisely when the danger is greater that the commitment must be stronger.
We shouldn't be ashamed of giving life to a party (in the cultural and social sense, not strictly political) of GDP, that is, of growth and reforms. Certainly the crisis of the last decade has raised throughout the West the theme of the need to reform and re-found liberal societies if we want them to survive, but the road to this re-foundation has already been mapped out. Businesses are at the forefront of this transformation. They are making an ongoing effort to adjust their culture to the new. Employee relationships are changing. The quality of production and products is top concern. The extraordinary mobilization of entrepreneurs from all over the North against the blockade of major works, starting with the TAV, e against an increasingly statist and inattentive policy to the reasons of the companies that are on the market, it can be the first step for the diffusion in society of a different idea of growth and social welfare.
We must know how to convince citizens and politicians that “the market is not a demon” as the former director of Il Corriere della Sera Ferruccio De Bortoli wrote, but rather if well regulated it protects savers and favors the strengthening of businesses. Just the opposite of what Salvini and Di Maio show to think. Ultimately we need to change the overly negative perception we have of ourselves. We must enhance the excellence and among these Calabrò (a Sicilian who became Milanese) could not but close his ride by telling the case of Milan, the rebirth of the city and the example that he can represent for the whole of Italy.
