Mario Cardoni, General Manager of Federmanager, intervened at the microphones of New York in the podcast Portraits, led by Claudio Brachino. In the course of the interview he told how the representation of Italian leaders is evolving to face the challenges of an increasingly complex labour market, between digitization, energy transition and new models of welfare.
After years at Federmanager’s operational guide, what do you consider the most significant goals?
We have achieved significant results, despite a complex context like that of industrial and trade union relations, which today struggles to maintain participation and attention. I tried to help the association keep up with the times, addressing and in some cases anticipating changes in the world of work, pushing on the lever of technological and digital innovation that put in contact the headquarters with the 55 territorial offices. Among the most important results is the return to the centrality of the national collective agreement in the discipline of management work. We have modernized it, inserting elements of flexibility – today fundamental – and strengthening a supplementary welfare system that represents a recognized excellence.
What are the needs of the leaders and how does Federmanager respond?
The leaders today certainly need security and health, surely central issues for our category, but we must also respond to other instances. The real leap we’ve made on the skills: ten years ago we introduced a professional certification system “Be Manager” which today reached the threshold of 1000 certificates, because we are convinced that those who work should know what the market demands and how to prepare themselves. We live a continuous transition: digital, ecological, energy, and now also geopolitical. A manager today must be able to lead teams in unstable contexts, where the stops are less and less. Knowledge and awareness of their skills therefore become strategic tools.
In recent years the focus on corporate welfare has become a structural element. What is your vision?
For us welfare is an integral part of pay. We have always supported forms of supplementary pensions, aware that the public system alone is not enough. 40% of pensions today are assistants, or without adequate contributions: This is an alarming signal. We have long been asking for the separation of pensions and assistance, to prevent the person who paid regularly from being penalized. In the last contract, we have increased the company’s share: is not only a benefit, but a way to ensure continuity of income and protection of quality of life even after retirement. The same attention we attach to supplementary health which remains at the top of the needs of the associates.
80 years of Federmanager: what evolution did the association have?
We were born as representatives of the “equal degree” of entrepreneurs. Subsequently, in the 1970s, with the public sector, organizational structures emerged with different levels of management. Today we are in a new transformation: horizontal organizations, team with greater autonomy knowledge economy. The role of the manager is no longer just managerial, but more and more specialist: the value lies in the skills and ability to impact on business objectives. We need to get out of the old nineteenth-century contractual patterns and build models that are more suitable for current complexity. Managers and managers constitute the management of companies that should be represented by the same organization.
How will the relationship between manager and business change?
The future will be defined by three words: innovation, sustainability and competitiveness. Needs a new industrial momentum: Today the industry only weighs for 17% of GDP, but it is the heart of our economic model. We have about 20,000 well-structured industrial enterprises, of which 3,500 are the so-called Italian pocket multinational companies. The challenge is to double this number, creating new solid and innovative companies. To do so, you need quality work, led by competent managers. Enterprises need to open up to international companies and grow, although sometimes, efficiency counts more than size.
Digitalization: where are we?
We’re still back. Only a small part of Italian companies have started projects related to artificial intelligence. He talks more about how much it applies. The knot is the culture of data. Without knowledge and ability to interpret data, AI remains an unexpressed potential. In the future, many new professionalisms will be born linked to data management. The goal is not to replace human intelligence, but to free it from repetitive tasks to enhance strategic activities.
Do you compare with homologue associations at European level?
Yes, we adhere to CIDA, the Italian Confederation of Corporate Executives, which represents public and private management, and participate in European bodies such as CEC and CESE. Europe today is a place where fundamental decisions are taken, and we want to bring our voice to those contexts. We have a valid educational system: our young people abroad represent excellence. The problem is they don’t come back often. We also have excellent managers, able to move between structured processes and operational creativity. We must not imitate other models: ours has a distinctive value that must be defended and valued.
We close with a very current theme: the tax question.
The Bank of Italy has estimated a recovery of 25 billion tax evasion, but still remains 75 billion to be recovered. The problem is that the tax burden always weighs on the same. Today only about 6% of the population declares more than 55.000 gross euros, but it pays 42% of the total IRPF. These numbers tell a uncomfortable truth: the tax structure is unbalanced. It serves a fair reform, which rewards those who contribute correctly and does not favor those who systematically evade. Few taxpayers pay too much, many are on the train. It is paradoxical: the less pays the more receives and the more pays the more is taxed.
The article Mario Cardoni: the change does not undergo, you drive comes from IlNewyorkese.
