It’s not difficult to find someone who argues that the companies in our country are left a little to fend for themselves and that – compared to other European countries – being an entrepreneur in Italy today means having to manage alone, without any support from the State. What do you think about it?
I tend to agree, but my impression is that the situation has not worsened in recent times. Has it always more or less been like this?
The Italian entrepreneur is historically used to managing alone; it’s part of their DNA. A skill, moreover that other countries appreciate and envy us for.
What seems to me to have changed lately are mostly the boundary elements: today it is more difficult to think you can drive a company without any specific conditions. Think of the banks, for example. Once there were entrepreneurs and companies which operated confidently without the support of credit institutes: work was plentiful, margins were high, the country was growing, and the general situation was of almost absolute well-being. All this led many enterprises to accumulate large amounts of capital that they could then invest elsewhere (in property, for example), which in a short space of time they took advantage of to then be able to re-invest it, triggering a virtuous cycle in favour of a degree of economic growth.
Today, this is no longer the case.
There is more bureaucracy, and we have to work with increasingly tight profit margins. This means we have to go to greater effort to earn less.
The banks also make it harder to enjoy financing but this – in my opinion – is not such a bad thing. In the not too distant past we experienced an intermediate stage during which it was almost easier to obtain a loan from a credit institute if you had direct links with its director than instead presenting a serious, concrete and structured development plan. Today fortunately less decision-making power is left to the individual, in favour of concrete and wisely prepared documentation that demonstrates how, where and why certain capitals are being used.
This in my opinion can only be a good thing, not only because by doing so, companies that are capable and able to take one step at a time are rewarded, but also because the most virtuous companies who are also able to compete abroad are supported.
Returning to the original question and speaking as an entrepreneur, I can say that in 33 years of work I have never felt particularly supported by the State: you had to handle it alone then, as you have to handle it on your own now.
I agree however that the Italian situation – today as in the past – is even more challenging than that of many other countries. But I believe that this depends, more than anything else, on the typical physiognomy of the Italian company. For those who work in the field of mechanics, for example, it is natural to make comparisons with Germany, where there are far fewer entrepreneurial type enterprises and many more capital companies. It goes without saying that this creates consequent different dynamics.
Not to mention that, as I see things, in Germany, exchanges between companies, the State and universities have always been more intense and fruitful for the benefit of the entire system.
