Managing Director Francesco Guidara is quoted in Corriere Della Sera

Italian daily newspaper,?Corriere della Sera?has published an article entitled, "The Hidden Value in Business" by Ferruccio de Bortoli on the power of?#Purpose?that cites important numbers analyzed by?BCG BrightHouse. BCG BrightHouse Managing Director Francesco Guidara is quoted in the article.

Many studies point to the effectiveness of?#Purpose as a lever for transformation, and in Italy, we are especially interested to the way it can can reinvigorate family businesses, which are most subject to the risk of a "dilution of values." Thank you to?Josip Kotlar, Associate Professor of Strategy, Innovation and Family Business at?POLIMI Graduate School of Management?and our Luminary Fellow, for his valuable contributions, and to Colin Mayer, Emeritus Professor at the Sa?d Business School, University of Oxford , who has partnered with BCG BrightHouse to host several summits on purpose in Business.

Read a translation of the article in English below:

The Hidden Value in Business

by Ferruccio de Bortoli

Among the many international classifications that penalize us - much more than our possible demerits - there is one that has been inexplicably kept silent. And it is that relating to how many Italian workers feel involved and participate in the life and destinies of the company. According to the latest Gallup report on the "Global state of the world of work" we would even be in last place in employee engagement. A step below France in which discontent exploded in a long and violent protest against Macron's pension reform. And in comparison with which we have relative social peace. One out of three Italian workers would experience a feeling of great sadness when thinking about their condition. And it's not just about pay. Wages and salaries are, shockingly, among the lowest in Europe. The investigation focuses above all on the sharing of values. The happiest are in Finland, a country that has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. We should envy some realities in the East that do not seem to us absolute paradises of industrial relations or even corporate welfare models.

There is a certain difference, however, in the answers that a worker can give when the question relates to his own company or if it is of a general nature. And we are led to believe that in Italy this spread (there is not only the one on interest rates) is greater than elsewhere. Especially in those districts, in those Made in Italy supply chains, where the shortage of especially specialized manpower is high and the worker is no longer, not even in the definitions, a simple employee, but a collaborator, precious, indispensable, and recipient of growing attention on many other aspects, from welfare to training.

The communities

Italian communities are strong when there are - and there are - large and small companies strongly integrated in their territory and perceived in their social utility. The more solid realities are, the more a certain otherness grows with respect to the country as a whole experienced as distant and in some cases even hostile. "We are good, despite everything else." According to a 2022 Edelman research involving 7 industrialized countries but not Italy, workers would tend to have more confidence in their own company than they have in institutions and the government. And we find it hard to think that something similar doesn't happen in Italy for the most responsible and dynamic companies. And here we come to the point, which concerns not only the (economic) value of a company but the meaning of its existence (purpose) which is not recorded in the financial statements but is perceived as such. And not only by employees and suppliers, by the so-called stakeholders. In Italy the discussion is modest if anything, despite its ante litteram models, such as Adriano Olivetti, Enrico Mattei, Gaetano Marzotto, are often cited in the international debate as early examples. It matters more than vision and mission. We're not talking about sustainability, that's another thing. A company can be extremely sustainable, have an irreproachable social balance, without warming hearts and arousing a sense of participation in a human, innovative adventure of transformation of society. The literature on the subject is now vast. "Without a purpose," wrote Larry Fink, BlackRock's big boss in his traditional letter to investors back in 2018, "no company, public or private, can reach its full potential."

Colin Mayer, of the Sa?d Business School of Oxford, then launched with his Prosperity a broad reflection on the social role of companies and on overcoming the shareholder value of Milton Friedman. The founder of BrightHouse, Joey Reiman in his "Purpose," published in Italy by Vallardi, cite many success stories, from Apple to Lego, to explain that a company story, beyond its economic result, is a novel of life. Even the single. In some cases, being part of it is a privilege. It arouses pride. The role doesn't matter.

The historical legacy

The writer recently participated in the awarding of Olivetti's golden ears. The company is no longer there, but the spirit that has spun so many new initiatives is still there. More alive than ever. According to a survey by BCG BrightHouse, 56 percent of employees in Italy believe that their company does not have a clearly defined purpose and is meaningless beyond its profitability. You can't prove it or you don't even think about it.

"It is not an abstract discussion," explains Francesco Guidara, managing director of BCG BrightHouse Italia and East Mediterranean. "Companies that have a clear understanding of their mission, their values, record greater growth, manage to keep their collaborators longer, retain their customers better. We're talking about the DNA of a company that doesn't follow the cycle of managing directors, it's not an expression of the shareholders, it's not something written even in the best possible way in a social report, nor is it a matter of advertising. It is a combination of soul and memory. Unfortunately, Italy is behind on these aspects - there is little awareness and attention is often out of focus. Family businesses are the most exposed to the loss of purpose over time. 70 percent do not go beyond the second generation, only 10 percent make it to the third. And sometimes more than the lack of capital, the dilution of values is fatal to the desire to continue, to try, to innovate."

"This purpose," explains Josip Kotlar, associate professor of Strategy and family businesses at the Polytechnic, "is often not formalised. But there's no need to write it if the corporate memory is protected, and the example of the owners and managers is positive, even from the point of view of individual ethics. And it's not stronger if the family stays in the company. In fact, perhaps the opposite is true. Sometimes one thinks of solving the issue with the establishment of a foundation which, however, can be understood as something extraneous. Like a family office dedicated only to family investments. Sincerity in admitting mistakes, rather than proudly claiming achievements, is often proof of authenticity. It increases credibility towards its employees and, ultimately, towards the outside world, including customers."

Managerial nomadism does not favor the affirmation of the corporate purpose. The obsession with designing a personal path except for reproaching one's collaborators - and above all the newly hired young people - for wanting to do the same.