Chronological archive

Discussions at this Aspen Seminars for Leaders session centered around trust, accountability and meritocracy as the keys to piecing back together a country suffering for some time now from serious afflictions and dysfunctions. The picture painted was one of institutions that do not trust the general public or private enterprise, with the result that the country’s political and economic life is marked by growing hyper-regulation. This excess of rules was characterized as the product of a lack of trust, and, in turn, as producing greater corruption and disreputable behavior.

There can be no denying that a huge paradigm shift underway and that both the crisis and the irruption of new technologies are undoubtedly contributing factors.  It means there is more information available and that it is accessible by a great many people and we are witnessing a strengthening of the relationship between “equals”.  This means that when deciding to buy one thing rather than another, consumers are increasingly likely to place greater trust in the opinions of other consumers who have actually tried out the product in question than in the information provided by compan

This session of the 2015 round of Aspen Seminars for Leaders focused on the key role of health and wellbeing in ensuring Italy’s development and prosperity. It was noted, in this regard, that medicine has taken incredible strides in recent years thanks to new discoveries, a case in point being the advances made possible by the mapping of the genome, which enable diseases that were untreatable up until a few years ago to be successfully fought.

The picture that emerged from the work of the 2014 Focus on Industry session of the Aspen Seminars for Leaders was of an Italian industrial system that was holding up well, even through the crisis, and particularly so in those sectors exposed to international competition. This year’s session saw the participants aiming higher, with a view to putting forward an agenda for Italian industry growth, the goal being not merely to ensure resilience, but rather to provide the underpinnings for a veritable industrial renaissance.

The opportunity to restart work on the country’s infrastructure involves and brings together those operating in the transport and services sector, public administrators and those who use it.