Running through the debate at this year’s Annual Conference for the Friends of Aspen was an awareness that,in an increasingly competitive and complex market, entrepreneurs need to be able to develop a mindset and skill-set that is open to risk and capable of steering and governing the processes of globalization whilst preserving their firms’ identity. It was acknowledged that there is a shift underway towards a new business paradigm that calls for a novel form of leadership based on trust, knowledge sharing, and fresh approaches to facilitating the flow of intelligence and charisma. This “convening style of leadership” must tap into and engage individual talent and strengths as part of a vision that inspires and motivates organizations at all levels.
It was noted that this new paradigm is, paradoxically, based not on certainties or well-worn processes, but on making mistakes and being able to take risks as well as fail. In this regard, the participants underlined that, in recent decades, Italian entrepreneurs have shown a marked tendency forpursuing easymoney-spinners, in many cases ceasing to innovate or try out visionary or unorthodox paths. Hence, the ambition and daring that enabled the Italian “economic miracle” of the postwar period and which perhaps still represent the key ingredients of the dynamism of Anglo-Saxon capitalism have been lost in Italy. It was conceded, however, that commending the value of mistakes should not translate into any self-exculpatory attitude, but rather serve as an incentive for improvement and a constructive opportunity for learning and growth. Errors should be planned for and anticipated, with the lessons learned and assimilated, because, on the one hand, as Popper argued, “it is very hard to learn from very big mistakes”, yet on the other, collective lessons can be learned from the error of the individual.
The participants highlighted that of the various different business activities where value could be drawn from errors, the most important is product and process innovation. Emphasis was placed on the need for Italian entrepreneurs to rediscover the zest and urge to innovate, purposely and methodically creating watershed changes internally within firms themselves, but also externally, in their dealings with competitors, customers and suppliers. Reference was made to new knowledge-sharing paradigms, such as open innovation platforms, which are enabling the size constraints typical of Italian firms to be overcome, and which have emerged partly in response to the fact that companies cannot be competitive in isolation. Apropos of this, those in attendance pointed to a growing divide in Italian industry, not so much between large and small firms, but rather between those open to engaging with the international market and those that shy away from the competition.
It was stressed that in line with this open business model, governance structures must also be “open”, with managers becoming entrepreneurs in the proper sense of that word. Devising production and general supply chains which, while maintaining links to their areas of origin, are able to incorporate geographically- and culturally-removed organizations and markets, was also deemed essential. Likewise, operating with flexibility beyond national borders, taking on board experience already gained and errors already made, was seen as a crucial foundation for building new avenues of growth for the Italian economy.
Rounding up the discussions, it was observed that in order to ensure that their respective firms are able to progress, business leaders need to know how to best make their way within a fast and structurally uncertain international market, in the process coordinating networks of increasingly more skilled, multicultural, and innovation-oriented human resources. The participants were at pains to point out, in this respect, that the polytechnic educational grounding typically received by Italians,which connects the two core cultural strands running through the Italian identity, namely, the humanities and sciences, represents a valuable asset yet to be fully exploited by the country’s managerial and entrepreneurial class.