Youth and Italy’s future: what new leaders need to know
By way of opening premise at this Aspen Junior Fellows meeting, it was observed that the current crisis is an accelerator of change and, like the Chinese ideogram for the word “crisis”, can be seen as posing both a problem and an opportunity. Small wonder then that young people are a prime focus of attention, given that they also represent both of these conditions. Having inherited a legacy of curtailed or betrayed hopes, younger generations appear defeatist.
Leadership: new models and values to enhance competitiveness
The discussion at this meeting of the Former Aspen Junior Fellows got underway with the observation that leadership, unlike management, is not a matter of technique. It is thus a rare quality, and, in the view of some the participants, difficult to instill. Nevertheless, by anticipating the future and capitalizing on past experience, leadership is crucial for progress. The historically-enduring values of leadership are well-recognized, namely: credibility, integrity and responsibility.
Culture, leadership, social responsibility
The discussion in this session focused on the role of culture in the wake of the global crisis. In this regard, the participants highlighted the increasing search for a more harmonious, sustainable and forward-looking social model, yet one that is anchored in the roots of national identity. With the global crisis, this quest for a new kind of paradigm of development has, even in Italy, once again focused what perhaps was otherwise languishing interest on the crucial importance of “culture”.
After the crisis: renewing Italy’s leadership
A key theme at this roundtable session was that leadership entails not only managing the present but also imagining and building the “future”. However, a series of obstacles is often encountered within this complex process, including an “antagonistic” attitude that is quite widespread in political – but also other – spheres, and a hollow rhetoric of the future steeped in words such as innovation, research, quality and merit that are often advocated but rarely given substance through effective decisions.