‘Corporate culture and competitiveness: the challenges facing modern management’
Francesca Mazzolari. The Managing Director of 4.Manager: consistent organisational decisions are needed
“Corporate culture and competitiveness are, today, the challenges facing modern management.” This is the firm belief of Francesca Mazzolari, an economist who has been managing director of 4.Manager for a few months. “In a context characterised by demographic, digital and environmental transitions,” she said, “growth and market expansion no longer depend solely on the ability to invest and innovate. Rather, they depend increasingly on the ability to interpret change and translate it into coherent organisational decisions.”
Director, are these revolutions changing the way business is done?
Yes. This is a development that broadens the scope of corporate culture. For a long time, it was seen as being limited to corporate identity, the entrepreneur’s vision, values and leadership styles: essential aspects, but no longer sufficient. Today, corporate culture also means addressing broader issues: quality of work, skills, generational balance, inclusion, sustainability, responsibility towards local communities and the responsible use of technology. In this context, 4.Manager, the association established by Confindustria and Federmanager, can make an important contribution. Already, with the renewal of the National Collective Labour Agreement for industrial executives in November 2024, the social partners have entrusted 4.Manager the task of promoting corporate and managerial culture, with a particular focus on strategic issues such as the ethical management of artificial intelligence, gender equality and pay equity, and inclusive and sustainable organisational models.
So is the whole organisation affected?
Exactly. The major transformations currently taking place do not affect just one business function, but cut across the entire organisation. The digitalisation of production processes, to give one example, is changing the concept of corporate security. Technology can prevent incidents and improve risk management, but it also introduces vulnerabilities relating to data, business continuity and control systems. Cybersecurity thus becomes complementary to workplace safety and a structural component of corporate resilience. This gives rise to the need to move beyond siloed structures, in which HSE, IT, HR, operations, innovation and cybersecurity operate according to separate logics.
