The generational transition in Italian companies between tradition and innovation

In Italy, as in many other cultures, trades and professions have often been handed down from generation to generation, keeping traditions and specific skills alive. Think of the ceramic artisans, especially in the regions of Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, the wine growers of the Veneto, Piedmont and Sicily, the weavers of Lombardy, the fishermen of the coastal regions, all the way to the Cremonese violin makers, who from generation to generation have preserved and handed down the art of making the world's best known and most exported violins.

In societies based on agriculture and land ownership, having sons was often seen as extremely important for a number of cultural, economic and social reasons, including: ensuring inheritance and family continuity, family protection and security, social status, honour and marital alliances. In ancient Rome, for instance, the importance of sons was particularly evident. Roman law (patria potestas) gave fathers complete legal control over their sons, and the role of men in the transmission of names and property was fundamental. In short, having male children in antiquity was considered crucial to ensuring the continuity, security and well-being of the family, reflecting the patriarchal structures and economic and social needs of ancient societies.

In the modern world, companies have certainly assumed a significant role in the transmission of knowledge and skills. Today's corporate landscape differs significantly from that of families of yesteryear, as modern companies can draw on a much wider and more diverse pool of skills, especially the male gender is no longer the sole guarantor of 'succession', thanks to the inclusion of women as active players in the world of work (although, evidently, there is still considerable resistance to this). This transition reflects the socio-economic and technological changes of recent centuries. But the transmission of knowledge is not only about technical skills, it is also about values and corporate culture. Modern companies work, or should, to make their employees internalise values, ethics and organisational culture.

The generational transition within Italian companies, particularly in a work context increasingly marked by the fast and disruptive changes of digital technology, represents a significant challenge, one that cannot be avoided but which, within a 'fast life' context, risks being underestimated or managed superficially. And there echoes in my mind the famous expression 'Après nous, le déluge', 'After us, the flood', attributed to Madame de Pompadour, mistress of Louis XV of France. The phrase is often interpreted as a statement of indifference to the future and the consequences of one's actions. Madame de Pompadour is said to have uttered it to reassure the king after a military defeat, implying that after their passing, the consequences would not matter to them. This phrase has become a symbol of the contemptuous and irresponsible attitude of those who do not care about the long-term consequences of their actions and all too often reflects the attitudes of senior managers who are untrusting of the younger generation and confident that 'what they did, no one else ever will'.

It must also be said that the reception of the legacy of predecessors by younger people in the company can vary considerably depending on the company dynamics, the organisational culture, the strategies put in place to facilitate the generational transition, and above all the way in which the 'heirs' consider 'inheritance'. As Massimo Recalcati, who has dealt with the concept of inheritance in various contexts, teaches us, "what counts in inheritance is the transmission of desire (...) it concerns the words, gestures, acts and memory of those who have gone before us", and again, "it concerns the way in which what we have received is internalised and transformed by the subject". Our children inherit what they have breathed into our families and the world and have made their own. From this point of view, every 'successor' must accept that his or her destiny as heir is also to be an orphan - heir comes from the Latin heres which has the same root as the Greek cheros meaning deserted, bare, lacking, in the sense of deprived of parents. What illustrates this convergence of the heir with the orphan? Several things, including the fact that the rightful heir does not merely receive what his ancestors left him, but must make a movement of reconquest of his own inheritance: 'what you have inherited from your fathers, reconquer it, if you want to possess it'.