‘He is the only person who has lived a very important part of the road with me. She had a sort of sonship relationship with me, even though we were only nine years apart. Italy is losing a great entrepreneur, he had the ability to work, courage and optimism that this country needs badly».
Carlo De Benedetti retraces the long history together with Roberto Colaninno. Two profoundly different men, whose paths crossed many years ago: «Colaninno worked in a company in Mantua, Fiaam Filter, which made oil and air filters for cars. At the time I was head of Gilardini. We were competitors…».
“Yes, we too produced filters. We met then and I saw great potential in him, not only as a manager, but as an entrepreneur. So together we founded Sogefi in 1981, he managing director, I chairman. Our long relationship was born in this way».
Then the turning point of Olivetti?
«When I found myself without a managing director at Olivetti, with the departure of Caio, knowing his abilities, his dedication to work and his talents, I proposed him to leave Sogefi. And he became the head of the Olivetti company. And to tell the truth, I remember that he didn’t immediately say yes… »
«He was very attached to his wife Oretta, he returned to Mantua to talk about it with her. Then he came to Ivrea and accepted the challenge. Together we took the decision to sell the pearl Omnitel (the mobile phone company, ed) to the Germans of Mannesmann who then resold it to Vodafone. In those years he did an extraordinary job, he tried to reduce costs also because Olivetti was in a strange situation, there were no longer the products for which it was born, typewriters, and it had become the most liquid company in the world. ‘Italy, a sort of safe which, however, kept leaking on its traditional business…».
Then he left for the Telecom adventure. She had been the mother of all privatizations and became the mother of all takeovers …
«He came into contact with the group of Brescia shareholders, in particular Gnutti, and they invented to buy Telecom Italia. An operation to which, and I told him, I was absolutely against it because I didn’t think we had the team to manage it. I considered it a difficult and wrong undertaking. He did the same because he was a totally independent and determined person. The takeover bid was organised, then my son Marco went with him and Colaninno chose him as managing director of Tim».
There is the history of finance and business in Italy, in this story of his by Colaninno, the protagonist of a piece of the country’s history…
“It is so. When Gnutti sold Bell (the holding that held control of Telecom, ed) he was very upset, he broke off relations. His passion for being an entrepreneur, his ability to work, his courage, were too important to him. That in fact he decided to buy Piaggio».
A company with great traditions, but which at the time was not a group in good condition, has now become a jewel…
«In Pontedera he did an extraordinary job, he resurrected a brand like the Vespa and despite being a small group compared to the Japanese giants, he managed to make it a protagonist on the world market. A man who left Mantua, with an accountancy degree but with truly remarkable entrepreneurial ability. He was very attached to his family, when he worked at Olivetti he left his city in the morning to come to Ivrea and also returned at night to return to his wife Oretta and his sons Matteo and Michele. I’m losing a true friend.’
“For a long time we spoke on Sunday morning at ten. We always did. He spoke to me about his projects, from the opening of the new plant in Vietnam to new ideas for possible businesses. This was Colaninno and these conversations are one of the most beautiful memories of us that I will cherish».
2023-08-19 21:12:23
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