CREMONA – The president’s stripes will remain sewn on him forever. But him, Maximum Rivoltini, a few hours after the changing of the guard at the top of Confartigianato, has already got used to the idea of presenting himself as ‘ex’. Not just a sign of esteem towards those who – Stefano Trabucchi — took on the leadership of the association, but also a form of respectful detachment from those 13 uninterrupted years which saw him on the front line representing the artisan world, defending the interests of small entrepreneurs, proposing solutions to the category’s problems.
After three terms in command, is Confartigianato a closed chapter?
«I will never be able to put the Confartigianato t-shirt in the drawer. I lived the role of president with all-encompassing commitment over a long period marked by events that changed history. By statute I should have left the position four years ago, but an exemption granted me an additional ride. I will gladly return to focusing my attention on the family business and taking care of my dearest loved ones, but I certainly will not forget the association of which I am proudly part. Without a doubt I will remain on the council and will retain the role of representative on the CremonaFiere board of directors; Furthermore, I will continue my adventure at the helm of regional Confalimentazione and will remain on the national board.”
You mentioned the Fair: what is your vision for the future of the company?
«CremonaFiere has changed pace and will evolve further. The Fair has opened up to the territory and has become an integral part of Cremona. Personally, I am very confident: it will not be a simple path, but full of important perspectives, which deserve to be seized also through virtuous aggregation strategies.”
In the meantime, will you also find the time and a way to deal with the transition involving the Chamber of Commerce?
«It is one of the challenges to which I want to offer my contribution. We are going through an interlocutory phase, after the definition of a reform similar to a Cencelli textbook operation: when transparent solutions are rejected it is because we prefer to wallow freely in the turbidity. We had set up an agreement with our cousin Mantua, in compliance with our respective priorities, but now the situation has become decidedly tangled with the entry of Pavia, which has legitimate reasons for feeling out of the picture. I would add a fear: in the medium to long term we could end up with a single regional Chamber.”
The centrality of Cremona-the capital is one of its strong points.
«At the moment the city has all the ingredients to create an excellent recipe, but it must know how to use them in the best way. First of all, Cremona can count on a university which is a precious stone: I am thinking, for example, of the Agorà project for the agri-food sector and the Golden Age plan for the development of local supply chains serving the nutrition of the elderly. I am convinced that the city can become an international point of reference for the world of research. Then I mention the attention paid to the river, the commitment to strengthening tourism and, again, the prospects for consolidating the Fair. The regret is that Cremona remains an island from an infrastructural point of view and I don’t see any short-term solutions. A network of efficient connections is essential to retain young people in the area.”
Speaking of young people: training has always been a priority challenge.
«But we are not yet at the levels we would like. Progress has been made thanks to the ITS project and the dialogue with professional schools, but true school-work alternation remains a mirage.”
A theme that is connected to that of generational passage.
«A sore point: in recent years, many artisan businesses have been lost, also due to a certain inhospitality of the system towards entrepreneurship. Start-ups? Something is moving, but still too little. Young people prefer different options and fathers sometimes choose not to throw the cross on their kids. I don’t deny that I detect a lack of passion on the part of the new generations: work should not be a means but an end, a value in itself. The fault lies not with young people, but with an educational system that has not proved to be up to par.”
Looking to the future also means dealing with technologies that challenge artisan manual skills: what is your point of view on artificial intelligence?
«AI is a tool like many others, which will serve to do better if it is governed with awareness and mastery. I like to praise imperfection, an essential part of the artisan profession: if artificial intelligence leads towards standardization, the knowledge of artisans means uniqueness, intuition and unpredictability. What is undermining the artisan world is not AI, but industrialization in a broad sense. And I will never like the ‘cookie-cutter’ thing.”
Access to credit and bureaucracy are two other issues against which he constantly fought.
«I’ve been saying the same things for years, but only because the problems – unfortunately – are always the same. In fact, they are progressively getting worse. Access to credit represents a traumatic problem, because the inability to invest in maintenance, quality and safety leads to the inability to keep pace with whirlwind change. Covid stopped us, now not being able to take the train is a very serious sin. Even with regards to the need to reduce bureaucracy, I am forced to repeat a hateful refrain: paperwork is a huge brake on companies, a diabolical mechanism that gives no answers and forces us to go around in circles.”
Has anything improved in these 13 years?
«The awareness and quality of the approach of the artisans, who are increasingly trained, attentive and interested. The artisan productions have reached simply exceptional levels”
Do you have a suggestion for his successor?
«I advise him to tackle the artisan world step by step, so as not to be overwhelmed. There are many problems in an era in which associations and intermediate bodies have suffered strong backlashes. I have enormous respect and total trust in him, who assumes the leadership of Confartigianato respecting a path traced long ago and naturally respected in all its stages. By the way, allow me to pin a medal to my chest: if in 13 years we have managed to move in harmony and act with cohesion and compactness it is also thanks to the pax cremonensis that I helped to build”.
