The first public outing of the new designated president of Confindustria Lecco and Sondrio is a book that has caused discussion and which tells, through the eyes of the author – son of the first marriage of the founder of Esselunga – the story of a great entrepreneurial success, built on rubble of a family. Almost a manual on mistakes not to make.
Among the guests on the first day of the Family Business Forum, yesterday in Lecco, Giuseppe Caprotti – president of the Guido Venosta Foundation, promoter of social, health and cultural projects, as well as son of Bernardo Caprotti, founder of the large-scale retail trade company – who presented the book “The bones of the Caprotti”, the story, told through testimonies and unpublished documents, of a family and of a success that has spanned more than two centuries. «My father, in setting up the business, started from a series of American principles, from which, however, he soon deviated», says Caprotti. «This is, in my opinion, a mistake that should not be made: if you have children, grandchildren, brothers in the company, not sharing the values, details and perspectives of the business with them is a mistake. Sharing is essential.”
Between successes and failures, the turning point for the Caprotti family came at the end of the 1950s with Rockefeller and the first supermarket chain in Italy. It is an extraordinary success and consolidates the fortune of the family, which in the meantime has acquired the majority share of the company. «However, some mistakes were made: the lack of dialogue, of recognition on the part of my father, almost a “master father”. Clear delegations are always needed in family businesses – explains Giuseppe Caprotti – Suffice it to say that Esselunga did not have an organizational chart, until after my departure, nor a management committee. Now I am calm, but in such contexts we need disinterested consultants and mediators and family agreements. Business activity is complex.”
After all, nowadays, the entrepreneur can no longer be just a sprinter or a cross-country skier, to use a sporting metaphor. «He must be a decathlete», according to the designated president of Confindustria Lecco and Sondrio Marco Campanari. «Being an entrepreneur today means moving away from the classic definition of business – he comments – There is certainly all the beautiful part, which has appeal especially to those who have a spirit of initiative and are dreamers. We are talking about the creation and conception of a product or service to convey it to countries near and far, also creating your own organization. This, however – continues Campanari – is only the tip of the iceberg. A clear example are all the events we are witnessing and which now seem to go unnoticed, but which need to be managed.”
Pandemic, wars, the doubling of the cost of raw materials and electricity, the Suez Canal blocked. «Just a few years ago, these events would have been epochal. The very definition of work has changed – continues Campanari – Today we talk about continuous problem solving. New themes come into play, such as sustainability. There are those who argue that this way entrepreneurs are closer to the community, but I believe that those who do business have always been in contact with others. And, after all, it couldn’t be otherwise.” Yesterday’s speeches also included that of Marco Taccani Gilardoni of Gilardoni Raggi X and Alberto Dalmasso, CEO and founder of Satispay, the cashless payment “super network”. Today we are talking about a payment circuit completely independent from traditional credit and debit cards, used by more than 4.4 million private users, 320 thousand merchants, including small shops but also large brands. The company today has 620 employees and in 2023, 3 billion euros were transacted through Satispay. The service is available in Italy, Luxembourg and France.
CEO and founder Dalmasso himself presented Satispay on Thursday afternoon, in via Tonale, describing the path that led to the creation of the innovative system, which has revolutionized the way in which financial transactions are managed on a daily basis. «In 2012 I went to the office and, in the morning, it was often difficult to pay for breakfast with a card, due to a certain resistance from the owners of the premises – says Dalmasso – We discovered that shortly afterwards a regulation relating to virtual payments would come into force and we combined the technological revolution with the regulatory one – explains the entrepreneur born in 1984. In 2013 we founded Satispay. A year later, Samuele Pinta joined me and Brignone and was the first to believe in our project.”
Italy itself, full of family businesses that are often small, is fertile ground for digital innovation. «Perhaps the average age of the population might suggest the opposite – continues Dalmasso – but small businesses have much shorter decision-making processes compared to larger and more structured businesses. For example, we easily entered the world of food stamps and corporate welfare. The curiosity of smaller companies to discover what we are doing is always remarkable.”
Today the Family Business Forum continues. Among the expected guests is the Vice President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani.
