This is the third contribution we have received for our initiative based on three questions to people, company owners and managers: an insight into a tough and uncertain season that has made all of us impotent.
Alberto Storoni
Owner of MacMazza (Pesaro)
www.macmazza.it
- How are you reacting to this emergency?
“At the beginning, like many others, we thought that Italy was digging its own economy, then we realized the real impact of this sanitary and human disaster (by the way, I don’t believe the fairy tale of Chinese people eating bats) and we took the necessary measures, started to work from home and keeping a small group of super-protected and widely-spaced workers in the workshop. All of this with the legal authorization of public authorities and only for admitted product categories, such as machinery for eyewear, remote service, shipment of spare parts, plus the finalization of an urgent order (with pending letter of credit) for a food packaging plant, so again within the admitted scope of activities.”
- What do you think is changing or will change radically?
“I hope that our customers and colleagues within Acimall change their view on the machines and on the system, attitude and exhibition business of our German competitors, which should encourage all players in Central and Southern Europe to go their own way.
I hope that employees and suppliers appreciate the effort of companies that are still willing to operate correctly, rather than playing dirty, releasing themselves from the terrorism of those who should stop giving orders in our poorer and poorer country, most of all poor of entrepreneurs willing to carry on without giving up their passion, often inherited from their family. These people have built and ensured the fortunes of Italy and its “political leaders”, who are now destroying our country… and themselves.
A typical Italian example, which all Italians and most of all our so-called “leaders” should consider carefully. If the Italian production system is represented by Giuseppe, his son and an apprentice, after the apprentice has been put on forced holidays, what do you think Giuseppe and his son will risk their health and their loved ones’ for? Going to work with a face mask or playing cards at home around the same table where their family eats at lunch and dinner? What will be the economic condition of their family and the entire country once the emergency is over?”
- What should the authorities and all of us do?
“They should take one every second agent serving at road blocks (to fine poor Mrs. Mary who cannot properly demonstrate that she is just going to buy some food) and send them to as many companies as possible, especially family-run businesses, to see who still has the strength and courage to work, so that they can realize that we can keep working while ensuring the necessary distancing and using effective personal protective equipment (PPE), rather than hiding behind the “silent approval” of local prefects. Once again, all responsibilities are shifted to few entrepreneurs who are still willing to fight against everyone and everything, business owners who are even considered as ruthless criminals putting their employees’ lives at stake, while actually they are just trying to avoid layoffs and planning for the future! We should have the strength to send a strong message to our leaders and to a “European Union” that still refuses to see how things really stand. We should find the time and energy to create a new political class and a new leadership, being more actively and constantly involved, trying to understand that past emergencies have not been completely overcome and that more will occur in the future.
“El sueno de la razon produce monstruos”, Goya said… And who can be considered an artist and a dreamer more than an entrepreneur running a family-owned company of woodworking machinery?