Cantare d'amore: an unspoken truth of this Italy of my dreams.

Sometimes it happens, it truly happens: life seems just like a movie… even with its own soundtrack! I thought about this some day a few weeks ago when one of my coworkers left the company... It was a very sad moment. He got fired, and while he was leaving and saying goodbye to me there came from the radio “Cantare d’amore”, a song by Amadeo Minghi, a song that may not say that much to an Italian born, but that means so much to me. I heard this sweet song for the very first time just by chance in Colombia, in the months before my departure to Italy. Back then it was so beautiful to me, and it still is. As soon as I reach Italy and got myself some free time after finding somewhere to sleep, I bought one of Minghi’s CD with this song! My Italian friends will laugh at this but I just love the dammed song! Deal with it!

“Cantare d’amore” kept my spirit high and made me dream. It was a source of inspiration while I was trying not to get crazy with my studies of Italian grammar before coming to Italy. It’s another love song but to me it also spoke about the Italy of my dreams: this bucolic place of amazingly beautiful landscapes and architecture, full of echoes from ancient civilizations everywhere, a place where people would sing, enjoy good long meals, chat, drink the best wine there is, chat, love and care their families and their land, chat… and keep chatting! Funny thing: most Italians DO CHAT A LOT! It's something you cantruly enjoy if you're surrounded by smart people. Luckily I am, most times.

To me, “Cantare d’amore” spoke about this wonderful Italy where time seemed to stop so you could enjoy simple things of live as much as possible… Unfortunately this “dreamland” is in great danger, and among its biggest problems there’s what is happening nowadays to small companies, the so called PMI (Piccole e Mediane Imprese, ‘small and middle-size companies’): too many of them are just falling apart! Very quickly (too quickly) and everywhere in Italy! It’s a big problem because Italian economy depends on these small companies! Certainly there’s a worldwide “wave” of economic crisis and sure it has its effects here, but after living in Italy for six years and meeting so many businessmen, through my work and at conferences I have attended, well, I have come to think that much of the responsibility for what is happening here lies within this nation’s borders and not anywhere abroad.

It’s just too easy to blame the Chinese, or terrorists, or even Prime Minister Prodi (as if he had been in charge for the last ten years…) for what is happening here, and that’s what too many of these PMI entrepreneurs do. You should listen to them, repeating and repeating the same crap all the time… And this is just as boring as it can be! Yeah, It’s just too obvious that China and its economy are moving at a pace no one can follow (for reasons I would not dare to discuss here), and it’s also true that terrorism has also influenced world economy, and even that Prodi’s government could be much better, but too many of these entrepreneurs are people who still think they are living in the Italy of 1990’s, where the “MADE IN ITALY” brand would easily sell itself worldwide. Thinking this way then a change in the way these entrepreneurs would manage their companies wouldn’t be necessary. They could just do the same old things in the same way they had been doing and take it easy, “survive”, as they love to say, earn a lot of money simply by doing the same things they had been doing for the last couple of decades, and then spend some precious time showing off with their Rolex watches and their fancy cars, have long vacations (a little bit too often), completely forget about spending money in research and certification, or in learning and encouraging their workers to learn other languages (at least some good English, come on!) or improve their working techniques. Research? Marketing? Good websites and improvements in customer care and quality controls? Information Technology, “what the hell is that?” some would say! These things wouldn’t be important, and some would dare say things like “all this is not necessary, our products are so good, they are the Ferrari’s of the market, people will keep buying them”. Can you believe that?

Many of these entrepreneurs have completely forgotten that in a changing world you have to improve yourself in order to “survive”, and only then you can improve your company, you can ask more from your workers! PMI’s are usually made of a very small staff and often the owner “folds up the sleeves of its shirt” and works hand by hand with its employees. An entrepreneur in a PMI should be an example to its workers! Then, it’s just too important that change in the PMI begins in the boss! It’s just too important for the boss to realize that the world is a different place, that investment should no just be made in new fancy facilities and furniture but in self-education and education of the workers, certifications, quality control, Information Technology, marketing (above all e-marketing!) and customer care so your company can still “be in the game”. Clients are not stupid people, they MUST BE TREATED WITH RESPECT, ALL OF THEM, INCLUDING THOSE WHO DON’T BUY THAT MUCH! CLIENTS, ALL OF THEM, ARE FREE PUBLICITY AD’s, THEY SPREAD A GOOD WORD ABOUT THE COMPANY! The company might not get immediate results after making consistent investments in these weak fields I’m talking about, at least not as quickly as “these entrepreneurs” would like it to, but at least the company will have effective tools to give a good fight!

Well… maybe that’s the problem: TO GIVE A GOOD FIGHT! Maybe just too many PMI entrepreneurs find it easy not to fight and just chat, complain… Lets just pray for that people to change their minds, otherwise I’m sure these “Italy of my dreams” will soon vanish and “Cantare d’amore” will just become another song without meaning, a song that, when I’ll get old, would bring memories of a land that may have never existed at all…