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“Mistakes have been made,some very serious and I’m not talking about the Morandi bridge. That is a tragic consequence that will weigh forever. Mistakes have been made before, when we have chosen to give too many proxies to the wrong people ». It is Alessandro Benetton who speaks in a video entrusted to social media, twenty-four hours after his appointment to the presidency of Edizione Spa. The tallest spire of the cathedral which contains the heritage, the history, the entire rib of the dynasty of Ponzano Veneto and in which now the four branches of descent seem more compact than ever.
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The hour of discontinuity
Living room at home, off-screen entry, jeans and casual shirt. Direct gaze alternating with left profile. Sequences edited and filed not perfectly, perhaps artfully, to align with the semi-professional youtubers who aim more at substance than technique. It is the hour of discontinuity. “This video too, guys (he says just like that, to the world universe that listens to him, to those in gray suits and to anyone who is subscribed to his channels) is a sign of a first change. For many in Italy it is absurd that the president of a group of this proportions make video for youtube or instagram, and it’s even more unusual to use them for institutional announcements. But it has always been my way of communicating. Until now I have not wanted to give interviews, because I wanted you to be the first to hear me talk about this, as always, direct and simple ».
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“Where I was before today”
And direct and simple are those that, referring to characters of the past, today would be called pickaxes. “Where was I before today? You know that, my job is another: I have been dealing with 21 Invest for 30 years. Those of you who have been following me for the longest time, by the way, know how opposed I was to some things with respect to the family business, so much – he is keen to remember – to resign as chairman of Benetton, after a short term in office ». Among the disagreements with father and uncles, it can be hypothesized, there was the order of importance of things. In briefly describing at the beginning what Edition is, in fact, the list of assets already lets a lot filter through. The holding, he says, is active “in clothing, digital infrastructure and transport, real estate and agriculture and catering.” Fashion, therefore, but with intangible networks before road networks, buildings and estates, in Maccarese or Patagonia. Area of the world that recalls the conflicts with the Mapuche, one of the reasons why «the surname Benetton in this period is not liked by many. But today, appointed president, I saw an opportunity for discontinuity to reinterpret the industrial approach which has characterized us as a family over time “.
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“I don’t want to be on the bench”
I don’t want to be on the bench, Alessandro goes on, 57 years old, and «obviously I won’t be alone. I will do it with my cousins and with qualified managers, united we will focus on young people, on teamwork, innovation and sustainability ». «A first step to rediscover and rediscover that innovative and avant-garde character that has always characterized Edition». That is the original Benettons, before the incrustations in too much business, with a thousand members in a hundred heterogeneous fields. The climate seems to be that of elegant provocation, of good manners but on the threshold of irreverence, with which the father, Luciano, in 1993, had Oliviero Toscani photographed in Adamic clothes. The wind of Ponzano at the end of the last century, that of uncomfortable things to say and show, the kiss between priest and nun, the disabled portrayed without veils, advertising campaigns across genders and races.
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The bridge of Genoa
The awareness of knowing how to respond, without intermediaries and with original language
, to difficult questions, such as the inevitable one, which arrived shortly after on Instagram in which the president of Edizione and therefore the first shareholder of Atlantia is urged to apologize for the tragedy in Genoa. “It is a tragedy that will weigh on my family forever – is the immediate reply – and the apologies we should have asked immediately, regardless of the fact that Edition it only owned just over 30% of Atlantia, on whose board there was only one Benetton. Today, my cousins and I want to represent that discontinuity that allows the group to return to reason and operate as it once did, but with a new North Star: that of sustainability, understood in the broad concept of the term, social and global“. The conclusion, pondered “for weeks,” admits Alessandro, is signed by Spider-man. Not a philosopher but a comic. “With great powers comes great responsibilities.” Smile and go.
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January 14, 2022 (change January 14, 2022 | 21:04)
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