Not Uniquely For Profit. Elena Grinta In Conversation With Giuseppe Morici.

  What follows is the 2nd part of the interview of Giuseppe Morici, Chief Executive Officer at Bolton Food, Author of Fare i manager rimanendo brave persone Istruzioni per evitare la fine del mondo (e delle aziende) Elena Grinta I like the practical part of your book because actually you put some “dos” and some “don’ts” to actually help managers who wish to follow your way. We were talking about don’ts, but you also put some dos. Sure, human first is one of the leitmotiv. So, do not forget where you come from and where you actually want to go, and be responsible towards the supply chain: this is another part of being human because you are dealing with humans not with machines, not with just robots. Giuseppe Morici I believe that companies are not economic entities with a social responsibility but they are social entities with an economic responsibility.  I explain this in the book: “Who said that companies are born to make money?” Elena Grinta  I think you used the expression “not uniquely for profit” I liked this so much! Is that a neologism? Did you invent this? Why do we have to say “for profit” or “not for profit”? There is a third way. Giuseppe Morici Yes, I realised it thanks to mathematics. I graduated in political science, my third kid is 13 years old and I cannot help her anymore with her math homework because I am a disaster in numbers, but I know that if a company makes on average 10% profit it means that 90% of the resources of that company goes somewhere else. This is logic. If you make 10% profit, it means that 90% of the resources of that company go to suppliers, employees, Government or public authority – taxes – partners, consultants, agencies and so on. And this is just one way to say it. So, who said that an entity, which makes 10% of profit, it’s not for social benefit? only a negligible part goes to the shareholder, to the ones who own the company. So, first observation:, it is not the case to use maths.

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Second observation, let’s go back to the ones who invented and created the companies, not to the ones who today manage these big organisations. The ones who invented those products, who then created the companies were not there for money. There were other much faster and easier ways to make more money than packing pasta in blue boxes (Barilla Ed.) or canning tuna in a tin can (RioMare Ed.) or building railways (Italo Ed.). I mean, you make much more money in finance or much more money in real estate or in banking rather than building factories or manufacturing products. Elena Grinta Another advice I appreciate in your book is try to change how we talk about and within marketing. It is so important to use different words! not only to say but also to do in a different way. Only if you can see the same team in a different way, name it in a different way, there would be a change. Are you applying this in your everyday life when you talk with your managers? Giuseppe Morici Yes you can do that. Maybe not 100% of your time, 100% of your decisions, 100% of your activities, but you can do this. I believe it is just a matter of willing or being ready to do it. I think words are the most important things in life and I think that if you continue to call things in the same way you will not change things. So, the ones that I like the most of these words are growth and progress. Progress is a word that was very much used in the 19th Century and after the post IIWW, when the society and the economy were completely destroyed iand we needed to (re) create everything. at that age, we used to talk about progress. Now that we have everything, we are talking about growth. This is absurd. Growth is an adolescent dimension. Progress is qualitative, progress is about the quality of the relationship, the quality of the product.. Growth is just adding, not improving. Elena Grinta It is like exploitation. Giuseppe Morici Yes, exploiting. So, I think you can do this. There is one stupid example used in the book: “who said that in order to grow, a company has to sell more products?” You can sell better products, the same number, especially if you work in food like I have for a very long time. If you want to sell in this part of the world, how can you sell 6 biscuit to a kid for his morning breakfast if that kid is already overweight? You can grow a company by selling 4 buscuits, of a better quality  and at the right price. Food has become too cheap in this part of the world. It is too cheap, too much and too unbalanced.

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There are 1 billion people overweight, obese and there are 800 billion people malnourished. We, in this part of the world, should eat less and better and who is starving should eat more. Elena Grinta He is not a politician, he is not a journalist, he is the CEO of a food company! I was so pleased to interview. Thank you, thank you so much.

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