The Giolitti era and the Great War

In the second decade of the 1920s, dominated by the figure of Giovanni Giolitti, the adoption of the collective labour agreement and the recognition of internal workers' commissions coincided with a social-political turn in a liberal and reformist direction.

The equation between industrialism and modernisation was shared, albeit with different accents, by the main trade union leaders - Rinaldo Rigola, Ludovico D'Aragona, Bruno Buozzi - and by a number of entrepreneurs who had established themselves at that time, such as Giovanni Agnelli, Camillo Olivetti, the Perrone brothers, Guido Donegani, Cesare Pesenti, Giorgio Enrico Falck, Ettore Conti, Giovanni Battista Pirelli, Gaetano Marzotto, Ernesto Breda and Giuseppe Orlando.

It was this new generation of industrialists that made the entrepreneurial associationism of the early 20th century a robust instrument for protecting the specific interests of the industrial world, a forge of new solutions in the organisation of work.

The contribution of Gino Olivetti - the first secretary of the Industrial League of Turin and later of Confindustria - proved to be fundamental in this respect for the rationalisation of the production system, starting with the mechanical engineering industry, adopting the same criteria elaborated in the United States by Frederick Taylor: the key words were specialisation of workers, standardisation of materials and mass production.

The historical gap between the North and South of the country remained perfectly tangible and, on the other hand, savings continued to flow mostly into government bonds. Only thanks to the entry of some banks into the share capital of the electricity industry and other basic sectors was it possible to cope with the shortage of risk capital.

Italy had emerged victorious from the Great War, also thanks to the exceptional effort made by the industrial system to meet the needs of the war machine. In the meantime, however, the communist revolution in Russia was fuelling expectations of a radical political and social upheaval among the working masses.

Confindustria, after the appointment of Ferdinando Bocca, under the chairmanships of Dante Ferraris (who became Minister of Industry in the Nitti government in 1919), Giovanni Battista Pirelli, Giovanni Silvestri and Ettore Conti, tried to contain a long series of strikes and unrest through various measures (reduction in working hours, redundancy payments, invalidity and old age insurance) without, however, succeeding.

Until, in September 1920, the workers of the main factories throughout Italy proceeded to occupy the factories. These occupations lasted for a month and gave the impression that we were on the eve of an insurrectional movement.

The fascist period

In this climate, made all the more difficult by extreme political instability and the serious financial difficulties of post-war reconversion, the fascist movement seized power: although Mussolini had proclaimed the strengthening of the production apparatus and maximum discipline in the factories in the name of national interests, the main trade confederations deplored the violence of squadrism.

After the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, the Confindustria executive called for the restoration of constitutional order and legality with a memorandum presented to Mussolini in September 1924. It also continued its tenacious resistance both to the imposition of the fascist monopoly of workers' representation and to the projects of integral corporatism.

It was only in October 1925, when the workers' unions and anti-fascist parties were on the verge of being banned, that Confindustria recognised - with the Palazzo Vidoni Pact - the fascist union as its only interlocutor.

In the years between the two wars, severely marked by the world 'great crisis' of 1929, the fascist regime granted industry assistance and protection, similar to what other governments did when faced with a recession that threatened to unhinge the entire production system. Public intervention, which led to the creation of the IRI in 1933, saved numerous companies from bankruptcy, thus bringing them under 'public hands'.

Subsequently, the autarkic policy favoured the advent of monopolistic and oligopolistic positions, at the price of a progressive isolation of Italian industry from international market circuits and to the detriment of technological innovations.

During this period, after a brief presidency by Raimondo Targetti, there was the long tenure of Antonio Stefano Benni (1923-1934), who also served as Minister of Communications (1935-1939) and, under his presidency, the logo of the cogwheel topped by the eagle was born, which, in its modernised version, still represents the Confederation today.

In the following years, prominent figures such as Alberto Pirelli and Senator Giuseppe Volpi, who remained in office from 1934 to 1943, alternated at the head of Confindustria.

But the Confindustria, however accredited and influential in the upper echelons of the Regime - also due to the close relations established by its Director (and later President from April 1943), Giovanni Balella, with various Ministries and sectors of the PA - found itself grappling with ruralism, anti-urbanism and the formation of a corporative and hierarchical order ('everything within the State, nothing outside the State', according to Mussolini's directives), elements that ended up representing the negation of the principles of industrial capitalism.

Post-war reconstruction

In the aftermath of the Second World War, Confindustria took a leading role in the reconstruction effort. This was mainly thanks to Angelo Costa, President of the Association from 1945 to 1955, who arrived after the brief periods of transitional presidency by Giuseppe Mazzini and Fabio Friggeri following the fall of Fascism and the liberation of Rome.

He was able to establish non-instrumental relations, while respecting their reciprocal spheres of autonomy, with the centrist governments of Alcide De Gasperi and succeeded in rebuilding the fabric of contractual relations with the trade unions.

Right from the start of Costa's term of office, a number of important agreements were signed with the CGIL: the unblocking of redundancies, wage equalisation between North and South, the reinstatement of the Internal Commissions and the establishment of the escalator.

Other agreements, at national and category level, were then concluded during the 1950s with the CISL and the UIL, two new confederations born in 1948 from the separation of the Catholic, Republican and Social Democratic components from the CGIL.

Costa, flanked by a general secretary such as Mario Morelli (who would remain in office until 1970) in the work of defending and enhancing the principles of private initiative, was a strong advocate of the restoration of market mechanisms and trade liberalisation, supporting the choices of the political class, even at the cost of not finding the consensus of some industrial groups reluctant to renounce customs protectionism.

The economic miracle

Italy's accession to the European Common Market in 1957 and the so-called 'economic miracle' gave legitimacy to the liberalist convictions of Angelo Costa, still the acknowledged leader of Confindustria. Driven by the vigorous development of the large companies in the 'industrial triangle' - Milan, Turin and Genoa - the national economy recorded some of the highest growth rates in the western world in those years.

The mechanical, automotive, chemical and textile industries experienced a season of expansion, favoured by increased domestic consumption, improved productivity and Italy's growing inclusion in international trade flows. The boom attracted millions of workers from the south to the northern regions, reshaping the country's social geography and posing new challenges to the production system.

These were the years of Alighiero De Micheli's presidency, followed by that of Furio Cicogna, in a context of progressive transformation of the relationship between the state and industry. The establishment of the Ministry of State Holdings (1956) and the start of an economic planning policy that culminated with the nationalisation of electricity in 1962 marked a profound change in the role of public intervention.

This new scenario saw Confindustria position itself as an attentive but critical interlocutor of the centre-left governments' industrial policy choices, with a growing tension between the defence of private initiative and the expansion of public hand in strategic sectors. In this season of great change, the Association consolidated its role as a unitary representative, placing the modernisation of the country and the strengthening of industrial competitiveness at the centre of the debate.

The new headquarters and Il Sole 24 Ore

In the years between the end of the 'economic miracle' and the onset of the social tensions that marked the second half of the century, Confindustria strengthened its representative capacity also in terms of culture and economic information. In 1965, Il Sole 24 Ore was born from the merger of two historic newspapers: Il Sole, founded in Milan in 1865, and 24 Ore, founded in 1946 as the official organ of the Association.

The objective was clear: to create a newspaper capable of offering an authoritative and independent voice on the Italian economic system, promoting the values of enterprise, modernisation and the market.

From its inception, Il Sole 24 Ore established itself as an essential point of reference for entrepreneurs, professionals, institutions and international operators, making a decisive contribution to the spread of an economic and productive culture in the country. With its sober style, technical insights and attention to the dynamics of the world of work, the newspaper became one of the most recognised and respected instruments of the Confindustria system.

In the early 1970s, Confindustria moved from its historical headquarters in Piazza Venezia to the E.U.R. district in Rome, in a new building commissioned to architects Luccichenti and Monaco, among the most significant interpreters of Italian rationalist architecture.

In those years, for the industrial world (to whose leadership Angelo Costa returned in 1966), the difficulties were accentuated and, in the aftermath of the 'hot autumn' of 1969, waves of worker conflict followed one after the other for a decade in the main factories, shaking the foundations of the company system and making factory governance increasingly difficult.

Faced with the danger of isolation, and in the midst of a severe economic recession due to the staggering increase in oil prices and the sharp rise in labour costs, Confindustria reacted with a course correction in two directions: with the so-called 'Pirelli reform' it proposed to strengthen its organisational structures with a more balanced and participatory representation of territorial and trade associations; younger levers and small enterprises, organised since 1958 into various local groups, contributed significantly to an innovative approach.

Faced with the danger of isolation, and in the midst of a severe economic recession due to the staggering increase in oil prices and the sharp rise in labour costs, Confindustria reacted with a course correction in two directions: with the so-called 'Pirelli reform' it proposed to strengthen its organisational structures with a more balanced and participatory representation of territorial and trade associations; younger levers and small enterprises, organised since 1958 into various local groups, contributed significantly to an innovative approach.

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The thaw towards the trade union, initiated during Renato Lombardi's presidency (flanked since 1970 by an experienced and particularly talented manager, Franco Mattei), resulted in 1974, during Giovanni Agnelli's subsequent presidency, in the proposal of a joint action against rents and parasitism, with the aim of restoring impetus and vigour to the productive forces of enterprise and labour.

In this climate, and with the intention of contributing to a return of peace in the factory, the Agreement on wage indexation was signed with the trade unions in January 1975.

To chair Confindustria during the period of 'national solidarity' between the parties of the constitutional arc, intended to tackle the terrorist offensive, a person who did not come from the ranks of business was called for the first time: the former governor of the Bank of Italy, Guido Carli. During his term of office (from 1976 to 1980), which saw an authoritative economist such as Paolo Savona (to whom we owe the operational start-up of the Study Centre) at the helm of the Association, a proposal was formulated by Confindustria for an 'enterprise statute', capable of freeing the entrepreneurial system from the political and bureaucratic 'laces and ties' that were holding back its development.

In 1977, on the initiative of Confindustria, LUISS - Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali - was founded in Rome with the aim of creating a university centre of excellence capable of training the country's new ruling classes. The university took over the inheritance of the pre-existing Pro Deo, transforming the institute founded in the 1960s into a true private university, specialising in the fields of economics, law and political science.

Particularly innovative for the time was the strong focus on the business world, institutions and public and private decision-making processes. Since 1978, the university's leadership was entrusted to Guido Carli himself, who was able to imprint the university with a modern vision, inspired by liberal culture and Anglo-Saxon pragmatism, and strengthen its ties with the Confindustria system.

In the years that followed, LUISS consolidated its identity as a university open to the world, strengthening its international relations, developing English-language courses and facilitating access to the world of work thanks to one of the most active career services in Europe.

The transformation of Italian industry

In the early 1980s, an important phase in the life of the Confederation coincided with the presidency of Vittorio Merloni. His appointment to the highest responsibility of the Italian industrialists was a tangible recognition of the remarkable development and growing role assumed in the meantime by the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

The need for an effective industrial policy and the revision of the wage structure (after the termination of the escalator) were placed at the centre of Confindustria's action under the leadership of Alfredo Solustri, whose professional skills had matured within the association.

Later, during Luigi Lucchini's term of office (1984-1988), the principle of the centrality of business as a driving factor for economic growth and the social modernisation of the country was affirmed. The special experience in the field of trade union and external relations of director Paolo Annibaldi (who held this position until 1990), helped to intensify Confindustria's relations with public institutions and social players.

These were the years of a strong revival of Italian industry, which experienced significant organisational innovations and the expansion of its production facilities into new areas of the country that had once barely been touched by the development process.

The late 1980s and early 1990s witnessed epochal events destined to echo over the following decades in the world's geo-economic order, from the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 to the break-up of the Soviet Union in late 1991.

Following the signing of the Maastricht Treaty and the acceleration of the European unification process in 1992, the need to internationalise the Italian economy became more and more necessary, also in order to find new spaces in a world set on the path of a new and sustained globalisation.

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For Confindustria, the outcome of the European game would have depended on an overall recovery of competitiveness of the country system. Thanks to the policy of tripartite agreements (government, Confindustria, trade unions) - initiated under the presidency of Sergio Pininfarina (1988-1992) - Italy was able to control inflation and implement an albeit imperfect income policy, avoiding the risks of marginalisation from the more industrialised countries.

Decisive in this respect was the Agreement of 10 December 1991 on the fight against inflation, as a result of which, on 1 May 1992, the 'heavy point' contingency was not paid for the first time. This line continued under the presidency of Luigi Abete (from 1992 to 1996) with the Agreement of 7 July 1992, which established the abolition of the escalator.

In the course of those years, the autonomy and non-partisanship of Confindustria was reaffirmed, outside of any political collateralism, and new criteria for participation in the association system were adopted.

Italy's integration process into the European Community, however, turned out to be much more fraught with obstacles than originally thought, due to a new difficult economic situation. In the years of Tangentopoli (bribery and corruption), the country faced a serious political and institutional crisis.

Despite operating in such troubled waters, with judicial investigations involving a number of large companies, Confindustria managed to stay the course, under the banner of a non-corporate line of conduct that was open to confrontation with civil society, supporting the efforts of Italian companies to increase their levels of competitiveness and engaging in concerted action with the government and trade unions that led to the July 1993 agreement on income policy.

The age of globalisation

The beginning of the new millennium ushers in a phase in which globalisation and technological innovation accelerate profound transformations in the production system, forcing Italian companies to look more and more towards international markets. In this context, Confindustria is taking an active role in promoting competitiveness, innovation and openness, supporting the need to simplify rules, attract investment and strengthen the presence of Italian manufacturing in the world.

Under the presidency of Antonio D'Amato (2000-2004), under the leadership of Stefano Parisi, the confederal action focused on the revitalisation of Southern Italy, labour market reform and support for a modern entrepreneurial culture. The European framework was consolidated with the introduction of the euro, while global pressures from the opening of markets and increasing international competition were growing.

In 2004, Luca Cordero di Montezemolo was called to lead the Association. His mandate marked a strengthening of the public and cultural identity of Confindustria, which became the promoter of a new focus on respect for rules, protection of intellectual property, flexibility and investment in training and research.

Under the leadership of Maurizio Beretta, the Association is enhancing its propensity for internationalisation and the promotion of Made in Italy, which are considered essential pillars for an Italy capable of competing in the new global scenario.

But in 2007, the signs of a deep financial crisis began to appear. The explosion of the subprime mortgage bubble in the United States triggers a chain of events that sweeps Western economies, hitting Italy hard as well. The collapse of market confidence, the credit crunch and the demand crisis translate into a severe industrial slowdown.

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It was in this climate that Emma Marcegaglia took over the presidency in 2008, the first woman at the top of Confindustria, flanked by Giampaolo Galli as General Manager. The industrial system, already fragile, was hit by a wave of recession that put employment and investments at risk.

In recent years, Confindustria has not ceased to promote a culture of sharing within companies, placing the productivity-wage binomial at the centre of the debate between the social partners, and relaunching the dialogue with the trade unions in order to tackle together one of the most difficult phases of recent economic history.

In 2012 the leadership of the Association passed to Giorgio Squinzi, who appointed Marcella Panucci as Director General of the Confederation, the first woman to hold this position. The context remains critical: Italy goes through a new phase of political instability and the economic crisis takes on structural features under the burden of public debt.

The priority becomes defending the manufacturing system, fighting the 'anti-enterprise culture' and relaunching a European Industrial Compact capable of supporting production and employment.

Confindustria is also committed on the internal front with a profound reform of the association system: a Commission, chaired by Carlo Pesenti, starts a process that culminates with the approval of the new organisational structure in 2013. The Confederation thus sought to reaffirm its ability to adapt by reaffirming the principle of representation as a strategic lever for the country's development.

The era of global challenges

In May 2016, Vincenzo Boccia, an entrepreneur from Salerno with long experience in the association system, was elected president of Confindustria. His presidency took place in an economic context characterised by a slow post-crisis recovery, with Italy showing signs of lower growth than other European countries and emerging economies.

During the four years of Boccia's presidency, Confindustria continued to emphasise the centrality of industry as an engine to overcome economic stagnation, promoting initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of the Italian production system.

These include the implementation of the 'Industry 4.0' plan and the signing of the 'Pact for the Factory' with the trade unions, aimed at boosting productivity by sharing objectives between companies and workers.

The General Assembly in Verona on 16 February 2018 also marked a particularly significant moment, during which Confindustria presented an articulated industrial policy programme, emphasising the importance of concerted action between institutions and companies to tackle the challenges of globalisation and technological innovation.

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In May 2020, at a time marked by the global health emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the presidency of Confindustria passed to Carlo Bonomi. His election took place through a telematic vote, reflecting the restrictions imposed by the health crisis.

Bonomi took over as head of the organisation at a time of deep economic uncertainty, with Italian industry hard hit first by the health crisis and then by a series of further related crises, from international logistics to soaring inflation and energy.

During the four-year period, the organisation's general management saw the alternation of Francesca Mariotti, in office since July 2020, and Raffaele Langella, appointed in October 2023.

Bonomi's presidency was characterised by his commitment to urging swift and decisive action on the part of the institutions, emphasising the need for an effective industrial policy and concrete support for companies in order to face epoch-making challenges.

At the same time, Confindustria was actively engaged in the fight against the pandemic, with a concrete engagement alongside citizens in the vaccination campaign and in the dialogue with the government for the elaboration and implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRP), highlighting the urgency of structural reforms in key areas such as taxation, labour and public administration.