Rome, 9 March 2026 - The launch event of the new edition of GenerAZIONI, the project promoted by Confindustria's Young Entrepreneurs in collaboration with Luiss University Press, dedicated to Italian entrepreneurship and the generational transition, was held today in Rome, at the Luiss Campus.

For the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria, the issue has always been a priority: promoting the culture of business continuity and fostering an effective generational change means strengthening the resilience of Made in Italy and supporting the country's long-term growth. In a context like the Italian one, characterised by a strong prevalence of family-controlled companies and a size structure largely made up of SMEs, the transition of governance between generations is crucial not only for the individual company, but for the competitiveness of companies and the entire economic system, influencing employment, production chains, innovation, investment attractiveness, internationalisation, human capital management and territorial cohesion.

An analysis carried out in 2025 among associate entrepreneurs aged between 18 and 40 years old, who hold top management positions in their companies, highlights strategic divergences with the previous generation, resistance to change and the need to assert legitimacy in business leadership as the main difficulties. However, about 72% of the respondents managed the transition through gradual coaching and collaboration, considered the most effective model to ensure continuity and innovation.

Created in 2024, GenerAZIONI returns this year with a roadshow across the country, kicking off today in Rome with the support of Unindustria. The roadshow includes appointments dedicated to the economic, tax and legal aspects of the generational transition, but also to the relational dimensions of the process, such as leadership, communication and coexistence between generations. A central element of the project is the recounting of concrete cases of family businesses through meetings and company visits in different Italian production realities, with the aim of enhancing organisational models, identifying recurring criticalities and sharing good practices related to the management of the generational relay.

During the meeting, the second volume “GenerAZIONI. Viaggio nel futuro d'impresa”, written by Mario Benedetto, of the “Bellissima” series directed by Nicoletta Picchio and dedicated to Made in Italy, with a preface by Confindustria Director General Maurizio Tarquini and an interview with Young Entrepreneurs' President Maria Anghileri, who accompanies the project in the story of succession dynamics in Italian companies.

The event, chaired by Alice Pretto, Vice-President Giovani Imprenditori Confindustria, was attended by, among others: Manuela Soncini, UniCredit Wealth Management; Rafaella Mazzoli and Cecilia Varzi, Egon Zehnder. Also presented were the cases of two company best practices in the management of generational handover: Orsolini and Autotrasporti Pigliacelli.

The proceedings were opened by the Director General of Luiss, Rita Carisano, who said: “The generational issue is today one of the decisive challenges for the future of business and our economic system. The volume presented today invites us to consider the passing of the baton not as a simple succession, but as an opportunity to renew leadership, skills and corporate visions. For an Athenaeum like ours, which prepares tomorrow's leaders through excellent training models, this issue is a priority”.

“The generational transition,” said Maurizio Tarquini, Director General of Confindustria, 'is today a strategic issue for the future of our economy. It must be read within a double transition: demographic, marked by an ageing population and falling birth rate, and technological, which is redefining production models. In this scenario, the challenge is to transform the relay into a process of coexistence between generations, where experience and vision, memory and change reinforce each other. To achieve this, we need to ease the constraints on young people, facilitate access to credit and capital, invest in digital skills and in a simpler and more integrated European regulatory framework, capable of supporting the growth of companies and the country'.

According to Maria Anghileri, President of Giovani Imprenditori Confindustria (Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria), “almost half of Italian family businesses will undergo a generational change in the next ten years. It is a crucial step to preserve the continuity of the country's manufacturing heritage. This is not a simple relay race, but a future project based on the encounter between experience and new energy, a true generational synergy. Preparing and planning the replacement means strengthening governance and seizing this phase as an opportunity to innovate production and organisational models. For the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria, accompanying companies along this path is a priority, enhancing the dialogue between tradition and innovation to support new development trajectories”.

“With Generations today we want to highlight one of the most delicate passages for the future of our production system: the generational transition in family businesses,“ commented Eugenio Samori, President of the Young Entrepreneurs Group of Unindustria. ”Accompanying the dialogue between those who have built the company and those who are called upon to guide it into the future is fundamental to ensure continuity, innovation and development in our territories. In this sense, today's confrontation between the two ”generational relays' from Lazio - Giulia and Rino Orsolini for the Orsolini company and Romano and Marcello Pigliacelli for Autotrasporti Pigliacelli - was a concrete example of how tradition and new visions can meet, find a balance and grow together'.