In that period in history, the company was doing terribly. Many believed Fiat was finished. We managed to turn that destiny around. The courage was also the courage to change. When things aren't going well, you also have to be able to change.
Is there a memory of Sergio Marchionne, a lesson you learned from him that you still carry with you today?
I saw how much the new announcement of Ferrari generated debate both in Italy and around the world. So, what is behind this evolution of this brand and where do you see Ferrari going in the future?
The most important point is to keep alive this very strong desire to do what has never been done in order to win. I believe Italy has a very great future.
Is there something you do in your daily life to help you manage this level of stress, this pressure as a father, as a leader? What do you want to be remembered for? What mark do you want to leave?
John Elkann, welcome to MIDE.
Thank you, Ines. I'm happy to be here and I can't wait to have this chat.
John, I usually close with this question, but with you I wanted to ask it right from the start because you are Italian, you are one of the most well-known Italians in the world, but at the same time you are an Italian who grew up around the world. Yet you decided to return to Italy to study at university and above all to raise your family here, and so I wanted to ask you in what way your Italianness has defined you.
I was born in America and spent my entire childhood and adolescence around the world. I lived in America, I lived in England, I lived in Brazil, I lived in France and in many other countries. Italy for me was the country of my grandparents. My grandparents were Italian, they were from Turin, on both my father's and my mother's side. And so Italy was a country of holidays and grandparents, and having had a childhood and adolescence not only in many places, but also complicated by moving around with a divorce that my parents had, the anchor, the place where I was stable was Italy, it was Turin. And when I decided to study, I thought it would be important for me to get to know Italy not only as a place of holidays and grandparents, but also as a country. So I decided to come and study in Italy and I decided to study engineering in Turin, and it was actually also a way of reconnecting with my country, reconnecting with the city my parents came from, and also living my life and my relationship with my grandparents in a different way. I have traveled and worked in many places, and when my wife and I got married in 2004, we decided we wanted to base ourselves in Italy, base ourselves in Turin.
We always thought that being able to give our children roots was an important premise so that they could live well with their identity in Italy but also in the world. One of the great lessons I had growing up is that when you go to many different places, the risk is that if you don't have an identity, if you don't have a strong backbone, you risk losing yourself. And I think the balance is unstable in many places, but being able to have strong roots and at the same time be open to the world has been, I hope also for my children, a very important way of living.
John Elkann enters the world of Fiat at a very young age, first with practical jobs in the factory and in the sales network, and then at only 21 on the board of directors. The real test, however, comes in the early 2000s, when the passing of his grandfather and grand-uncle coincides with one of the darkest moments in Fiat's history. The company risks bankruptcy.
We managed to turn this destiny around because there was, on my family's part, a strong will to continue and also to give a great deal of trust to a person who at that time was extremely young, because I was 28, and to people we worked with who believed in us, people who had worked with my grand-uncle and my grandfather. And the courage was also the courage to change, because when things aren't going well, you also have to be able to change. And we decided then to change the CEO by asking Sergio Marchionne to come to Fiat. Keep in mind that from 2002 to 2004 we had changed four CEOs, and Sergio had a cartoon in his office, which I now have in my office, with all the portraits of the various CEOs, and there's a door where he says, this is a job of the highest, highest risk. And I think the courage to change when things aren't going well is what distinguished us, and above all the beginning of a very beautiful chapter with Sergio that was tied to a healthy ambition to be able to do well, to be able to bring Fiat back to being a great reality, and above all to want to play in the top league. Keep in mind that when we were in those years, Fiat wasn't even in the top 10 of the world's car manufacturers, and if you project to today, more than 20 years after that famous dinner with Sergio where I asked him to come and work with us on a Thursday evening, we've done many things since then, and today we are among the top four global manufacturers. Sergio was on Fiat's board and he had precisely those characteristics that are very important: on the one hand, a very strong desire and conviction about what a future could be, and at the same time the ability to achieve it. In a period when nobody believed in us, both externally and internally, our family's strong will to believe in it and to test ourselves with a person who also believed in it, galvanized an entire organization to carry forward what was one of the most beautiful professional adventures I have lived.
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More efficiency, more control, and much more time to dedicate to your business. The link is also available in the description, and now let's get back to the episode. It's incredible to see how much risk appetite your family had, because to invest and reinvest at a time when things are going badly, when there are many examples of companies that instead closed and couldn't go on, and to see where you ended up, not just at the rescue, but at real growth. Is there a memory of Sergio Marchionne, a lesson you learned from him that you still carry with you today?
His great curiosity, his great optimism, which however was also characterized by a very strong realism.
And we've been talking about Sergio Marchionne, but we can't not mention or pay tribute to another great engine of Fiat and of Italian industrial development, your grandfather Gianni Agnelli. What is your best memory of him?
There are so many memories that it's hard to pick one. The trust he had in young people, the trust he had in us grandchildren, the trust he had in me, manifested itself in many ways: in trying to ask you for advice, in giving you the responsibility to do something, in spending time together and having your opinion on what had been done. His was a very, very strong curiosity he had in others, in understanding, and above all a great trust in the future linked to young people.
And is there something you think you have of his, of one of his character traits?
Well, certainly this trust in the future, in young people, especially as I get less young, is something I not only share, but completely identify with.
For young people you do many, many things that we'll talk about, but I can't not talk about another great company, because we've talked about all the people who influenced you, about innovation, but you yourself, in all these years since you started, have been a great engine of innovation and have contributed to redefining, according to a very personal vision of yours, and perhaps one of the most interesting examples is precisely Ferrari. I'm not an expert on cars, but I saw how much the new announcement of Ferrari generated debate both in Italy and around the world, and so I wanted to ask you a bit about what is behind this evolution of this brand and where do you see Ferrari going? Where do you see such an iconic brand going in the future?
Ferrari has a very long history that is tied precisely to the challenge of racing and using everything at your disposal in order to win. And this great motivation remains strong inside Ferrari. What is fundamental is being able to keep alive this very strong passion that Ferrari has in the people who work at Ferrari, this very strong passion that exists among Ferrari fans, Ferrari clients, the people who love Ferrari, and being able to do it with what today and tomorrow give you at your disposal. The important point is to keep alive this very strong desire to do what has never been done in order to win.
It's always a big risk to touch iconic brands where people feel very much, that is, many people want to protect the past and continue doing things the way they are, so it also takes a dose of courage to do things differently to bring the company into the future.
Courage has always been present in Ferrari, from when it was born with the 1929 races to when it became a company in 1947, because courage is the only way in which you can do extraordinary things, and we have to move forward, we have to do it imagining what our future is.
But John Elkann's commitment doesn't stop at the helm of his companies. In 2021, Exor, the Agnelli-Elkann family holding, created Vento, a venture building program and investment fund, Vento Ventures. Leading the initiative is Diala Daoud; John Elkann holds the role of chairman. The goal is to support and finance Italian startup founders in the tech field both in Italy and abroad. Vento has also created Wave. The conference on technology and innovation has become one of the most influential events in Europe and the world, bringing together startup founders, investors, and global tech leaders of the caliber of Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, and Brian Chesky. In 5 years, Vento has helped create more than 200 companies and over 3,000 jobs. An incredible impact on the Italian entrepreneurial ecosystem.
All of this is precisely to give those who want to undertake the possibility to do so. And a very strong conviction that in Italy and Italians have all the abilities to do extraordinary things. And I must say that I've been participating in the conference for 5 years and it's extraordinary because it really allows everyone, people who maybe don't have the contacts, to come to a place, hear the most influential people in the world of the innovation ecosystem, but above all to create contacts among themselves.
The event this year celebrated 10 years. You celebrated, by the way, at Bocconi, an event I participated in. I was very happy to be there, also because I feel a bit like an extended family member of Vento. But tell us a bit about what you're most proud of in what you've created and the impact you've had on the ecosystem in these last 10 years?
No, thank you, Ines, for having been with us, and you are absolutely part of the Vento family, not just extended, but also close. That was a beautiful moment and you saw it precisely from the enthusiasm there was in the room, a crowd of young girls and boys who want to do things, and this is the most important point. We strongly wanted with Vento to be able to give those who want to do things the possibility to do it, and this concretely happens through the fund. Anyone who is Italian or a woman, if they want to undertake in Italy and not only, can ask for resources to do it. And there is a very professional team. We have Reforge that helps those who want to understand how to undertake to do it, with a very articulated program today, and we have with Wave an event that brings together this whole world and those who want to help, those who want to participate, and above all those who can also inspire. And this is a fantastic success, thanks to the whole Vento team led by Diala, and we are almost at 200 companies created, we are at more than 3,000 jobs created, and this has a very real impact and above all a forward-looking impact, because we are talking about realities that have a future and that look to the future.
There's a big block in starting a startup, let's say. Finding the funds, finding the co-founder, but above all maybe working without a salary at the beginning, there are many blocks. And with Reforge, I must say as an extended family member, I consider myself an extended family of Vento because I've interviewed so many people in whom you've invested who have gone through your programs. I'm thinking of Martina and Paolo from Lexroom who met right inside your program and now have raised one of the biggest Series A in Italy, 50 million euros, so you are really creating from the start to the scale-up, and this has an enormous impact on the ecosystem. I don't know if you also want to tell me concretely, because you are a bit, especially it's one of your funds etc., but in what way do you help maybe more in the daily life or in the strategy, what impact do you have, what impact does having you behind it have?
The example of Lexroom is a beautiful example of which we are all very proud, and there are many others, and this demonstrates how the Vento family, of which you are also a part, is a family that allows you to realize from an aspiration to a realization, and this is the most beautiful part. And in the dialogues we've had, it's precisely that part, how you go from dreaming something to doing it. And it's there that I not only try to give a contribution, having my own experience of dreaming and realizing, but also in the exchange, because there are so many things happening in Vento, happening in the companies Vento holds stakes in, and in the team from which I also have the opportunity to learn. We had not long ago a beautiful session where there were all the various tools today related to artificial intelligence and how they are used, and being able also for me to participate concretely in what is being done and doing it together is very important.
Then I imagine also for you, for everything you do, a connection to young people is always useful, right, for a vision of the future, of what is happening, which then you can bring concretely into your companies.
