(Original article by Manuela Andaloro published on Corriere dell’Italianita’)
We may build our future by means of strong synergy between the public and private worlds. But especially through talent attraction, returning expats, and the reinstatement of the value of expertise.
Susan Morgan, a consultant at EU DisinfoLab – an independent non-profit organization which sets to un debunk disinformation campaigns occurring in the EU – has recently published a paper (Fake news, disinformation, manipulation and online tactics to undermine democracy) in which she underlines how information and communication technology has swiftly changed in the past 20 years. A key development has been the rise of social media, which – once a useful means of staying in touch with friends and family – have turned into tools with a significant, growingly negative impact on society. Social networks are used in ways that shape politics, business, world culture, education, careers, and innovation, whilst undermining – in the name of an erroneous illusion of a democracy of opinions – the value of expertise. As we see every day, this is causing an incalculable damage.
We are experiencing a radically modified media scenario, in which technological platforms receive most of the advertisement budget once restricted to the traditional news media – a sector regulated by laws and managed, in most cases, by certified professionals or field experts, unlike what most often occurs with social networks.
There has thus been an exponential growth of what specialists call attention economics; namely, the remarketing of human attention, the access to the audience’s minds, and the sale to advertisers. A strategy that gives rise to deep questions on news and contents that people access, and doubts on the actual understanding of this new scenario in which disinformation proliferates beside traditional journalism.
In this context, we are all observers of the currently existing mechanisms of constant manipulation of public opinion and loss of the value of expertise. Just think about attacks on science, “haters”, and the propagation of fake news in 2020, which have grown by 460% compared to 2019.
It is evident that our society can no longer afford a “democratization” of skills and knowledge, nor to mistake a supposed “freedom of speech” for a systematic and extremely dangerous manipulation of public opinion.
In the context of recent research on European expats who choose to return to their home countries due to the pandemic, populism, and the Brexit, I had the chance to investigate the Italian market, and in this context, to have interesting conversations with some of the top experts in the executive recruiting field.
We know that the COVID crisis seems to have played a crucial role in the return of expats, in combination with the recent fiscal policies implemented by the various European governments – very favorable as far as Italy is concerned. Yet, the talent flow trend seems to have more distant origins, and cover a longer time period. Milan has become the main post-industrial Italian city; a magnet that has attracted young, talented men and women, not only from Italy but from the whole of Europe and beyond. A city that has become an economic behemoth, with its market growing by 20% in the past 15 years, and even the target of foreign investment, with billions of euros offered to infrastructure projects and prestigious service enterprises, a luxury homes segment that so far despite the Covid crisis, has held better on prime properties than Paris and New York. A working reality based on innovative companies involved in technology, finance, pharma, and research; a city capitalizing on Italy’s reputation as a place of technology, art, design, pharma, finance, and trendsetting fashion.
Midway through December, I had the honoUr of grabbing a virtual coffee with Nicola Gavazzi, Country Manager-Italy for Russell Reynolds Associates, to discuss current trends in the job market, as well as returning expats, Italy’s attractiveness for international talents, but even the status quo and expectations for the future.
Q. Dr. Gavazzi, what does the framework of current Italian ‘brains’ (either never ‘drained’ or returning) and the Italian job market for medium-high and high-level roles look like?
Nicola Gavazzi, Country Manager Italy, Russell Reynolds Associates
A. “Italy is well-positioned on the European stage. In terms of attractiveness, the North offers good public services, with the fiscal aspect having given a good hand in this direction. The fact that in the past few years Italian companies have become finally interested in welcoming talents that are not only Italian – thanks to the average employee, especially in the new generations, speaking much more English than in the past – is a fundamental facilitator. Fortunately, today the current generation working at a professional level in both tongues (English and Italian, ed.) often has important roles. This affects a number of areas: for instance, certain board meetings currently take place in English only, although the minutes are often still written in Italian, and the supervisory bodies prefer the native tongue. But the times are changing, and the next step will be the double language as a standard in every context. This will open new doors, and improve showcase potential for both companies and professionals.
From our own point of view, we deal with rather high-profile market segments and figures: talent flow of foreigners in corporate top management has not undergone particular variations; it has always existed, thus it is normal that a candidate is chosen regardless of his passport or language in numerous sectors from pharma, to fashion, to finance.
The Italian job market is appealing: considering the outlook of most influential European countries, the main destinations for a flow of expats and talents will be Italy and Germany, given the issues such as Brexit in the United Kingdom, the limits of the French tongue for top roles in France, and the different, fragmented situations that the Spanish market has to offer.”
Q. The stability of the Country and its political system, the responsiveness of its health system, its social cohesion, and the diminishment of damage caused by populism for its own sake are fundamental for every nation, and directly proportional to the level of national and international investor trust. What is Italy’s current status quo in this sense? And which condition might be sought?
A. “I recall the discussions made with private equity funds – firms with a strong interest in investing in Italian SMEs – in 2018; they stalled following the 2019 elections, which saw strongly and dramatically populist political entities gain considerable presence, and instigating catastrophic desires such as the exit from the EU or the euro. Luckily, the situation lasted less than a year, and the newfound stability of the past 18 months has opened the doors to significant investment flows. Moreover, the economic and social disaster that Brexit has brought is now clear to all: it is a scenario that every EU country will wish to avoid. Instability and populism give rise to fear: fear by investors, managers, and companies cause long-term damage to the entire country and to every social class.
In the past year, there has been a strong recovery and a considerable renewed interest and stability by numerous investor types. But at a global – and not only Italian – level, the instability caused by winds of populism is a risk we still run, and that we fear more than anything else. Just think about the numerous Italian companies that invested in Turkey before the rise of the current government, and no longer do so for ethical reasons, but also because of an unappreciated atmosphere that has come about in the country.
A world without theatrical populist leaders will offer greater success to all, and this goes for every single country.
As for Italy, lately a positive factor has been a – objectively speaking – good management of the pandemic, and a stable and sturdy government after all, which will now hopefully resist and carry on.”
Q. We should all thus work to disassociate ourselves from our easy, old, and often untrue stereotype, to find a greater tactfulness and common vision on topics that – when torn out of their context and used as propagandist machines – damage our nation’s image. What do you think about the employment opportunities that will be created thanks to the Recovery Fund?
A. “If it is suitably implemented and structured, it will magnetize numerous investors, both national and foreign, and create thousands of jobs, thus boosting the appeal of the country by talents, businesses, and investors even more. It is a kind of new-millennium Marshall Plan.
An important example in this sense is the Center for Convergent Technologies of Genoa, created by the Ministry of Finance 25 years ago. A great, high-class research center that has attracted and continues to attract foreigners, Italians, and returning expats. It has worked hard to allure talents from research centers all over the world, stating very transparently that the center not only makes funding available, but even the possibility to manage such funds independently.
Mariana Mazzucato, Professor of Economics of Innovation & Public Value at the University College London (UCL), and Founding Director of the UCL Institute for Innovation & Public Purpose, provides an important opinion of the role of governments as drivers of excellence and innovation in her acclaimed book “The Entrepreneurial State: debunking public vs. private sector myths”. She exquisitely describes the role of the public sector as a “top-choice investor” in the history of technological change. There is a plethora of examples of such, often in the USA: just think about the favorable setting in which Apple itself was born and has become the colossus we know today.
Nationally, a comparable example may be the new Human Technopole of Milan, the new Italian research institute for life sciences, created by the Italian government in synergy with the private sector, with the aim to create a center of research to stimulate cooperation and bring an added value to the Italian and European research ecosystem thanks to an interdisciplinary approach, attracting national and international talent.
Therefore, trust, image, and stability are crucial in an age that may go down to history as the country’s great occasion for redemption, after the disasters caused by 1980s administrations.”
Q. We know there is a strong will to restart; there is optimism, given the vaccines and their successful response to eventual new mutations, and the macroeconomic conditions that are gradually panning out. The political climate will greatly affect any scenario, and will be the litmus test of economics and social progress. Nonetheless, disinformation platforms continue to pose a strong threat to democracy and society, and seem far from being effectively regulated by governments. What is, in your opinion, the key factor that businesses have the duty to leverage on, and that each of us has the responsibility to promote?
A. “I have no doubt about this: the recovery of the value of expertise. Which also involves controlling disinformation, as well as the perceived – but misleading and false – idea of the democratization of knowledge. Science, for instance, is not an opinion, and we cannot allow any ordinary citizen to express his/her opinion on a social network with the same power as a luminary with 30 years of experience in the field: there is very little democracy in this; quite the opposite. I remember what a dear friend – the CEO of a top company, in one of the most successful sectors in the country, and also involved in politics – told me years ago: thanks to the rise of certain populist parties, he found his janitor, with no experience in politics, elected as a government deputy.
This regression towards mediocrity, and towards the loss in value of acquired skills, must be absolutely stopped.”
Let us thus highlight a globally widespread phenomenon: the decline in value of expertise in a community that questions the words of specialists in any field more and more.
Tom Nichols, an expert sociologist and author of “The Death of Expertise”, clearly describes this, when he says that every day “we are witnessing the death of expertise: a Google-fueled, Wikipedia-based, blog-sodden collapse of any division between professionals and laypeople, students and teachers, knowers and wonderers”, drenched with opinions on scarcely regulated social media. “The knowledge of specific things that sets some people apart from others in various areas [will continue to exist]. There will always be doctors and diplomats, lawyers and engineers, and many other specialists in various fields. Rather, what I fear has died is any acknowledgement of expertise as anything that should alter our thoughts or change the way we live”.
It is thus time to act. It is time for each of us to take specific responsibilities and contribute, with each of our skills, to the future narrative.
Manuela Andaloro
(info@smartbizhub.com)
(Original article by Manuela Andaloro published on Corriere dell’Italianita’)
