The Courage to Be a Useful Leader

Corrado Passera, founder and CEO of Illimity, addressed a passionate speech to the students who are preparing to start Bocconi's Masters of Science programs and who yesterday afternoon attended the Welcome event held by Bocconi Rector Gianmario Verona and by the dean of the Graduate School, Antonella Carù. Passera, in turn an alumnus of the University (he was also named Alumnus of the Bocconi Year in 2001), greeted the students and invited them to reflect on the sense of modern leadership by calling them to the duty of responsibility.

"Today, we are here to mark the start of a new journey, the journey you are all about to embark on," said Passera. "You all know how your journey begins, but you don't know how it will end. Of course, this can be scary, but it can also be exciting at the same time. This, after all, is what makes life special and unique."

A journey, that of MSc first years, "which has among its destinations your mission to become leaders." And it is precisely on the characteristics that the leaders of tomorrow must have – and that make a truly useful leadership – that Corrado Passera invites the young people to reflect.

"A leader is someone who creates other leaders," explains the top manager. "You cannot call yourself a leader until you start helping to grow other leaders around you. Managing change is far from being a purely rational process: it means appealing to the head, heart, and gut of the people. We need to image and demonstrate a future for which it is worth breaking your back." Plus, one other element is fundamental: unity. "Leaders that want to be useful unite; they do not divide and continually put up a fight about everything. They know how to understand diversity and how it combines with other types of diversity. Not only are they tolerant, but they also seek a difference of opinions and dissent because they bring value and innovation."

And if being a direct example is important to do this ("setting an example is the greatest ingredient in building trust - in families, companies, and society"), it is also important to "rediscover a positive idea of ​​ambition, which has nothing to do with arrogance," specifies Passera. "Too many times, we indulge in making a mockery of Italy and instill in young people the conviction that 'in Italy it is not possible.' We must proudly reject this self-indulgent and victimized narrative above all because it is a false one. In Italy it is possible to accomplish great things and I have the pleasure of meeting people every day who prove me right." In this regard, adds the Alumnus of the Year 2001, "enough with the Tall Poppy Syndrome! The poppy that grows the highest should not be cut down; instead, it should be admired, emulated and supported, because it represents a positive example."

"You will be called upon to steer our capitalistic system towards a more responsible form of capitalism," Corrado Passera underlined. "More socially responsible – the excesses of a system which by its very nature tends to deepen inequalities must be corrected– more ecologically responsible and more financially responsible (finance as an end in itself, the explosion of debt, and the concentration of financial power must be mitigated through both legal and social rules and sanctions).

Finally, according to Passera, a contemporary ruling class that aims to be useful to society must feel invested in the construction of the common good and must know how to concretely assume responsibility.

"Take this last thought with you," concluded the manager. "We are not born leaders, we learn how to become leaders."