Interview with Giorgio Santambrogio, CEO Vegè Group and Board of Directors of Fimelato ETS Foundation

Fimelato ETS Foundation was born with the ambition of generating a concrete impact on society through kindness. What are your main goals for this first year of operation? 

There has been an evolutionary path starting with the Kind Men's Club, a center of culture to propose within the business world the concept of kindness and elegance to guide positive actions. The basic idea has always been to bring into every professional context a kind, courteous, proactive attitude and behavior; at some point, from the idea of Alessandra Ottaviani, we felt the need to evolve the club into something more structured. 

So the goals for this first year of activity also involve the Club, which remains one of the pillars of the Foundation, with its wide community. We want to go and widen that “closed” circle to open up to the outside world, carrying out charitable activities and raising resources in order to get into real, ethical projects. 

You have a long-standing experience in the corporate world. In recent years, have you noticed a change in the way leadership is done? 

The feeling is that, as in many areas, there is a polarization of thinking going on in the field of business leadership.

Unfortunately, there is still no real diffusion of gentle leadership.

Immediately after Covid there was a flourishing of business leadership marked by kindness, with a strong expansion of this current of thought. In recent times, however, probably influenced by international political models, a leadership of arrogance, an almost “autocratic” way of doing business, is returning in corporate and institutional circles. 

Such leadership in my view is short-sighted: decisions based on mere imposition never bear good fruit, generating only opposition and no growth.

There is still a lot of talk about competitiveness and performance, but less about values such as kindness. Do you think it can become a strategic value for companies? And how can an organizational culture based on respect and collaboration be fostered?

First, I want to emphasize that kindness does not mean weak; on the contrary, kindness is revolutionary because it is strong, the empathy and motivation it generates are strong. 

I extend the concept of kindness to a perspective that may seem naïve but is decisive: doing well, doing good things, is right and good, and it also generates a “quid pro quo.”

In retail, for example, if I can be both competitive and perform well with quality products and services, then the challenge to my competitors for consumer loyalty and empathy will be on value-based issues.

Today, younger customers choose large-scale retail brands, for example, based on active and real verification that the brand is implementing social responsibility policies or not. The user chooses based on affinity and values parameters: ESG logics today are also a must because consumers are increasingly aware.

Being a kind company towards the Planet, its community, its employees, becomes a strength. Kindness becomes a competitive variable to get customers in one's stores versus getting them to choose competitors. 

There is a new humanity growing; in this sense, kindness and sustainability are strategic. 

There is no disconnect between being performant and competitive and being kind.