Prodi - Giorgio Squinzi was In Italian people’s hearts in sport and business

My friendship with Giorgio did not stem from discussions about economics or our shared love of cycling. We actually met through his dear wife Adriana. Fate would have it that I was the examining tutor for Adriana’s university degree thesis at the Faculty of Political Science in Bologna. She was a very clever and quick student, as is sometimes the case with young students from the Romagna region. We eventually met up again a few years later when she introduced me to Giorgio: it only took me a few minutes to realise how crucial their relationship was in terms of both their private lives and in the world of business. Sadly, in the solemn surroundings of Milan Cathedral, I realised just how painful their final separation was.

They built the great company Mapei together: Giorgio working on its manufacturing facilities and Adriana handling its image, making the company so familiar not just to Italians but all over the world. A very special business enterprise, whose distinctive traits meant locating manufacturing plants close to consumers across every continent. I frequently took advantage of this fact to find out from Giorgio how the markets were moving, learning how difficult it was to distinguish between them and how they were evolving. It also taught me the importance not only of following these developments but also of anticipating them by equipping even the smallest and most distant plants with the research and marketing tools required to interpret the endless nuances of the market.

This attention to detail allowed him to develop his business into a global leader in an industry which, due to low transport costs, tends to be fragmented among small regional manufacturers. A market in which Mapei continued to grow so successfully that it never had to resort to laying off workers or organising redundancy packages.

The end result is that Italy now has a truly multinational company employing over 10,000 staff and operating in over 80 countries worldwide.

Mapei has entered the hearts of the Italian people not only through its products but also through its love of sport. Sport viewed not just in terms of competition but also of ensuring compliance with the necessary rules of ethics and responsibility. That is how Giorgio explained to me his decision to leave the world of cycling after winning every imaginable type of race. It is the same reason he decided to build a sports centre focused on promoting the true values of sport and, in particular, careful monitoring against doping and everything it entails.

I am mainly talking about cycling because it was not just a passion we shared, but also an opportunity for us to go on lots of rides together.

His love of sport also involved an extraordinary venture in the world of football, where he led his team, Sassuolo, up into the very top flight of Italian football, once again combining his passion for sport with his industrial operations as a homage to the city hosting Europe’s leading ceramic tiles manufacturing centre and the biggest market in Italy for Mapei’s adhesives and chemical products.

I think Giorgio (and also Adriana) will be pleased to know that as I remember him, in addition to our discussions about Italian industry or the intricacies of Italian politics, I cannot help thinking about that moment way back in July 2006 when we rejoiced together in the stands of Dortmund Stadium after Italy’s unforgettable victory against Germany. I think it is nice to remember friends during those happy moments spent together.