Biography of Gianni Agnelli

King of Italy

12 March 1921 24 January 2003 Giovanni Agnelli said Gianni, better known as "the lawyer", for many years the true emblem of Italian capitalism, was born in Turin on March 12, 1921. Parents call it with the name of his legendary grandfather, the founder of Fiat, "Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino" that will lead to its maximum the same Gianni radiance after years passed as apprenticeship, as Vice President, in the shadow of Vittorio Valletta, another major managerial figure who knew how to run the company from Turin with sagacity and excellence after the death of the founder in 1945. Valletta had laid solid foundations for the growth of Fiat (by encouraging immigration from Mezzogiorno and conducting with an iron hand negotiations with trade unions), in an Italy exit tested and tormented by the experience of World War II. Thanks to the economic boom and rapid development, then, the Italians were able to afford the products baked from Turin, ranging from famous Lambretta scooter as such equally unforgettable cars like the Fiat Seicento, doing a brand popular. The entry of Gianni Agnelli in the control room, the one that will give him absolute power, dates from 1966, when he was finally appointed as President. From then on for many, Agnelli was the true Italian monarch, what the collective has deputized the Royal family exiled from a constitutional decree. But conducting Lambs will not turn out at all easy. Indeed, unlike its predecessors, the lawyer will face what was perhaps the most difficult time ever for Italian capitalism, one marked by student protests before and struggles then fostered and encouraged so virulent revolutionary explosion. These were the years when successive so-called "hot autumn", a stew of strikes and pickets that put in serious difficulty industrial production and competitiveness of Fiat. Agnelli, however, has on his side a strong and sympathetic character, tending to the mediation of social recomposition part of contradictions: all elements that allow him a visionary management and optimum disputes, avoiding to exasperate the clashes. In the midst of all these difficulties manages to pussyfoot Fiat to ports from the waters after all. The results are evident to all from 1974 to 1976 he was elected with a loud voice, President of Confindustria, in the name of a guide that manufacturers want to confident and authoritative. This time, her name is seen as a guarantee of balance and reconciliation in light of the obvious symbol of the Italian political situation muddled, glaring contradictions. Unique among European countries on the peninsula it was consuming the so-called "historic compromise", that is the sort of two-sided agreement that saw allies the Catholic party par excellence, so viscerally anti-communist, as Christian democracy and the Italian Communist Party, spokesman of real socialism and ideal Alliance with Russia (though criticized and in some ways repudiated). A corollary of this picture already uncertain, are included also other important internal and external emergencies, such as the endemic economic crisis and the increasingly complex and incisive red terrorism from those years, a revolutionary movement that drew strength from a certain consensus not so diffuse. Obvious, therefore, that the "Valletta" had been inconceivable. Unable to make a big voice with the Union, nor was now thinkable to use that "iron fist" with which the manager successor of Giovanni Agnelli was known. Needed a work of cooperation between Government, trade unions and confindustria: those responsible for these three forces, wisely, will marry this "soft" line. But the economic crisis, despite good intentions, leaves no way out. The feree market forces bend good intentions and, in the late ' 70, Fiat is in the midst of a terrible storm. A crisis is raging in Italy, productivity and employment cuts cala appallingly are upon us. Speech that applies to everyone and not just for Fiat, except that the latter is a colossus and when it moves, in this case negatively, it's scary. In order to face the emergency we speak of something like 14,000 layoffs, a real social earthquake, when realized. Thus opens a tough phase of confrontation, perhaps the hottest since the war, went down in history thanks to absolute records such as the famous strike of 35 days. Focus of protest have become neuralgic Gates Mirafiori plants. The deal is in hand completely to the left, which dominates the clash, but the Secretary of the Communist Party Enrico Berlinguer promises Pci support in case of occupation of the factories. The standoff ends on 14 October, with "March of forty thousand" when, quite unexpectedly, Fiat executives take to the streets against the Union (unique case in history due to strikes). Fiat, under pressure, renunciation to layoffs and layoff twenty-three thousand employees. For the Union and the Italian left is a historic defeat. For Fiat is a turning point. The Turin-based company is ready to depart on momentum and on a new basis. Agnelli, flanked by Cesare Romiti, Fiat raises internationally and, in a few short years, transformed it into a holding company with interests very differentiated, which are no longer limited to only the automotive sector (in which, among other things, had now also absorbed the Alfa Romeo and Ferrari), but they go from publishing to insurance. The choice at the time, is a winner and the most successful 80 years have proved among the corporate history. Agnelli is strengthened more and more as the virtual King of Italy. His mannerisms, his nobles tic are hired as models of style, as a guarantee of refinement: starting with the famous clock above the cuff until the widely imitated erre moscia and suede shoes. Interviewed by magazines all over the world, you can afford sharp judgments, sometimes just affectionately ironic, on everyone from politicians in charge, the beloved players of the equally beloved Juventus, parallel passion of a lifetime (after Fiat, you understand); team of which, curiously, he used to watch mostly only one time, the first. In 1991 he was appointed Senator for life Francesco Cossiga, whereas in 1996 fold to Cesare Romiti (remained in Office until 1999). It is then the turn of 22-year-old John Elkann and Chairman Paolo Fresco (grandson of Gianni) Board Member, succeeded to another nephew, John (son of Fiat Chairman Umberto and in pectore), who died prematurely in dramatic fashion for a brain tumor. Very bright and capable, he was supposed to be the future leader of the Fiat Empire. His death has shocked not only the same lawyer, but nearly all of the huge family business succession plans. Later, another great loss will hit the already tried Lawyer, the suicide of 46-year-son Edward, the victim of a personal tragedy where perhaps mingle (determined that you cannot always get into the psyche of others), existential crisis and difficulties to recognize each other as a Lambs to all suffering, with the honours but also expenses that this entails. The January 24, 2003 Gianni Agnelli, after a long illness turns off. The funeral was held in the pinacoteca del Lingotto, according to the ceremonial of the Senate, while his funeral was held in the Cathedral of Turin formally and broadcast live on Rai Uno. Followed with emotion by a huge crowd, the ceremonies have crowned permanently Gianni Agnelli as the true Italian monarch.

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