Organisation and people
In southern Lazio a Belgian IT company arrives to hire up to a hundred people. In Ferentino Henkel is closing the detergents factory it chose in 2021 as its only one in Italy
14 November 2026, 16:11
Cegeka will open a centre, most probably near Cassino, to work with the car industry in transition and with aerospace. At the same time the German detergents multinational announces 102 redundancies, in an industrial crisis area where the extensions of wage support are paid by the State.
Budget law: the income tax cut for the middle class brings blue-collar workers €4. A self-employed worker who moves to the flat tax saves eight thousand
13 November 2026, 16:29
The Parliamentary Budget Office and Istat have run the numbers on the 2027 budget law: the income tax cut goes mainly to managers, while the wider flat tax rewards those who leave IRPEF. Meanwhile inflation, with tax brackets frozen, takes more from employees and pensioners than the cut gives back.
Preferential origin: a component made in Italy counts as European only if the supplier declares it
13 November 2026, 08:11
Brussels is considering postponing the duty that from 2027 would hit electric cars traded with the United Kingdom without enough European or British content. The minimum share is calculated on the value of the materials, and a part produced in Italy counts as European only if whoever supplies it declares its origin in writing.
ABC analysis of purchases: how to find the suppliers nobody has ever negotiated with
11 November 2026, 08:11
A large German distance-selling group has handed negotiations with its smallest suppliers, whose prices used to go through unchallenged, to an artificial intelligence. In an SME those suppliers can be found with an ABC analysis of purchases, and the biggest saving often comes from cutting their number rather than from a discount.
Campania routes its health service purchases through a single company to spend less and control more. Its chairman is in prison, accused of corruption over two tenders
10 November 2026, 16:13
The chairman of Soresa, the body that buys for Campania's hospitals and health authorities, allegedly pocketed €120,000 to steer two contracts worth over €53 million, for hospital stretchers and for waste collection in Somma Vesuviana. Meanwhile, the panel that scores the bids is still appointed by the body that launches the tender.
In Irpinia a local firm reopens with €13.2 million the factory ArcelorMittal left behind. In Taranto the State has spent €3.6 billion and the former Ilva has gone cold
7 November 2026, 16:07
At the Ministry of Enterprise an Irpinian maker of metal structures signed the preliminary agreement for the Luogosano plant: it takes back the workers and will hire more. In the same week the Taranto steelworks, kept alive for years with public money, shut down its last blast furnace.
Otranto: the Ministry of Culture spends €1.8 million on seventeen nights of light shows. The three richest assignments made without a tender stop just below the threshold
6 November 2026, 16:13
To project animations onto six monuments in Salento, the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Puglia awarded eight assignments out of nine without comparing bids. Across Italy, contracts written a step away from the limit above which a tender would be required are now almost nine times as many as in 2021.
Pensions: the budget slows the increases of those who have stopped working to pay for early exit for those still in work
5 November 2026, 16:13
The budget bill cuts the 2027 inflation adjustment on pensions above four times the minimum and, three articles earlier, sets up a fund of almost the same size to let people leave work early. Those who lose the increase never get it back.
The loss on a job order goes into the accounts in full in the year it becomes foreseeable
3 November 2026, 08:13
The French train maker has announced that its contracts for regional transport in Germany will end in the red and has revised its forecasts for the year. For anyone who works to order, the question is when that loss must be recorded: the accounting rule requires it to be recognised in full in the financial year in which it is seen, even if the work has only just begun.
For some inner areas the State expects irreversible depopulation. In Meduno a company is investing €50 million and looking for 200 people
31 October 2026, 15:53
A food company is enlarging its factory in a mountain town that the State counts among its inner areas. The national plan for those areas provides, for some of them, for accompaniment towards "irreversible" depopulation.
Sicily: the Region raises the fund for the territories from 50 to 174 million. In Niscemi, after the landslide, the money goes to the stadium's press area
30 October 2026, 20:53
With the budget changes approved on 22 October, the Sicilian Regional Assembly handed out hundreds of small works town by town, without a call for proposals. The rule that set an equal amount for each population band was rejected in committee.
Turnover that depends on one person should be measured before that person leaves
29 October 2026, 07:58
One of New York's large law firms is heading for closure after a long run of partners leaving for competitors. In an Italian company the same risk lies in customers who know only their salesperson, and the share of sales that depends on them can be calculated before it turns into a loss.
Gratta e Vinci: the State promises the million-euro prize to everyone. The loss is that someone won it
26 October 2026, 18:19
The Court of Auditors wants €25 million from five former Lottomatica employees over four winning tickets that ended up with friends and relatives. The State, which in 2017 had left the game with the same companies without a tender to collect in a hurry, noticed at its leisure.
2016 earthquake in the Marche: the anti-mafia register was meant to keep the clans out, prosecutors find them on the building sites as subcontractors
25 October 2026, 18:19
The Guardia di Finanza in Ancona seizes €57 million in the rebuilding of the Marche after the 2016 earthquake: according to prosecutors, firms and people close to Calabrian and Campanian organised crime were working as subcontractors. Yet the firms on those sites must be listed in an anti-mafia register created for the purpose.
A manager's bonus should be tied to what the manager decides
25 October 2026, 08:57
At Lindt, managers' bonuses will reflect the targets missed in the countries where customers did not accept the higher chocolate prices. Variable pay works when the target measures the choices of the person who receives it and what the business earns from them.
A process is reorganised before it is automated
24 October 2026, 09:39
American Express is removing layers of management before handing part of its work to artificial intelligence. In an SME the sequence is the same: first the path of an order is redesigned, from customer to payment, with one person accountable for it; then the software to manage it is chosen.
EU farm aid: the owner's consent is signed by whoever collects the money. The owner is left with an app
20 October 2026, 18:32
On the smallest plots in the mountains and hills, whoever claims EU aid can declare on their own that the owner agrees. To find out, the owner has to download an app.
Dependence on a single supplier is measured by the turnover it can stop
20 October 2026, 09:42
Japan is asking the United States for help over yttrium, a rare earth that weighs little in purchases and can stop the production of jet engines and semiconductors. In a business, the risk of a component with a single source is read through the bills of materials, in the turnover of the products that contain it.
Former Bekaert plant in Cagliari: the multinational sells up, and a Sardinian company looking for welders retrains the 150 workers instead of laying them off
17 October 2026, 18:22
Belgium's Bekaert left its Macchiareddu plant citing transport and island costs; since Thursday it has been run by Nuova Icom, which builds subsea structures for gas, keeps all 150 workers and sends them back to school: anyone who fails the test takes the course again.
Covid waste: to dispose of the masks, the State cuts the funds for people harmed by transfusions and vaccines
14 October 2026, 18:22
For years the State has been paying to store 22,692 tonnes of masks, overalls and gloves bought during the emergency and never used; now a commissioner must dispose of them by March 2027, with €84 million taken largely from the funds for people harmed by transfusions and vaccinations.
Illegal telemarketing: Agcom fines the companies that supplied the numbers, the call centres remain unnamed
12 October 2026, 18:19
Retelit Digital Services and Tekmind have been fined €822,500 for failing to check how call centres used the numbers assigned to them; the regulator says it also traced the call centres, but their names are not in its press release.
Adequate organisational structures: what Article 2086 of the Italian Civil Code requires, and who must have them
12 October 2026, 09:34
Since 2019 every business run as a company must be able to tell in time whether it will manage to pay its debts: what it needs is not a binder of procedures but monthly figures and a forecast that looks at least a year ahead.
American Express fined $350 million: its risk assessment looked at current accounts, while $13 billion of suspicious transactions went through its cards
9 October 2026, 18:20
The US authority that supervises national banks has fined American Express National Bank: among the failings, a risk assessment focused on current accounts, a narrow part of the business, and paying too little attention to cards, through which about $13 billion of transactions suspected of money laundering passed between 2014 and 2025, counting both the charges and the payments that settled them.
Disposable cooperatives: the tax debt dies with the cooperative, the cheap labour stays with whoever uses it
7 October 2026, 18:21
In Rome the Guardia di Finanza seizes over €14 million: four cooperatives hired 2,478 workers on paper for other companies, did not pay their taxes and closed down with their debts. The law has provided for a check, and has entrusted it to the only party that saves money by skipping it.
Polish number plates in Naples: the insurance that is saved is paid for by drivers in Poland
6 October 2026, 18:30
Around 60,000 cars and motorbikes are on the road in Italy, almost all in Naples and its province, registered to Polish companies that do nothing; when they cause an accident without a policy, Polish insurers advance the damages, and from January to August the bill has already reached 35 million zloty.
Electrolux withdraws the dismissals but not the job cuts, and the suppliers were not at the ministry's table
5 October 2026, 18:22
Of the 1,700 jobs announced in May, 1,385 are still going, over three years and with state-backed wage support; across the Friuli Venezia Giulia supply chain, more than a thousand business sites work in the sector and nobody invited them.
Cigarette butts: since 5 January 2023 the clean-up was the tobacco producers' job, the regulation arrives only now and meanwhile the waste tax pays for it
4 October 2026, 18:52
Europe made those who sell cigarettes pay for cleaning up the filters thrown on the ground too; in Italy the regulation is out for consultation almost four years later, and in the meantime the bill sits in the waste tax paid by households and businesses.
In Lombardy those running companies are increasingly over fifty: generational handover is prepared early, and on the numbers too
4 October 2026, 10:24
Confindustria Lombardia launches Bridge Up to support succession in family businesses; the data show it has been put off for twenty-five years, and that whoever takes over must be able to present a plan, not just a surname.
In Verolavecchia a €25 million dairy farm does not just wait for the Ministry's price: it also takes its milk to where people drink it
3 October 2026, 18:44
Cascina Malgherosse produces more than 100,000 litres of milk a day, employs ten more people than four years ago and, while the farm-gate price is decided in Rome, puts its milk into vending machines in schools, offices and gyms.
The Feast of St Francis: the law budgets for the State's €10 million, not for the €3 billion paid by businesses
2 October 2026, 18:31
4 October falls on a Sunday: this year the State spends nothing, businesses pay an extra day's wages, and their bill appears nowhere in the law.
Naples-Bari high-speed line: the State pays €5.8 billion, and the people who control the building sites can be bought with a panettone
30 September 2026, 18:17
Twenty precautionary measures over the works on the Naples-Bari high-speed line: according to the prosecution, a subcontractor paid the people in the consortia who decided on work and payments with cash in Christmas parcels. The bigger problem is the chain: the State pays, and choosing, measuring and paying is left to whoever receives the parcel. The concrete picks up the bill.
Mercedes wants more hours for the same pay, but an hour only gets cheaper if someone buys it
28 September 2026, 09:33
Mercedes-Benz management wants to lengthen the working week of its German workers without raising their pay, so every hour paid would cost less. But the cost that matters to anyone drawing up quotations is the cost of the hour sold: it is calculated on the hours that actually end up on an order, and the gap between those and the hours paid is the number almost nobody measures.
In the vineyards between Gorizia and Udine, an hour's work was worth less than €3
27 September 2026, 18:23
The Guardia di Finanza in Gorizia found 107 undeclared workers in the area's vineyards, in some cases paid less than €3 net an hour. Punishing those who exploit is right. But behind the coachloads of farmhands lies a problem every business knows: in the vineyards, and not only there, Italians no longer go.
In Orzinuovi an abandoned nightclub has become a factory in nine months
26 September 2026, 18:23
On the site of the Kalua, closed and abandoned for years, the AB group has built a 16,500-square-metre plant where around a hundred people will work. A story that begins in 1981 with a 21-year-old and the electrical systems of the cowsheds of the plain south of Brescia.
The bank asks its customers for an extra confirmation. For €95 million, a WhatsApp was enough
25 September 2026, 18:14
The then chairman of Fideuram sent off €95 million after a message from a fake Carlo Messina and the cloned voice of a lawyer: €36 million is still missing. The same bank tells its customers to be wary of urgent requests.
Before a plan, calculate where the company is heading if nobody does anything
23 September 2026, 08:06
The twelve-month extension of short-time working for a company in the Melfi supply chain helps explain what the five-year inertial projection is for: the scenario obtained by assuming that nobody takes any decision at all.
The debate about bringing managers back is for companies that have one
22 September 2026, 08:09
Il Sole 24 Ore asks whether bringing back a leader who had left is a good idea. The question takes for granted something most SMEs simply do not have: a manager to bring back.
Lucas invented the category in which his museum will be judged
21 September 2026, 18:07
The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was born inside a category defined by its founder, and that makes any verdict impossible: the same thing happens in business every time a project is declared non-comparable.
Your best deal may have been a terrible decision
21 September 2026, 13:00
Poker players and football analysts have stopped judging choices by their outcome. In business it still happens, and the cost is that the organisation learns the wrong lesson.
If a digital investment doesn't show in your numbers, it didn't happen
21 September 2026, 12:36
The Economist asks how quickly investment in artificial intelligence turns into gains for everyone. The same question, three rungs further down, is whether that €40,000 of software shows up anywhere in your accounts.
How to (really) reorganise a company: case history no. 4
Training
“We do have a strategic direction. It just changes every two weeks.” It’s a real quip, made by a sales manager at an SME during an internal meeting.
How to manage generational handover in a family business
Training
We have often talked about control, method and strategy, but there is a moment in the life of every business that truly puts all of this to the test: the generational handover.
How to (really) reorganise a company: case history no. 3, part II
Training
After Vision, Mission and strategic KPIs, it was time to move from analysis to action: the levers, the business plan, the figures, the finance.
How to (really) reorganise a company: case history no. 3, part I
Training
Sustained growth can hide structural weaknesses and wipe out results, if the organisation does not keep pace.
How to (really) reorganise a company: case history no. 2
Training
A company that chose to put its house in order, and discovered that efficiency can be the key to competitiveness.
Why Fractional Management is the right solution for SMEs
Training
In our recent posts we have talked about controlling, organisation and synergy between skills.
“In our company we all do a bit of everything.”
Training
It’s one of the things we hear most often in SMEs, and it’s also one of the main reasons why many companies grow in a disorderly way, creating overlaps, decision-making conflicts and operational inefficiencies.
Overlapping roles in SMEs are a real problem
Training
In a company that builds mechanical plant to order, we found ourselves faced with the classic “indispensable” figure: the business owner’s right-hand man, a respected person, present everywhere, involved in everything.
Many companies think they have a good sales process
Training
But then they discover that orders are still managed with Excel files, scattered emails and manually entered information.
The real problem isn’t the work. It’s how it is organised
Training
Many companies are organised by function: production, administration, sales. Everything is divided, everything is assigned: it looks like organisation but, in reality, it is more often fragmentation.
Many business owners think they have everything under control
Training
In reality, they simply carry everything on their own shoulders, and this is where one of the biggest limits to SME growth arises: the inability to truly delegate.
When the company grows but the organisation stands still
Training
It happens more often than you might think. The business grows, the market responds, customers increase but, beneath the surface, something starts to creak.
Digital complexity syndrome in SMEs
Training
For years the market has been pushing a seductive narrative: “digitalise everything and you will be more efficient, faster and more competitive”.
Data culture: the real hidden resource of SMEs
Training
In many SMEs the data exists but stays locked away in digital drawers: endless reports, Excel files everywhere, charts that nobody really looks at.
The consulting that really matters: why tax advice is not enough
Training
Talking about method, numbers and control is important, but there is one aspect that deserves attention: the difference between those who manage the accounts and those who help the business grow.
Controlling does not mean “doing the accounts”
Training
And yet how many SMEs still confuse them? Many business owners believe that having up-to-date accounts or efficient management software is enough to know how the company is doing.
Controlling? In SMEs it is still an optional extra
Training
Controlling is not a luxury. It is a matter of survival, yet it is still seen as something “to do later”, when there is time, when the company is bigger.