Menage a trois: you, me and the other one

I did not expect that my participation in an event of Consorzio Gino Mattarrelli (CGM) would turn into a menage a trois. I was actually pretty nervous on the eve of the conference. I envisaged hostility and indifference, not a love affair. But you never know what will happen when you travel to Italy, the country of love and miracles.

We’ll have to take few steps backward to understand the story.

Less than 2 months ago I got an invitation to one of the two brainstorming events to devise the new strategy of CGM, the largest social enterprise group in Italy. The invitation came as a surprise to me as CGM is one of the biggest players in social economy in Italy, and it is well known that the social economy establishment is usually pretty uncomfortable with Euclid Network and me. To prove my point: the President of CGM confirmed she had received phone calls from Rome and Brussels once my name appeared in the list of speakers.

Actually CGM is one of the largest and most innovative social enterprise clusters in Europe.  It gathers almost 1,000 social co-operatives- as social enterprises are called in Italy – has 45,000 employees, €1bn of financial turnover, and made a 13m surplus last year. Members of the consortium not only provide social services on behalf of the public administration, but have developed health services sold to citizens and invested in renewable energy production.

It was already a success being invited to help the leaders of the consortium to design their future strategy. The best part came at the end of second day, after my speech. As expected and announced by the facilitator – Flaviano Zandonai – my speech was provocative, challenging not only the traditional assumptions of social cooperation but also the value of the Brussels-based representative bodies.

Claudia Fiasci, the President of CGM, made a simple point to explain the value of new networks like Euclid compared to the sector representative bodies.

I quote Claudia: ‘Our country and the rest Europe are going through a radical transformation in which welfare funding and provision are not a state monopoly anymore. Our social co-operatives struggle adapting but must do it’.

‘Representative bodies protect our acquired markets and buy time for us to operate the transformation’.

However, we must innovate to face the challenges of the future and penetrate new markets, and this is what Euclid Network help us doing through connecting and experimenting new processes and activities.’

My conclusion then, is that we are all in the same family.

The Italian singer Renato Zero famously sang ‘I don’t want the triangle’ but everybody knows that cheating on your partner is a national sport in Italy. Even the former Prime Minister is an international champion.

Then it’s better to surrender to reality and come to terms with the fact that in this relationship, we are three: me, you and the other one. I’m not concerned but happy to find a compromise to serve the social enterpreneurs and accomodate representative bodies as well. If you are aware of my private situation you know that I’m quite well acquainted with crowded families.

The challenge is to keep everybody happy. As my president commented on my note after the event ‘If you are the wife and your husband’s lover thanks you for keeping the house tidy while he/she has fun with him that wouldn’t cheer you up. The legitimate wife needs her dose of fun as well’.