Thanks to the project job space, Mario Moretti Polegato intervened in the cycle of initiatives on the world of work
3 May 2017 - “The key to getting out of the economic crisis? Are you. For us Italians, who invented everything that is most beautiful on the planet, it means organizing ourselves. And to do this, our current industrial capitalism must be transformed into cultural capitalism. Less concrete and more investments in schools and human brains. It is the great message that our country still struggles to understand. And you are the ones who have to shout it at our backward establishment." This is what Mario Moretti Polegato, President of Geox, said when meeting the students ofUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma as part of the Job Space project, an initiative to promote the culture of work, innovation and networking within the University.
At the head of a business group capable of revolutionizing the world of footwear, Moretti Polegato recounted how the intuition that made him famous was born: during a walk in the Nevada desert, in the mid-s, where he was on of his wine-producing family, he made a hole for ventilation in each of the two rubber soles of his shoes to better cope with the sweltering heat.
An intuition that has not remained in the drawer. Back in Italy, in fact, he did his utmost in numerous attempts to create a product that would allow the feet to breathe, without putting them in contact with water or anything else. A research that led him to a special membrane produced in the USA that was used for astronaut suits. After that, he applied for and obtained a patent and for three years I offered this technology to all the biggest shoe manufacturing companies in the world. When he realized they weren't interested, he wasn't discouraged, but decided to enter the market himself. Thus Geox was born, where today 30 people work, including direct and indirect employees.
The owner of the Italian company highlighted how the same experience “each of you can repeat it: all you need is a brain and therefore the ability to create, not just shoes, but anything. But you have to understand the meaning of the term 'innovate'”. Which for Moretti Polegato is essentially based on three elements: “First of all, create or change something for the better. But then you need to register the idea through a patent, because otherwise everyone will copy it.”. The third key factor is therefore experimentation. “In a country of small and medium-sized enterprises, who has the money and the know-how to do research?”, he asked, immediately adding: “There are study centres, polytechnics, universities. For this reason, a few days ago in Confindustria I proposed bringing more professors to companies and more industrialists to universities. Only in this way can we renew Italy”.
And finally a direct appeal to students: “you are the future of Italy. You have to understand that the time for 'pushing' is over, because today the international principle is that a person is worth what he knows. Compared to this, however, there is still a backward mentality in our country”. In a highly competitive and globalized world, according to the entrepreneur “we must not allow foreigners to steal our characteristics. But we have to sell them our projects. We no longer have to export products or factories, but projects". An invitation that ended with the wish for the university students to have “even a stroke of... luck, as it was for me. Because that too must not be missing".