english version
Chicco Testa
Pietro Gnudi
1996
2002
The first important letters I received as the President of Enel bore two signatures: that of Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, who at the time was the Minister of the Treasury of the first Prodi government, and that of Pier Luigi Bersani, then the Minister of Industry. Both letters were short and to the point. “Prepare Enel for privatization,” said the first. “Prepare Enel for the liberalization of the electricity market,” said the second. Thus began Enel's “second life.” The first, with the company completely owned by the State as a monopoly and which began in 1962, had achieved its objectives. All the Italians had been connected to the electricity network and the service provided was of good quality. Then began the second part of its life, which would see Enel become a company open to private capital and in competition, in Italy and around the world, with other electricity companies both large and small. A phase that is still ongoing. The reaction of all those at Enel to this change was extraordinary. Both goals were achieved over a three-year period, with the entire company, its executives and its employees engaged in this tran-
sformation. The result was a company that combined, as it still does today, high technical know-how and engineering capabilities with new managerial and financial expertise. Enel is one of the great resources of this country. I cherish a wonderful memory of it. For the quality of its employees, its sense of belonging and discipline. Its ability to cope in a compact way to the many emergencies that inevitably flock to such a complex work. I am pleased to be a part of it.
I lived and worked at Enel from 2002 to 2011. These were years of great change: the shock of the attack on the Twin Towers was still strong and the process of the globalization of the economy and finance was developing in every region of the planet. The management that has governed Enel in recent years has had to interpret the processes of change and make choices that have radically changed the structure of the company. Until 2002, Enel was a major energy company that operated almost exclusively in Italy. It was planning its development by diversifying its activities in areas outside its core business, such as telephone and water services. In 2002, the new management decided to change strategy by focusing on electricity and gas, and started to focus on foreign markets to create growth prospects for the company. Turning a large corporation into a national reality involves a profound process of transformation, especially for those who work there, due to the need to confront models, attitudes, languages, markets and regulatory systems that are very different from one another. This difficult transition has
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provided indisputable evidence of the quality of the professionals and the people who work at Enel. Without their spirit of sacrifice and a strong sense of pride in belonging, it would not have been possible to build one of the most important “national champions,” able to compete on the global market today. Enel is now present in 40 countries: more than half of its EBITDA is generated outside the country and it is one of the largest electricity companies in the world. There are still major challenges that Enel must face but the work begun in those years laid the foundations for long-lasting and sustainable growth.
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