Tribute to a True Culturalist

Sergio Marchionne

Spent a lot of time in Turino doing cultural trainings for American and Italian executives working with the Fiat~Chrysler miracle, orchestrated by the great Sergio Marchionne.

Not only did Marchionne mindfully push the envelope of multi~cultural corporate risk taking, feet firmly planted in his dual Canadian~Italian identity. But, by all accounts, he did so with the grace and wisdom of the truly decent man that he was.

Thoughts out to his family and may he rest in peace.

Quote:

“Respect for others must remain an essential value in everything that you do. It is the only thing that truly makes us people. Respect for others means above all respect for diversity. Progress depends to a large extent on how much we are able to build a pluralistic and multicultural society. This requires an immensely open mind.

I believe that there are two ways to deal with the challenges of a global age. The first is to think that one’s own cultural group and one’s own convictions are the only ones which are right. To believe that truth and reason belong on one side. To claim the right to teach others.

The second attitude, instead, is that of the person who listens. Of those who are aware that other values and other cultures exist and that they have traditions and expectations which are different – obviously respecting the laws and social order which are necessary for every community.

These are two very different roads to take. The first is simpler and more reassuring. The second is without doubt harder work because it requires you to ask yourself many questions and to be filled with many doubts. The first brings you nowhere except conflict, the other opens the opportunity for collective growth. The first makes you a stranger, the other a citizen of the world.” ~ Sergio Marchionne