Qualitaly_117

JUN. JUL. 2020 I AT PAGE 1 We’ve got the ball back. Let’s play! The other day I thought about the term RESTART. A word almost overused nowadays. TV, radio, newspapers, websites ... everyone talks about restarting. Then I had a doubt. What does this term mean, etymologically? The dictionary says: “fresh start, new beginning, restart”. In football, a fast counter-attack sprung from an insistent pressing action by the opposing team. I like to think of us as football players going on the attack again, after having regained the ball. Let’s imagine Italy as a team losing by two goals at half-time. It’s difficult at first. Losing by two goals isn’t easy. You panic, you make mistakes passing the ball, there’s a lot of confusion and, above all, you can feel the opposing team breathing down your neck, anticipating victory. Then what? You go into the changing room, change things around, take off a defender and put on an attacker, and you’re back on the pitch to take the game to the opposition. Charged up because you can’t afford the luxury of losing. And that’s exactly what we have to do. Let’s take our country back. The virus hasn’t won. The game’s still on. We’ve always shown that we have the best players, which is ourselves: the public, small businesses, the world of work in general. Let’s show what we’re capable of, aside of political issues. It’s not the moment to stand by and wait. And this is the case of many restaurateurs who have not stood idly by and have instead revolutionised their business (article on page 14), or others who have come up with alternative solutions in order to continue to make a profit (article on page 44). The economic situation is certainly difficult. It’s useless to pretend that everything is all right, that everything is easy, because certainly isn’t. But you have to choose a strategy, carefully, getting advice, perhaps even economic expertise (article on page 26), or by using marketing leverage (page 36). Besides, the season’s on its way. We’re now approaching summer, people are still thinking about going on holiday, maybe taking fewer days. There are outdoor premises and, thanks to the suspension of the tax on the occupation of public land, the costs are reduced to zero (article on page 18). One mustn’t lose heart. Marco Cavallo, a young Milanese entrepreneur who told us how he managed to turn a nightmare period into an opportunity (cover story page 22). The game is still to play for. The stakes are high, but we must work hard to win. We’re a great team! Enjoy your read By Lorenzo Morelli AT PAGE 3 The light at the end of the tunnel Here we go! After an enforced break of about three months, it’s time to get back to normal. We’ve lived through a ‘war’ that none of us could ever have even remotely imagined. We were literally taken by surprise, in all areas, even if - probably - it wasn’t down to us to predict a situation such as that dictated by the arrival of Covid-19. In 2015, Bill Gates spoke of a “highly contagious virus capable of killing 10 million people”. And again: “We could have taken preventive action to minimise the damage caused by the pandemic”. Maybe something didn’t go as planned. Like all developed countries, Italy, too, has a national plan for epidemic emergencies that was supposed to start immediately from the first signs in mid-January. But instead, it was downplayed by everyone at first. It is incredible to think that nowadays there is no possibility of preventing a dangerous situation such as that caused by the onset of a healthcare emergency. Bill Gates says it would require international action plans based on well-defined common protocols, instrumentation and means set aside MAGAZINE Traduzione a cura di Christopher Farley