May 2025, Year XVII, no. 5
Marco Granelli
A Passion for Craftsmanship
“The artisanal industry is undergoing a complete metamorphosis, an expression of old traditions of craftsmanship but also of sophisticated technological innovation.”
Telos: This is your second term as president of Confartigianato. Would you tell us about your association?
Marco Granelli: Confartigianato Imprese is the largest European network representing the interests of and services for the artisanal industry and small businesses. Founded in 1946, it fosters the evolution of companies combining the traditional trades and the innovation of activities using cutting-edge technology.
We support entrepreneurs and their businesses in all phases of their activities: from developing their business idea to setting up their company, from financing to starting operations, from handling administrative requirements to implementing technologies and market positioning, up to the transfer of ownership and company restructuring.
In addition to representing the interests of enterprises before the institutions and their negotiating partners, Confartigianato provides essential, personalised services so they can compete in a constantly changing and evolving market. Today we are aiming to accompany our enterprises in the green and digital transition through initiatives that ensure manufacturing excellence and the sustainability of products and services in a way that makes the best of technological innovation.
All of this while drawing on the strength of the associative model of Confartigianto, present throughout Italy, bringing together proximity, innovation, the territory and subsidiarity. Because we are convinced that the quality of artisanal products and services is what will lead to the success of the Made in Italy label.
What is the value of artisanal enterprises today?
With 1,300,000 enterprises that create jobs for 2,600,000 people and generate 374 billion euros in revenues, with 108.7 billion euros in added value and 59 billion euros in exports, the artisanal industry represents the history, culture and future of the Made in Italy label. It is a world with dozens of highly diverse sectors and activities, both in manufacturing and services, an expression of Italy’s ancient manufacturing tradition and sophisticated technological innovation.From food to metalworking, from jewelry production to personal care, from decor to construction, from fashion to the transport of goods and people up to the installation of systems, from the restoration of works of art to high-tech and biotech, the artisanal industry plays a leading role in Italian production excellence at international level. It is capable of creating jobs for people as both self-employed and employees and offers job opportunities for the new generations. Last year 83,586 new artisanal enterprises were set up: 321 enterprises a day. And for small businesses, 21.2% of their employees are under thirty, compared to 14.9% in middle- and large-sized companies. We are an important reserve of skills: in the last six years, over 502,000 young people under thirty have been trained and started working with apprenticeship contracts in artisanal enterprises. The values of the Italian manufacturing tradition are still very solid in our enterprises, but innovation and sustainability are the keywords guiding entrepreneurs’ choices in order to intercept new consumer needs and respond to international market demand. The artisanal industry is undergoing a complete metamorphosis. It is transforming, becoming more robust, even from a legal standpoint, in terms of its organisational structure, of how it collaborates with other companies and participates in production chains. We need to share all of this especially with young people and their families. Artisanal enterprises are an excellent training ground where the new generations can hone their creativity, acquire the knowledge and skills they need to do gratifying work and build a future using their passions and inclinations. But adequate training policy is needed. We need to change and improve the relationship between schools and the work world, relaunching technical and professional training, work-based training and dual and vocational apprenticeships to provide skills that reflect the changes in the work world and the new demands of business. Entrepreneurs need to go into schools to talk to kids about what the work of a business really is. We need to bring young people and the artisanal industry together, talking to kids using their own language about the opportunities out there to put their talent and ambition into an entrepreneurial initiative. Confartigianato is working toward this.
Who holds the future of small Italian enterprises?
Artisans are in full evolution and need collaborators with the right skills. And this is the big problem. Today, there is plenty of work, but there aren’t workers. It is a paradox, but it is also a true emergency for our entrepreneurs and for the future of the Made in Italy brand. In 2024 Italian companies could not find 47.8% of the manual labour they needed, a percentage that increased by 2.7% compared to 2023. Micro and small enterprises (MSEs) face the greatest challenges and struggle to hire 51.3% of their personnel (3.2 points more than in 2023). And when it comes to the artisanal industry, this percentage goes up to 59.2%, four percentage points higher than in 2023. What they especially lack are workers with the skills to tackle the challenges of the digital and green transitions. In fact, last year there was a shortage of 249,000 workers out of the 437,000 workers that were needed with advanced digital skills for micro and small enterprises. Artisanal enterprises faced even greater difficulties and were unable to hire 63.4% of workers with high digital skills. The situation is no better when it comes to personnel with a high level of green expertise. In 2024 micro and small enterprises needed 1,616,460 workers but 899,040 failed to respond to the call. Also in this case, in the artisanal industry the shortage of manual labour is up to 62.9%, with a shortage of 148,030 workers for 235,420 potential jobs.
The news arriving from the other side of the pond is not very reassuring. What impact will US tariffs, those already in force or even just announced, have on your enterprises? How should they prepare themselves for this new challenge?
We have calculated that the new US tariffs could lower our US exports, which today are worth 64.8 billion euros, by over 11 billion euros. What is more, we fear that 33,000 manufacturing workers in the area of US exports are at risk. In particular, micro and small companies, whose exports are valued at 17.9 billion euros, risk losing 13,000 jobs. We think that negotiation processes need to be fostered in the European trade context in order to prevent a trade war. And our companies need to make a greater effort to ensure the high quality of Italian craftsmanship, a distinctive and winning weapon that the markets can recognise and appreciate. It is essential to move together as a country-system and the government and institutions must make a firm commitment to supporting our companies and the competitiveness of our products, diversifying the markets where to accompany our enterprises, especially smaller ones that have already demonstrated they are capable of selling their products in many countries worldwide.
Marco Sonsini
Editorial
The expression repeated over and over again in the interview for this edition of PRIMOPIANOSCALAc is “Made in Italy.” “The quality of artisanal products and services is what will lead to the success of the Made in Italy label” says Marco Granelli, national president of Confartigianato Imprese, our May guest who talks to us about the challenges this world is facing today and about how crucial this sector is for the future of our country.
Artisanal products are a fundamental motor generating economic and social value as well as an irreplaceable stronghold for social cohesion and quality of life at the local level. We must not abandon the Italian model and its many small enterprises, dominated by artisanal businesses, which have always managed to adapt to the changing world without losing their identity. The strength of the artisanal industry can be measured, not only by its capacity to contrast competition from industrially manufactured products: small and medium enterprises have always managed to reinvent themselves, reshaping themselves according to the new market demands. They see this adaptation process as an opportunity for growth not mere survival. Artisanal objects have unique value, the fruit of experience, passion and dedication. One of the problems Granelli points out is labour shortage. It is important to pass on the value of passion and manual skill in the artisanal sector to young people, but it is equally important to make them understand that this is a high-profile sector where they can find a lot of work. But they need to have an entrepreneurial spirit and they need to understand that the job requires them to be more than just employees. Since medieval times, the artisan’s bottega was a place where one could learn a trade and then go out and do it on one’s own. From medieval corporations on, artisans have been a constant in our country’s growth, so important that they are mentioned in our Constitution, in article 45, section 2: “the law provides for the protection and growth of the artisanal industry.” There is a really nice story behind this reference. One of the fathers of the Constitution Michele Gortani from Friuli, a geologist, was the one who proposed this mention of artisans. According to Gortani, the artisanal industry was the “age-old glory of Italy,” and artisans have the ability to valorise “details,” the path to escaping the “leveler of modernity.” These words and concepts can easily be applied today’s situation as well, but unfortunately, artisanal workshops are becoming increasingly rare in our cities. Nowadays it is quite hard to find a tailor, a cobbler or a carpenter. Then in the historic centres of places like Rome and Milan, it is almost an impossible feat. Rising rents and apprentice shortages have forced many of these workshops to close down and, at best, to move to the outskirts of cities. Our cities are losing their identity almost entirely, with the spread of fly-by-night shops of questionable taste. We may not be able to stop change, but perhaps we can guide it.
Red, black and white, these are the traditional colors of Telos A&S that you will find in the 2025 cover graphics of PRIMOPIANOSCALAc. We reveal our guests’ identity by showing half of their face on one side and a quote from the interview on the other. Their name is written in Abil Fatface, a classy font inspired by 19th-century European advertising posters.
Mariella Palazzolo
Marco Granelli is the national president of Confartigianato Imprese. He led the association from 2020 to 2024 and was re-elected for a second term from 2024 to 2028. He has been involved in the association for a long time: from 2012 to 2020 he was the deputy vice president of Confartigianato and since 2009 he has led Confartigianato Emilia Romagna after serving as president of Confartigianato Imprese Parma starting in 2004. He owns a company in the construction industry with offices in Salsomaggiore, where he was born 63 years ago. He loves the mountains, skiing and doing long treks. He loves reading about ancient Roman history as well as some crime fiction classics and comics.
Granelli is also passionate about football. While he is a huge Milan fan, he and his family are also long-time supporters of the Salsomaggiore football team, proof of his deep connection to his local area and community. He also has a deep, strong relationship with his family which he likes to define as “patriarchal” and that also includes their special, beloved dog Gionni.
Granelli is married and has two children.
Marco Sonsini
SocialTelos