In life, what matters is to be simple

Everyone says such lovely things about you...

Don’t listen to them!

... they talk about your vision of the company as one big family, and your unconventional approach to business, compared to most entrepreneurs...

It’s a matter of habit: if you’re simple, like me, you see things simply and clearly – and then you act accordingly.

Many remember, for instance, how at IBSA’s old headquarters, you’d often walk through the offices, know everyone by name, share a coffee, ask about their problems, and try to solve them...

Everyone has their own way. As I said, I’m a simple man, and I tend to make things simple. If someone needs help, I help. My epitaph will read: He had no remorse. Perhaps a few regrets.

In many other companies – as we know – it’s not like that. Sometimes executives don’t even know their employees’ names or roles. They’re more focused on looking good in board meetings.

What’s the point?

Indeed... Companies run so impersonally often face problems. Anyway, it takes real sensitivity to choose a different path.

I don’t have any special sensitivity. It’s physiological, like daily routines, even small ones, like shaving and showering every morning... I can’t even fathom what you’re saying (laughs). It’s not in my DNA. We’re on two different planets. Here at IBSA, the time clock reads: This company demands respect at all levels.

Does it really say that?

Yes, go downstairs and see for yourself. No bullying, no power abuses. Full stop. Everyone here must respect everyone else. You respect me; I respect you. My door is always open. The only ‘abuse’ I allow myself is reading the Corriere della Sera in my office (others can’t...).

I’ve long wondered why you, a top executive at Zambon, didn’t join another big pharma firm instead of risking everything to buy IBSA in 1985, when it was near bankruptcy...

I had great respect for my president, Alberto Zambon, who gave me complete freedom. For years, I did as I pleased. But then the work culture changed, and I no longer felt at ease. So, I told him: “Dear President, the company is yours; life is mine. Run your company as you see fit, and I’ll do the same with my life. It couldn’t be simpler than that...”.

But you jeopardised everything you’d built financially.

Because it felt like the right moment.

You were exactly fifty. It’s not easy to upend your life at that age.

I’m built differently – simpler, like I said... I’m a prehistoric creature.

You took all your money...

... and gambled it. Everyone’s mad in their own way! I injected a 50% capital increase to revive IBSA, which barely produced anything then: a drug called Urogastrone and generic antibiotics. Urogastrone was extracted from pregnant women’s urine – an anti-ulcer agent that reduced gastric motility. Beggars can’t be choosers...

It took some recklessness...

I’ve been in pharma for 70 years (I’m 90 now). I opened most of Zambon’s foreign subsidiaries. I knew the trade.

IBSA, however, had 40 employees when you took over: forty salaries to pay monthly.

Yes, I stepped into a risky situation. My first question was whether we could lay off half the staff. From there, we grew to 2,500 people and nearly €1 billion in revenue!

Did you actually fire those early employees?

I ran out of time...

How long to turn the company around?

We restarted immediately.

But how did you manage that?

We worked and tried to cut costs and invent new products.

Did you have an R&D department?

(Laughs) That was me... My first move was bringing ‘plasters’ to Italy – the modern version of poultices (the compresses made from natural or medicinal substances, applied directly to the skin, that our mothers and grandmothers used to prepare). In Japan, they were very skilled in using them, in an updated version (a non-woven fabric that could be soaked with active ingredients): I realised this when I travelled to the Far East to follow up on sales of Urogastrone whose main market was precisely Japan. So, I decided to combine the modern poultice with a well-known anti-inflammatory substance: diclofenac, to treat knee pain, back pain, and even arthritic pain. It worked – and Flector was born.

What was the regulatory process like then?

Very different from today but, in any case, even forty years ago it was necessary to prepare a complex registration dossier, within which it was necessary to indicate the technical characteristics of the product and their effect. In the case of Flector, instead of using a gel, or a cream to rub on the leg (as usually happened), we demonstrated that it was enough to apply our patch to the pain point, to obtain an anti-inflammatory activity

So, you had the idea and developed it internally?

There were very few people in IBSA at the time. We also used external centres for testing. Many tests were performed, in labs and in hospitals, and it was observed that the drug had an excellent effect. So, we started producing it. Or, rather, we had it produced in Japan.

That must’ve added costs...

Yes, of course. If you ask me how much of my personal money I invested, I’ll tell you right away: I had 1.2 million francs, obtained by mortgaging my house and pooling all my savings, plus a debt to IBSA of 2.4 million (to carry out the capital increase), which I used to pay off as needed, borrowing money from the banks. It was a question of luck... If you’re lucky, you get it right, like when you go to the casino: if you say red and it comes out red, you win; if it comes out black, you lose.

But this alone is not enough... To move forward and realise your projects, especially the most daring ones, you also need commitment, courage and cleverness, as you have said on various occasions.

Yes, but without luck, you fail.

What was your lucky break?

Getting the first product to market.

In reality it was the fruit of a nice intuition of yours...

Yes, that’s true. But then I worked 12 hours a day, for a long time, relentlessly…

And once Flector succeeded...

We also started to develop other drugs. Of course, our R&D centre was still rather plain...

How did you get your new ideas? Where did you find inspiration, since you didn’t yet have a permanent team of researchers within the company?

Necessity is the mother of invention. It’s like having a quiver with only one arrow in it. You start shooting that one arrow. If it reaches its destination, you can enrich your quiver. In fact, you must have other arrows. This challenge didn’t scare me. It wasn’t the only one… When I was 28, for example, Zambon sent me to Belgium to open a new factory. I was alone. They took me and threw me up there and told me: make do! And I survived… In short, when I took over IBSA I was quite used to these adventures.

What do you remember about your very first days in the “historic” headquarters in Massagno?

The accountant was gone. The switchboard operator, who was 70 years old, or something like that, was gone too. The walls of the offices were all coloured... One ceiling was red, another black, another yellow, chaotically. And then there were the squat toilets.

They told me that you didn’t even like the reception...

I changed it all, piece by piece!

In fact, one can notice in your current locations, even in the more peripheral ones, a taste for beauty, for architecture...

Things, beautiful or ugly, cost the same. You might as well make them beautiful! It’s just a matter of taste.

The cosmos building is particularly elegant...

Yes, it looks like a 5-star hotel.

Has the search for beauty always accompanied your life (even your private one)?

Of course! For me it’s natural. I can’t do something ugly. I simply refuse to.

But you have to have this “need” for beauty inside you...

When I arrived in Belgium, as I told you, I was alone. I saw those huge fields, yellow, red, green... For my first customers I decided to have a special edition of Pinocchio prepared; illustrated, large format, in French and Flemish. An unusual choice perhaps for a pharmaceutical company, but it was beautiful, indeed, and it allowed me to make myself known in a different way.

What is your relationship with money?

I need money, but I don’t live for money. I need money to do things, but I drive a Panda.

How come?

When I was 40 or 50, I had a Mercedes (a very nice car) and I also bought a Maserati. But at 90 I don’t care. In fact, I would be ashamed... To tell the truth, in addition to the Panda I also have a 500 Abarth. I use the Panda in the winter, because it’s a 4x4 and always runs, even in the snow and ice. On the other hand, I use the 500 from March to September. I enjoy driving that car, on the highway, behind Porsches... I always reinvest the money I have in the company. IBSA has never distributed profits to shareholders.

Here too you go against the grain. There are many cases, however, of large companies that are squeezed like lemons just to pay a high dividend.

Incomprehensible to me... How can you do it? We invest a lot of money in our company: cosmos alone cost 140 million.

You obviously believe a lot in your projects...

That’s what I feel. To name another, in Avellino I founded Altergon, a company that employs 350 people. Before there was nothing. Now that company produces hyaluronic acid that is sold in many countries. It’s a great personal satisfaction, that no one can take away from me.

What is your social life like?

If possible, I avoid the spotlight. The less I’m seen, the more I enjoy myself.