Author: Arturo de’ Stefani – 10/072026
Made in Italy in the Age of Systemic Competition
A Review of Issue Vol IV No. 2/2026 of Consulenti & Impresa
The July 2026 issue of Consulenti & Impresa, a free digital magazine providing information for businesses and professionals, published by Federitaly and edited by Domenico Letizia, is marked by a notable degree of thematic coherence. Although the contributions range across geopolitics, export credit, energy, the legal protection of production, internationalisation, and strategic technologies, they converge on a single question: how can Italy preserve and enhance its productive capacity in an international system that has become more fragmented, competitive, and unstable?
The issue’s principal merit lies in moving beyond a purely commercial or celebratory representation of Made in Italy. The concept is not treated merely as a collection of high-quality products or as a brand to be promoted on foreign markets, but as the expression of a productive system that requires energy, infrastructure, legal protection, market knowledge, technological autonomy, and the capacity to interpret geopolitical change. What emerges is therefore a broad conception of competitiveness in which economics, national security, and industrial policy have become inseparable.
The editorial by Domenico Letizia, the magazine’s editor-in-chief, entitled “The Route of Made in Italy: A New Strategy for the Mediterranean and Global Markets,” clearly establishes the interpretative line of the entire issue. Geopolitics appears here as an internal variable in the life of the firm, no longer something confined to foreign ministries or research centres. The fragmentation of value chains, the instability of trade routes, and the growing politicisation of exchanges compel companies to acquire an autonomous capacity to read international scenarios. Particularly significant is the proposal to establish an analytical centre devoted to the needs of Italian businesses, capable of linking geopolitical knowledge, risk assessment, and support for internationalisation. The Wider Mediterranean is thus identified not as a generic space of proximity, but as the strategic quadrant in which Italy’s productive and commercial vocation can be translated into a lasting presence.
The subsequent interview with Guglielmo Picchi, Chairman of SACE and former Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, transfers this approach to the operational level. His answers show that geopolitical risk can no longer be reduced to the possibility of non-payment; it also includes business interruption, political instability, expropriation, political violence, logistical disruption, and the vulnerability of investments. SACE’s role is therefore presented as an integral part of national economic policy: insurance, credit, monitoring, assistance, and market knowledge become components of a strategy aimed not simply at supporting exports, but at making Italy’s presence abroad more robust, diversified, and resilient.
The interview is also important for the conception of internationalisation that it advances. In a phase characterised by the return of tariff and non-tariff barriers, geographical diversification is presented not as a fallback option but as a strategic choice. Public support for exports cannot therefore be limited to financially offsetting risk: it must facilitate access to new markets, contacts with qualified counterparts, and the organisational evolution of firms. SACE thus emerges not only as an export credit agency, but as one of the instruments through which the national system seeks to govern its international economic projection.
The broadest contribution from a systemic standpoint is “From Globalisation to Systemic Competition: What Prospects for Europe and Italy?” by Tiberio Graziani, President of Vision & Global Trends – International Institute for Global Analyses and Director of Geopolitica. Journal of Geopolitics and Related Matters. The article traces Europe’s economic difficulties not merely to a succession of contingent crises, but to the transformation of the international order that began with the financial crisis of 2008. Asia’s rise, the enlargement of the BRICS, technological competition between the United States and China, and the return of industrial policy all demonstrate how economics has once again become an instrument of power.
The analysis is especially valuable for its refusal to interpret the current process as simple deglobalisation. What is taking place is, rather, a reconfigured globalisation characterised by a plurality of economic, technological, and infrastructural centres. In this context, Italy occupies a potentially favourable position because of its manufacturing base, export orientation, and Mediterranean location, provided that it can articulate its projection across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and the wider Eurasian space. This approach also supplies the theoretical framework within which the other contributions may be read: energy, exports, the protection of production, and dual-use technologies are not separate sectors, but dimensions of a country’s capacity to occupy a significant position in the emerging networks of global competition.
The extensive essay by Fabio Pistella, a nuclear physicist, former President of the National Research Council, university lecturer, and Chairman of the Scientific Committee of the Federitaly Research and Study Centre, examines Italy’s position with regard to energy availability and environmental protection and constitutes the technical and programmatic core of the issue. Energy is correctly treated not as a mere commodity, but as a structural condition of competitiveness, security, and geopolitical sovereignty.
Pistella proposes a pragmatic approach to the energy transition, based on security of supply, infrastructural efficiency, economic sustainability, and technological neutrality. Particularly noteworthy are the sections devoted to the cyber vulnerability of networks, the application of artificial intelligence to energy systems, and the need to preserve national and European control over critical components, data, and infrastructure. The essay also succeeds in reconnecting the environmental question to its three inseparable dimensions: ecological, economic, and social. The result is a reasoned critique both of market automatism and of ideological approaches that risk transferring the costs of transition onto the industrial system and the most vulnerable social groups. Because of its breadth, the contribution almost assumes the character of a policy paper and gives the issue a solid foundation in energy policy.
More narrowly focused, but immediately useful, is the article by Mario Orabona, a member of the Lazio Region’s Regional Observatory on the Economic Impact of Regional Legislation, devoted to protected geographical indications for craft and industrial products. The new European regulatory framework is interpreted not only as an instrument against counterfeiting, but also as a mechanism of territorial industrial policy. Ceramics, jewellery, luthiery, textiles, cutlery, marble, and many other products may be protected as the expression of a specific relationship among skills, territory, and productive tradition. Legal protection thus becomes a means of preserving social capital, skilled employment, international reputation, and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge.
Orabona’s contribution is particularly significant because it shows that the defence of Made in Italy cannot be entrusted exclusively to communication or to a generic invocation of national origin. It requires legal institutions capable of certifying the territorial rootedness of production and transforming that rootedness into a competitive advantage. The protection of authenticity therefore performs both an economic and a strategic function: it shields firms from unfair competition, strengthens productive districts, and provides consumers with verifiable guarantees of origin and quality.
With “Business Geopolitics,” Maurizio Quarta, Managing Partner of Temporary Management & Capital Advisors, shifts the focus to the organisational and managerial consequences of international transformation. The analysis shows how Italian firms, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, must adapt their skills, decision-making structures, and modes of market entry. The case of India, with the complexity of local regulations and the use of organisational models such as the Employer of Record, helps clarify that business geopolitics cannot be reduced to generic knowledge of individual countries; it requires appropriate legal, fiscal, organisational, and operational solutions.
Quarta thus highlights an aspect that is often overlooked: internationalisation does not depend solely on product quality or on identifying a promising market. It requires managerial capability, knowledge of local jurisdictions, speed of adaptation, and a willingness to experiment with flexible organisational forms. From this perspective, business geopolitics appears as the meeting point between contextual analysis and the concrete capacity to make decisions.
The issue concludes with a second contribution by Domenico Letizia, “The Urgency of Made in Italy and National Security in the Drone Sector.” The subject is fully consistent with the overall approach of the issue: a genuinely Italian supply chain cannot be limited to the assembly of foreign components, but must aim to control sensors, materials, software, artificial intelligence, and command systems. The article draws attention to the risks created by external technological dependencies and to the vulnerabilities that uncontrolled components may introduce into critical infrastructure. Its tone is more assertive than that of the other contributions, but it brings into sharp focus a now central issue: in dual-use sectors, industrial policy and national security can no longer be treated separately.
Taken as a whole, the issue is distinguished by strong editorial coherence. It is not an accidental collection of articles, but a structured path that moves from the general geopolitical framework to the financial, energy-related, legal, managerial, and technological instruments needed to respond to it. The authors’ varied professional backgrounds strengthen this architecture: geopolitical analysis is complemented by institutional and financial experience, scientific expertise in energy, legal and administrative knowledge of the protection of production, and managerial experience in internationalisation processes.
The magazine’s clean and richly illustrated design also enhances readability and gives the issue a professional and accessible character without impoverishing its content. It is therefore able to address an audience of entrepreneurs, consultants, and professionals while retaining a broader strategic perspective.
Some limitations arise precisely from the ambition of the project. The contributions might have engaged more explicitly with one another, especially around the concepts of strategic autonomy, productive sovereignty, and the national system. A brief thematic introduction or a concluding editorial synthesis would have made this common architecture even more visible. Moreover, in some passages promotional language tends to prevail over critical analysis, while certain data and scenario-based claims would have benefited from more systematic documentary references. These are, however, limitations compatible with the magazine’s professional and public-facing character.
These observations do not diminish the value of the issue. Issue No. 2/2026 of Consulenti & Impresa offers an up-to-date representation of the conditions under which Italy’s productive system must now operate. Its central message is clear: producing well is no longer enough. It is necessary to understand the spaces in which competition takes place, protect supply chains, secure access to energy and technology, defend the relationship between production and territory, and turn internationalisation into a strategically informed choice.
In this sense, the issue advances a mature conception of Made in Italy: not a celebratory formula, but a component of national economic power and of Italy’s capacity to position itself within the transition towards a more articulated and competitive international order. In the final analysis, Made in Italy emerges as a system of skills, territories, infrastructure, and relationships that can continue to generate value only if it is supported by a political and strategic vision commensurate with the transformations under way.
