Fidinam celebrates 60 years

Fidinam was founded 60 years ago today here in Lugano. At the time an innovative initiative: fiduciaries did not exist in Ticino. The idea was brought to life by Tito Tettamanti, who had left the Council of State a few days earlier. Today he is the honorary president of the group.

On the fiftieth anniversary you said that the constitution of Fidinam only responded to a modest offer administrative and accounting services to clients. Was there really nothing else?

In the mid-1960s, I left the Council of State. I had written the resignation letter on the Saturday and on the Monday morning I went back to what had been my legal office - in the meantime headed by my friend and co-owner Giangiorgio Spiess and sat down at my desk. I asked myself: what do I really want to do? I realised early on that I want to be a business lawyer. Business lawyers didn't exist then.

You were in your thirties – why the sudden change of heart?

In government I was head of the Department of Justice and Police. Advised by the great judge Gastone Luvini, I had taken note of my faculty, from an organisational and disciplinary profile, towards magistrates. And then I went to see how they worked. I smile when I hear certain things about the current judiciary: even then they were not all workaholics and even then, there were those who did not have the ability to decide. Moral: I have not made great friendships and I decided that I did not wish to be a classic lawyer.

A sort of diversion in a preventive function?

It's a pretext. In fact, in the mid-fifties, before going to the Council of State, I had a good Italian clientele, assisting them in business. In short, I had the opportunity to have very remarkable professional experiences. I was much more interested in that kind of activity, also because then the lawyer was more of a generalist, while today there is a lot of specialisation. However, I understood that something was missing: assistance with accounting, administrative and tax aspects. There weren’t trustees, but accountants, who were important personalities and had great authority. However, they were not available, while I needed an instrument to accompany me daily. I could not depend on the legitimate working times of these accountants, older and more established than me. And so, I came up with the idea of ​​launching Fidinam with Spiess and the lawyer Dotta. And so, it started: with two people doing everything.

Who chose the name?

I think I invented it. It meant: Trustee of investments and administrations.

Where was the first office?

In the Huguénin Palace, where we also had the law firm, on the first floor. On the third or fourth floor I had vacated the apartment where I had previously lived. The first two collaborators Renato Zocchi and Franca Ortelli settled there. Zocchi was a state official in the tax sector: when I left the government, he resigned saying that I was treated unworthily. And he didn't even know where he was going to work.

In those first few years did you ever feel you had made a mistake.?

No, not really. Perhaps from unconsciousness, but it is a doubt that has never even touched me.

If you were thirty, would you make the same choice again?

Of course, being thirty years old, yes, in the reality of that time. Fidinam was functional to my new business, even outside Ticino.

Share an example with us.

Canada in 1965. It all started with a very serious error of my assessment on our real estate market: I was convinced that the prices of houses and land were now too high and that it was no longer possible to do business in Switzerland by buying and selling properties. But that big mistake was a big plus. Having mentally travelled around the world, I concluded that the three countries where you could go to do real estate deals were Australia, where we are still very much present, the United States and Canada. Australia was too far for me, the USA was a very tough market for those who wanted to enter, beaten by many competitors with enormous means at their disposal. And so I said to myself that the best place was Canada: a younger market that required fewer resources. It was a great fortune.

And did you choose?

I went to Toronto, which had a more American imprint, at a time when the city had developed in an exceptional way. Over the course of 15 years we have done quite important and very successful things there, thanks also to inflation. We got to have 300 employees at Fidinam in Toronto.

Ten years ago, you summarised the company's strategy as follows: pitching, flexibility and timing. Does this still apply today?

Yes and no. This is always the case because in business you also need to know when to retire. However, this is no longer the case in the sense that today's Fidinam is more direct and aimed at having customers: it is not linked to initiatives that I was taking. My successor, the lawyer Massimo Pedrazzini, looks after the development of Fidinam offices and offices in the East: Hong Kong, Singapore, Indochina, Australia, where we manage several office buildings between Melbourne and Sydney.

Throughout the sixty years, you have mentored many people. Can Fidinam also be considered a school for business executives and professionals?

Certainly. But with the style of the past. We went on a different search, there were personal contacts. But above all I have always believed people should be hired based on the feeling: if you have the impression that the person is valid, you throw them in the water. And if he can swim, he floats. At least a thousand collaborators have passed from Fidinam. At least a dozen great professionals have since established themselves. Perhaps on some occasions we have not had the courage or the readiness to hire talents from the outside, offering special conditions. But we have formed them.

Have you ever felt like you have seen some amazing individuals pass through your doors, ones that would always have done well?

Here too, yes and no. If it refers to those who succeeded me at the top, like Massimo Pedrazzini or Roberto Grassi, yes. But I never set myself as their example, so in this sense no. I believe if one has talent and quality, he must assert them without imitating anyone. It would be a mistake to try to imitate. Besides, I'm not one who leaves an inheritance: I do. And if someone follows me, fine, otherwise I don't worry if they do not follow me.

Has diversity been a large subject within the business? In Ticino the lack of female executives is very apparent. Fidinam is no exception: only one woman on the Board of Directors, none on the Management Board. Why?

So, for this please contact my successors. The Board of Directors is a different matter, but as for the executives, when this was not yet a topic, I had several heads of offices, attorneys, deputy directors, managers.

What is the greatest satisfaction that Fidinam has given you?

That it still exists. With 60% of the shareholding in the hands of the Charity Foundation, for philanthropy activities, and 40% in the hands of the executives, with the mission of keeping the Ticino side up because it is always a successful entity in this country: gives work and has created other forms of work for the benefit of Ticino.

And the deepest bitterness?

I am perhaps a little unconscious and I don't think much about bitterness. There were of course some characters who disappointed, but this is normal, it can happen, when the real personality comes out. But they have been very rare cases. On the other hand, I have a strong sense of gratitude for all those people who have worked for the success of Fidinam. Aside from now with the pandemic, I find them for breakfast and know them one by one. I have always been very demanding and very hard: however, the collaborators knew that they could count on my loyalty and my commitment to defend them. When it was necessary, I was there. Before Christmas I used to receive them for a short meeting individually. These are the things that create the human relationship within a company.

Alongside the Fidinam that works there is also the Fidinam that helps, which encourages and stimulates debate and study: the Fidinam Foundation. Tell us more?

My three daughters had long ago made it clear to me that the worst thing that could happen to them was working with me. Since I am against nepotism and for meritocracy and since I have seen so many children unhappy because they are forced to follow in the footsteps of their parents, I have adapted. Free them to do what they wanted. Then I was a rather absent father. Not being able to leave anything to the daughters, for example not having created an industry, I created a fund, the Charity Found, which allows the company to return the money that the market system then allowed me to make. My daughters accepted this idea willingly and with great intelligence.

Are you optimistic about the future of the market economy?

Very difficult speech. We must defend it. If the flood were to come, one would wonder how to create wealth again. We know it well: nothing is distributed if nothing is created. Then maybe someone will come to his senses. The battle is anything but easy.

Are you more optimistic about Fidinam's future?

(smiles) I have to say yes. Fidinam can go around the world.