In memory of Sergio Marchionne

Many are writing to remember a manager, an entrepreneur who has had great skills, a leader of those that would be so much needed in public life.
My thoughts go to his mother, who was widowed in 1966 with her fourteen-year-old son, and decided to go to Canada from his sister to help her manage a fruit and vegetable shop. It was undoubtedly a courageous choice, perhaps dictated by the fact that for a widow, even if Italy was booming, the future was uncertain. The miserable survivor's pension could not guarantee a future, a better life, just as, I can imagine, a young Italian woman left widow living in a city in central Italy gave little chance to rebuild a life, which she was fully entitled to the young age.
I did not know Marchionne and these are just my morning conjectures, but if they have a minimum foundation we can more easily understand the spirit and motivations that have always characterized his managerial and business choices