Among the many leaders we cover in class with our fellows, we discussed the vision and leadership of Konosuke Matsushita and Soichiro Honda. These two leaders remind me a lot of Pietro and Michele Ferrero, two important Italian figures, who are great examples of leadership in postwar Italy.

I would like to share the Ferrero family’s story, since it’s a story of resilience and innovation that inspires me. The Ferrero company is a very important Italian sweet producer and the third-largest chocolate producer in the world. Their most popular brands are Nutella, a sweet chocolate and hazelnut spread that every family in Italy eats with bread almost every day; Ferrero Rocher, a crispy round chocolate in a golden wrapper that looks like a gold nugget; and Kinder, which makes chocolate products for children, such as Kinder Chocolate. 

Let me share the first story about resilience.

It’s the postwar. Rubble is everywhere, and some types of food are hard to find. There is not enough cocoa to make chocolate. The consequences were fewer chocolate products, higher costs, and less joy for everyone. All chocolate companies and shops were struggling. At Alba, a small town in Piedmont, in northern Italy, Pietro Ferrero, owner of a small sweet shop, decided to solve this problem. Piedmont has plenty of nuts, so Pietro decided to create a paste with more nuts and less chocolate. He called it “Super cream”, and it soon became very popular as a substitute for regular chocolate.

From a problem, Pietro Ferrero found a solution with the means he had.

The second story is about innovation. Michele Ferrero, Pietro’s son, was the commercial genius behind the Ferrero company. He improved the Super cream formula and created the brand Nutella, choosing the word “nut” in the name to reflect the origin of the product. He focused on innovation and connected the brand and the consumer through the feeling of family and home. He thought Nutella could be a good product for Europeans and decided to internationalise it, opening factories overseas, the very first factories in the food industry in postwar Italy. From a small shop, Ferrero became a global company, and Nutella today is still enjoyed all over the world, after 70 years.

When explaining how he could keep a product still valuable for so many years, Michele shared that he always thinks of “Valeria”, an imaginary mom who has to take care of her family. What are her needs? What would she like? He kept testing his products on this imaginary consumer and her voice.

Challenges can be met by using the resources we have at hand, and innovation can grow from there.

Pietro and Michele Ferrero were leaders with a great vision and a strong sense of innovation during the difficult postwar period in Italy. I feel this has a strong connection to inspiring leaders such as Soichiro Honda and Konosuke Matsushita, who were also able to be innovative in similar challenging times.