On 5 October, Giuseppe Lasco, Co-General Manager of Poste Italiane, received the prestigious Socrates Award 2022, conceived and presented by Cesare Lanza, journalist, author and TV writer. The award is given annually to people who ‘have distinguished themselves for unquestionable merit’ in the most diverse fields of business, culture and information. Among the recipients this year was Co-General Manager Lasco, who was honoured by Lanza because, as the journalist explained: ‘he is the man who fixed the Post Office’. Lasco was therefore given the award because ‘he is a manager who brought security in a time of crisis, to a company with 120,000 employees. This shows that the secret is not so much how many people you have, but getting all the cogs to work’.
The dedication
The ancient Greeks were the first in ancient history to base their society on meritocracy rather than acquired rights, whether by birthright or religious will. And it is no coincidence that the Socrates Award, named after one of the greatest exponents of Hellenic culture founded on democracy, merit and participation, now joins the showcase of awards won by Poste Italiane and its people. Co-General Manager Lasco dedicated the award ‘to all the people who make up the Poste Italiane team’, reiterating that meritocracy ‘is an absolute value for us within a group. A value that comes from a combination of elements: professionalism, the willingness to take part and be part of a team’. Elements, he says, ‘that can also bring profit to the company from a human perspective’.
Focussing on people
It is therefore logical, but not a given, that the country’s largest company ‘has zeroed in on a strategic plan based on merit and that focusses on people, even going against the mentality of the past, starting with meritocracy and transparency right from the selection phase’ and also ‘by encouraging the work of women’, who now occupy more than half of the managerial roles in Poste. The Socrates Award, concluded Co-Director Lasco, should therefore be shared with all the people who make up the Poste Italiane family, and in particular ‘those 85,000 colleagues who were at their workplaces in post offices during the pandemic, helping people, and in particular the elderly, while we were all shut indoors. This award is especially for them’.
Above, the TG Poste report.
