People

The President’s statement

Before knowing how to do, 
we must first know how to be

The President’s statement

Dear colleagues of ELDOR around the world

today our company has reached its 50-year milestone and my greatest dream is that it will live forever.

No organisation can possibly survive without a sound value base, as history has shown again and again. Without values, organisations only live for a brief time. Only a very few have managed to exist across time, because their leadership was founded on universal principles, making them ideal places in which to live.

Economy and ethics cannot exist without the other, and only when placed side by side are they able to change the world. Economy without ethics creates monsters, and ethics without economy adds no value to reality.

Pyramid of Values

I have learnt this over the years. Since ELDOR’s foundation, when the company was taking its very first steps, I have found that acting according to the principles of honesty, simplicity and discipline has always helped me never to lose my way, in both good times and bad times. I have always tried to give a good example to those close to me.

Our company today is large and complex and is still growing, because it is built on a very solid value base. We are all actors in a global world, where technology helps us communicate from one side of the world to the other through audio-visual tools. We are always close.

The principles that have inspired me over these years are shown in ELDOR’s pyramid of values. I am entrusting it to you, and ask you to become its guardians. I hope that it can inspire us all in our professional and personal lives, giving us the vital energy to overcome the multitude of difficulties that are strewn along the path to perfection.

ELDOR’s pyramid of values contains nine values, divided into three tiers, plus a tenth value, love.

The first is discipline, the basis for achieving ambitious goals if applied rigorously. The height of this is excellence: every task entrusted to us is a small masterpiece. This brings to my mind the tale about the stone breaker:

Three people were working on a building site.
They were doing the same job, but on being asked
What they did, they gave very different answers.
“I am breaking stones” replied the first.
“I am earning a living” said the second.
“I am helping to build a cathedral” said the third.
All three did the same thing in the same place.
But one hewed stones and one built cathedrals. He was
happy because he was taking part in building a great
Cathedral in his city.

The second tier is that of honesty: every day we can choose between honesty or dishonesty. Sometimes we face enticements, like asking for money in exchange for favours. A virtuous person does not give in, and makes no exceptions for anyone. People who are virtuous are happy with what they have, they are transparently unequivocal and cannot be corrupted. Honest people will create a virtuous circle because those close to them, those the ancient world called their gens, will also grow strong and similar to them.

The third tier is justice. “Everyone is equal before the law” is expressed boldly in every courtroom, but if not interpreted correctly, it is merely a motto. We must never judge others by the colour of their skin or their religious beliefs, applying justice differently, according to each specific set of circumstances. This is the highest form of injustice and unfairness. Acting and living in this way inevitably leads to havoc: war, poverty, murder, greed, filth...mayhem, the opposite of order. And humanity suffers without realising what is at the root of their misery.

Human happiness lies, instead, in an ordered world, a world that is clean, beautiful, honest and incorruptible. Only if we are guided by justice will we be invincible. Justice and fairness must also guide us in all our daily dealings with our staff. We only need to raise our eyes to understand that without values we can never aspire to equality and integrity, or reach human perfection and live in the light of eternal love.

What I am trying to say is that, in life, in order to HAVE we must first KNOW HOW TO DO, and to know how to do, we must first KNOW HOW TO BE. That is why economy is inextricably linked to ethics; this is why behind a good action there is always some form of contemplation; and why financial power must always go hand in hand with love.

Together, we must create a company where it is worthwhile spending our time, a company that is as solid and eternal as the pyramids, all of us contributing to the positive evolution of humanity.

I hope that these words will inspire how you behave, not only in our ELDOR world, but also within your family and in everything surrounding you outside our company. Together, we can build a place with the ideal living conditions for us and our children, and so achieve happiness and long-lasting love.

Your President

Pasquale Forte