Word: umbertos
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...something of a shock to many Italians recently to learn that there is yet another Agnelli in their future. In the 13 months since he was named to Fiat's No. 2 job, taking over nearly all of the corporation's day-today operations, Younger Brother Umberto Agnelli, 38, has stepped from a lifetime in "Gianni's" shadow and begun casting a considerable image in his own right...
...experience has not been altogether a happy one. Italy's strike-ridden economy, slumping for the past three years amid a virulent inflation rate that rose to 7.3% in 1972, has kept Umberto hopping from one crisis to another. Last year alone Fiat production fell short by 200,000 cars because of strikes. As a result, the company failed to show a profit or pay an interim dividend for the first time in its history. The prospects for an improved labor climate and an end to Italy's recession this year are mixed, but the younger Agnelli expects...
...Lately, Umberto has been surprising Italy's staid business establishment with regularity. Not long after taking over as Fiat's sole general manager, he put 5,000 Fiat white-collar workers on "flextime," under which they can choose their own working hours within certain broad limits. Last fall rocked the conservative leadership of Confindustria, an association of the nation's private manufacturers, by proposing that small firms be better represented in the group and that Italian industry in general establish better relations with workers. "La scossa Agnelli" (the Agnelli shock), Italian newspapers called the proposal. After...
...reigning Agnellis are as dissimilar in style as an 850 Sport Spider and a 128 family sedan. The 51-year-old Gianni, jet-setting celebrity and voluble charmer, is characteristically energetic and impatient. By contrast, Umberto so detests partygoing that friends say his marriage to Antonella Piaggio, whose family makes Vespa motor scooters, broke up three years ago partly because of her active social life. To relax, Umberto spends weekends sailing off the Sardinian coast, where he keeps a home, often with Girl Friend Allegra Caracciolo di Castagneto, a first cousin of Gianni's wife...
...their differences, the two brothers show every sign of working well together. At Fiat's most recent annual meeting, Gianni held his customary sway oh the podium, reaching out occasionally to accept a lighted cigarette from Umberto. Yet when Umberto has something to say about autos, Italian businessmen have learned to listen. Especially if Fiat's profit picture improves, many of them expect Gianni to withdraw slowly from active management of Fiat, concentrate on the family's sidelines-including insurance, banking, real estate, publishing and other financial interests besides autos-and turn the auto business over...