In 2018 Riccardo Quaggio, a designer in his early twenties, starts from an abandoned warehouse, a €150 block of foam and a €4,000 Alfa. In the evenings he works as a barman, and for years the bank won't give him more than €3,000 of credit. Today Totem Automobili builds cars costing around €700,000 in the Veneto, and around 60% of its customers are American. I tell how he did it and the 5 lessons for anyone who wants to take their company to the high end.
The decisions that made industrial history.
Episode 1224 min▶Riccardo Quaggio started from an empty warehouse, €150 of foam and a €4,000 Alfa. Today Totem sells €700,000 cars. The story and 5 lessons.
Episode 1126 min▶How Calisto Tanzi turned milk into a global brand and then hid a €14 billion hole for 13 years. The story of Parmalat and 4 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 1034 min▶Carlos Tavares saved PSA and Opel by cutting costs, then with the same method led Stellantis to the first loss in its history. The story and 5 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 944 min▶In 1989 Italy produced 2 million cars; in 2025 it produced 238,000. The causes inside Fiat and Stellantis, the external ones, the comparison with Spain and the lesson for SMEs.
Episode 840 min▶He was supposed to wind up AGIP, and in 16 years he built the world's sixth-largest energy group. The story of Enrico Mattei, the 75-25 formula, the six-legged dog and 6 lessons for anyone running a business.
Episode 730 min▶In 2004 Fiat was losing €5 million a day. In 13 years Marchionne turned it into FCA, the world's seventh-largest car group. The story, the final mistakes and 5 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 629 min▶In 1979 Fiat was losing ground in Europe. Ghidella bet everything on the product: Uno, Croma, Thema, 164, Tipo. By 1986 Fiat was Europe's leading carmaker. The story and 5 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 548 min▶Divisional structure, a brand for every purse, planned obsolescence, consumer credit, decisions based on numbers: Alfred Sloan's 5 revolutions at General Motors and 7 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 425 min▶In 1998 Volkswagen paid 790 million dollars for the Rolls-Royce factory, but BMW took the brand for 65. The story of the most famous due diligence mistake in the car industry and 4 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 340 min▶In 1979 Chrysler was losing a billion a year. Iacocca cut 33 executives, reduced his salary to one dollar, won over Congress and invented the minivan. The story and 5 lessons for SMEs.
Episode 214 min▶In 2003 Remo Ruffini buys a brand in decline. Today Moncler's revenue exceeds €1.7 billion. The three eras of the relaunch read through product, distribution, customers and communication, and the exercise for your company.
Episode 122 min▶In 1990 Porsche was selling 12,000 cars and was close to bankruptcy. The Boxster at $39,980, half the price of a 911, quadrupled volumes in 4 years. The two rules for moving down a segment without eroding the brand.
The course in seven chapters, from why to sell at the high end to negotiation.
67 min▶The first module of the Luxury Masterclass: why an Italian SME has to sell at the high end. Margin beating turnover, direct distribution, the company value formula and the cases of Tesla, Cova and Sant Ambroeus.
29 min▶To sell at the high end you need a personal image aligned with the brand. My pantheon, Lee Iacocca, Robert Kennedy and Jim Rohn, the defence manual for when you are under attack, and why perception counts for more than reality.
19 min▶Between goal and action there is a missing step: information from three authoritative sources, three scenarios, pros and cons. The method I use for every new product, with project, time and people, and the rule on the only feedback that counts.
16 min▶Select your sources of information, keep social media out of working hours with two phones, treat every post as personal branding and divide the day into 4 hours of standard activity and 6 strategic hours, timed for 30 days.
7 min▶Self-discipline is the choice to control your impulses: giving up short-term pleasures, working six days out of seven, not quitting at the first sign of difficulty and producing ten hours a day whatever your motivation.
27 min▶The five characteristics of the leaders I have studied, from Satya Nadella to Bill Clinton, and how to apply them in an SME: a team that rows together, time with customers without a sales filter, humble but ambitious, leading by example.
12 min▶Never look anxious to close, make the customer understand that buying is in their interest, show good faith with a reputation that precedes you. And after every meeting a handwritten note, like Montezemolo.
The lessons, to watch or to read.
62 min▶The seven rules for creating a luxury brand and selling at high prices to high-spending customers: my one-hour lesson, transcribed and laid out, with the slides and the video. By Matteo Rivolta.
20 min▶Two entrepreneurs, the same brass, the same foundry: one sells at twice the price of the other. The 7 mistakes that keep an SME in the mid-market and what to do, from pricing to brand.
26 min▶What a “bello ben fatto” (beautiful and well made) product is, the 4 characteristics it must have, the figures for Italy's high-end exports and the markets to start from: nearby countries first, the United States later.
36 min▶Luxury brands use famous testimonials; SMEs can turn their clients into ambassadors at zero cost. The six profiles from consumer to brand ambassador, and what to do at each step.
33 min▶SMEs that export grow 17% more and get paid before they ship. The why and the how: brand, product, customer service, market analysis, market entry, inbound enquiries, payments and Incoterms.
16 min▶How distribution affects a company's margin: same product at a €600 list price, direct e-commerce leaves an 83% margin, a network of shops far less. The numbers and the choice.
6 min▶The five things you need to know to run a company, drawn on a sheet of paper: a premium or luxury brand, products in collections, a marketing machine, a sales team with a script and a CRM, a delivery team and after-delivery.
16 min▶Recorded on 7 March 2020: the five things I did in my company at the start of the Covid emergency. More online advertising, first contact by video call, online consultation and purchase, leading by example and guaranteed deliveries.
Bicocca, Cattolica and the G7 at Villa Lario.
56 min▶How to position an SME in the premium market.
53 min▶How to turn an SME into a luxury brand.
68 min▶High-end marketing strategies for SMEs.
19 min▶Training and sustainability in luxury.
International scenarios, read for business owners.
24 min▶Dario Fabbri of Limes explains to business owners what geopolitics is, the difference between historic powers and post-historic countries, why the United States imports by choice, what globalisation is and how long the American internet will last.
The news of the day, with a two-minute comment.
2 min▶Meloni writes to von der Leyen: inflation at 4.5-4.8%. Those who sell to the mid-market feel the drop in purchasing power. The only way out: move towards high-spending customers.
2 min▶Draghi is asking Europe for 100 billion for artificial intelligence, and he is right. But the Green Deal is putting cars and ceramics at risk. Manufacturing has to be defended.
3 min▶The ECB raises rates by 0.25%, oil hits 100 dollars, gas is at its highest since 2022. For companies the only protection is to work on the price list.
2 min▶At Cernobbio Mario Monti was presented as the liberal reference point to set against Vannacci. I remember IMU, the supercar tax and excise duties. And one conviction: we are the ones who solve our companies' problems.
2 min▶IKEA is permanently lowering the prices of hundreds of products, backed by a €1.2 billion investment. An SME that imitates it only cuts its own margins: the way forward is premium positioning.
7 min▶At the G20 of finance ministers Bessent says you get out of debt by growing, Giorgetti that Italian debt is no longer a problem. The problem is that Italy doesn't grow: fewer bonuses, lower taxes on those who produce.
