Meeting the author

Filippo Accettella
"Il manager senza qualità"
Franco Angeli, 2025

A book designed for university and master's students, young (and not-so-young) managers, and HR professionals, that aims to spark a discussion on the "qualities" of the manager. Starting from Musil's The Man Without Qualities, it leads us on a critical and thoughtful yet passionate reflection on the "mythology of power" and proposes a different approach to the "profession," in which multidisciplinary and generalist skills, a spirit of "adventure," and mental flexibility must increasingly prevail.

"You struggle a lifetime to get there, only to resign yourself to not understanding." In this profound and lacerating contradiction, many can rediscover the path of their own experience and recognize the rough terrain of this existential "fracture." This gain in perspective allows us to address, with originality and beyond the clichés and prevailing rhetoric, issues such as managerial "training," skills turnover processes, and the governance of values. The book reflects a research journey that draws heavily on philosophy, anthropology, ethics, and science. The focus is on the individual, his or her quest for a leading role in a corporate story that must engage him or her in order to engage others.

The analysis leads beyond the confines of "modernity," beyond the barriers of ideology, beyond the myth of Chaplin's "factory," exposing the opaqueness and limitations of the present.

The author's aim is to seek a path of meaning that will lead us to discover the "soul" of productive organizations. At the end of the book, we are left with a sense of man, with his dignity, strengthened by those "weak virtues" that prove to be the best tool for addressing the difficulties of the present.

Filippo Accettella, passionate about literature and theater, grew up in his family's puppet theater. With 25 years of experience in HR, he has held various senior positions in Italy and abroad. He is the author of nine books with L'Erudita (Giulio Perrone Editore), and a contributor to Harvard Business Review Italia and La Sapienza University of Rome. He is an Ambassador for the Accademia della Gentilezza and a member of the magazine Leggere:tutti.