Bearers of Fire: Small Revolutions, Steadfastly Against the Current

“Steadfastly against the current”—so sang Fabrizio De André in his Smisurata Preghiera, that way of being in the world that can “offer death a drop of splendor. Of humanity, of truth.” This is the core of many apocalyptic, somewhat dystopian yet deeply contemporary stories, where the world has ended—or is on the brink—and someone is entrusted with the task of rebuilding, of restarting. Against the current of the end, steadfast in the search for something still alive and authentic. The fire—wrote McCarthy in his masterpiece The Road—or the cure, in the acclaimed series The Last of Us, is about those left behind. Ultimately, it is the search for an ideal that can grow, remain relevant, evolve and change, while staying true to its essence. A search that becomes a journey—and a journey that belongs to those who build companies and live that same challenge, entrusting it to the value of the bearers of fire: the people who, through their uniqueness, carry forward our story—from the beginning, to the future, not to the end.

In recent days, a small drama unfolded on the small screen: a change of lead character in HBO’s series The Last of Us, based on the Naughty Dog video game.
The setting is familiar to any fan of dystopian, tragic storytelling: humanity has been decimated by a pandemic; climate change has allowed the spread of a fungus, Cordyceps, a parasite that takes over its host’s body, keeping it alive while slowly consuming it. The few survivors attempt to escape until suddenly a glimmer of hope appears: a young girl who seems immune to the parasite, whose life could save the world. But the protagonist refuses to hand her over to the scientists who are willing to sacrifice her to save many. For him, a father figure, this is unthinkable—and for this, he will be punished. Beyond the plot, one specific moment marked a turning point for viewers: the change in the narrative, the change of protagonist, put the mission in crisis. And it sparked a question in us: how do you pass on the fire? How do you transmit an ideal?

In The Road, Cormac McCarthy takes a bold step: he entrusts the dream, the mission of rebuilding, to a father—a guardian—and a son. Both are unnamed, both are characters in whom we can all see ourselves. The road they walk is one of hope in a world reduced to a wasteland of violence and fear. McCarthy’s real boldness, even more so, is in entrusting the dream—the fire—to the child: to the future.

Rebuilding, starting again, is a generational issue—not the task of a lone protagonist or a hero, no matter how visionary. The future is built together. This is the first lesson that the Teddy Group’s story has given each of us through the example of our founder, Vittorio Tadei, who always encouraged his family—and each of us—to become bearers of fire in the world. We’ve adopted Vittorio’s outlook on the world, that invincible positivity that teaches us that reality is never against us. Through this, we’ve learned to look at everything with wonder and curiosity—not with fear—discovering that there is always an opportunity to begin again.

With Vittorio, we began our journey steadfastly against the current, embracing the challenge of the future. The comparison with tradition, the encounter with a future shaped by new technologies and new ways of doing business—these are such crucial and pressing themes that they were at the center of the latest Turin Book Fair: a place where reality and storytelling meet, where authors and experts use words to give meaning to facts, emotions, fears, and desires we experience every day. But what is the scenario in which we are now called to bring the novelty we’ve inherited?

New technologies, the arrival of artificial intelligence in the workplace—these are facts that no one in business can ignore. And it is precisely in the face of these shifts that we must question and put to the test the Dream on which our story was built.

What is our direction as a Group? What is our path? The most authentic one—the one that has always made the difference for us—is once again the one that focuses on the person, as a value and as a creative center. And on the community, because together, any path becomes a journey. And it becomes a journey by embracing everything. Unlike those who fear the future, we’ve always chosen to question it and bring it into the heart of our company—so that we can grow, once again, together. Questioning the present is the only way to be part of the future—without needing to save a past that no longer tells its story or generates value. This way of doing business becomes even more evident in relationships—between colleagues, with our partners, with our franchisees—because it is within relationships that the value of a shared journey, a road traveled together, emerges most clearly.

In the world of work, there has always been a “before” and “after” the revolution. Business history has been marked by change since the beginning. But there is a difference between a revolution and a blank slate. There is a clear line between innovation and the erasure of the past—and that line is drawn by our choices, by our desire to always be part of something greater than fleeting novelty. Each of us can make a difference along the way. What matters is lighting the spark—so the fire can spread.