Born in 1947, an EoC entrepreneur from the very beginning, Luigi Delfi ended his earthly adventure on 16 February 2025. A heartfelt commemoration by Elisa Golin
by Elisa Golin
In those headlights he so loved to design, and which over the years have been mounted on motorbikes made by important national and international motorcycle manufacturers, he glimpsed a precious metaphor for relationships inside and outside the company, that set of distinct and firmly united prisms that ensure good light and, consequently, a good passage.
In 1991 he founded ECIE - Electric Components and Instruments Europe - exactly for this reason, to illuminate the market not only with his lights, but also with a new culture, to follow a different path in doing business as the Economy of Communion has been suggesting from the beginning.
Following this path, in 2003, I too had the privilege of meeting Luigi, and of sharing in a part of his and his family’s life. I have already written and spoken several times about our meeting and the work we did together. Now it's a different time, for every one of us. So now I am looking back at what a gift it was to meet him, not to take stock, but perhaps to reactivate what I inherited from him that made us friends and accomplices, and united us.
Luigi Delfi was my mother's age. Perhaps this is why he taught me similar and complementary things about life.
One thing I learned from Luigi Delfi is that you never stop learning, and if you do stop, in a way you actually stop living truly, especially on the inside, in your heart and mind.
I learned the value of curiosity, but also that of intuition. For someone like him there is also the gift of a vision, which anticipates what is not yet there but will be, and for this reason it also depends on us: I have learnt the sense of commitment to give substance to intuition, a commitment that is at times stubborn and unrelenting, tenacious and without limits.
I have learnt that a self-made man does not necessarily keep the resources he has earned and the talents he has developed for himself, even if he is proud and jealous of them, but he knows how to put them to use, to share them generously so that they can help and bear further fruit, daring to sow not only to fertile and ready soil but also in evidently arid soil, expecting - and sometimes obtaining - the same measure of generosity and productivity.
I have also learnt the value of detail, of the meticulousness that doesn't really apply to me but fascinates me, and of the rigorous care that every detail deserves.
Luigi taught me to never be satisfied with myself or others, to be demanding without being selective, to commit to always improving while maintaining humility and understanding, for myself and for others.
He taught me that your life-changing encounters - with people, ideals and values - must also make a difference in your professional life, and become evidence: and if they are ideals as great as those were introduced to, they must raise the bar ever higher for our commitment to excellence.
He taught me that roots have immense value, in the paradox of being a secure anchor and a condition for spreading branches out beyond measure: for this reason family ties, generational passages, hospitality, memory, friendship even at a distance in time and space carry with them something sacred, to which to be faithful and to which to return.
He taught me that it's not true that behind every great man there's always a great woman. Instead, I always saw Luigi's great women, Anna and Erika, as his team: at his side, in a 3-seater tandem, roped together.
One thing I learnt with Luigi is that gratitude isn't always of this world, that unrequited reciprocity is a wound that doesn't heal, because not all success stories have infinite success, but they maintain their value, and even if they end in doubt, perhaps they are all the more successful.
Luigi Delfi made me discover new worlds and places, which are now part of me:
...the fascination with lights, headlights and light bulbs, the phenomena of refraction and chrome plating (although I'm still an engineering novice!)
...the fun of betting on the time it takes to get through the queue at the Milan East by-pass road
... the miraculous power of board games (especially wooden ones!) in resolving the most hidden conflicts or finding unexpected solutions to technical or organisational problems
… the view that opens up at Campo Tures, where the Aurina Valley begins, and where a little piece of my heart feels at home.
I am forever and immensely grateful to him.
