Verona’s Oil&nonOil Expo: Exploring Energy Transition Models, a Multi-Generational Business Story
Verona, the city of Romeo and Juliet, is world-renowned for its operatic heritage and, more importantly for business, as the home of Vinitaly, Europe’s most iconic wine festival. It is a place where history isn’t just displayed; it is the premium asset woven into every 50-year-old vineyard and every 100-year-old family recipe.
Learn How to Leverage Your Story through our Story To Asset Framework.
Yet, this ancient city, deeply rooted in the past, is also a powerful stage for the future of industry. The biennial Oil&nonOil exhibition at Veronafiere, a major event for the fuel distribution chain, is a living masterclass in adaptation, transition, and long-term vision.
For the Established Leaders in energy sector or the Multi-Generational Family Business, the shift happening on the Veronafiere grounds, moving from traditional oil to biofuels and electric mobility, holds a profound lesson: To secure a legacy, you must strategically pivot your expertise while preserving your core heritage.
The Historic Shift: Understanding the Oil&nonOil in Verona
The last edition of Oil&nonOil (running from October 22–24) was not just a trade fair; it was a high-level summit on the future of European energy distribution.
Occupying 8,000 square meters and featuring 120 key companies and brands, the central theme is the Energy Transition and the evolution of European rules for transport decarbonization.
This transition, from a single, established energy source (Oil) to a diverse, technologically neutral future (Biofuels, Biomethane, Electric Mobility, and efficient internal combustion engines), mirrors the ultimate challenge for any long-standing enterprise: How do you honor your founder’s original blueprint while innovating for the next generation?
- The Heritage of ‘Oil’: This sector represents the historical core, focusing on plant design, safety, and traditional fuels. For a family business, this is your foundational craft, the product, service, or methodology that defines your first 50 years.
- The Future of ‘Non-Oil’: This rapidly growing segment includes car washes, accessories, electric mobility systems, and alternative fuels. It’s the new opportunity space, the diversification and technological evolution necessary to remain relevant and profitable.
The conference lineup, featuring top officials from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (MASE) and leaders from key industry associations like Unem and Assopetroli-Assoenergia, signifies that this is a regulated, structural, and non-negotiable shift. This isn’t a trend; it’s a strategic necessity with significant market implications.
The Verona Blueprint: Legacy as a Differentiating Asset
The reason Verona is the perfect venue for this industrial pivot becomes clear when you look at its other major industry: wine.
Verona is home to Amarone, Valpolicella, and Soave, wines whose value is inseparable from their centuries-old production stories, their specific terroir, and the family names that have stewarded them for generations.
Obehi Ewanfoh, a Nigerian Legacy Consultant for Founders and Business Owners, has observed this synergy firsthand while residing in Verona for the last 20 years.
Having built his own authority through a successful 1000+ episode podcast and multiple books, he understands the city’s unique blend of deep heritage and cutting-edge business.
“In Verona, I see the power of ‘Story-as-Asset’ everywhere,” says Obehi. “A wine family in Valpolicella isn’t selling a red liquid; they are selling the 125-year-old story of their specific vineyard, the unique drying process of the fruttaio, and the legacy of their name (Source: Sartori di Verona, WineNews). The price premium is justified not by cost advantage, but by differentiation advantage, a core principle of successful competitive strategy.”
Obehi’s work, which helps Founders & Business Owners stand out in a busy market using his Story to Asset Framework, is profoundly influenced by this Veronese environment.
His methodology, including the Photo Elicitation Technique (PET) and in-depth interviews, is designed to extract the deep, unwritten history of a business, the ‘why’ and ‘how’, and transform it into a premium, proprietary asset.
The Market Opportunity for Established Leaders
For our target audiences, the Established Diaspora Leader and the Multi-Generational Family Business, the lessons from the energy transition in Verona create an actionable market opportunity:
1. For the Established Diaspora Leader: Packaging Your Expertise
You have spent 20+ years in your field, be it tech, finance, or coaching. You have built a profitable business, and now you are in “legacy mode”, seeking to immortalize your accumulated knowledge.
The lesson from Oil&nonOil is that the market is pivoting to specialized, differentiated solutions (like biofuels and electric charging systems). Your deep expertise, which currently sits only in your head or your operations manual, is your high-value ‘biofuel’:
- The Opportunity: Transform your proprietary knowledge into a documented, scalable asset that becomes your brand’s unique methodology. This allows you to justify a premium price point, attract ideal clients, and secure your legacy beyond your day-to-day involvement.
- The AClasses Bridge: The Legacy Signature Program. This is where we take your 20 years of accumulated wisdom, refine it into a repeatable, proprietary process, and brand it as your unique solution for your audience. It turns your experience into a verifiable, high-ticket IP (Intellectual Property).
2. For the Multi-Generational Family Business: Future-Proofing the Heritage
Your business has 50+ years of history, and your challenge is maintaining the integrity of that heritage while attracting a modern clientele that values transparency, sustainability, and authentic connection.
See also Verona Mineral Show: The Certificate Proves It’s Real. But the Story Proves It’s Valuable.
You are facing the same technological neutrality challenge as the energy sector: how do you embrace the new (digital marketing, sustainability) without losing the old (craftsmanship, tradition)?
- The Opportunity: Your 50+ year history is your most potent marketing tool. In a market saturated with newcomers, the fact that you survived and thrived through decades of economic shifts is a profound statement of reliability and quality. The legacy story is the emotional justification for your premium price.
- The AClasses Bridge: The Legacy Book and Legacy Video. A simple ‘About Us’ page is not enough. You need to package your journey, your founders’ struggles, your pivotal innovations, your commitment to the craft, into a cinematic, high-impact asset.
The Legacy Book establishes you as the undeniable authority, a timeless asset containing the message you want to leave for the next generation.
The Legacy Video immortalizes your ‘why’ in a cinematic, human narrative that instantly builds trust with modern, media-savvy consumers and connects your brand across generations.
The Power of Immortalizing Your ‘Why’
Whether you are debating the future of internal combustion engines at Oil&nonOil or planning the next vintage of Amarone, the most enduring competitive advantage in Verona is authenticity backed by history.
Obehi Ewanfoh’s vision is not just about writing a story; it’s about strategic asset creation. It’s about leveraging the lessons of a city where ancient Romans built the Arena and modern engineers debate the molecule of the future, understanding that the value of anything, a barrel of wine, a decade of consulting, or a fuel distribution network, is amplified when its history is deliberately, beautifully, and strategically presented.
Your business’s story, just like the Veronese land that grows a $300 bottle of wine, is the ultimate source of unique differentiation. Don’t let your most valuable asset be scattered across old photo albums or lost in institutional memory.
Your Next Step: Design Your Strategic Legacy Asset
Your legacy is your most valuable asset. Before you print another brochure or launch another campaign based solely on features, let’s talk about how to immortalize the deep expertise and history that truly justify your value.
Book your free 15-minute Legacy Strategy Call today to design the high-value asset, be it a Signature Program, a defining Book, or a cinematic Video, that will tell your story for the next 50 years.
