The Economy of Beauty is worth 24% of GDP: quality and innovation for growth
“The Economy of Beauty” is worth 24% of GDP. It determines companies’ competitiveness in international markets and therefore has a profound impact on Italy’s weight and prestige in the world. It is also a key driver for building a better economic and social future. This figure comes from a recent study by Banca Ifis, which studied the issue for a second year in the 2020-2022 period, during the pandemic crisis and recovery. The bank tried to calculate the value of companies that make “beauty” (quality, design, an optimal relationship between form and function, virtuous relations with stakeholders, the synthesis between the two dimensions of the Greek kalos kagathos) an integral part of their identity, a characteristic of the purpose economy (that of companies which have a social purpose, or a social impact in terms of sustainability), indeed a competitive advantage.
The Banca Ifis study was verified using Museimpresa, Federculture and Altagamma assessments, and included six in-depth company case studies (Lavazza, Foscarini, Trend Group, Mevive, Serveco, and ACBC). It was presented to the public in mid-June, at Villa Fürstenberg, the bank’s headquarters in Mestre. The report shows that 58% of Italians think a company’s values are a decisive factor when choosing products and services. It looks at different industrial sectors (from the traditional Made in Italy clothing, furnishings and agri-food sectors to mechatronics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals and other quality high-tech sectors). It also shows that the impact of the “economy of beauty” and the purpose-driven ecosystem (large, medium and small enterprises, districts and production chains) on GDP has increased from 17.2% in 2019 to 24% today.
Quality development, positive social capital, values, and having a story to tell. When companies have a story to tell, it creates a space for the values that make the economy and society grow: enterprise, innovation, care for people, widespread well-being, inclusion, and a focus on sustainability. A culture that links solidarity, heritage and change.
We can find confirmation of this in our history, according to Carlo Maria Cipolla, one of the greatest historians of the 20th century: “Since the Middle Ages, Italians have been accustomed to producing beautiful things that the world likes in the shadow of bell towers”. An age-old manufacturing culture that is linked to the territory, where a sense of beauty stimulates the production system and creates an aptitude for quality, which can conquer the most demanding international markets. It has also achieved repeated success in global niches with the highest added value, from fashion to design, from mechatronics to automotive, from nautical to chemistry and other sectors of Made in Italy excellence.
The strength of businesses lies in a “polytechnic culture” where humanistic and scientific knowledge are combined, in tune with the drive for innovation. Our “industrial humanism” is a formidable condition for competitiveness. History is turning to the future. New generations of businessmen and women are growing with an impressive range of original products and services. Corporate heritage is not only an awareness of the traditions that distinguish a family business but is, above all, an effective tool when it comes to identity and competitiveness.
There is a great capacity for productivity in the regions with widespread enterprise, industrial districts, business networks and supply chains. Renzo Piano, an exponent of “social tailoring”, explains it further: “I spent my life building public spaces: schools, libraries, museums, theatres… And then streets, squares, bridges. Places where people share the same values and feelings, learn about tolerance. Urban spaces that celebrate the ritual of meeting with others, where the city is understood as civilisation. Places for a better world that can light up the eyes of those who pass through them”.
The economy of beauty goes beyond what is commonly associated with the fashion and furniture worlds, it can also be found in the design and efficiency of mechanical hinges, machine tools, the moving arm and rotating head of a robot, digital lathes, the tread of a tyre, the complete DNA map published in Science (Italian scientists from the Biology Department at the University of Bari contributed to this), the dovetail joint in a bookcase, the special tempered glass in the window frames of a large boat, and the shape of a wooden speedboat’s bow, the chemical formula of a special substance or a life-saving drug. Let’s consider a chemical formula,
to understand this better, pick up Primo Levi‘s “The Periodic Table” (published by Einaudi: by the way, the economy of beauty can also be found in the elegant fonts and graphics on the cover of a book), flick through its pages and read: “Mendeleev’s periodic table, which we industriously learned to unravel, was a poem, the highest and most solemn of all the poems we studied in high school”. Levi was a chemist, and, at the same time, an extraordinary poet, a major literary figure of the 20th century.
Beauty, quality, the balance of form and function. In other words, design. These elements characterise productivity and, therefore, the competitiveness of Italian companies, so we are able to talk about economic resilience and the possibility of recovery even in these difficult times, fraught with danger and marred by uncertainty. In fact, to avoid giving in to fear and the risk of economic and social degradation, and to equip ourselves to cope with inflationary peaks and shortage economy fractures (the shortage of raw materials and semi-processed goods, starting with microchips), we need to insist on the need for European public policies and, at the same time, rely on our all-Italian ability to do, to do well and, consequently, to do good. Our manufacturing and related service sectors are active, credible, future-oriented examples of this.
The challenging events we are currently experiencing (the consequences of climate change, the Covid 19 pandemic, recession, the war in Ukraine and the crisis of traditional power and trade mechanisms) require an urgent paradigm shift in political relations, as well as economic and social development.
We need a critical review of the catalogue of ideas that have driven the recent stages of globalisation and the digital economy, together with the drafting of new knowledge, production and consumption models. In this way, we can reassess political, economic and cultural choices about “progress” and geographical, social, gender and generation balances. Environmental and social sustainability, accompanied by strong reformist convictions, is key: we’re not talking about implementing greenwashing or welfare adjustments, but about forging a new political and economic path following the criteria inherent to a civil, circular and “just economy” (to reiterate the message from Pope Francis, a message also widespread within the most prominent international economics literature and major financial and business circles).
Italian companies possess some fundamental qualities at their core: the innovative power integral to a dynamic social capital and the depth of a culture moulded by industrial humanism, an ideology that has defined Italy’s economic history.
“The Economy of Beauty” is worth 24% of GDP. It determines companies’ competitiveness in international markets and therefore has a profound impact on Italy’s weight and prestige in the world. It is also a key driver for building a better economic and social future. This figure comes from a recent study by Banca Ifis, which studied the issue for a second year in the 2020-2022 period, during the pandemic crisis and recovery. The bank tried to calculate the value of companies that make “beauty” (quality, design, an optimal relationship between form and function, virtuous relations with stakeholders, the synthesis between the two dimensions of the Greek kalos kagathos) an integral part of their identity, a characteristic of the purpose economy (that of companies which have a social purpose, or a social impact in terms of sustainability), indeed a competitive advantage.
The Banca Ifis study was verified using Museimpresa, Federculture and Altagamma assessments, and included six in-depth company case studies (Lavazza, Foscarini, Trend Group, Mevive, Serveco, and ACBC). It was presented to the public in mid-June, at Villa Fürstenberg, the bank’s headquarters in Mestre. The report shows that 58% of Italians think a company’s values are a decisive factor when choosing products and services. It looks at different industrial sectors (from the traditional Made in Italy clothing, furnishings and agri-food sectors to mechatronics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals and other quality high-tech sectors). It also shows that the impact of the “economy of beauty” and the purpose-driven ecosystem (large, medium and small enterprises, districts and production chains) on GDP has increased from 17.2% in 2019 to 24% today.
Quality development, positive social capital, values, and having a story to tell. When companies have a story to tell, it creates a space for the values that make the economy and society grow: enterprise, innovation, care for people, widespread well-being, inclusion, and a focus on sustainability. A culture that links solidarity, heritage and change.
We can find confirmation of this in our history, according to Carlo Maria Cipolla, one of the greatest historians of the 20th century: “Since the Middle Ages, Italians have been accustomed to producing beautiful things that the world likes in the shadow of bell towers”. An age-old manufacturing culture that is linked to the territory, where a sense of beauty stimulates the production system and creates an aptitude for quality, which can conquer the most demanding international markets. It has also achieved repeated success in global niches with the highest added value, from fashion to design, from mechatronics to automotive, from nautical to chemistry and other sectors of Made in Italy excellence.
The strength of businesses lies in a “polytechnic culture” where humanistic and scientific knowledge are combined, in tune with the drive for innovation. Our “industrial humanism” is a formidable condition for competitiveness. History is turning to the future. New generations of businessmen and women are growing with an impressive range of original products and services. Corporate heritage is not only an awareness of the traditions that distinguish a family business but is, above all, an effective tool when it comes to identity and competitiveness.
There is a great capacity for productivity in the regions with widespread enterprise, industrial districts, business networks and supply chains. Renzo Piano, an exponent of “social tailoring”, explains it further: “I spent my life building public spaces: schools, libraries, museums, theatres… And then streets, squares, bridges. Places where people share the same values and feelings, learn about tolerance. Urban spaces that celebrate the ritual of meeting with others, where the city is understood as civilisation. Places for a better world that can light up the eyes of those who pass through them”.
The economy of beauty goes beyond what is commonly associated with the fashion and furniture worlds, it can also be found in the design and efficiency of mechanical hinges, machine tools, the moving arm and rotating head of a robot, digital lathes, the tread of a tyre, the complete DNA map published in Science (Italian scientists from the Biology Department at the University of Bari contributed to this), the dovetail joint in a bookcase, the special tempered glass in the window frames of a large boat, and the shape of a wooden speedboat’s bow, the chemical formula of a special substance or a life-saving drug. Let’s consider a chemical formula,
to understand this better, pick up Primo Levi‘s “The Periodic Table” (published by Einaudi: by the way, the economy of beauty can also be found in the elegant fonts and graphics on the cover of a book), flick through its pages and read: “Mendeleev’s periodic table, which we industriously learned to unravel, was a poem, the highest and most solemn of all the poems we studied in high school”. Levi was a chemist, and, at the same time, an extraordinary poet, a major literary figure of the 20th century.
Beauty, quality, the balance of form and function. In other words, design. These elements characterise productivity and, therefore, the competitiveness of Italian companies, so we are able to talk about economic resilience and the possibility of recovery even in these difficult times, fraught with danger and marred by uncertainty. In fact, to avoid giving in to fear and the risk of economic and social degradation, and to equip ourselves to cope with inflationary peaks and shortage economy fractures (the shortage of raw materials and semi-processed goods, starting with microchips), we need to insist on the need for European public policies and, at the same time, rely on our all-Italian ability to do, to do well and, consequently, to do good. Our manufacturing and related service sectors are active, credible, future-oriented examples of this.
The challenging events we are currently experiencing (the consequences of climate change, the Covid 19 pandemic, recession, the war in Ukraine and the crisis of traditional power and trade mechanisms) require an urgent paradigm shift in political relations, as well as economic and social development.
We need a critical review of the catalogue of ideas that have driven the recent stages of globalisation and the digital economy, together with the drafting of new knowledge, production and consumption models. In this way, we can reassess political, economic and cultural choices about “progress” and geographical, social, gender and generation balances. Environmental and social sustainability, accompanied by strong reformist convictions, is key: we’re not talking about implementing greenwashing or welfare adjustments, but about forging a new political and economic path following the criteria inherent to a civil, circular and “just economy” (to reiterate the message from Pope Francis, a message also widespread within the most prominent international economics literature and major financial and business circles).
Italian companies possess some fundamental qualities at their core: the innovative power integral to a dynamic social capital and the depth of a culture moulded by industrial humanism, an ideology that has defined Italy’s economic history.