When a company tells its story
The origins, characteristics and challenges of corporate museums analysed in a recently published study
Not only museums, but corporate museums, are now widespread, yet perhaps still not enough. And in any case, many still have to come into being. They are tools for telling a story, but also for growing competitiveness and modernity, entities that have already been studied, but which have a potential yet to be discovered and explored. It is around corporate museums that a group of researchers from the University of Insubria
(Daniele Grechi, Anduela Gjoka, Enrica Pavione and Roberta Pezzetti) have been working, specifically considering how to preserve and make best use of the heritage embodied by these structures.
The recently published Musei d’impresa: sfide, opportunità e strategie per la preservazione e valorizzazione del patrimonio industriale e imprenditoriale (Corporate Museums: challenges, opportunities and strategies to preserve and make best use of industrial and business heritage) is a useful analysis of the current situation, implementation and the problems to be addressed in this area.
The research starts by comparing traditional museums and corporate museums, then proceeds to examine the specific functions and goals of business museums, then the reality of corporate museums in Italy (starting, after some historic examples, from the foundation of the Museimpresa association). Absolutely exhaustive detail of the geography of these realities all over the country is then provided, needed to address the management models according to which the museums are designed and run. The research is completed by a series of case studies from the furniture sector, Kartell, Molteni Group and Poltrona Frau.
The snapshot that the authors take from their analysis offers several aspects for observation. They stress: “Each museum represents a unique situation, since they have an exclusive corporate story to tell. Consequently, they play multiple roles, from celebrating business- and family-related events to providing communication services and corporate training and contributing to the promotion of corporate social and cultural responsibility.” But they add that “corporate museums also drive research, conservation and transmission of companies’ tangible and intangible heritage,” without forgetting that they “contribute to promoting corporate identity and links between business, territory and stakeholders, transforming the industrial past into cultural, identity and educational resources for the local community and the wider public.” And they address all this without neglecting the “financial, managerial and technological challenges, which require innovative approaches for their long-term sustainability”.
Grechi, Gjoka, Pavione and Pezzetti’s research has the great merit of clearly summarising, in a limited number of pages, an evolving issue that requires good understanding in order to avoid misinterpretations that risk distorting its meaning.
Daniele Grechi, Anduela Gjoka, Enrica Pavione, Roberta Pezzetti
Economia Azienda Online, vol. 14, n. 4, 2023
The origins, characteristics and challenges of corporate museums analysed in a recently published study
Not only museums, but corporate museums, are now widespread, yet perhaps still not enough. And in any case, many still have to come into being. They are tools for telling a story, but also for growing competitiveness and modernity, entities that have already been studied, but which have a potential yet to be discovered and explored. It is around corporate museums that a group of researchers from the University of Insubria
(Daniele Grechi, Anduela Gjoka, Enrica Pavione and Roberta Pezzetti) have been working, specifically considering how to preserve and make best use of the heritage embodied by these structures.
The recently published Musei d’impresa: sfide, opportunità e strategie per la preservazione e valorizzazione del patrimonio industriale e imprenditoriale (Corporate Museums: challenges, opportunities and strategies to preserve and make best use of industrial and business heritage) is a useful analysis of the current situation, implementation and the problems to be addressed in this area.
The research starts by comparing traditional museums and corporate museums, then proceeds to examine the specific functions and goals of business museums, then the reality of corporate museums in Italy (starting, after some historic examples, from the foundation of the Museimpresa association). Absolutely exhaustive detail of the geography of these realities all over the country is then provided, needed to address the management models according to which the museums are designed and run. The research is completed by a series of case studies from the furniture sector, Kartell, Molteni Group and Poltrona Frau.
The snapshot that the authors take from their analysis offers several aspects for observation. They stress: “Each museum represents a unique situation, since they have an exclusive corporate story to tell. Consequently, they play multiple roles, from celebrating business- and family-related events to providing communication services and corporate training and contributing to the promotion of corporate social and cultural responsibility.” But they add that “corporate museums also drive research, conservation and transmission of companies’ tangible and intangible heritage,” without forgetting that they “contribute to promoting corporate identity and links between business, territory and stakeholders, transforming the industrial past into cultural, identity and educational resources for the local community and the wider public.” And they address all this without neglecting the “financial, managerial and technological challenges, which require innovative approaches for their long-term sustainability”.
Grechi, Gjoka, Pavione and Pezzetti’s research has the great merit of clearly summarising, in a limited number of pages, an evolving issue that requires good understanding in order to avoid misinterpretations that risk distorting its meaning.
Daniele Grechi, Anduela Gjoka, Enrica Pavione, Roberta Pezzetti
Economia Azienda Online, vol. 14, n. 4, 2023