A research project discussed at the Luiss University explores corporate social responsibility, and examines the case of the Zordan company

Producing on all fronts: profit on the one hand, and well-being on the other. While the theme is not new, it is one that bears revisiting. Because the developments that we need to understand are those brought about by the economic and social situation, which is always changing.

As such, “Le società benefit: aspetti competitivi e strategici il caso Zordan” (‘Benefit’ companies: the competitive and strategic aspects of the Zordan case) – the thesis discussed by Valeria Cassano at the Department of Business and Management, Chair of Business Strategies, Luiss University – is a useful read.

Cassano’s research takes its cue from an observation that is lucidly expressed. “Are the maximisation of profit – she writes – and the pursuit of social and environmental goals concepts that can coexist within the same economic reality? Can the common good and mere profit converge in the same direction, without limiting one another? The achievement of a substantial profit and the trialling of initiatives that fall under the category of non-profit activities are concepts that, at least in the mind of the average person, can not coexist within the same economic context. However, this is an erroneous – albeit blameless – belief that is based on a primordial economic concept: companies are created to maximise the profit of shareholders alone.”

The author begins by addressing the theoretical approach of corporate social responsibility, before moving on to discuss hybrid organisations and the “third and fourth sector”, or the voluntary and care sectors. Cassano then shifts her focus to the Italian situation, before delving into the experience of Zordan, a company in the Veneto region engaged in the production of high-end furniture; she traces its evolution from a ‘normal’ company focused on economic development to a so-called “benefit company”, seeking to create a positive impact on society as a whole. She demonstrates how this evolution has not limited the economic growth of Zordan; on the contrary, it has enabled it to develop into a more harmonious and influential organisation.

Valeria Cassano’s study successfully synthesises a complex and still-fluid subject like corporate social responsibility in a relatively limited number of pages and in comprehensible language, without shying away from the difficulties. In her conclusions, she writes: “It is clear that running a sustainable business means taking a gamble in a number of ways: on the one hand, substantial initial investments are essential in order to adapt the production process so that it adheres to the principles of sustainability, as far as production companies are concerned. While on the other hand, there is the concrete possibility that when making his or her final choice, the consumer – who may not fully grasp the importance of the issues that affect our planet and the community as a whole, or who may simply not have the requisite spending capacity – may prefer to opt for more affordable products.”

Le società benefit: aspetti competitivi e strategici il caso Zordan (‘Benefit’ companies: the competitive and strategic aspects of the Zordan case)

Valeria Cassano

Thesis, Luiss University, Department of Business and Management, Chair of Business Strategies, 2019

We turn to a tome by Alberto Savinio, an old book published by Adelphi, a little worn by time and use, and we repeat with him, “I listen to your heart, city.” We re-read words that are familiar to us with a new, concerned eye, from the perspective of those who wish to provide an account of the emotions and thoughts of Milan in such a tragic and dramatic time, from the death and sickness caused by the coronavirus pandemic to the concerns regarding the fragility of our economic and social relations.

Savinio, who lived in twentieth-century Milan, wrote of trams and fog, streets of an intense and discreet beauty, and industrious environments, recalling authors like Verri, Manzoni and particularly Stendhal. He observed the moods of a changing city, both working-class and rarefied. Art, culture, industry. No “rhetoric of optimism.” If anything, he wrote with the awareness that “a stronger, richer, more beautiful city” would arise.

Today, on the other hand, we are listening to the voices of the crisis. And, with great alarm, we tune into the echoes of a real polemical assault against Milan and Lombardy as a whole, which brings serious risks for the Italian economy: the locomotive has screeched to a halt, the model has been turned on its head and is now in the negative, the primacy of the adage “do, and do good” smashed to smithereens under the weight of the growing toll of sick and dead. Someone from the Movimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement) has even dared to venture the idea of “placing Lombardy under external administration”.

In order not to contribute further to the distortion of facts and data, it is essential to keep a cool head. The open and inclusive metropolis of Milan, and the region that more than any other is at the heart of a sophisticated system of international economic and social relations and exchanges, is the most complex and therefore also the most fragile, and has suffered the most from the virus precisely because of these characteristics. Indeed, as we know, Lombardy is where the highest numbers of sick and dead are concentrated, particularly among the elderly.

Elsewhere, in the Veneto and Emilia regions, the outcomes have been somewhat better.

The healthcare system in Lombardy has demonstrated both excellence (especially with regard to the generous and passionate dedication of doctors and nurses, and in terms of the continued functioning of public and private hospitals and clinics) and grave deficiencies in its structure. When the emergency is over, a period of deep critical reflection on the country’s healthcare system will be essential. But without giving in to propaganda and partisanship, the current situation resembles a game of partisan polemics that is not good for anyone – Lombardy is being led by the Lega Nord against the central government supported by the 5 Stelle and the Democratic Party and vice versa, the majority parties are working against the government of the Region, and bizarre threats have been made about closing the borders of the Campania region “to Lombards and Venetians” by Governor De Luca (Democratic Party). The judicial inquiries that have been launched into the deaths of elderly residents of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio retirement homes and others like it will run their course, hopefully without excessive media hype. And then, we will begin to gain an understanding of what went wrong.

Shortcomings and the looming shadow of the judicial authorities, however, do not legitimise the media and political aggression against Milan. Piero Bassetti, a politician and economist who was President of the Lombardy Region from 1970 to 1974 before becoming a promoter of Europe-wide initiatives and studies on the links between the “global” and the “local”, made the following statement: “We’ve been getting on everyone’s nerves for years, claiming that we’re the best, so now they’re throwing it back in our faces. But it is a revenge exacted by frustrated, disheartened people.” In an interview with the newspaper Il Corriere della Sera on Sunday, he went on to say: “You can never be the best. Anyway, credit is always given to those who happen to be doing best”.

A frenetic Milan, a hurried Milan, a productive Milan, a Milan that doesn’t stop? There have certainly been errors in terms of the emphasis placed in communications. An irksome vanity. It would be a good idea to learn from the mistakes made. But this is not the right time to attempt to bend the general interests of citizens to satisfy the rhetoric of petty politicians.

There is a word which keeps cropping up in the speeches of the more conscientious individuals, those who actually care about the fate of Italy, a country of the world: the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, the former ECB President Mario Draghi and, with an ecumenical spirit, Pope Francis. This word is “together“. The call for us to accept a general sense of responsibility is very clear.

And indeed, conscientious individuals from Milan and Lombardy have always rejected any form of aggression against Rome, even during the city’s most difficult moments. They have not succumbed to the temptations of separatism, or to the arrogant vagueness of the “city-state”. Rather, they have viewed themselves as belonging to regions that are open and integrated with a wider whole: Milan, a European and Mediterranean metropolis, and the axis of positive relations between North and South. And in the spirit of national interest first and foremost, of the “sweet patriotism” that the former President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi held so dear, we must once again reiterate that aggression against Lombardy will wound the entire country system.

Milan, struck down by Covid 19, but also by productivism, profiteering, the frenzy of people who never really change? It is essential that we remember both the limits and the strengths of Milan and Lombardy, strengths that have and will continue to have a positive effect on Italy as a whole. The region is worth a quarter of the entire GDP of Italy (with consequences for national tax revenues and therefore for public spending in general, as well as for welfare and investments) and a significant share of exports. The area holds a record number of patents and is home to a host of international companies, maintaining high standards of scientific, medical and pharmacological research, and it also boasts some of the best universities in Europe, attracting brilliant minds, resources and talent from all over the world. It is a region characterised by industriousness and a multidisciplinary culture. By active intelligence. And by a deep sense of social solidarity.

To be clear: turning on Milan means turning on the future of Italy.

But alas there is another element in this climate of aggression towards Milan and Lombardy: a radical protest against business, of which Milan is a paradigm. Welfarism against productivity, the spectre of “IRI2 ” (the public and political management of businesses, which has all too often ended in disaster in recent Italian history) against private business, bureaucracy against efficiency, the desire for politics to dominate the economy instead of competitiveness and a well-regulated market. Party “clientèle” against merit, competence and conscientiousness. These are the negative temptations of a returning statism, which are at risk of seriously undermining any attempt to implement effective recovery and sustainable development policies within the European context.

One point must be clear in the minds of the general public: wealth, work and well-being are the fruit of business activity. And there is no recovery without business.

The “against Milan” or “Lombardy against Rome” strategy does not work, above all for Italy’s key economic players – this is something that has been demonstrated by the results of the consultation to elect the new president of Confindustria. Carlo Bonomi, president of Assolombarda, was appointed to the role with two thirds of the votes of the General Council of the organisation. Natives of the Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia and Campania regions voted for him, as did those from Rome, Calabria and Sicily – a cross-cutting consensus with the desire to highlight the values of national interest, placing a single strategy for recovery centre stage. “Together”, once again.

Pirelli Foundation Digital Education also reaches out to upper secondary schools with a teaching programme that introduces students to the issue of sustainability, addressing it in its three key areas: economic, social and environmental. Through videos, presentations and readings, students will find out about the seventeen sustainable-development goals adopted by the Member States of the United Nations and they will learn about the history of Pirelli’s commitment to research into innovative materials, how the company’s sustainable management has evolved, giving it a competitive advantage, the design of factories with low environmental impact, the development of eco-sustainable tyres, and the global themes of ethics and social sustainability.

The issue is closely connected to current events and can be linked to school subjects such as Science, History, and Geography. Each teacher can decide how to structure the course, whether to adopt it in its entirety or to use only some sections in order to spark a debate and stimulate the students’ interest.

The content offered:

Pirelli, a history of innovation and sustainable growth

The introduction to the course takes the students through the various aspects involved in making a major tyre company sustainable: the environment, society, and the economy.

Sustainable corporate culture in documents now in the Historical Archive

The history of Pirelli’s commitment to sustainability is illustrated by the documents, photographs and chemical recipes for rubber objects and tyres, now preserved in the Pirelli Historical Archive.

The journey of natural rubber

In 2019 the photographer Alessandro Scotti made a photo reportage in Indonesia and Thailand to document the process of extracting natural rubber and its rich ecosystem. From White to Black is a long journey from the white of latex to the black of tyres, which can now be seen on Pirelli’s digital platform.

Sustainability on show

The theme of sustainability was at the heart of a Pirelli Foundation exhibition in 2016, with a video and a dedicated web page.

In-depth analyses

Materials to examine the issue of sustainability: videos to clarify the concept of sustainability and to find out about the 17 objectives set by the United Nations, as well as articles to help understand the importance of the actions put in place by companies like Pirelli to ensure sustainable development, as well as recommended reading.

Students are invited to complete the course with a visit to the Pirelli Foundation by means of the fondazionepirelliexperience virtual tour.

For further information please write to: scuole@fondazionepirelli.org

A thesis from the University of Padua debates the need for investment models that could marry the elements they share with individual companies

Planning for a better growth. This is the key principle for any good company, and also for any true manufacturing culture that, as such, would always keep an eye on how necessary a harmonious development is to organisations. But planning is not a simple matter, especially when investment and recovery are needed before the growth can resume.

These are the topics that Matteo Telatin contended with in his research project discussed as part of the Master’s degree course in Economics and Law offered by the M. Fanno Department of Economics and Management at the University of Padua.

At the beginning of his investigation, Telatin explains: “A few introductory lines are needed to explain the topic examined in this work, the aim of which is to highlight the enormous importance of planning at an entrepreneurial level.” Not only, then, knowledge with a view to decision (deliberation), but also planning with care the steps to be taken both before and after the decision is made.

Hence the importance, underlying Telatin’s research, of the industrial plan seen as “a particularly pliable instrument, as it lends itself to different management contexts.” “Drafting a plan,” Telatin points out, “is useful, if not actually necessary, not only when starting a new activity but also when postulating the revival or recovery of the entrepreneurial formula.” Once having defined the scope of his investigation, the author focuses on “investment and recovery plans,” attempting to determine, after a series of theoretical passages, “some instruments that could also be useful within working practices,” However, Telatin goes beyond the mere identification of possible instruments: indeed, the second part of his research examines a series of concrete cases, anonymised but corresponding to different types of businesses.

Matteo Telatin reaches a twofold conclusion: on the one hand, the need to define a homogeneous model of intervention in corporate planning, but on the other the equally important need to make this model flexible enough so that it can address the diverse variety of companies existing in Italy.

Piani d’Investimento e di Risanamento: aspetti tecnici ed analisi di casi (“Investment and recovery plans: technical aspects and case analyses”)

Telatin Matteo

University of Padua, M. Fanno Department of Economics and Management, master’s degree course in Economics and Law, 2020

The latest book by Giulio Sapelli looks at the present to understand how to revive a society founded on the common good

Pandemic, globalisation and (new) perspectives for social development: those who wish to better understand what is happening are faced by three concepts brimming with significance and complexity. Yet, these are concepts which everyone should ponder on and add their individual viewpoint to. This is precisely what Giulio Sapelli endeavours to do in his 2020. Pandemia e Resurrezione (“2020: pandemic and resurrection”), his latest literary effort, comprising little more than a hundred pages but each packed with meaning.
Sapelli’s book does not attempt to predict the financial and social impact of what is happening, but provides instead a few useful elements that could help us understand outlines and reasons which lie beyond the virus itself.
According to Sapelli, the pandemic and its management are the bitter fruit of society and of a globalised financial system, as well as of the retreat of politics, state and public spirit. Yet, the author’s perspective is positive (hence the inclusion of “resurrection” in the title). Sapelli explains that what has, again, become acutely important is the value of concepts and practices related to the “common good”, understood as something “precious” that “must be placed centre stage,” while “mere personal profits, both private and national, must perish.” He defines an important step to be taken through “the end of market domination and the acknowledgement of work as the main means to ensure social equality, welfare, safety and justice.” All this while also considering the need to grapple with the instruments made available by the modern era. This is why, continues the author, “innovation, in global terms […] must extend from technology to morality, it is the only path to salvation we have.”
Giulio Sapelli’s argument retains all its charm and depth even if it is not always easy to follow. Reading 2020. Pandemia e Resurrezione (“2020: pandemic and resurrection”), is not very easy, but nonetheless something to undertake if we want to acquire some original tools to better understand the present.
In the first pages of the book we find a beautiful and important quote, taken from Saint Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, which reads: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

2020. Pandemia e Resurrezione (“2020: pandemic and resurrection”)
Giulio Sapelli
Goware – Guerini e Associati, 2020

The daily bulletins by the Italian Civil Protection Department keep a running tally of new patients, deaths – which are still very high – and recoveries. Lombardy, and especially Milan, are the worst hit. A way out of the danger is still far off. But, in order not to add more victims – of an economic depression – to the pandemic’s toll, concrete talks about “phase 2” have begun: talks about returning to work and a cautious and gradual reopening of factories, but, first and foremost, talks about taking all the necessary measures to safeguard workers’ health and safety. The whole of Europe is edging in that direction: “Spain is reopening, starting with factories and construction sites,” handing out masks to commuters at the entrances to Madrid’s underground, announced the Italian news agency ANSA on Monday afternoon. Austria is also reopening, with handicrafts shops first. And despite many of its industries staying open, under strict safety protocols, Germany is likewise heading towards “phase 2”, and many German entrepreneurs have asked their Italian suppliers to resume production: “Without Italian parts our industry is frozen.”

And what about Italy? Sections of public opinion, and some government circles, are focusing on the dilemma between health and work, and many accusations are being laid at the door of the businesspeople who favour profit over their employees’ health. It is, of course, a false dilemma, or at worst manipulative propaganda, born out of an anti-business subculture, an anti-industrial and pro-poverty ideology whose rants, unfortunately, fall mainly on the ears of the ruling party, the Five Star Movement. Those in power are seduced by rumours of an IRI-2 structure where the public sector is in charge and business is nationalised, where statism rules, where the Italian “golden power” – allowing public authorities to intervene in market transactions involving strategically important companies – is extended over a very large number of companies in order to freeze international investments (protecting strategically important European companies from hostile takeovers profiteering from their financial fragility is one thing, protectionist nationalism is quite another). But also by anti-EU feelings, by the desire to control every single euro of funding that a company in trouble might need.

It’s a false dilemma precisely because it ignores the fact that people, the “human capital”, are the main resources of business itself. And choices about health and safety have been, for a while, at the heart of massive investments, mainly in Italian companies. Five Star minister Stefano Patuanelli, in charge of the Ministry of Economic Development, knows this well. “Entrepreneurs are not plague spreaders. And without companies this country can’t be rebooted. It’s unfortunate that an unpleasant rhetoric has risen against the manufacturing industries. It’s easy to say ‘let’s shut everything down’ and repeat that like a mantra, but reality must be faced and we need to understand that Italy’s manufacturing system is inextricably tied to various supply chains,” he explained in an interview with the Huffington Post (12 April).

A positive example, which could well be taken as a point of reference, is the agreement signed on 9 April by FCA and the metalworkers’ trade unions (FIOM CGIL, FIM CISL and UILM UIL) in order to resume car production at the factories in Turin and Melfi. The agreement includes strict protocols on masks, temperature checks, distances to be maintained both when working and in common areas (cafeterias, changing rooms, entrances), constant sanitisation of spaces, smart working wherever possible, safety inspections. Both the company and the trade unions agree that this should become the standard benchmark for the whole manufacturing industry, with the blessing of Maurizio Landini, the fierce leader of CGIL: “The agreement with FCA is exemplary, the discussion focused not on when, but on how, to reopen.”

A useful model for the Conte government, too, which in the meantime has not moved past discussing good intentions and ducking choices that, everyone hopes, will soon be made.

Anyhow, in order to properly understand how to proceed, at the end of last week the government appointed a commission comprising 18 experts. The commission is led by Vittorio Colao, one of the best managers in Italy and internationally renowned. And, with him, are economists and other managers of great calibre and experience, like Alberto Giovannini, former president of ISTAT (Italian Institute of Statistics), former Minister of Labour and current leader of ASVIS (Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development); Giovanni Gorno Tempini, president of the Cassa Depositi e Prestiti investment bank; and Roberto Cingolani, chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Leonardo (Italian aerospace, defence and security company), after having led to success the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Genoa. Competent, authoritative, reliable people, who can surely make choices that will reconcile welfare and financial needs, health and production, safety and employment. There is doubt, however, concerning the jurisdiction of the commission led by Colao: is it going to be a top research centre giving advice to the government or an operational facility equipped with powers and means? Naturally, the latter option would be preferable. The fear, which we hope will soon be allayed, is that until now we have been confined within the boundaries of sensational information and brilliant propaganda. Still, one certainty exists: considering their professional and ethical calibre, Colao and Giovannini, Gorno Tempini and Cingolani, would never agree to make a mere, albeit authoritative, token contribution to the current situation.

Be that as it may, this week debates about the reopening of factories in Italy should make tangible progress. It’s what Confindustria and a very determined Assolombarda (representing the provinces of Milan, Lodi, Monza and Brianza) are asking, and it’s what Confindustria’s chapters in the Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto regions are demanding. Indeed, Confindustria Veneto and its president Enrico Carraro have applauded the project for the experimental start made by the region’s president Luca Zaia, who evaluated all possible resolutions of health and work, sensibly and with a sense of responsibility. Federlegno Arredo (the Italian national timber association), urges the same with his manifesto “Let’s reopen Made in Italy”, while Confindustria Moda together with the National Chamber for Italian Fashion and the Altagamma committee (companies belonging to the luxury industrial sector), wrote to Prime Minister Conte: “Italy is in danger of losing 50 billion worth of production and export. one out of two companies will go bankrupt if we don’t reopen within a reasonable time frame.” And ANCE, the Italian association of construction contractors, has repeatedly and dramatically declared: “We’re on our last legs.” Colao and his experts are well aware of this general mood, and they’re discussing measures to be implemented, from diagnostic tests performed on an extensive scale to differentiated openings, starting with the fashion, automotive and metalwork industries. The integration of safety and work can be achieved both well and quickly.

“To start again we need a vision, certainty and speed are essential to companies,” summarises Carlo Bonomi, president of Assolombarda (interview in the Corriere della Sera, 9 April), insisting on the necessity and opportunity to “reboot the country and get rid, once and for all, of all the dead weight that slowed us down in the past twenty years.”

Anti-business culture and a drift towards statism and welfarism, when preferred to productivity and competition, can be dead weights, too.

He was the most famous Italian chemist of the twentieth century and the only Italian ever to have ever been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. The name of Giulio Natta now appears in school books for his most important invention: that of polypropylene, a type of plastic that, together with other polymers, completely revolutionised our consumer society. Toys, kitchen utensils, food containers, swimming-pool lane floats, and synthetic grass.

Natta, who was born in Imperia in 1903 and graduated from the Politecnico University in Milan in 1921, also made his mark with other important studies and discoveries. In the late 1930s, two years before the Second World War broke out, the Italian chemist was commissioned by Pirelli – through SIPGS, the Italian Society for the Production of Synthetic Rubber, which had just been created by Pirelli and IRI – to find an alternative so as to avoid the increasing difficulties involved in importing natural rubber from the great plantations in South America and from the British, French and Dutch colonies in the Far East. The papers preserved in our Historical Archive show how in 1937, when Natta was a full professor at the Politecnico University of Turin, he worked in the laboratory to solve the problems involved in producing synthetic rubber and in 1938 he filed two patents for the separation of butylene and butadiene.

Innovative technology for the manufacture of artificial rubber and the first tyres made entirely with materials from Italy also started coming out from the Pirelli factories in Milano Bicocca. From April 1942, the IRI plant in Ferrara produced 13,000 tons of synthetic rubber, which managed to satisfy about half of all Italy’s needs during the war. Production continued until July 1944, when Allied bombing raids put the factory out of action. Evidence of Giulio Natta’s work in Pirelli can be found in his personnel file, in some papers devoted to studies into synthetic rubber and in many of the thousands of test specifications produced by the Tyre Research and Development department, which contains the first use of the word “cauccital” – a combination of “rubber” and “Italy” – which was made in the laboratory and is now commonly used in the rubber industry. Synthetic rubber and natural rubber are still today the two main ingredients for tyre production. These materials have very particular and specific properties, making each Pirelli product unique.

“After five long years of study, we have manufactured and launched a new tyre called Cinturato, based on completely different criteria from those of the past. The key difference in its structure is that of a robust fabric belt placed between the tread and the carcass. Special solutions have been found for the latter, giving it a degree of solidity that gives it a far greater ability to withstand wear and tear.”

This is how Pirelli announced the creation of the radial tyre in its 1952 budget report: it was the Cinturato, which would revolutionise the world of tyres, as well as that of road transport vehicles.

With its broad, square, rigid contact patch that ensured maximum grip when cornering and superb handling in sporty driving, right from when it was launched on the market in the mid-1950s, the Cinturato was recommended for the fast, powerful Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint, and for the legendary Lancia Aurelia B20, as well as for the Fiat 8V: in other words, it was just the tyre for victory in the Mille Miglia. It was perfect for true sports car drivers, who were happy to do without the comfort offered by the traditional cross-ply type in favour of the innovative rigid structure that meant they could maintain maximum speed when cornering. The tread pattern was the 367, which became universally known as the CA67 and CF67: the “face” of the Cinturato around the world, with an ever-expanding range of sizes that reached into increasingly popular segments of the car market.

Over the years, engines became ever more powerful and cars went faster and faster, bringing an ever-greater need for higher levels of road holding: the radial construction with a stabilising belt clearly showed how superior it was. First introduced almost exclusively on sports and super-luxury cars, in the 1960s the Cinturato gradually expanded its range, increasingly opening up different segments of the market, which had formerly been covered by the conventional Stelvio, such as that of the Lancia Flaminia and Appia.
At the top of the Cinturato range, the Cinturato “S” (Speed) was introduced already in 1961 for some Ferrari and Maserati models, and the following year came the Cinturato “HS” (High Speed) for historic sports cars, including those of Porsche and Jaguar. The tread pattern “is still that of the normal Cinturato”, explained the sales bulletins of the time, “A highly satisfactory design, because the belt beneath the tread has proven to be perfect also for high speeds”. It was so satisfactory and so appreciated by the market that it was used again in 1972 for the Cinturato CN54, which brought the low-profile Serie 70 technology, and the new solution with a metal belt, into the most popular segments of the car market, from the Fiat 500 to the Mini, the Fiat 127, and the A112. This was when the quintessentially Pirellian concept of the Serie Larga came into being.

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A revolutionary structure with a belt that grips the radial ply casing, making the tyre stable and highly efficient. The Pirelli Cinturato was an invention that, in 1951, changed the face of motoring – starting with that of racing.

It is no surprise that, in 1965, Pirelli chose the world champion of Formula 1, Juan Manuel Fangio, as its endorser for the “Cinturato is only Pirelli” advertising campaign, a series of Carosello television commercials shot on the Monza race track. “Once I raced with the Pirelli Stelvio”, says Fangio in one of the commercials, facing the camera as he steps out of his car, a white Fiat 1500 Spider in which he has just raced at full speed around the Parabolica at Monza – “Its safety en velocidad was exceptional. Bien, el Cinturato is even safer!”. In another Carosello commercial of the same series, the car changes and is now a red Alfa GTA. More jolts, flying round the Parabolica, and braking again with the Pirelli Tower behind. This time the driver exclaims: “Extraordinario Cinturato Pirelli!”. In the 1950s, he won everything that was there to be won, relying on the “safety en velocidad” of the Stelvio, but now had to acknowledge that the Cinturato – the “Sinturato” as he said it – truly had extraordinary qualities in terms of safety, speed, grip, and versatility.

Arrigo Castellani, who was director of the Pirelli Advertising Department at the time, sensed that, at the height of the period of mass motorisation, the Cinturato fulfilled a further promise, in addition to its original ones of speed and extraordinary grip: the Pirelli radial also offered safety at the highest level. And who better than a world-famous driver could promise everyday motorists the quality of its revolutionary radial-ply casing? By the 1960s, the Cinturato had been on the market for over a decade and had emerged from the niche world of out-and-out racing drivers to take over ever-wider vehicle segments: the tyre developed and patented just after the war by engineer Luigi Emanueli – the wizard of Pirelli Research and Development – was now riding high in the international motoring boom. By this time, well over fifty licences had been granted to manufacturers across the world to make the Cinturato. Shortly after, in 1970, an advertising campaign showed how the Cinturato had become the tyre of choice for supercars such as the Lamborghini Miura and the Maserati Ghibli, but also for small sports cars like the Lancia Fulvia HF and the Alfa Romeo Junior Z, showing how it had become the benchmark for the automotive industry. Safety, speed, grip, and versatility: what more could one ask for from a tyre that’s “extraordinario”?

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Based on the studies of the engineer Luigi Emanueli and patented in 1951, the Cinturato established itself on the international market in the 1960s as an authentic icon of the economic boom and of Italy on the move. The success of Pirelli’s first radial tyre was also hailed in the 1950s and 1960s by the great advertising campaigns that the company entrusted to the creative minds of famous designers such as Ezio Bonini, Riccardo Manzi, Alessandro Mendini, Pino Tovaglia, and Bob Noorda.

Born in Holland in 1927, Noorda became the art director of the Pirelli Group in 1961. His graphic style was unadorned, making the communication clear and immediate, as we see in the 1959 poster in which the Pirelli Cinturato consists of just three elements: a stylised drawing of the tyre, the logo, and the name of the product. “With Eyes Closed“(1961), for another Cinturato, was the most iconic advertising campaign by Riccardo Manzi. In the advertisement, the driver’s eyes are obscured by a tyre that prevents him from seeing the road, and only the use of Pirelli tyres means that he is perfectly safe. The style is humorous and caricatural, and the touch is rapid and instinctive: all traits that make it instantly recognisable as his work.

In 1966 Arrigo Castellani, who was the head of the Pirelli Advertising Department at the time, and the graphic designer Pino Tovaglia created an advertising campaign under the slogan “A journey on the safe side – Pirelli Cinturato”: a sort of experiment based on the interaction between word games and images. In 1968, Pino Tovaglia again put his name to a new advertising campaign, which focused on the popularity of the Cinturato abroad: a series of colour plates in which the dominant motif is that of the stylised flags of various countries, with a headline in each language stating that “also in France [or in Britain, Ireland, Holland or in the other countries where the tyre had become established] it is called Cinturato”.

By this time the Pirelli Cinturato had become international, and it was not just graphic artists and designers who were telling the world about it. Advertising campaigns were also commissioned over the years from great photographers such as Ugo Mulas, or entrusted to film and to exceptional endorsers such as the driver Juan Manuel Fangio, who starred in a series of Carosello television commercials produced by Gamma Film. Because the Pirelli Cinturato “really is different from the others. Extraordinario!”

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