Like fishermen of ideas and words, to be used as the ingredients in delicious conversations and civil relations. Looking at this year’s posters for Pordenonelegge, the festival of good books and cultured and civilised encounters, light-hearted and curious thoughts come to mind:  there is a hook that, instead of catching a fish, lifts the corner of a yellow page to reveal the blue and starry edge of the European flag. And the exemplary slogan: ‘amoleggere’, meaning I love reading, adds even greater significance to this ‘Book and Freedom Festival’.

Yellow is the symbolic colour of Pordenonelegge, an initiative now in its 26th edition. In mid-September, it becomes a must-attend event for writers, readers and cultural figures, as well as young people, who come from all over Italy and abroad to listen to, read, discuss and understand that world of stories and ideas which, at times, seems doomed to decay and decline. Yet here, in the beautiful historic centre and in the yellow-decorated squares, it displays not only robust resilience, but also unexpected vitality. Its sights are now set on another ambitious goal: Pordenone as Italian Capital of Culture in 2027.

What are the roots of this industrial and cultural phenomenon? And what does it tell us about the prospects for the future of productive Italy, and that is, all things considered, of an Italy that has an extraordinary driving force in its history and its destiny in Europe?

This book festival is dedicated to Europe, fully aware of its limitations but also of the need to strengthen and develop (entrepreneurs from the north-east of Italy, including Friuli, are well aware of this through experience and culture). It was the determination of businessmen and businesswomen that led to the first edition in 2000 (a symbolic change of century and millennium). As Enzo Sellerio, with his profound, ironic and critical knowledge of books and ideas, would have said, ‘We are astonished’.

The initiative came from the Chamber of Commerce, which was chaired by Augusto Antonucci at the time.  Business associations provided significant support, including Confindustria, Confcommercio, Coldiretti, Confcooperative and Confartigianato. This was a book festival firmly rooted in the economic world and the forces of production, and local and regional politics followed.

Over time, this entrepreneurial spirit has grown stronger. For years, its most dynamic exponent has been Michelangelo Agrusti: a former DC parliamentarian, entrepreneur in the shipbuilding sector and president of Confindustria Alto Adriatico, which brings together companies in Pordenone, Gorizia and Trieste, as well as the Pordenonelegge Foundation. Industry and culture with a solid social and civil conscience.

The intentions were clear from the beginning: to attract the attention of the media, the publishing world, and the public to the city, enhancing the cultural, historical, and landscape riches of an area until then known primarily as a manufacturing hub. The aim was therefore to ‘help institutions, entrepreneurs, economic operators and citizens to broaden and deepen their knowledge, and to stimulate dialogue with intellectuals, publishers, authors and prominent national and international figures in literary, artistic and cultural fields’.

Over time, it has grown, and an average of 120,000 visitors per year have been recorded over the last few years. There has also been a strong economic return:  for every public euro invested, 10.24 euros benefit the local area (according to research by Bocconi University).

Agrusti argues: ‘Amoleggere this year is a declaration of interest in the present moment and in understanding its complexity.  Readers can not only inform themselves, but can also critically explore the issues with the knowledge that comes from understanding.’ And ‘this year too the miracle of the city becoming a book has been repeated.’

For this reason, Pordenonelegge is a festival conceived ‘on the threshold of history, an active observatory of contemporary reality.’ The special dedication to Europe ‘emphasises the institution that we all greatly need in our current historical and geopolitical context.  This institution is tasked with overcoming the risks of structural decline and the challenges of the existential crisis envisaged by the Draghi Report.’

Therefore, Europe is obliged to strengthen ‘its role as a point of reference for the founding values underlying the Treaties:  justice, democracy, freedom, the rule of law and respect for human rights. These are principles that the third millennium is calling into question in many parts of the world.’ The festival opened with a meeting with Shirin Ebadi, the Iranian writer and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and closed with Beethoven’s Ode to Joy.

Industry and culture, as we said, but also, more importantly, an industry that creates culture. And, better yet, ‘industry is culture’ if culture encompasses not only literature and art, theatre and music, but also science, technology, industrial or design patents, new high-tech products, artificial intelligence algorithms, innovative employment contracts for social relations, sustainable logistics organisation, and positive relationships between industry and the environment.

The importance of ‘material culture’, a concept dear to French historians of the Annales school, is also evident here in Friulian territory.

It was a peasant region in the post-war period, poor but industrious. It was marked by emigration to the strong industrial areas of Lombardy and the automotive region of Piedmont, but the people had a strong sense of pride in their roots, and among those who remained there was a widespread culture of work, cooperation and solidarity. During the boom years, the industry experienced a period of growth, beginning with the production of ‘white goods’ (household appliances, such as Zanussi and Electrolux), followed by light metalworking, woodworking, furniture production, textile machinery, and ceramics. More recently, shipbuilding and its sophisticated production chain have emerged.

The story of these transformations can be found in the concise yet comprehensive book Laboratorio Pordenone, written by Giuseppe Lupo, a historian who specialises in the relationship between literature and industry. He is the recent winner of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Literary Prize. ‘The economic miracle was not confined to Milan or Turin alone.  In fact, it was the peripheral areas that underwent the transition to modern civilisation in a less traumatic way than the big cities. In Pordenone, for example, the traditional way of life has never completely disappeared.  North-eastern Italy built its economic fortune on this mixture of industry and countryside, centuries-old customs and entrepreneurial daring — let’s call it an almost Calvinist mystique of work — helping to shape the figure of the metalmezzadro.’

The metalmezzadro was a common sight: half farmer and half metal worker. They were also frequently found in industrial plants across southern Italy, from Melfi to Termini Imerese.  However, there were some differences.  In southern Italian companies, harvest seasons (wheat, olives, grapes, etc.) coincided with peaks in factory absenteeism, whereas in the north-east there was a more harmonious balance of working periods.

In fact, Lupo writes that in Pordenone, ‘the old world continued to resist even in the presence of the new. The peasant soul — the one that spoke in dialect and felt rooted in the land — never fully succumbed to the advance of modernity. It was almost as if it were secretly resisting (or taking revenge on) the danger that modernity would homogenise everything, both in black-and-white Pordenone in the 1960s and in recent decades, when the demand for labour prompted Confindustria to devise a strategy to control the movement of individuals or families to the city and integrate them into the productive workforce.’

Lupo insists that,  ‘in the absence of cultural institutions, companies have had to act as drivers of development by promoting initiatives related to books, reading, art, cinema and theatre,  and this is how the Pordenonelegge festival came to be, one of the most important literary events in Italy.’ Why? ‘No material well-being can be achieved without culture, and this city uniquely expresses the relationship between business and the local area, even during a delicate phase such as the transition to Industry 4.0.’

Confirmation can be found in the Technology Hub, which is designed to incubate new businesses. It provides support in the form of technical skills and financial resources for the digital and environmental transition. It operates without bureaucratic rigidity and has a solid understanding of productivity. Another notable initiative is the Lef (or ‘Lean Experience Factory’), which was inaugurated in 2011 on the outskirts of Pordenone. Agrusti is its president. Lupo explains ‘It is a factory-school of sorts, or rather an experiential training centre that teaches how to optimise production processes.  Rather than being a model factory, it is a factory modeller because it works with the relevant parties to determine the most effective production model for specific industrial processes.  In short, it is an educational workshop, halfway between a practical factory and a conceptual one, and it applies to the Lef, but could work for the entire Pordenone system.’

Here it is again: the virtuous synthesis of ‘business is culture’.  The culture of know-how and of sharing knowledge. Pordenonelegge, with its ‘Festival of Books and Freedom’, is a fundamental tool for this.

(foto: Cozzarin)

The Bicocca Project, one of Milan’s most significant urban planning ventures at the close of the millennium, was championed by Leopoldo Pirelli, president of Pirelli from 1965 to 1996. It is now being commemorated in a special way one hundred years after its founding

Pirelli and Milan share a bond that cannot be broken. We explored it in our study “Pirelli, a City and a Vision”, tracing its many expressions: its origins in Via Ponte Seveso shaped its identity and its products, and even their names. The images of the city provided a stage for its visual communication. From the post-war years to the 1960s, Pirelli’s cultural production entered into dialogue with that of Milan itself. The company also created signs that left their mark on both space and history—not only through place names but also on the map of the city’s most iconic landmarks. Among these was the Pirelli Tower, inaugurated in 1960. Designed by Gio Ponti, it redefined modern architecture and transformed Milan’s skyline. Then came the Bicocca Project one of the largest redevelopments in an area of Milan, which placed the city at the centre of international debate on industrial transformation. It was conceived by Leopoldo Pirelli together with the City of Milan, the Province of Milan, and the Lombardy Region.

In 1985 the Bicocca plants were gradually decommissioned. This moment was captured in Gabriele Basilico’s photographs and in the director Silvio Soldini’s documentary La fabbrica sospesa, commissioned by Pirelli. That same year, the company launched an international competition by invitation for the transformation of its industrial areas, linking them to the city and creating an integrated, multifunctional technology hub. The letter sent to twenty of the world’s top architecture and urban planning firms bore the subject line: “Bicocca Project: Invitation to develop the theme of the future urban and architectural layout of an area located to the north of Milan, owned by Pirelli and known as Bicocca.”

After a second round of judging, on 7 July 1988 Leopoldo Pirelli declared Gregotti Associati’s project to be the winner. “Comincia da Bicocca la Milano del XXI secolo” (“21st-Century Milan Begins in Bicocca”) was the title in Fatti e Notizie, the Pirelli Group’s Italian staff magazine. It reported on the presentation of the final phase to regional, provincial, and city authorities and published an interview with the architect Vittorio Gregotti.

The future of cities had long been a prime topic in Pirelli magazine during the 1950s and 1960s. Here, architects and town planners entered into a fascinating debate about the growth of urban settlements, as we explored in our article “Pirelli and the City of the Future“.

And “future” was the key word in the introduction that Leopoldo Pirelli wrote for Progetto Bicocca, published by Electa in 1986, which compiled all the submissions to the international competition for the “Integrated Technological Hub” on Pirelli’s Bicocca area. The publication is now preserved in the Pirelli Historical Archive, curated by the Pirelli Foundation. “We asked the designers who took part in the competition to redevelop a vast urban area, anticipating future needs that today we can at best guess at and catch sight of. We invited them to plan a city development based on new technologies, research, and an advanced services sector, while we entrepreneurs are still grappling with the problems of industrial society, large concentrations of workers (and, conversely, pockets of unemployment), as well as mass production. This is precisely why we turned to scholars of cities and urban cultures: for their ability to read into the future of humanity through the evolution of its habitat, from a perspective different from that of the economist, entrepreneur, or sociologist.”

Gregotti Associati went on to design the master plan for the entire district and most of its buildings, combining the restoration of existing structures with new constructions: university facilities, public and private research centres, multinational headquarters, residential and office complexes, services, leisure spaces, and shopping areas, all interwoven with public green spaces and infrastructure. It also housed Pirelli’s headquarters, with its administration and research and development centre—its “head,” as Leopoldo Pirelli called it. This was taken up in the documentary Leopoldo Pirelli—Industrial Dedication and Civil Culture, produced by the Pirelli Foundation in 2017, ten years after his death.

From “product factories” to “factories of ideas and knowledge,” the Bicocca Project extends across 676,000 square metres, making it one of the largest urban renewal initiatives in Europe over the past thirty years. It introduced a new concept of modern urban planning and territorial regeneration.

It was a new take on the idea of a “city within a city,” as Leopoldo Pirelli described it. In presenting the invitation to the competition, he wrote: “I don’t think it can be considered rhetorical to say that this is a cultural and social contribution that Pirelli wishes to offer to the city of Milan, convinced, as it has always been, that economic progress cannot ignore these two fundamental aspects of civic life.”

Identitalia – The Iconic Italian Brands, the exhibition celebrating the great names of Italian industry, curated by the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, arrives in Venice on September 26, 2025 at FONDAZIONE M9 – MUSEO DEL 900 in Venice Mestre. This new edition reprises the show originally staged in 2024 at the Palazzo Piacentini in Rome to mark the 140th anniversary of the Italian Patent and Trademark Office.

Pirelli once again plays a central role in the event, with a curated selection of documents, objects, photographs and audiovisual materials tracing the company’s history over time. From the earliest logo designs of the late nineteenth century to the instantly recognisable “Long P”; from the high-octane world of motor racing, with photographs of triumphs on both two and four wheels—from the epic Peking-Paris race to the circuits of Formula 1—by way of the company’s factories and R&D labs. The show also features the distinctive visual language of Pirelli advertising campaigns, from the Futurist visions of the 1930s to the visionary designs of the international graphic artists in the years of the economic boom. Highlights include the unforgettable 1994 image by Annie Leibovitz, portraying Carl Lewis in stiletto heels—the first Olympic icon to embody the legendary slogan “Power is Nothing without Control”.

The display also includes the 2007 Pirelli Calendar, shot by the Dutch photography duo Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, adorned on the cover by none other than Sophia Loren, a diva divine in black and white.

Through its renewed collaboration with MIMIT, the exhibition reaffirms Pirelli’s place among the great ambassadors of excellence Made in Italy. A “Long P” that started out in Milan over 150 years ago, and that is now a truly global icon.

Italian companies are renowned for their unique blend of beautiful products, sophisticated technology, quality, functionality, innovation, and environmental and social sustainability. In this season of particularly tough and selective international competition, exacerbated by dramatic geopolitical events that destabilise the markets and American tariffs, our industrial world’s response to the crisis lies in pursuing technical excellence and strengthening the ethical and aesthetic values that inspire manufacturing — the so-called ‘beautiful and well-made’ Made in Italy.

The competitive strength of such an approach is confirmed by the list of twenty Compasso d’Oro (Golden Compass) winners and thirty-five special mention recipients, announced in early September by the jury chaired by Maite García Sanchís in the Italian Pavilion at the Osaka Expo, designed by Mario Cucinella.

This year’s theme for the award, which was created in 1954 by Gio Ponti and is promoted by the Industrial Design Association (ADI) in conjunction with the International Exhibitions, is ‘Designing the Future of Society for Our Lives’. Twelve of the twenty Compasso winners are products from Italian companies, including Pirelli, Generali Italia, Kartell, Bonotto, Fratelli Guzzini, iGuzzini, Campagnolo, Caimi Brevetti, Martinelli Luce, Vimar, Vetreria Vistosi and the Italian Institute of Technology for the INAIL Prosthetics Centre. This is indeed a sign of the excellence of Italian polytechnic culture, which combines humanistic values and scientific knowledge, and of its international competitiveness. The resilience of Italian exports, which exceed €620 billion despite the turbulence affecting global trade relations, is exemplary testimony to this. Most of the companies receiving the 35 mentions are also Italian, such as Irinox, Poliform, Archivi Olivetti, Fondazione Rovati, Mandelli 1953, Smeg, Elica, EssilorLuxottica and Venini.

What do the award-winning products tell us? Let’s take a closer look at the P Zero E tyre, which is an excellent example of ‘Design for Mobility’. It is made mostly from natural or recycled materials and is an innovative synthesis of quality, performance and sustainability.  ‘It was the first tyre to win the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award, which celebrates Pirelli’s design excellence and the innovative nature of products like the P Zero E. This confirms the important role that research and development play in driving progress and sustainability. This is partly thanks to the increasingly widespread use of advanced artificial intelligence techniques in all phases of development’, as Piero Misani, Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Pirelli, commented.

Other products that have been awarded include a bicycle wheel and a range of sustainable fabrics for luxury fashion, as well as sound-absorbing fabrics for work environments. The list also includes lighting systems and lamps, ergonomic seats, urban projectors, a digital services platform, and a modular exoskeleton. The result is an indication of Italian companies’ ability to market innovative products and services that provide original and effective solutions to living, dwelling and working needs. These solutions are tailored towards efficiency, well-being and quality, offering an alternative to mass consumerism that has a positive impact on the environment and social communities. In short, these are companies that are aligned with stakeholder values — the values and interests of the people and regions with which the industry interacts, and from which it draws its culture and social legitimacy.

Quality and sustainability are now values incorporated into the production systems and business models of ‘Italy that does Italy well’, as Symbola would put it. This involves doing business in a way that secures better positions in the highest value-added market niches and strengthens the consensus of sophisticated and demanding consumers. These values also signify an advanced corporate culture, with roots in the Italian manufacturing tradition and a vision for a future that prioritises quality of life, work and social customs.

Luciano Galimberti, president of the ADI, asserts that ‘design is experienced as a discipline that permeates our lives, transcending national borders and addressing global challenges through innovation, quality and sustainability’. Headed by Andrea Cancellato, the director of the ‘Osaka operation’, the Adi Design Museum offers an outstanding range of historical evidence. Kartell, Guzzini and Pirelli are recurring brands that exemplify a tradition of ‘design culture’ and ‘product culture’ which has stood the test of time and continues to evolve.

In her note in the Corriere della Sera on 6 September, Annachiara Sacchi wrote: ‘Solutions for a more aware humanity:  connected and responsible, attentive to the circular economy and low environmental impact projects.  We must also consider the choices that put design at the service of life, imagining it as a sort of Esperanto — a universal language that connects needs and visions.’

In short, design is a defining feature of contemporary Italy. It was one of the main tools that enabled the country to recover from the war, experience an economic boom and become a leading industrial power with a strong international market presence.  It is a continually current, design-led characteristic.

Mario Vattani, Commissioner of the Italian Pavilion in Osaka, says, ‘It is precisely this idea of Italy that we want to promote:  a nation capable of uniting culture and industry, creativity and innovation, and tradition and strategic vision.’

In other words, the Compasso d’Oro confirms and reinforces production and cultural decisions. In the wise words of Gio Ponti, ‘In Italy, art fell in love with industry, which is why industry is a cultural fact.’ It’s a strategic indication with a simple and essential name:  design.  And a qualifying adjective:  sustainable.

This is a sustainability that must be insisted upon, despite headwinds blowing even within public opinion in major industrialised countries, starting with the USA. This involves overcoming regulatory and bureaucratic rigidities, which are affecting the EU Green Deal and causing serious damage to the European industrial system. The crisis in the automotive sector is an example of this. Instead, we need to establish effective common industrial policy tools that stimulate innovation, investment and productivity, and create a better ‘knowledge economy’. Valuable insights can be found in the reports prepared by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta on behalf of the EU Commission last year. These reports must be retrieved and swiftly transformed into tangible choices, measures and investment decisions.

‘In the face of tensions over tariffs and geopolitics, and in the face of digital and environmental challenges, Europe must find strength in unity and in the valorisation of skills and innovation,’ advises Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize winner in economics (IlSole24Ore, 8 September).

Moreover, this is a terrain in which Italian companies can move with ease. As documented in the seventh Consob Report on ‘non-financial reporting’, which was presented recently and covers what are commonly known as sustainability reports, 150 companies listed on Euronext Milan published such reports in 2024. This represents 72% of listed companies and 97% of market capitalisation. According to ItaliaOggi on 8 September, this is ‘a demonstration of how Italian companies are incorporating sustainability into their governance, long-term strategies, and even their top management incentive systems’.

In short, we need to become more competitive in a more effective and sustainable way.  No less will do if we are to ensure that Italy continues to be a manufacturing country with an industrial future on which the quality and solidity of our economic, social and civil future also depend.

Courtesy of Padiglione Italia

A recent study provides an accurate summary of the current state of AI in Italy

Artificial intelligence is a tool that must be governed, and to do that it must first be understood.  An instrument of competitiveness and of extraordinary potential, AI could provide a significant boost to the Italian economy and its businesses.  It is with these considerations in mind that Raffaella Girone, Francesco Scalera and Eusebio De Marco (of the University of Bari) conducted their recent study, ‘AI: Possible Developments and Ethical Implications in the Global market’ published by the International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research.

Girone, Scalera and De Marco have successfully set out the key features of artificial intelligence, considering both its potential and characteristics, and the ways in which it could be integrated into the Italian economy and society.

As they demonstrate, it is a question of understanding, and then of use and rules. The research team’s conclusions are clear:  diverse and contemporary paths of dissemination are needed. Firstly, the ‘technology quotient’ of the new workforce must be accelerated by properly guiding the younger generations to raise their awareness of the impact that generative artificial intelligence will have on the world of work in the years to come. This training and awareness must also be provided to the current workforce. Thirdly, and more generally, it is necessary to spread a corporate culture focused on AI-based innovation that involves employees in decision-making processes, not just by informing them, but by engaging them in technological change.  Fourthly, the digitisation of businesses, particularly small and medium-sized ones, needs to be accelerated with government financial support.

This is a journey of stages and obstacles; therefore, the approach proposed by Girone, Scalera and De Marco in their research is one that necessarily begins and continues with a cultural change before a technological one.

AI: Possible Developments and Ethical Implications in the Global market

Raffaella Girone, Francesco Scalera and Eusebio De Marco

International Journal of Business Management and Economic Research (IJBMER), Vol 15(5),2024, 2522-2528

A book on how models designed for large organisations can be applied to small companies

Big business strategy can be implemented even in small and medium-sized companies. It can be done, and it is worth the effort to try.  It is a question of changing organisational paradigms, which can reap rewards.   This is the premise of the recently published book

‘Manuale di corporate strategy. Strategia umanistica:

la via italiana’ (A handbook on corporate strategy. Humanistic strategies:  the Italian way) by Valerio Malvezzi, which proposes a systematic analysis of well-known business strategy models widely adopted by large companies, with the aim of adapting them for use by Italian micro and small enterprises.  The underlying assumption is that these models can be successfully adapted for use in smaller businesses, offering practical tools for growth, differentiation and sustainability in the long term.

Malvezzi’s interesting hypothesis is explored step by step by presenting organisational models created for large companies and adapting them to the particular features of micro and small enterprises. After this initial section, the author delves into the areas of application of each model, finally analysing a real business case.

The results demonstrate that the application of strategic tools originally designed for large organisations can also offer real potential for development in smaller businesses, provided limited resources and necessary process customisation are considered. Of course, Valerio Malvezzi’s theses must be verified for each business individually, but they contain the human element that sets each enterprise apart and can make a real difference.

Manuale di corporate strategy. Strategia umanistica: la via italiana

Valerio Malvezzi

Eurilink University Press, 2025

The winner of the sixty-third edition of the Premio Campiello was announced on Saturday, 13 September, at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The event was hosted by Giorgia Cardinaletti with the participation of Luca Barbarossa and broadcast live on RAI 5.

The book chosen from among the five finalists by the Jury of Three Hundred Readers was Di spalle a questo mondo by Wanda Marasco, published by Neri Pozza. On the stage of La Fenice, the author received the “vera da pozzo,” the emblem of the Prize, a reproduction of the typical Venetian well or “campiello” that gives the award its name.

The Pirelli Foundation has spoken with the five finalists. To find out more about the winning book, you can watch the interview with the author on this page.

During the ceremony, Antonio Calabrò, the director of the Pirelli Foundation, together with Raffaele Boscaini, the president of the Fondazione Il Campiello, presented the prizes to the winners of the fourth edition of Campiello Junior, whose name were first announced in Vicenza last April: Ilaria Mattioni, with her novel La figlia del gigante (Feltrinelli), in the 7–10 age category, and Chiara Carminati, with her Nella tua pelle (Bompiani), in the 11–14 age category.

To find out more about the Campiello Junior winners, you can watch the Pirelli Foundation interviews on this page.

For all the latest on upcoming Campiello Junior events, you can follow us on this site and on the Foundation’s social media channels.

A study by the Bank of Italy highlights the positive relationships and the challenges that need to be overcome in order to promote innovation in Italy

Innovation and business growth. But what kind of innovation? And which enterprises? And, above all, by which route? These are important questions that require careful consideration and do not have clear-cut answers. In fact, the answers change depending on the regions and social and economic systems involved. Monica Andini, Fabio Bertolotti, Luca Citino, Francesco D’Amuri, Andrea Linarello and Giulia Mattei of the Bank of Italy worked to try and answer these questions. The results of the efforts of this study group are summarised in the research paper ‘Ricerca, innovazione e trasferimento tecnologico in Italia’ (Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer in Italy), which was published a few weeks ago in the Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers) series.

As explained in the first few pages, the work provides a systematic overview of the entire innovation chain in Italy, paying particular attention to the relationship between public research and the innovative capacity of the production system. The analysis is structured around three main themes:  academic research in STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics); patenting by private companies, universities and public research organisations (ERPs); and technology transfer initiatives. These areas are, of course, intertwined and are analysed to provide a reasoned summary of the state of the art and outline the strengths and weaknesses of each area, with the aim of strengthening the country’s innovative capacity. It is emphasised that this is a significant capacity which could grow in terms of dissemination and results by working more on relationships and effective technology transfer from research centres to companies.

This is certainly a question of organisation and resources, as well as a vision of the importance of consolidating the production and relationship culture that can enrich an area’s production system.

Ricerca, innovazione e trasferimento tecnologico in Italia

(The recent dynamics of productivity and the transformations of the production system)

Monica Andini, Fabio Bertolotti, Luca Citino, Francesco D’Amuri, Andrea Linarello,  Giulia Mattei

Bank of Italy, Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional Papers), no. 954 – July 2025

Two books tackle a crucial topic for businesses from different points of view

Working together to grow together. This applies to all organisations, but is of particular importance for companies. And especially today. However, working together effectively is difficult to achieve  and is the result of a journey that needs to be undertaken,  possibly with some help from manuals and guides. Here are two complementary books that can help. They both start from the premise  that organisations really work when people can contribute, decide and create together.

‘Leadership collegiale. Per organizzazioni agili, dinamiche, performanti’ (Collegial leadership. For agile, dynamic, high-performance organisations) written by Monica Margoni, focuses on the reality that companies face, which requires the ability to adapt to change, attract new talent and experiment with new ways of understanding leadership. It is a question of decision-making processes, which have to be fast, and organisational structures, which have to be flexible and provide room for the assumption of responsibility. Much depends on the ability of the ‘leaders’ to create the right conditions. The book therefore presents different methods of leadership not as personal competencies, but as functions that can be exercised by anyone within an organisation. It is an evolutionary path that today’s managers can take with their employees, because responding to complexity requires more than the intelligence of a few.

Working together is key. This is also the premise of ‘Facilitation for growth. Come ottenere risultati straordinari dai gruppi (How to get extraordinary results from groups) by Giancarlo Manzoni and Marco Ossani. The book considers organisations as human groups and teams that can only function if everyone is moving in the same direction.  This is why ‘facilitation’ is considered a fundamental tool for all companies. The book illustrates the techniques of this discipline, which make it possible to improve collaboration in groups. However, they also serve another purpose:  to generate ideas, achieve consensus, and give the experience shared meaning. Full of practical case studies, this is a book to read and apply.

Leadership collegiale. Per organizzazioni agili, dinamiche, performanti

Monica Margoni

Guerini NEXT, 2025

Facilitation for growth. Come ottenere risultati straordinari dai gruppi

Giancarlo Manzoni, Marco Ossani

Guerini NEXT, 2025

There are words that give life. In his poem, Paul Éluard — one of the most intense French poets of the 20th century — listed them as follows: ‘The word warmth the word trust/ love justice and the word freedom/ the word child and the word kindness/ the word courage/ and the word discover/ the word brother and the word comrade…’. ‘Innocent words,’ he called them, also to recall ‘certain country names of villages and certain names of women and of friends.’ Like Gabriel Péri, a hero of the Resistance, to whom the poem was dedicated.

We can try to continue this list today as a kind of antidote to the difficult times we are living through. A time of violence, vulgarity, narcissism and politics ‘full of nightmares and short on dreams’ (Il Foglio, 6 September), of lies and deceit, which makes it increasingly difficult to write stories that reflect humanity.

Let’s list the word teacher, for example. And the word integrity. The word work, the word respect and the word balance. The word thanks and the word sorry. The word others. And, after Eluard, we could reimagine the word justice and the word kindness.

The reference examples in our discussion are taken from newspaper articles. This shows that reading well-written and edited newspapers provides news, insights and cultural references that offer hope, despite the insults and contempt directed at journalists by serial haters on social media and high-profile politicians. One could say Minima Moralia, a deference to, and a respectful nod to, much more illustrious precedents, without any pretension of comparison.

A person is defined by the adventures they have had, the happiness and pain they have experienced, the books they have read, the people they have loved, their friends and their teachers.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on the word ‘teacher’ (without, however, inappropriately attributing it to too many people). One of the tools we use is the new book by Massimo Recalcati, published ten years after the captivating The Hour of Lesson:  it is The Light and the Wave, published by Einaudi, with the essential subtitle  What does it mean to teach? The word for teacher in Italian is maestro and comes from the Latin magis, which means ‘more’. More knowledge to acquire, more questions to ask, more answers to seek, more points of view to consider. This is not nihilistic relativism. Rather, it is an attitude that transmits knowledge as a critical ability and a habit of viewing the world through ‘the eyes of others’.

In his book, Recalcati discusses 20th-century teachers such as Jacques Lacan, Gilles Deleuze, and Pier Paolo Pasolini. And each of us could write our own additional list. Among ‘the just who are saving the world’, Jorge Luis Borges counts ‘a man who cultivates his garden as Voltaire wanted’ and ‘those who discover an etymology with pleasure’. Someone attentive to Sicilian culture, and thus to the world, would point to Pirandello, Vittorini, Sciascia and Camilleri, the latter of whom is the subject of much discussion this year, marking the centenary of his birth. In Milan, it is worth rereading Manzoni and Testori, as well as Gadda. And remembering the irony of Alberto Arbasino, as discussed by Edmondo Berselli:  ‘In Italy, there is a magical moment when one transitions from the category of beautiful promise to that of being the usual jerk. Only a few lucky ones are then granted the age to access the dignity of being a revered teacher’.

Few lucky and capable ones, indeed. Giuliano Ferrara is absolutely right in his reflection on the excessive number of pages dedicated to memories and praise for recently deceased illustrious figures and celebrities:  ‘Exaggerating tires even the memory’ (Il Foglio, 6 September). Beauty, style, and elegance (here are other words to emphasise) are the result of a sober and sophisticated sense of measure.

Teachers in the heights of the great culture. And teachers are fundamental in life and in daily school.

My paternal grandmother Lucia was a teacher who taught hundreds of children to read and do arithmetic in Caronia, a Norman village on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, at the turn of the twentieth century. Over time, I discovered that many had fond memories of her.  She taught them how to learn,  how to understand words and numbers, and how to understand the world.  She helped them  to become people,  as teachers do today and will do again tomorrow. Recalcati asserts: ‘it is only through contagion with the teacher’s desire that the student’s desire is produced,  and that the teacher’s task is to ignite the desire to know.’

There is another key word that is linked to the teacher, thinking about the lives of others  and that is respect. Once again, Sergio Mattarella, the President of the Republic, emphasised that  ‘only in a world founded on respect can progress be achieved’. In a message to the European House Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio (Corriere della Sera, 7 September), he urged Europe to ‘rebuild the centrality of international law’ and ‘not yield to autocratic regimes’, also criticising ‘the overwhelming weight of global corporations’, particularly Big Tech. ‘They are the new East India Companies.’ , Human respect, against the arrogant technocracies. Respect for rules and values. Respect for a better economic and social balance.

And here is another essential word: balance. What does it mean to seek new dimensions of compatibility between economic growth and social justice, productivity and sustainability, and competitiveness and solidarity? According to the principles of a ‘reformist enterprise’, this can be a driving force for a new and better era of development, not just growth. Economic and civil progress should be measured not only by GDP (gross domestic product, or the wealth created), but also by BES (fair and sustainable well-being), an authoritative indicator developed by Istat years ago. It should also be measured by the HDI (human development index, introduced by the UN in the 1990s to measure well-being and quality of life). This index considers not only income, but also health and education. The Knowledge Economic Index was developed by the World Bank Institute to assess a country’s position in the global knowledge economy. This is because the dissemination of knowledge, and thus critical thinking, is closely linked to freedom, responsibility and the quality of development.

A fundamental theory to consider  is that developed by Martha Nussbaum on the idea of the Capability Approach, which evaluates well-being and quality of life in terms of the real opportunities a person has to live a life they desire and consider worthy of living. And here is another ‘word that gives life’:  dignity.

All this, to focus on just one of many examples, means taking responsibility on the part of politics and the ruling classes in general for responding to the 1.4 million young people aged 15 to 24 who are ‘NEET’ (not in education, employment or training). This represents a significant amount of ‘wasted human capital’ (Chiara Saraceno, La Stampa, 6 September), which indicates dramatic personal and social distress and creates unacceptable imbalances in the country’s structure. This is the exact opposite of the inclusivity on which a solid democracy is based,  as well as of personal and social dignity.

Laura Linda Sabbadini is therefore right to argue in her new book The Country That Matters (Marsilio) that we must reason based on data and facts, not factoids, post-truth and convenient statistics. Measuring inequalities also contributes to saving democracy.

Regarding balance, it might be worth providing another small but significant example on the relationship between life and work. It is worth noting that one of Milan’s most famous trattorias, Trippa in Porta Romana, has decided to close on Saturdays and Sundays. It is so successful that one has to wait months for a reservation thanks to the good food. ‘Less money, but happier  and a better life,’ says Pietro Caroli, the founder, alongside chef Diego Rossi (Corriere della Sera, 4 September). In frantic, glittering Milan, prioritising quality of life and work over making money is indicative of a minority trend that must be embraced and valued.

Another word that can be linked to the idea of a fair and sustainable economy is probity. Marco Tronchetti Provera, the CEO of Pirelli, used it to commemorate Leopoldo Pirelli on the centenary of his birth:  ‘An entrepreneur, one of the most visionary of his generation.  A decent man, as one would have said in the past; sensitive to social and cultural issues, and endowed with a great sense of responsibility towards the company he led and the country’s institutions’ (Corriere della Sera, 25 August).  ‘An Enlightenment thinker in business;  it is ethics that support the mission of an entrepreneur’.

In the difficult and competitive world of the market economy, values and passions are  all the more important. In this period of innovation, work and profitability, it is all the more important to be able to speak  of a better future.

The ethics of doing and of doing things well have been discussed recently in relation to Giorgio Armani, a prominent figure in the worlds of fashion and culture who has just passed away. This links the moral dimension to an idea that goes beyond fashion and encompasses the deepest sense of elegance as a style of work and life  that includes moderation,  good taste and  kindness. Here we are again with words ‘that give life’.

These are indeed challenging words, all of which we are reflecting on.  Last utopias, as some might say. And rightly so. Yet, in times of swift and heavy change, it is necessary to insist on the fertile words of good feelings and behaviours. This conviction is strengthened by the comfort of classic, wise and severe pages. Take Lewis Mumford, for example, who invites us to distinguish ‘the utopia of escape’ (fantasy, building castles in the air) from the ‘utopia of reconstruction’ (trying to make the world a little better — a topic we have already discussed on this blog).

Or those with which Italo Calvino concludes Invisible Cities, inviting us to ‘seek and recognise, who and what, amidst hell, is not hell, and make it last, and give it space’.

Therefore, it is worth continuing the list of ‘words that give life’, Eluard’s ‘innocent words’. Each of us in our own way.

Emilio Isgrò, Libro cancellato, 1964, Museo del Novecento, Milan 

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