A discourse provided by the Manager of the Bank of Italy helps understand where Italian companies are located and what problems need solving

 Awareness. If we were to indicate a “key word” for Italian companies – and for those who work there at all levels -, perhaps this would be precisely the most suitable word. Companies that are aware of the context in which they operate. It is a matter of culture (business culture, indeed), but also of an ability to analyse the surrounding environment. It is useful better to plan the activity and the development of production. In such complex times as these, help comes in the form of a discourse provided by the General Manager of the Bank of Italy, Salvatore Rossi, who at the “Forum Annuale Media Impresa Italiana” (Medium-Sized Italian Company Annual Forum) a few days ago addressed the theme of “What does the Italian economy know, and what does it need to do”.

Rossi – as usual – deals lucidly with a difficult topic, starting with the observation that in recent years our economy has failed to keep up with other economies. Why is this? Rossi explains: “To explain this gap, we cannot bring up considerations linked to ‘demand'”; the problem is quite different, and it is connected to “supply”. The Manager of the Bank of Italy goes on to say: “Companies naturally do not live in a pneumatic vacuum, they are immersed in a human environment and an institutional framework made up of work, politics, laws, regulations and much more. Their abilities and their choices are influenced and shaped by them”.

Having said this, Rossi goes into an exact description – but absolutely understandable – of the production structure of Italian companies, their difficulties in achieving research and development, the problems they experience in relation to growth and to the aggregation of smaller concerns, the hindrance of public intervention in the economy, the (long) list of things to resolve, the complicated relationship between companies and the credit system.

Rossi takes the reader on a short but intense journey. A journey that however provides the elements that serve better to understand the present. And it is above all a journey that strives to look not only at the obstacles along the way, but also at the positive peculiarities that our economy, and therefore our manufacturing system, still has in full.

Rossi concludes: “The Italian economy has lost its footing in the developed world over the past twenty years, but it still has plenty of lead in its pencil. It can resume the path towards economic development and widespread welfare provided that its manufacturing system achieves a leap in quality, with many more businesses moving towards dimensions and organisational structures suitable for riding the wave of technology. For those companies to have an incentive to do so, the entire country must equip itself with modern infrastructure, both tangible and intangible, starting with the legal system”.

A dissertation at LUISS University tackles the topic of the meanings of retro productions which companies use as leverage

Looking at the past with the right outlook, better to build the present and lay the foundations for a better future. This is also true for businesses. And it is not always a question of major strategies, but often merely taking care in repeatedly proposing solutions (and objects) which come from far away.

The reasoning about the “past” that is still all around us is one of the most interesting aspects of the commercial strategies of many companies. The proposal of vintage objects is the clarification of a highly topical past, one might say, so topical as to constitute not merely a marketing strategy but something more complex, that involves the entire production culture of many companies. Vintage as growth leverage, therefore, and not only as a strategy to sell more.

The past vs present combination is the topic on which Jacopo Maria Conti focused in his dissertation “Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings” presented at LUISS. Conti’s starting point is simple: “In a world where the Internet has made it impossible to forget anything – writes Conti – the Past only remains so to the extent that we are not permitted to change it. For all the rest, all the suggestions, the memories, the manufactured articles, the ideals of a bygone era can continue to relive, to be rediscovered. And since people feel disorientated, dragged along by the stream of excessively rapid changes that only even need to be rationalised, the Past emerges like an anchor of salvation, the only firm point in a sea of unstable perspectives”.

Conti then reasons on the fact that the common vision that marketing has something vintage about it can often be misleading. It is not only a question of bringing people back in time, but something different and more complex. Something that can really contribute to the creation of a new production and consumption culture.

Conti’s work then goes on to examine one of the most popular phenomena linked to vintage  – i.e. retrogaming -, and then makes a closer analysis of all things vintage and retro seen as cultural elements; an analysis which follows that of the connections between businesses and communities of consumers who are loyal to these types of products.

One of the most important aspects of the entire research lies in an effort to understand the process that leads from tradition (the consumer’s “nostalgia”) to business innovation.

The work by Conti is certainly original and not everyone could possibly with it. But it does have the advantage of not only speaking clearly, but also of exploring new markets, little known forms of business, production and consumption cultures that are still far from well-known.

Between nostalgia and innovation: how the meanings related to retro can help businesses develop innovative offerings

Jacopo Maria Conti

Dissertation. LUISS University, Department of Business and Management, Chair of Marketing Communication & New Media Languages, 2018

A survey by Ca’ Foscari university explores the links between the new production paradigm and the situation in the automotive sector

New production tools and new business culture. It is a question of understanding and change. Paying attention to what’s new from entrepreneurs and managers. Which translates to production organisations that different from those of the past, in that they are more efficient, certainly worth observing and experimenting with continuously. This is also what happens in the face of Industry 4.0: new present and new horizons also for Italian industry. Albeit with some difficulties.

The implications of Industry 4.0 applied to the automotive compartment have been investigated in a piece of research by Anna Cabigiosu (from CAMI – Department of Management, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). Her “Industria 4.0: diffusione, applicazioni e rischi nel settore auto” (Industry 4.0: Dissemination, applications and risks in the automotive sector) is an accurate analysis of the new production paradigm, of the situation of the application to the automotive sector in Italy and future prospects. In particular, she takes into consideration: the technologies and the potential of the paradigm 4.0, the Calenda Plan, the importance and dissemination of innovation 4.0 in the automotive field, the type of businesses who choose innovation 4.0 in the automotive field, the functional areas involved in innovation 4.0 in the automotive field, and the existing difficulties.

Cabigiosu thus takes the reader on a a sort of journey in an important and sensitive sector for Italian industry, but also within Industry 4.0. The latter is immediately explained with clarity and lucidity, and the sector in which it should be applied is also outlined.

At the end of the survey, she points her finger not on technical difficulties in the application of the new method of production but on the fact that “in general the world of 4.0 still seems blurry and not sufficiently well-known”. More information and understanding is required in order to cope with such a radical change in production organisation. Which nevertheless costs time and effort (organisational and financial).

In short, Industry 4.0 can truly be (and will be) the fourth industrial revolution, but this must be understood fully in order to become the heritage of production culture. If you look closely, it is embarking down the same path taken by the previous innovations that characterised the other industrial revolutions.

What Anna Cabigiosu has written has one great merit: it is clear and linear, helping the reader to understand (even if the theme is by far one of the most thrilling).

Industria 4.0: diffusione, applicazioni e rischi nel settore auto (Industry 4.0: Dissemination, applications and risks in the automotive sector)

Anna Cabigiosu

Research for innovation in the automotive industry, 2018, pp. 251-265

A dissertation presented to the LUISS Business School analyses social marketing and discovers close links between profit and non-profit organisations

“One cannot not communicate”. A basic assumption for everyone, including for businesses. And even for those which think and believe that communication is different for them, an entity which does not concern itself with production, market dynamics, or how work is organised. But this is not the case. It is true that “one cannot not communicate”. And it is also true that it is nevertheless a good idea to communicate well, and therefore to know what the tools of communication are, what their effects are, and the power of impact that a good (or indeed a bad) communication can contain.

One particular aspect of all this is social media communication; which amongst other things can constitute an important aspect for many businesses which see communication as a way of setting out their corporate social responsibility.

Within the context of social media communication (and indeed communication of every sort), in fact marketing assumes a special role.

“Social marketing”, a dissertation piece for the LUISS Business School by Matteo D’Argenio, is a good introduction in fact to the various aspects relating to communication and social marketing. D’Argenio sub-divides his research into several distinct and complementary parts. Firstly he analyses the history and development of marketing with a particular emphasis on marketing via social media; then he further examines the so-called non-conventional ways of communicating; lastly, (before dealing with a particular case), he assesses the links between social media communication and non-profit associations. Once all this has been done, D’Argenio deals with the particular case of the social marketing battle of Adbusters against Nike.

“The social sphere and the commercial one – explains D’Argenio in his conclusions -, have intersected with each other on several occasions, mixing with each other in different ways”. And not just that, because the author also notes how “social marketing (especially when the main players are non-profit organisations), has over time served as a forerunner for a series of experiments which can also be tracked in people whom effectively seek to sell a product”. In short, both profit and non-profit organisations, from the point of view of communications, can often be intermixed. A change in corporate culture which should make us think about looking into the question in greater depth in all its aspects and effects.

La pubblicità sociale (Social marketing)

Matteo D’Argenio

Dissertation, LUISS Business School, Department of Political Sciences, Chair of Languages of the New Media, 2018

A doctorate thesis investigates the connections between an ageing population, innovation and the need to update

The company cannot be dissociated from its social and territorial context. It is a statement that applies to all aspects linked to production, but that is often not fully grasped. The fact that a production system is inserted in a particular social context for instance also affects the quality of work from the point of view of the demographic composition, and hence the ability to keep up with technological progress. An important aspect of corporate culture, the relationship between innovation and an ageing population of workers is the subject studied by Corrado Polli in his Doctorate Thesis at the School of Statistical Sciences at La Sapienza University in Rome.

“Ageing, productivity and structural changes in the labour market: the role of training” addresses technological progress, an ageing population and the circumstances that lead to losing work. Polli prepares the elements of his investigation in an orderly fashion, starting with an analysis of the demographic situation and then moving on to the technological components of the evolution of society and production (but not just manufacturing). The disconnection between technologies and the ability of workers is illustrated through an investigation into the productivity of the latter. Particular attention, lastly, is dedicated to the situation of workers over 50 – in the majority of cases with low qualifications – in comparison with the different knowledge demands of the past and common today in most companies.

Polli’s general indication on conclusion of his work aims to demonstrate the effectiveness of specific training in relation to age, education and work.A mechanism that has as its objective that of ensuring on the one hand good productivity and, on the other, containing the growth of difficult to manage technological unemployment. Aside from all this, then, the research by Corrado Polli is further proof of the complexity of a constantly evolving corporate culture which must focus on men.

Ageing, productivity and structural changes in the labour market: the role of training

Corrado Polli

Thesis, Doctorate at the School of Statistical Science, La Sapienza University, Rome, 2018

Good business culture is also achieved through good masters. Entrepreneurs and managers, but not only. Employees and workers, of course, and also technicians and white collar workers. And that’s not all. Also those who are able to give a theoretical form to the practice of the factory and office are also important – and significantly so. This is the case of Gino Zappa, referred to by many as the “founder” of Business Economics. And with good reason.

To get a better and more thorough understanding of Zappa, and therefore to investigate the evolution of the economy and of business culture, you can now read “Gino Zappa: il fondatore dell’Economia aziendale” (Gino Zappa: the founder of business economics), a beautiful essay written by Stefano Coronella and Lucrezia Santaniello (‘Parthenope’ University of Naples, Italy) and recently published by Ca’ Foscari.

In just a few pages, the first stages of life of Zappa are covered, followed by his most important publications, and then his contribution to business economics is analysed. Certainly, Zappa sees the company and the business from an economic and accountant’s perspective, but, Coronella and Santaniello explain, he also manages to combine these two visions with an organisational perspective too. As regards all this, Zappa manages to provide a summary in the development of the definition of a company, which is referred to in the Ca’ Foscari essay. While maturing his studies, Zappa defines a company as “an economic institute designed to last that, for the satisfaction of human needs, sorts and performs production in continuous coordination, or procures and consumes wealth”. So a complex system, designed to satisfy human needs.

The work of Coronella and Santaniello is a beautiful summary of an important part of economic studies in Italy in the last hundred years, but it is also and above all a glossy overview of a vision of the company and of the business that still has a lot to say today – albeit in an up-to-date manner.

Gino Zappa: il fondatore dell’Economia aziendale (Gino Zappa: the founder of business economics)

Stefano Coronella, Lucrezia Santaniello

in “Le discipline economiche e aziendali nei 150 anni di storia di Ca’ Foscari” (Economic and business in the 150 years of history of Ca’ Foscari), curated by Monica Billio, Stefano Coronella, Chiara Mio and Ugo Sostero, 2018, pages 161-182.

During this month of October, which is devoted to the theme of “Pirelli and photography”, the History and Stories from the World of Pirelli section has been looking at great photo shoots inside factories: shots that capture the act of work for eternity, freezing the motion of machines, and giving dignity to human hands. In many cases, these photos were for Pirelli magazine, which from 1948 to 1972 often investigated the relationship between people and work. And “factory reporters” were joined on the pages of the magazine by other great photographers who, in their various ways, helped create a visual story of the world of Pirelli.

One of the finest was Fulvio Roiter. The great master from Venice made his debut in Pirelli no. 6 in December 1962 with “There is no sea in Miletus harbour”. The report opened with a magnificent view of Istanbul at dawn. For the magazine, Roiter was constantly on the lookout for unknown lands and, drawing a map year after year, issue after issue, cover after cover, he created a world of images of immense value for Pirelli. Readers travelled with Roiter through the brilliant green forests of rubber trees in Brazil, through Tehran surrounded by desert, all the way to Maya temples in Mexico and the bright blue vineyards of Madera.

While Fulvio Roiter was entranced by the spectacle of nature, it was life stories that captured the eye of another great photographer, who also worked for the magazine throughout the 1960s: Ugo Mulas. Strictly in black and white, the miner from the Mont Blanc Tunnel passed silently by in front of the Milanese photographer’s lens, followed by Don Zeno Saltini, founder of the community of Nomadelfia, brokers at the horse market, with their felt hats and kerchiefs around their necks, schoolchildren in Chiesa Rossa, and women who became “angels without a hearth”, since work allows for no distinction between the sexes. And with them came the giants of art, such as Lucio Fontana, Alberto Giacometti, Fausto Melotti, and Henry Moore, with their torn canvases, blocks of marble, and crumpled bronzes.

The photo shoots by Pepi Merisio, born in Caravaggio in 1931, conjure up visions that recall those of the filmmaker Ermanno Olmi, his contemporary and fellow countryman. Here the subjects are mountain homes and flocks of sheep, boats fishing by lamplight in the Ligurian Sea, and the farmhouses and villages of Lombardy. We end this tribute to the masters of photography who worked with Pirelli magazine with Enzo Sellerio, and two of the shoots he made for it: “The volcano in bloom” in 1964 and “Desert of stone” in 1968, which tell the story of Etna in pictures, a “battle with a giant of power and patience” and the earthquake in Belice, where “in one night, the homes and churches all became a motionless desert of stone”. Where silence now reigns.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”280″ gal_title=”i grandi fotografi della rivista pirelli”]

The principles and practice of smartworking summarised in a book

Once upon a time there were factories and offices. Now, it is not so straightforward. On the contrary, differentiated production methods are becoming increasingly make common, in terms of physical location and even more so of work organization and hierarchical relationships. It is called smartworking and is the topic of the newly published book entitled “Smarting up! La smart organization: una nuova relazione tra persona e organizzazione” (The smart organization: a new relationship between people and organizations) written by Alessandro Donadio (HR Innovation Leader PwC specialised in the ethnological aspects of human actions).

The book is about 150 pages long, making for a swift read but is worth taking very seriously. It starts from the assertion that until recently companies focused all their attention either only on technology or on the legal aspects of their operations. Now, smartworking is profoundly changing manufacturing methods by acting on the space and time of production.

As explained in the presentation of the book, in the past, a person hired by a company had a clear concept that they would be paid wages for a certain job in a well-defined and predetermined workspace (factory or office) and time. Today, the smart organization turns the two pillars of space and time around onto the people, rather than onto the organizations, whereby changing the geometry of the relationship from its very foundations. This results in enhancing the value of results and self-organization rather than coordination. In other words, the strong elements of new smart manufacturing organizations responsibilizing individuals, delegating and autonomy. The definition of leadership is also changing. While new technologies capable of linking people gain greater importance, becoming a sort of adhesive of a fluid organization that is managed in entirely new manner.

Alessandro Donadio illustrates this starting from the two overthrown pillars of space and time before moving onto the construction of the new pillars of production, outlining new individual responsibilities and a new leadership. This is summed up as a whole in a smart organization diagram known under the abbreviation 4P4Smart that refers to the concepts of Practice, People, Platform and Place which are the elements on which the new production methods can be built and operated. With a core cultural background that must be assured, i.e. that of the feeling of belonging that spans beyond space and time.

One of the messages of the book is that smart manufacturing does not simply mean greater process efficiency and effectiveness but also implies higher awareness of one’s role within a business culture that evolves towards horizons which differ from today’s. A great read.

Smarting up! La smart organization: una nuova relazione tra persona e organizzazione” (The smart organization: a new relationship between people and organizations)

Alessandro Donadio

Franco Angeli, 2018

An in-depth analysis of network contracts reveals the limitations of the tool but also sheds light on its potentials

Teamwork. Working together. Creating associations for a particular purpose. Networking. The concept can be expressed in different ways but the essence is always the same. Working together to reach goals more easily and more effectively. This is also the objective of network contracts designed, created and developed in difficult times for the economy and manufacturing. Precisely because of the conditions under which they were created, these tools have been the cause of great expectations and scorching disappointments.

It is to the theme of network contracts that Laura Azzolina (researcher at the University of Palermo) recently turned her attention.

In an article entitled “I contratti di rete: valutazioni oltre l’emergenza” (The network contract: some evaluations after the emergency), Azzolina focuses in particular on network contracts beyond the contingent situations which generated them. The tool, explains the paper, was developed in the most acute phase of the economic downturn for Italian companies and this circumstance contributed to magnifying expectations but also fired the consequent dissatisfaction. Azzolina’s analysis starts from this assertion.

The article examines the limits and opportunities of the tool, outlining principles and consequent applications. Besides theory, however, Laura Azzolina puts the situation to the test with a qualitative analysis of fourteen aggregation case studies, selected in declining and growing sectors in two southern regions of Italy, namely Apulia and Sicily.

The results are different. The article shows that, although late compared to some northern regions of Italy, also the south experienced a diffusion of network contracts which are currently being adopted by more companies (in absolute values) than in the north. However, the relationship between network contract and crisis situations is what counts the most. The experience taken into considered appears to refute the idea that network contracts can aid the management of systemic, supply chain or territorial crises, says Azzolina. Instead, in many cases, generalized crisis appears to be one of the main causes of the failure of cooperation for achieving common goals. In short, network contracts may not always be the tool to fight economic downturn. Despite this, they can still generate great benefits for companies that are put in the best conditions to face difficulties. It is a question of business culture that can profoundly affect the response of individual businesses to the possibilities offered by networks. But the matter is also one circumstances linked to the local territory as well as individual business situations. In her analysis, for example, Azzolina indicates how network contracts can support the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the south of Italy in three different ways, namely, by allowing them to approach new markets, by fostering the growth of skills and by broadening the circle of potential partners.

I contratti di rete: valutazioni oltre l’emergenza (The network contract: some evaluations after the emergency)

Laura Azzolina

Studi Organizzativi, 2018, Fascicolo 1

https://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=62121&Tipo=Articolo%20PDF&idRivista=73

Milan in numbers: work, income, patents, businesses, advanced universities. The result is an interesting portrait of a metropolis of science and creativity, industry and trade, employment and investments – all translated into numbers. It is where the focus is on gross domestic product, i.e. on produced wealth, and on social inclusion, i.e. on the people we care about. And it is home to a practical and pragmatic attitude, one of few words and rigorous attention to facts and data. A reformist, reasonable and severe city, mindful of feelings but not vapid or plaintive. Far from it. Today, strong of its economic development of international breadth and its well-known social inclusion abilities, the city can claim a serious policy mindful of growth, sustainability, solidarity and can rightfully be critical and proactive towards the central government that appears to prefer welfare solutions (basic income guarantee, corporate, tax amnesties, early pensions) to economic policies that foster innovation, long-term growth, competitiveness (this will be topic of the talks on Thursday the 18th at the Assembly of Assolombarda, the largest and most dynamic local association of Confindustria with six thousand members).

What are the numbers of Milan? There are some. GDP of EUR 153 billion, 10% of the Italian total. Exports for EUR 41 billion, 9 % of the Italian total. 90 major corporations generating a turnover in excess of EUR 1 billion: Munich has 61, Barcelona 39. 4,224 multinationals (one third of all those present in Italy) with 431 thousand employees and EUR 208 billion of turnover.

Milan is home to eight very prestigious universities, with the Bocconi and the Polytechnic ranking prominently on international level. 204 thousand university students, 13,000 of whom foreigners, a number which is on the rise. Interestingly, 30% of specialized degrees in the Bocconi University and Polytechnic are earned by foreign students who stay here to work or move away exporting in best Italian polytechnical culture worldwide.

Milan and Lombardy produced 1,423 patents last year, one third of all Italian ones. 20% of all scientific publications. EUR 4.8 billion spent in research and development (21% of total Italy).

Milan is a tourist destination, attracting 8.8 million foreign tourists in 2017, more than Rome (7.7 million) and Venice. It ranks among the top 15 world metropolis (the standing is led by Bangkok, London, Paris, Dubai) and one of the top five in Europe. The city can boast another primacy, after those related to economy, universities, science, furniture and fashion. The news is from the Mastercard Global Destination Cities Index, which documents that tourists spend EUR 2.7 billion a year in town (on hotels, restaurants, services, shopping). The growth forecast for 2018 is 4.36% and is expected to pass the EUR 9 million mark.

What is driving all this? The large global event of Expo 2015 is still a strong force. And the international media, on paper and online, describe Milan such as “the place to be” (“The New York Times”) and as an excellence for business, food and quality of life (more recently in “The Wall Street Journal”). “A virtuous model that combines search of beauty and intelligent productivity,” commented the “Corriere della Sera”.

These numbers and many more will be the foundation of the Assolombarda Assembly, scheduled for Thursday morning in a place of outstanding symbolic significance: the Teatro alla Scala. They also motivate the choice of Association President Carlo Bonomi to focus his speech on the role of entrepreneurs, the far-seeing and open-minded social players who are the key developing the entire country. A strong commitment with an eye to Europe, to defend and change. A range of activities aimed to help weaker members of society, to foster their involvement and inclusion. It is not just the assembly of a trade association. It is a real appointment of strong cultural and political significance, where politics means policies for projects, programs and reforms not militancy.

Which ones? “Domus“, the prestigious Milan-based magazine of architecture and urban design, known for its big names and international scope, devoted 36 pages of its latest issue to the “great transformations of Milan”, speaking of “industrial humanism”, innovation, urban metamorphoses (starting from the Human Technopole area, a place of excellence for training, research and business hi-tech), metropolitan vocations, such as life sciences, agro-food industry driven by an original food culture and global exports, Industry 4.0 and digital changes in industries and services, synthesis of art, culture and design, finance connected to major international markets and finally the (albeit tentative) attention to start-ups. All factors are in motion and private enterprises play a fundamental role. But everyone is asking for good politics. Not only from the Local Administration, well lead by Mayor Beppe Hall heading a team capable of combining competitiveness and inclusiveness. But also from the Regional and particularly the central governments, with an eye to Europe. All the key themes of the Assolombarda Assembly were recently discussed in a “DomusForum” on “The future of cities”. It is a difficult future, in cities which are “complex and incomplete systems”, to use the brilliant synthesis of Saskia Sassen, famous sociologist from the Columbia University, New York.

Milan has been dealt a good hand. Its citizens have critical conscience but are also mindful. A research for “Domus” by Nielsen confirmed that the 85% of the inhabitants of Milan are satisfied of their city, on average more than the other inhabitants of Chicago, London and Sao Paolo and just a step below the satisfaction expressed by the Chinese for Shanghai.

So, Milan is a city on the go. “The city on the rise” has still an enterprising and dynamic soul. And its character is precisely that of change. Still today.

Milan is crossroads of trade and inclusive relations (a Milanese is a person who works in Milan, asserted Medieval charters), the birthplace of the “polytechnical culture” with Bramante and especially Leonardo during the most fertile season of the Renaissance when artistic creativity met technological wisdom. Anticipating the modernisation of Italy, it was “the city of factories” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but never a company town having a single cultural dimension, as Turin was for cars. Instead, it was the place of original synergies between the factories and finance, research centres and universities, with the pride of “doing” and the critical sharpness of “telling” (all top Italian artists have come to terms with Milan). The “Natta Paradigm”, to quote the Nobel Prize in Chemistry given to Giulio Natta (who was trained in Milan in Pirelli and Montecatini laboratories and whose applied research created plastic, the international excellence of Italian industry of the 1960s), still rings true today expressing the coming together of science, technology and industry. The keystone of Milan. Industrial humanism. Vital assets, particularly useful in a season that after the year 2000, is posing the new challenges of digital and sharing economy.

The Great Recession that exploded on international level just ten years ago imposed a proper “paradigm shift” in manufacturing, consumption, markets, services, cultures of growth read according to parameters which are qualitative (BES, an Italian acronym standing for fair and sustainable well-being) and not only quantitative (GDP). The themes of development ethics, better economic balance, environmental sustainability and social responsibility of enterprises in search of a re-legitimization of the business itself and of market culture by adopting a real “moral of the lathe” (the quality of a job well done and the safety of products and manufacturing mechanisms to foster a positive relationship with territories and stakeholders) came in the foreground for large parts of the public opinion and economic players.

A culture of values, not only value for shareholders in which its Milan, for history and news, has much to say. The Assolombarda Assembly will speculate once again on its inclinations. The economic ones. And the ethical ones, too.

“Work and creative genius for a new economic order”, recently said Pope Francis (interview with “Il Sole24Ore”, 7 September), echoing the themes of his encyclical “Laudato si'” on “On care for our common home”, for work and dignity, person, development and social justice. Important indications. Of the kind the economic culture of Lombardy, capitalizing on entrepreneurship and know-how has always provided important testimonies (the words of Cardinal Martini and, today, of Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, President of the Pontifical Council for Culture on “doing business in order to create values” confirm this).

Rounded and therefore soft, inclusive, supportive. And far-seeing into future changes. The smart metropolis is characterized by a high degree of integration in the global economic” among the 50 Global Cities, according to the “Globalization and World Cities Research Network”. It is experiencing a growth, more than anywhere else in the country (more than 3.2% with respect to the GDP of the beginning of the great recession of 2008, while Italy was back by 4.4%). And strong of a European dimension. The district within a radius of 60 kilometres from the city it produces 25% of Italian exports and the manufactures same percentage of added value.

So, there it is, Milan at the epicentre of a system of relationships that, in the digital  transformation of the economy, of robotics, big data and the Internet of things, bring together manufacturing (29% of the GDP), hi-tech services, research, training and culture. Furthermore, the city is centre of industry, finance and the knowledge economy in an “infinite city” sprawling across Piemonte, Lombardia, Emilia and North East of the country becoming the dynamic heart of the best European enterprises. An attractive heart of talent and capital. Innovation is the drive. Cultural openness and creativity are the basic features. The future may hold good things.