Multicultural organisations and complex marketplaces. These are two aspects of our world today that most modern enterprises have to face. Without overlooking issues concerning the workers and relations between production and management, the need to deal with a diverse range of commercial areas and the corresponding need to be prepared both culturally and in terms of the organisation are certainly among the most pressing challenges that a business must learn to deal with effectively.

A study by Rosana Grušovnik (M.A. in Business Sciences at the Gea College, Faculty of Entrepreneurship, in Lubiana, Slovenia) and Dejan Jelovac (professor of Organisational Sciences & Business Ethics at the School of Advanced Social Studies in Nova Gorica), which recently appeared in the academic journal Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences (IIASS), can help to better understand the relationships between different cultures within a company.

Entitled “The Impact of Managerial Multicultural Competences on Company’s Competitive Advantage in Global Economy”, the paper focuses, in particular, on the management of intercultural differences as found in both markets and organisations. As the two authors explain, the emphasis is on the managerial dilemma of how to achieve competitiveness in today’s environment, one in which diverse market forces are at play and different cultures of enterprise and consumption are coming together.

The article is based on both theory and an empirical survey of 28 managers of companies in Slovenia, the EU, and the former Yugoslavia. The goal of this survey is to determine the intercultural skills of those interviewed and their impact on the day-to-day workings of the business, as well as the impact that the cultural factors found in their respective markets have on operations.

According to the authors, this empirical evidence, backed by theory, shows that it takes managers with special management skills, with the awareness, know-how and ability to communicate and to work across constantly different cultural barriers. Indeed, the two authors go on to hypothesise that the weight of all of this is such that, in its absence, it would put into question the very existence of the enterprise. In short, any company that wants to thrive and to grow must open up to the world, boldly but with understanding. If you think about it, it’s confirmation of a challenge that we all must strive to overcome.

The Impact of Managerial Multicultural Competences on Company’s Competitive Advantage In Global Economy

Rosana Grušovnik,  Dejan Jelovac

Innovative Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, Vol. 7, No. 3

“To old people I would say that death doesn’t arrive when they grow old, but with forgetfulness”. These words were taken from the “Farewell Letter” written by Gabriel Garcia Marquez not long before his death in 2014, and they are an important lesson, not only for the elderly, but also, and above all, for society as a whole. They are words rich with implications, attributed to a man who, in his most famous book, One Hundred Years of Solitude, published in 1967, had written, “Everyone wants to live at the top of the mountain, and no one so much as suspects that true happiness lies in the manner in which we climb the slope. […] The secret to growing old well is nothing more than the signing of an honourable agreement with solitude”. A calm, steady gaze into the eyes of solitude. But also the fear of being abandoned, of being forgotten. Nearly half a century passed between the two writings (as Gabo was 40 when he wrote the epic story of Colonel Aureliano Buendì a in Macondo), and the difference in tone and in perspective helps us to be more aware of the relationship between one’s age and changes in social relations. The passing of time is wearying, as the shadows of our past begin to stretch out longer than the road that remains before us, but it is precisely because time is so short and, at the same time, rich with memories and of experiences that are of relevance not only to ourselves, but also to society as a whole, that it must not be pointlessly wasted. Our elders are an asset, not a burden or a hindrance to society. “A resource to be developed, not abandoned”, thereby facilitating an intolerable “throw-away culture”, as Pope Francis insisted when speaking of the “alliance between youth and the elderly” for a “better future”.

“Still too young to be old”, wrote Giangiacomo Schiari, assistant editor of Corriere della Sera, and Carlo Vergani, a highly experienced gerontologist (at the Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico hospital in Milan), in a book analysing the condition and contradictions of a fragile, self-centred society, a society that ages and in which we are losing sight of the relationship between past and future. Rediscovering that relationship is a complex challenge, but an essential one, both for the nation as a whole and for world of work and of enterprise, caught in the grip of contrasting forces: on the one hand, the extension of how long we can continue working and the raising of retirement age (for justifiable reasons of keeping social security and public spending under control), as well as the loss of jobs by tens of thousands of over-50s, who are finding it extremely hard to find further employment (and so are trapped without either a salary or pension benefits); and on the other, the challenges for the younger generations to find jobs and the bleak outlook for social security in the future. It’s a tangle of complicated issues that call for political, systemic solutions, but which also evoke answers from the culture of enterprise and from business decisions in the management of human resources. Europe’s population is aging (with Germany and Italy leading the way), and there is much that needs to be done.

What’s the answer? A sort of “new pact between generations” which, with the help of both taxes and withholdings, takes advantage of the elderly working part-time to teach the younger generations and to transmit skills and knowledge that would otherwise be lost, and more carefully designed policies of human capital than many of the personnel practices that continue to be adopted.

Indeed, age must not be used as a trap (to get rid of the elderly) nor, naturally, as a means of exclusion (not making room for youth unless on short-term training contracts, given that the permanent positions are all filled). If, in this age of global competition and the rise of the “knowledge economy”, competitiveness (particularly for the more “elderly” nations) lies in combining innovation and inclusion (as discussed at length in last week’s article), then the development of people must also take into account the wealth of skills and experience that comes from age. Diversity management (and the quest for synergies between genders, sexual preferences, cultures, religions, and nationalities) must also include age management and a more sophisticated management of the various age groups found in an organisation. In this way, a focus on people can be tied, virtuously, to increased productivity.

“Ricomincio da 50” (Starting over at 50) is the brilliant title of conference organised by Assolombarda with the support of the Province of Milan, of Aldai and of Federmanager (the organisations that represent company managers and the Italian institute for excellence in education and in economic and social research, or “ISTUD”) regarding the management of career transition both inside and outside of the organisation. There are two main projects within the context of the growing commitment of EU institutions to age management in the workplace (and for the reallocation of those who have lost their jobs): “Age management in Milan” (or “AiM”) and “ASTrO”, a project to provide support in career transitions. In terms of the numbers, the crisis has resulted in growing levels of unemployment, including at the level of middle and senior management (from 2008 to 2013, 910,000 managers lost their positions, exceeding the number of managers still employed, at 769,000, meaning that more than one out of every two managers lost their job, and many were unable to find another one), and this phenomenon is particularly evident in the Lombardy region, the heart of the manufacturing and service industries, with 10,000 people losing their jobs. The industries hit the hardest include information technology, electronics, telecommunications, mechanical engineering, metal working, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.

We are, in fact, at risk of losing such a valuable resource, which will be of grave detriment not only to the individuals concerned and their families, but also for Italy’s economy and for the nation as a whole. How can we save this wealth of experience and skill? There are both business decisions (understanding the phenomenon and managing it so as not to “burn” human capital) and personal ones (breaking free from the traditional study-work-retire mentality and getting used to focusing on the self and on one’s future in terms of a more complex path, such as study-work-more study-work abroad-reallocation-etc.), making the shift from linear, upwardly mobile career paths to more complex, more sinuous paths marked by greater diversity. This is a great social and cultural shift that individuals can’t make on their own and so must be supported and aided, both fiscally and in terms of education and training, as well as a great challenge for businesses (as a fundamental aspect of corporate social responsibility), for trade unions, for politicians, and for society at large, not to mention a significant cultural commitment. (The Pirelli Foundation has directed both attention and resources to the preservation of the past and to intergenerational dialogue through on-going initiatives such as “Il tempo dell’uomo: lavoro e no”).

We must establish a new balance between experience and innovation and between the generations, including in the workplace. Indeed, Italy, too, has a great need for commitment to innovation, but there are no changes or improvements to competitiveness, productivity or social sustainability in financial decisions, whether in microeconomics or macro, that can do without a profound awareness of our history and of the best examples of Italian development. It is precisely this wealth of knowledge that our elders can make available to the younger generations, both in the workplace and in society as a whole.

Organisations as living organisms is a bold idea, but it does have some basis in fact. Thinking of a company as being animated by an entrepreneurial spirit and by work, much like a “living” being, is an important aspect of the culture of manufacturing and one to be taken into consideration. However, we need to be able to bring together diverse ways of viewing reality, such as elements of biology, evolution, economics and management.

 

This is something that was recently done by Roberto Cafferata, past president of Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale and professor of Economics & Management at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, when he rewrote is textbook entitled “Manager in adattamento. Tra razionalità economica, evoluzione e imperfezione dei sistemi” (Adapting managers. Economic rationality, evolution and system imperfection).  

 

In just under 400 pages dense with content, Cafferata presents an interpretation of the organisation that veers towards evolutionism, but which also has a solid foundation in the most effective forms of business management. The author describes the underlying idea right in the first few lines of the book, where he writes, “In this text, we will reflect on the enterprise as a rational system and on the relationship that the organisation […] has with the socio-economic environment.” Thus, in Cafferata’s view, the enterprise is an imperfect system that adapts to the surrounding environment in a dialogue that has a significant impact on the organisation itself. 

 

“In the on-going running of the business, there will be suspensions of rationality in decision-making processes, profound shifts, and contradictions between conduct in the past and conduct in the present,” the author continues. In other words, an enterprise is not an entity that is cut off from the outside world. In fact, it is a thing that lives, that “speaks” with the world outside, and which needs to be understood, beginning with the observation that an enterprise can alter the environment and can be altered by that environment. Cafferata then measures and interprets the relationships between enterprise and environment taking an evolutionist approach to explain that an active enterprise is not just an object, but also an agent of evolutionary change. 

 

The author continues by taking the reader on a journey that begins with economic rationalism, proceeds through the principles of governance and management in general business administration, and ends the voyage with an in-depth look at the enterprise as a system of people and things. At this point, Cafferata deals with important issues such as competitiveness, information and communication technology, relationships within a production system, evolution and the relationship between the enterprise, the environment and society. He concludes with a discussion of the relationship between Darwinian evolution and the evolution of enterprise. 

Cafferata’s work is not always the easiest to follow, but it is a useful, important read in order to begin looking at the enterprise through fresh eyes. And that is something we would all do well to do.

 

Manager in adattamento. Tra razionalità economica, evoluzione e imperfezione dei sistemi

Roberto Cafferata

Il Mulino, Bologna, 2014 

Inclusion and innovation is a combination that ensures greater productivity and competitiveness in business. Diversity (such as sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, culture) can be a powerful driver of growth, a source of creativity and of new ideas, and a stimulus for a better culture of enterprise, and diversity management is now seen as an essential tool in development, especially for those who operate in the international marketplace and in the difficult construction of the vital unification of global and local. Recent studies by Catalyst (a leading US advisory firm, which has offices in Europe, Japan, Canada, India, Australia, and more) and by McKinsey have shed some light on this topic.

According to Catalyst (as reported by Paolo Bricco in Il Sole24Ore, 25 September), over the last decade, the 50 global US corporations – benchmarks in diversity management – posted stock-price gains that outperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 22% and the Nasdaq by 28%. In other words, the financial markets are rewarding the vibrancy of companies that are able to come to terms with and take advantage of different, and often conflicting, approaches to business. (In short, investors like a company that is neither a military base nor a temple of conformity, of blind obedience, or of organisational inflexibility.) McKinsey expanded the study to include Europe, putting together a sample population of US, British, French and German firms, and found that companies that have boards that feature a significant number of women are worth 25% more, in terms of efficiency as measured by return on equity (ROE) and growth, than the rest, while also confirming the improved internal physiology of businesses that adopt diversity policies generally. In short, McKinsey has found that a diversified, inclusive workforce generates greater results in teamwork (57% above the standard), in individual productivity (+12%), and in the ability to build strong, long-lasting relationships with the customer (+19%).

Taylorism and Fordism, strict technocrats, and standardised management processes have had their day in the sun. “Obedience is no longer a virtue” is a recurring view that can now also be witnessed in the best culture of enterprise (and was the courageous decision of the Roman Catholic priest Lorenzo Milani, one that was finally rediscovered after his death in 1967). There is now room in enterprises working on the complex fringes of innovation for critical (and even heretical) thought. Calls for “the individual first” (or what of the work of Emmanuel Mounier or parts of “La condition ouvrière” by Simone Weil?) and for the development of human resources, essential aspects of our “knowledge economy”, need to be translated into organisational structures and rules of governance in which diversity is a key to decision-making and a focus of conduct and strategies – efforts to be carried forward.

“The new economic rationality is made up of the appreciation of differences,” as Bricco has said, and Andrea Notarnicola, a labour sociologist and author of “Global Inclusion” (a book recently published by Franco Angeli), notes: “The paradigm founded on inclusion represents the evolution of equal opportunities for women and of corporate social responsibility. It is an overall approach, a global orientation, that leads every business, both within and without, to consider see diversity as the new, fundamental key to competitiveness.”

Easier said than done. There is, of course, no lack of resistance in business. The road from a will to improve to actual inclusive practices properly applied is a long one. Nonetheless, the most important thing is that the process is under way, backed by a sound theoretical framework and supported by a number of success stories. In addition, a study by the European Business Test Panel of 188 European enterprises that have a diversity agenda has shown that all areas of the business can benefit. As reported in “Il Sole24Ore”, the business owners and managers surveyed pointed to performance improvements in recruiting in 61% of the cases, in customer service in 58%, in the development of new products in 49%, in training in 45%, in entering new markets in 42%, in management processes in 40%, and in the involvement of stakeholders in 30% of the cases. And the result? Better and more effective ideas, greater organisational efficiency, and greater profits.

In short, diversity pays, and work is being done in this direction even in Italy. To cite just one example, Barilla has created a Diversity & Inclusion Board comprised of independent experts and an internal Operating Committee working in concert with Catalyst, Human Right Campaign, and Parks. Mariapaola Vetrucci, chief strategy officer for Barilla, said, “Multicultural diversity is an indispensable value for a multinational organisation. The promotion of diversity and inclusion is more than just ‘doing the right thing’. It is also supporting our strategy for growth. A diverse workforce and an inclusive corporate culture increase our commitment and encompass a more profound understanding of the company, which is essential for those like us who serve consumers throughout the world.”

Ethical and financial value in harmony. “Parks – Liberi e uguali”, an organisation founded by Ivan Scalfarotto (a member of Italy’s parliament and now under-secretary of reform in the Renzi Government), chaired by Dario Longo and directed by Igor Suran, is also working in this direction. The name comes from Rosa Parks, a civil-rights activist in the US who had started the anti-discrimination protest against blacks on buses in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. Its underlying vision is clear: “Going to work is as ordinary a gesture of life as catching a bus, and Parks’ small gesture is a testimony to all of us that the world can be changed just by saying a peaceful but firm ‘no’ to discrimination.” Today, companies such as Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, Roche, Ikea, Telecom, IBM, Barilla, Deutsche Bank, and others are all members of the organisation: “Valuing all aspects of an individual’s identity is an indispensable part of the full expression of human capital.” Identity, diversity, competitiveness. A virtuous circle to be supported.

The modern businessman is not what he once was. Although the roots are the same and the spirit of enterprise starts from the same foundations, it is clear that the challenges, the pace of change, the possible alternatives, and the decisions to be made can be quite different from what they were 20 or 50 years ago. The role of the entrepreneur has always been under the spotlight, but now it is also, often, the focus of harsh criticism. The entrepreneur seems to have descended through all of the figures found in Purgatory, from angels to daemons. So much so that one might wonder whether entrepreneurs are even needed anymore. 

“Imprenditore: risorsa o problema? Impresa e bene comune” (Entrepreneur: resource or problem? Enterprise and common good), by Giorgio Fiorentini, Giulio Sapelli and Giorgio Vittadini, reflects on this and on how important it still is to appreciate the role of the entrepreneur and seeks to answer a number of related questions, such as how much the work of the entrepreneur has changed over the last decade in Italy, what the role of enterprise is in modern society, where do entrepreneurs fall along the spectrum of tradition and innovation, and what does “common good” mean to an entrepreneur.

One nice thing about the book is that it is not based purely on theory and observation, but also on the views of entrepreneurs themselves.  The book is a collection of writings by some of Italy’s leading managers and entrepreneurs, including Oscar Farinetti, Pasquale Natuzzi, Roberto Snaidero, Pietro Modiano, Giorgio Squinzi, Bernhard Scholz, and 20 of their peers, all of whom may raise controversy, but who are certainly examples of business people who have something interesting to say. 

In this way, the work reflects on the profound transformation being seen in Italian industry and points to a number of possible strategies for giving rise to an economic and cultural recovery, starting with the crisis, these eyewitness testimonies, and the new ways of doing business that are coming to the fore and arriving to one important conclusion: in order to start again and to construct a new economy, we need to focus on the good of the individual and the development of society.

Imprenditore: risorsa o problema? Impresa e bene comune

Giorgio Fiorentini, Giulio Sapelli, Giorgio Vittadini

Mondadori, 2014

The importance of innovation. Originality in exports. The extraordinary power of human capital in this era of the “knowledge economy”. These are the things that the experience of Silicon Valley can teach Italy’s prime minister, Matteo Renzi, who is in search of ideas to revitalise his country’s economic growth. This was the gist of a lengthy article by Enrico Moretti, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, which was published last Friday in La Stampa following the meetings that Renzi had with the Italian scientific community in San Francisco and with the senior management of three of the most important corporations of the digital economy, namely Google, Yahoo and Twitter.

Moretti is a brilliant economist, one who has earned the appreciation of America’s president, Barack Obama, and who is known for his ideas in a recent book, The New Geography of Jobs (published in the US by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and previously featured on this blog), about the importance of high tech in generating jobs, even in the more traditional service industries. As an experienced economist, one well familiar with the structure of the Italian economy and the reasons behind the country’s gap in productivity and competitiveness and in a position to compare Italy to the Silicon Valley in the name of innovation, he knows that development doesn’t come from the blind application of a successful model taken from a completely different context, but he also knows that innovative ideas successfully tested in one area of the world can provide invaluable ideas if shrewdly adapted to different situations.

So what does California’s high-tech industry have to tell us here in Italy, having been humbled by two decades of stagnant growth and a lengthy period of recession?

Moretti’s first point concerns the role of the “innovation sector” (a driving force not only in Silicon Valley, but also in other cities, including Boston, Seattle, Austin and Washington) and the industrial makeup of the export sector. Although it gives jobs to less than a third of the American workforce, exports are dominated by highly innovative industries and drive the entire economy. Moretti explains that businesses invest heavily in research and development, thereby generating unique goods and services that no other nation knows how to create. Globalisation benefits the businesses in this sector because emerging markets are not competition, but rather markets in which to sell their products. As China, Brazil or Poland grow, demand for products coming out of Silicon Valley increases, and this translates into more jobs and higher salaries. In Italy, on the other hand, Moretti says that exports are dominated by more traditional industries, from textiles and furniture to footwear and eyewear, which are under attack from international competition, and Italian businesses continue, unfortunately, to invest very little in research and development, not only as compared to Silicon Valley, but also as compared to nearly all other European nations. Stagnation and decline are inevitable under such circumstances.

But there’s more. In Silicon Valley, businesses start small and then grow. Even if many fail, one in a hundred becomes a global powerhouse with tens of thousands of employees. Italian businesses, on the other hand, start small and stay that way, due, to some extent, to deeply rooted cultural reasons, but also because Italy’s employment legislation and great fiscal pressures discourage growth.

Moreover, Silicon Valley firms invest a great deal in human capital, from in-house training and outside specialisation programmes to time set aside for personal projects or sabbaticals. Conversely, Italian businesses invest very little, which is having increasingly toxic consequences on worker productivity and on their ability to generate innovation. In the US, we see a virtuous cycle in which innovation leads to growth, which generates the resources to fund further investment in research and development and to create wealth and jobs. Indeed, the creation of economic value depends on talent and human capital like never before. Here in Italy, on the other hand, the cycle is a vicious one, made of scarce investment, limited wealth, decline, a lack of resources, and spiralling ever downward.

Moretti insists that the sum of all of these factors explains why the average productivity of export workers in Silicon Valley is more than double that of the average export worker in Italy, and this has an adverse effect on the nation’s entire economy in the form of lower productivity, fewer jobs even in the rest of the manufacturing and service sectors, lower wages, and less wealth.

So how do we close this gap? Moretti explains that it’s by shifting Italy’s industry mix from a nation that invests too little in innovation and human capital to one that invests heavily and produces innovative goods and services. Of course, it’s not a matter of copying Silicon Valley’s mix, which centres around the Internet, software, robotics, biotech, new materials and green technologies, but rather to focus on innovation in areas where Italian industry excels – an intelligent mix based on the strength of tradition and the drive of innovation.

In other words, it’s about enterprise responsibility and the essential cultural shift they need to be able to make (or, better, that they must continue making, seeing as how the best businesses are already moving in this direction, but there are still too few of them to drive the rest of the economy), but, above all, it is about political, governmental responsibility and that of the organised social partners (e.g. the industry associations, trade unions, and so on). Moretti continues by saying that the government needs to reduce the obstacles that are keeping Italy from growing and from modernising. It’s not that Italian workers are less productive than workers in the Silicon Valley because they don’t work as hard or are less creative or less intelligent. In fact, when Italians make the move to Silicon Valley, they do great work, oftentimes even better than their American counterparts. The problem is the business ecosystem and the system of incentives and disincentives created by the fiscal and legislative framework. Hence the need for reforms focused on allowing energy to flow free. As Moretti explains, it is clear that, without a system of taxation that is less punitive on human capital, without more modern employment laws, and without a faster legal system and a less medieval system of public administration, it will be difficult to attract foreign investment or stimulate domestic investment in advanced, innovative sectors.

To beat the competition, you must first understand it. And to do good business with another country, you need to understand it, even today in the 21st century. This is something that the shrewdest businessmen know all too well. Good culture of enterprise looks not only within, but also without, and very far afield. Luigi Einaudi’s historic call for government bodies to “deliberate based on knowledge” is relevant to this day, not only in government, but also in business, where it becomes “manage based on knowledge”. 

All of this also applies to foreign markets, which is what makes The Chinese Way, by Min Ding (Smeal Professor of Marketing and Innovation at Pennsylvania State University) and Jie Xu (an associate researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Innovation and Growth, Fudan University, China), an important read, both as a general example and as a specific case study. The book describes every aspect of Chinese culture that has any sort of impact on business with the goal, as the two authors explain, of providing all that is needed to build a “cultural bridge” between two worlds by placing social, political and economic issues in a clear, precise historical and cultural context. Because China today remains one of the nations playing an increasingly important role in the world economy, it can show us how important it is to properly understand the nation in order to establish trade and business relations that present serious prospects for growth. 

Each chapter of the book provides an honest assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of China today, along with a realistic outlook for the coming years, in order to provide a framework that can enable “westerners” to establish relationships based on deep cultural understanding.

The approach taken is an original one. The book deals with 51 topics that would be studied if China were a recently discovered civilisation. Like anthropologists cautiously approaching this new civilisation, the two authors look at aspects such as customs and traditions, Chinese social structure, family organisation, the guiding principles of social action, the particular worldview, aspects of religion as they still exist, the approach to the arts, the system of government and the economy, communication mechanisms, and education. 

In short, Min Ding and Jie Xu have given us an interesting read, a 360-page guidebook for both travel and business, one that teaches us to look carefully at the complexity of culture in order to make our own personal culture, as well as our culture of enterprise, more complete.

The Chinese Way

Min Ding, Jie Xu

Routledge, 2014

Business can create welfare for a community, and not only financial welfare, but much more as well. The road to uniting business and profits with welfare and the community is an arduous one, but one that is important to study and, where possible, embark upon. The experiences of industry that “does good” for a community – experiences that are not just of today, but which can be found in decades past – can even be found right here in Italy. Although nothing is perfect and there is always room for improvement, what happens when a business takes a positive approach to its territory and its community is, nonetheless, something interesting to analyse and that can teach us a great deal.

An interesting read in this regard can be found in the report “Welfare e Ben-essere: il ruolo delle imprese nello sviluppo della comunità” (Welfare and Wellbeing: the role of enterprise in community development), which the Region of Emilia-Romagna’s office for the promotion of social policy, associations, volunteer work and the integration of immigrants has recently published. Written by multiple authors and from multiple points of view (and intriguing right from the title of the work), this report opens with the observation that the creation of a new model of welfare must necessarily involve multiple actors in the community, all contributing to provide original solutions to emerging needs. Among the most significant of these actors, in addition to the public and the civil sector, enterprise can, and does, play a key role.

The goal of the study (conducted with the help of CNA, Confindustria and Unioncamere), therefore, was to discover and promote the contribution of parties other than government and find out how they can contribute to the creation of welfare services, with particular reference being made to the world of for-profit business. The study focused on the field of regional industry and selected seven case studies from the entire population of enterprises in order to take a closer look at the experiences of businesses that are also actors contributing to the social wellbeing of the community. These experiences ranged from the promotion of proper nutrition (Non congelateci il sorriso) and “company volunteer work” in high-tech segments (VolontAriamo) to meeting the needs of the disadvantaged (Portobello, Emporio di Parma and Cibo Amico), reclaiming traditional production techniques (Alici per gli amici), and working with the disabled (L’antiBARriera). In each case, the culture of enterprise extended to the surrounding community to merge with the needs of that community and to share information and ideas for development.

As the report states, the theoretical point of reference was that of “shared value”, i.e. a new way of pursuing financial goals while also focusing on goals of a social nature. In this way, the business in question conveys an image different from the stereotypical profit-only focus. The report explains that businesses that place the concept of shared value at the basis of their actions pursue strategies and adopt technologies and processes that systematically involve all of the individual members of their ecosystem (i.e. employees, customers, suppliers, and other partners) in the maximisation of this value. Not empty ideals, but something quite different, something higher and more complete.

Welfare e Ben-essere: il ruolo delle imprese nello sviluppo della comunità

Various authors

Assessorato Promozione delle politiche sociali e di integrazione per l’immigrazione,  volontariato, associazionismo e Terzo Settore Regione Emilia-Romagna

Bologna, August 2014

At the Settimo Torinese Industrial Centre on Monday, 15 September 2014, Pirelli once again hosted a concert for the MITO SettembreMusica Festival, building on the success of the previous editions. To the applause of a thousand people, the Orchestra Filarmonica di Torino, conducted by Micha Hamel, performed Symphony no. 1 in C major, Op. 21 and Symphony no. 7 in A major op. 92 by Ludwig van Beethoven. With this concert in the factory, Pirelli, which has supported MITO since 2007, reasserts the bond between places of work and places of culture, taking up a long European and Italian tradition, as Antonio Calabrò states in his blog: “Beethoven in the factory: classical music comes back to life in the workplace”.

Making classical music once again a major part of popular culture with the awareness that people have never stopped loving it and, indeed, even the younger generations are calling for a more open, more intense relationship with it, one filled with intelligence and emotion, and connecting symphonies, sonatas and other concerts with the workplace. “High”, contemporary popular culture. The allure of a unique harmony and a dimension in which Italian culture provided all of Europe with innovative works and original collaborations throughout the 20th century. This is the point of the relationship of a major Italian and multinational corporation such as Pirelli with a prestigious festival such as MiTo Settembre Musica (nearly a month of concerts in September in Milan and Turin), a reiteration of the value of experiencing music at work, repeated Monday evening at the Settimo Torinese industrial site, an event that drew the enthusiastic applause of a thousand people enjoying the Turin Philharmonic, conducted by Micha Hamel, as they performed Beethoven’s First and Seventh Symphonies. “La Settima a Settimo”, per dirla con una battuta di brillante comunicazione. Beethoven along side the robots and research labs of Pirelli’s most advanced manufacturing facilities, in front of the services “spinal cord” building designed by Renzo Piano, and surrounded by 500 cherry trees. A factory that is both attractive and efficient, functional and sustainable, and now also musical.

There is, actually, a European tradition uniting music and the workplace. In Vienna at the turn of the century with concerts for workers – classical music for a new audience, different from the traditional bourgeois concert goer, and compositions contemporary to those times (such as Mahler’s symphonies conducted by a young Webern, to cite just one example). As well as in Italy in the 1960s and 70s, with musicians such as Luigi Nono, Claudio Abbado and Maurizio Pollini – different sensitivities and different experiences in order to “brighten up the factory”. The Pirelli Foundation has chosen to bring back this tradition through innovation, as you do in any good culture of enterprise, such as with the first concerts held at the Settimo factory within the context of the 2010 and 2011 editions of MiTo; hosting, twice each year in the auditorium of Pirelli’s Bicocca headquarters, the rehearsals of the Italian Chamber Orchestra conducted by Salvatore Accordo, one of the world’s foremost violinists (the dress rehearsal, Bach and Dvorak this time, is a concert for Pirelli employees and their families, while children are invited to the start of each rehearsal to have fun learning about violins, violas and cellos); or dedicating tickets in support of Milan’s Verdi Orchestra to all “Pirellians”. Work and music.

There is a deep bond between working with awareness in a company and making music, ensuring harmonious conduct, bringing people together, tuning instruments, and learning to unify original forms of expression and even dissonance. For the previous concerts, work and the “sounds” of work – the effort in performance, the quest for the utmost quality – were the central focus. A company is made of people at work – the rapid, skilful movement of their hands and the motions of the machines. The factory is rhythm, voices and sounds that become a bit like a song. A factory has its own form of music, and music can also come to the factory. Industry has its own form of culture, and culture can, and indeed must, find its place in industry.

In short, it’s about producing something well, about finding and executing new, unique harmonies, which brings us back to tradition and innovation. The selection of Beethoven for this latest concert is confirmation of this union. His music has strong roots in the best canons of the 18th century. It expresses the romantic vitality of that century and represents the monumental import of all things “classical”, and he would go on to influence composers for many decades to come with his extraordinary creativity and instrumental rigour. Tradition and innovation.

The venue chosen is also steeped in significance. On the back of this Great Crisis, manufacturing has returned as the heart of the economy in a sort of “manufacturing renaissance”. The Settimo Torinese factory is a testament to how much manufacturing has changed and grown with the help of the most advanced technologies. It’s something of a metamorphosis: enterprise becoming culture, but with a modern twist. “Performing a concert in a factory gives a sense of uniqueness and, at the same time, gives the idea that something new is taking place,” said Micha Hamel, who conducted the Turin Philharmonic at the Settimo facilities. “Music comes to an unusual place, and we go beyond the ordinary. Artistically, this is a very important concept.”

This is the awareness that inspired the entire experience of music at work, right from the first concert on 13 September 2010 at Pirelli’s old facilities on the eve of their closure (to usher in the new industrial hub). On stage were I Fiati di Torino, a group of wind instruments from the RAI Turin Symphonic Orchestra, against a backdrop of tyres produced there at the plant. In the court, there were over 400 people enjoying the music of Mozart, Bach and Beethoven, Berio and Gabrieli, Saglietti and Stravinsky – from the 18th century to modern day. The music and the setting were both rich with significance. It was a concert for brass instruments, instruments made of metal, the same sort of material used to make machines, in a harmonious interplay, one that points to what work can be, must seek to be, even when that harmony is difficult to achieve.

Now that innovative technologies are making work more varied, richer and more complex, music can find new outlets, greater intensity, and greater relevance by going back to the classical and giving new meaning to modern-day living. A culture of experimentation and a quest for the innovative, of new forms of language.

For the second concert, on 9 September 2011, the orchestra was Pomeriggi Musicali, conducted by Luca Pfaff. The setting was the warehouse at the new Settimo Torinese facilities, the sound of working machinery a distant echo in the background. It is a factory after all. The programme, enjoyed by 700 people, featured the works of Stravinsky, Milhaud, Honegger and De Falla – music of the 20th century, a century of great change, change that encompassed the economy, politics, culture and all of society, altering social relationships and making them more dynamic, more confrontational. Language, too, was changed as we did new things and found new expressions to describe them.  The 20th century was also about industry, with a complexity intertwined with innovation and far-reaching change that had an impact on millions of men and women, on their jobs and on their relationships. Technology, of course, but also a universe of new responsibilities, an accumulation of self-promotion, conflicting needs, and mutating rights and obligations. The 20th century was one of words, images and motion, of entirely new sounds and music. Literature, music and the arts are literally taken apart and put back together. The classical became old-fashioned, replaced by a drive for research that continues now in these uncertain times.

Thus, reflecting on the 20th century and its music in the factory means not only critically assessing our recent past, but also seeking to build upon those memories to create a new epistemology of post-modernity and to lay the groundwork for a better future for humanity on the move. Music can help us to understand the profound meaning of change, of work, and of interconnected relationships. The culture of enterprise is finding its own soundtrack, inspired by Beethoven as performed at yesterday’s concert. Classical symphony and modern-day relevance.