Everything’s changing. This is something that a growing number of enterprises is having to face in these times – at least for those who want to survive and truly thrive as markets evolve, and means of production change, and as new ways of approaching the outside world arise. Indeed, everything must change, and quickly, often nearly instantaneously, so much so that, at times, it’s speed that wins the day and not the quality of what you do. First and foremost, the culture of enterprise – the living core of manufacturing – must change.

A good read in this sense is a recently published work by Jeremy Rifkin, The Zero Marginal Cost Society (available, naturally, in both hard copy and as an e-book). 

All things considered, his central thesis is a simple one when he says that we are witnessing the onset, around the world, of a new economy that he calls the “Collaborative Commons”, which owes its very existence to the Internet of Things and is something that could – and in Rifkin’s view it has already begun – eclipse both capitalism and socialism. 

But this is not the sort of revolution that will lead to destruction. Not at all. As Rifkin explains, the Collaborative Commons is changing the way in which we organize our lives economically and points to a potentially drastic reduction in wage disparity by democratising the global economy and bringing about more environmentally sustainable society. The driver of this revolution is the Internet of Things, a sort of intelligent infrastructure made up of a virtuous interplay of the Internet of communications, the Internet of energy, and the Internet of logistics that will push productivity to the point at which the marginal cost of a great many goods and services will be nearly zero, thereby making them all practically free, highly abundant, and no longer subject to market forces. A new economy coming into being.

We can already see that some things are changing. In Rifkin’s view, the rise of zero marginal cost is creating a hybrid economy, with one part oriented towards the capitalist market and the other towards the Collaborative Commons. This is giving rise to what Rifkin calls “prosumers”, i.e. consumers that have become producers in their own right, creating and sharing information, entertainment, green energy, and 3D-printed products at near-zero marginal cost. But that’s not all. They are also sharing cars, homes, clothing and other things using social media at low or near-zero marginal cost. The author gives the example of students taking online courses free of change and which operate at near-zero marginal cost, or of young social entrepreneurs who are bypassing the banking establishment and using crowdfunding to finance environmentally sustainable businesses in a new economy that uses alternative currencies. 

As explained in the book, social capital is as important as financial capital, access trumps ownership, sustainability supersedes consumerism, cooperation ousts competition, and “exchange value” in the capitalist marketplace is increasingly replaced by “sharable value”. 

Rifkin concludes that capitalism will remain with us, but by the end of this century it will no longer be the sole arbiter of economic life, not to mention the great waste that is created in an era of transformation, one in which progress and obstacles go hand in hand.

Utopia? The dream of a visionary? We can’t be sure, but Rifkin’s ideas are to be examined with care as they go to the heart of the organisation and culture of enterprises and their approach to manufacturing and the markets. As usual, Rifkin provides us with a provocative read, like salt in the wounds of enterprise, but also salt that can help stimulate an appetite for understanding, for pondering more the present and looking with greater care to the future. 

The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism

Jeremy Rifkin

Palgrave Macmillan Trade, April 2014 

Corporate social responsibility is important, but so are the financial performance and market outlook of a business. In fact, social responsibility in business is nothing new, so understanding how it has evolved can help us to understand it better now and in the future as well as to better understand the culture of enterprise behind it all.

A paper by Panda Snigdharani, a lecturer at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) at KIIT University in Bhubaneswar-Odisha, India, which was recently published in the International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering is a useful read that can help to better understand the connection between corporate social responsibility (CSR), business sustainability, and market outlook.

It opens with a simple observation. As Panda Snigdharani says, “CSR activities is (sic) not new, they have already more than 100 years [of] history. […] Corporations around the world are struggling with a new role, which is to meet the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of the next generations to meet their own needs. Organizations are being called upon to take responsibility for the ways their operations impact societies and the natural environment.” Balancing a business’ financials with environmental sustainability is no easy task, and it requires an ability to analyse the present and to look to the future.

In the view of Panda Snigdharani, the key to this reasoning is the concept of “sustainability”. For the paper, “sustainability” refers to activities that show an understanding of the “inclusion of social and environmental concerns in business operations and in interactions with stakeholders”.

However, it is not to be seen as something that holds back business growth. After a clear analysis of the history and current state of corporate social responsibility, the paper explains that CSR activities can be an effective aid to “business sustainability”.

In other words, a focus on others leads to growth, even in business.

Corporate social responsibility: the mantra for business sustainability

Panda Snigdharani (Lecturer, Commerce, KISS, KIIT)

International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering2014, Volume 4, Issue 7

In the ‘80s and ‘90s, there was “the dream of consumerism” (as critically analysed by the sociologist Jean Baudrillard in his Il sogno della merce), the triumph of the value of objects as status symbols. In politics, there was the “hedonism” à la Reagan, Thatcher’s individualism (or, in Italy, the ephemeral bubble of “Milano da bere” and climbing the social ladder and the fashion frenzy of “Sotto il vestito niente”). In economics, there were the neoliberal theories of the “Chicago Boys”, rampant “turbo-capitalism” and the view that globalisation is always a good thing. Then came the crisis, which had been foreshadowed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries by the dot-com bubble and junk bonds (with practically no one, unfortunately, giving heed to critical analysts at the time) before exploding in all its dramatic glory from 2007 onward. Thus it is useful to take another look at Baudrillard, who wrote, “With modernity, in which we never stop accumulating, adding and relaunching, we have forgotten that it is subtraction that gives strength and that out of absence comes power” (prophetic words from “The Perfect Crime: Did television kill reality?”, 1996). In other words, less is more.

So stop hoarding, and take a more critical look at the culture of enterprise. Let’s seek to create the conditions for a “fair economy” (as recommended in a book by Edmondo Berselli, L’economia giusta, published by Einaudi in 2011, shortly before the author’s death) and a society-oriented market. This brings to the fore businesses, organisations, and initiatives such as the “Movement for a Positive Economy” promoted in 2012 by Jacques Attali, an influential European economist and former adviser to French President François Mitterrand, who encouraged the dissemination of sustainable responses to the economic, social and environmental challenges that our planet is facing and the creation of new systems of economic and social values that can be measured by means other than GDP and that can serve to establish long-term equilibrium. Let’s take another look at the work of Michael Porter on “shared value”, which is marked by high levels of social and relationship capital and discuss “Pikettynomics”, i.e. the critique of the inequality created by the new dimensions of financial and “patrimonial” capitalism of Thomas Piketty, an economist who was none too fond of the economic establishment, but did very much like American intellectuals such as the Nobel laureates Paul Krugman and Joseph Stieglitz. Let us heed the lessens of Jeremy Rifkin on the sharing and hybrid economy with a particular emphasis on the “green” (environmentalist) values and analyse the new paradigms of “good growth” and roads to a “civil future” as called for by the sociologist Francesco Morace.

We are now hearing talk about “neo-responsible” conduct (i.e. choosing less and choosing better, scaling back on hoarding and unbridled consumerism, and bringing back the values of sustainability à la Baudrillard) and seeing a rise in the number of companies engaging in the marketing of social and environmental good as an additional means of promoting their products to consumers who are more sensitive to good causes and values than they are to passing status symbols (see La Repubblica, 26 August 2014). We are witnessing the increasing popularity of the “Convivialist Manifesto” and the “Declaration of Interdependence” signed by a number of “anti-utilitarian” thinkers around the world, such as Edgar Morin, Alain Caillé, Serge Latouche, Elena Pulcini, Francesco Fistetti and others (published in Italy by ETS; see also the writings of Adriano Favole for “La Lettura” in Corriere della Sera, 29 August 2014). This new concept, “convivialism”, that of being “convivial”, of relationships and sharing with others, as opposed to the individualist exasperation of selfish irresponsibility, focused, naturally, on sustainable development and wary of concepts of “degrowth theory” (even though one of its signatories is a partisan of this trend, Serge Latouche), but not hostile towards the market, so long as it is not one of ideological absolutism, or “marketism”: “The market and the quest for monetary profits are fully legitimate so long as they respect postulates of shared utility and shared sociality and so long as they are consistent with ecological considerations” (which is a position that has also been expressed recently by Pope Francis in speaking of the need for new economic equilibrium).

The positions expressed in the Manifesto are a derivation of the Movimento Anti-Utilitarista delle Scienze Sociali (Social Sciences Anti-Utilitarian Movement), or “MAUSS”, which brings to mind Marcel Mauss, who, in the early 1900s, published “The Gift”, a short book about the existence, in Western thought, of as alternate, or at least complementary, theory of economics to that of market theory that had long influenced the culture of social economics, of cooperation, and of the “civil sector”, which is once again fully, if critically, relevant. It is centred around four principles: “mutual humanity”, which is to be respected regardless of differences in ethnicity, religious, gender, nationality, or social class; “mutual sociality”, with an emphasis on the development of social relationships and of positive “social capital”; “individuality”, allowing each individual to continue developing their own unique traits (much like the “capability approach” of Martha Nussbaum); and “controlled opposition”, which enables human beings to different while accepting and controlling conflict.

These are, of course, highly intriguing positions to be approached responsibly and to be considered as aspects of a broader debate that encompasses politics, business and society as a whole, all united by a common goal: to use the current crisis as a driver of change and to create greater and better stability in development, in the economy, and in society. A “fair economy”.

A business is, in part, the image that it manages to convey.  Of course, image is not everything. It also takes a product, but image depicts the whole in lines, words, pictures, drawings, and snapshots of a production process that creates something out of nothing. This is something that anyone who works in sales, business communication or marketing knows all too well,  but image is about what a business communicates both externally and internally. Understanding how a business talks about itself and what image it conveys is important in understanding the culture that gave rise to the business and enables it to thrive. 

One great example of this is Olivetti, but so is Pirelli and other “manufacturers of products and of culture” that have typified Italy’s economy. The recently published Millesimo di millimetre (literally: “Thousandth of a millimetre”), by Caterina Cristina Fiorentino (and architect and a researcher in industrial design for the Department of Architecture at SUN), gives us an invaluable opportunity to revisit the story of the creation and development of the Olivetti image. 

It is a work that is dense with information and not always an easy read, and it tells the story of the birth and evolution of the Olivetti visual codex, which was the set of ideas and concepts behind all of the organisation’s graphics from 1908 through to 1978 –  seventy years of business creativity and ingenuity embodied in lines, colours, sketches, poetry, prose, film and photographs, all of which made up the “Olivetti style”. In her book (which includes some fine artwork and imagery), Fiorentino tells of the creation of the company’s most important ad campaigns, of icons such as the “Olivetti Girls”, of the Libri Rossi (the “red books” that were used for years by all of the key players within the company), of writing instruments such as the Lexikon, the Lettera 22, and the Valentina, and of calculators like the Divisumma and the Multisumma, but she also takes on a journey along side some of the individuals who worked long and hard for Olivetti, such as Elio Vittorini, Libero Bigiaretti, Giovanni Giudici, Franco Fortini, Albe Steiner and Marcello Doduvich. 

“The image of a company comes from its ability to focus attention on the way it truly is, to disclose its most essential nature, what it produces, how it solves problems in relations with its public and with the community in which it operates, and to express its culture, the underlying values it promotes, and the contribution it makes to human development,” writes Renzo Zorzi, one of the most constant presences within Olivetti, who is quoted in this book. “Anything else is pure fiction, propaganda, an incomplete metaphor that has lost its point of reference and its purpose.” 

Fiorentino depicts an Olivetti characterised by an “industrial humanism” (an expression coined by Vittorini in 1939 to describe corporate communication) that once was and which represents a company that cannot be replicated, but which continues to express the best of Italy’s industrial culture. 

The book ends with an interesting afterword by Eugenio Pacchioli entitled “Con la cultura i bilanci scodinzolano”. 

Millesimo di millimetro. I segni del codice visivo Olivetti 1908-1978

Caterina Cristina Fiorentino

Il Mulino, 2014

What will the office of the future be like? And what will business in the future be like? Much more than mere hypotheticals, these are questions that we need to be able to answer now, especially given how business culture and the very shape of business evolve will depend on how these questions are answered. Indeed, they are questions worthy of influential scientific literature, such as the work of Marea Saldarriaga Bueno at Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex (United Kingdom), “The office of the future: a vision for stimulating working environments”, which was recently published online and which provides an interesting overview of how work has evolved and gives a few ideas as to what we can expect for the future.

The author describes the fundamental changes in society, the economy and technology that could have a significant impact on the workplace, both physically and in terms of less tangible aspects.

The paper begins with a diagram showing the three stages of how offices and business have evolved. In the early 1900s, there was only work, but by the mid-1900s leisure became a part of the social climate. By the 21st century, learning was also added to the mix. Thus work and the organization became more varied, more complex. It is no longer just about producing something. Now, we are creating something that previously didn’t exist and are looking outside of the organisation, and doing so for more than just commercial purposes.

The author then explains how the workplace and business culture also change as a function of technology and innovation, as well as of the social needs of the workers, before looking at mobility and working at home, all with an emphasis on delicate aspects such an interpersonal relationships, the spirit of teamwork, and hierarchy. In conclusion, she writes, “Implementing a business culture in a geographically dispersed team is very difficult.” She then adds, “What will eventually bring people together and serve as corporate glue will not be the workspace but the company’s values. The company’s vision, the culture that is intended should be communicated throughout the organisation so that everyone involved know where the boat is heading to and exactly what is it trying to achieve.”

“The office of the future” is a quick read, but one that should be read, reread and pondered at great length.

The office of the future: a vision for stimulating working  environments

Marea Saldarriaga Bueno

Brunel University, Uxbridge Middlesex (UK)

Sport as dialogue, and solidarity and competition (not forgetting in fact the Latin etymology: cum petere, moving together towards a common goal). Team spirit, contest and spectacle in a dimension which combines individuality and community. These are strong values, similar to those that distinguish the best corporate culture, in its great personal and social dimension. Here lie in fact the bases of the decision by Pirelli to become main partner of the Partita Interreligiosa per la Pace, an extraordinarily important sports event developed in these recent months and showcased by Pope Francis, able to involve the world of sport, economics and show business and played yesterday, in Rome, a great success with the public and with equally broad media and popular consensus. In a world of very serious, increasing social, ethnic and religious tensions (which in dramatic cases have led the Pope to denounce the existence of the “Third World War” and which in any case shake the values of civil cohabitation and challenge culture, politics and religion itself), it makes sense to relaunch an appeal to commitment of “all men of good will” (also recalling the lesson, always topical, of the “Pacem in terris” encyclical of Pope John XXIII, in 1963, half a century ago). Taking action therefore, each one in his or her own area of research and work, to make way for dialogue instead of the conflict of cultures and civilisations. As Pirelli corporate culture itself witnesses, in the history of the company: “the multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic dimension has always been a part of Pirelli culture. This is why it was natural and a source of pride to support the Partita Interreligiosa per la pace”, explains the Group memo, with confirmation of a social focus which is essential for a company which has plants in 13 countries, commercial presences in 160 nations, 39,000 employees who speak over 20 languages and represent 34 different nationalities. Diversity and common values, work values for example, a commitment to research and innovation. Competitive values in order to improve products and production systems and relations with customers and, more generally, with all stakeholders. And naturally sporting values. Here again, with a commitment that dates back many years, in football and motor racing, but also, in the course of time, also in many other sports. “Modern-day sport”, it is maintained, “has become a byword for social solidarity and ethics, above all among young people. Sport is confirmed as being a powerful means of integration and dialogue among different generations and cultures”. Cum petere, in fact. Good corporate culture.

Business is creative and business culture narrates and characterises in itself the process of creation which comes to life and is developed in companies. An alchemy which is often difficult to understand, as a process which takes place at a time when creativity produces results in factories, and which in any case has to be carefully monitored. If we look closely we can see that this is the essence of entrepreneurship, work and production. 

The anthology Creativity in business edited by Fredricka K. Reisman (president of the American Creativity Association), for the occasion of the KIE (Conference of Knowledge, Innovation and Enterprise), scheduled in Istanbul in August 2015, contains good guidelines in fact for a greater and better understanding of what happens when creativity meets businesses and business people. The world event has already had a preview this year with the meeting Knowledge, Innovation and Enterprise, held in Riga last July, which produced another book again edited by Reisman which provides further reading matter on the topic.

However the heart of the matter can be seen in the lines introducing Creativity in Business which explain how nowhere else is the application of creativity more manifest than in the business world. We know that creativity is an important ingredient in economic growth and competitiveness, but many entrepreneurs do not wish to admit or recognise the fundamental role that creativity plays in this sphere. 

The volume therefore contains sixteen contributions on the theme which range from the links between creativity and corporate organisation to the more philosophical aspects of corporate creative processes. In-depth analyses are also carried out on topics such as those relating to the actual origin of the creative process, the relationships between work group and individual, and the relationships between communication, creativity and production. The introductory essay by Fredricka K. Reisman (Overview and application of creativity to enhance innovation in business and education) seeks to organise a standardised whole, summarises the other chapters and supplies good outlines for analysis and reading.

The collection by Reisman is definitely a book to be read attentively, one which possibly not always an easy read but which is beneficial to many business people. 

Creativity in business

Fredricka K. Reisman (edited by), President of American creativity Association

KIE Conference book series, 2014 

Creativity: Process, Product, Personality, Environment & Technology

Fredricka K. Reisman (edited by), President of American creativity Association

KIE Conference book series, 2013

Human capital counts, even in China. The dimensions are different, obviously, but the problem of workers’ wages and, above all, of their qualification is also being felt in Asia. Even in China, despite what we would be led to think. The question reveals, there as in other production areas, varyingly strong possibilities of economic growth. This is the demonstration of the importance of corporate culture in respect of the prospects of well-being of a country.

It’s therefore interesting to gain a closer understanding of the situation in China, and important for a better understanding of the contacts of many Italian companies. Even if the relationship between human capital and business in China is a complex subject, involving corporate culture in general and the Chinese one in particular.

Four Chinese researchers, spread however between Beijing, Cambridge and Nottingham, have given an updated, and merciless, picture of the situation in an article which in a reduced space provides an up-to-date analysis and history of the condition of Chinese workers.

Inequality, human capital and innovation: China’s remaining big problems by Wu D. (University of Cambridge), Wu Z. (Nottingham Business School, Trent University), Wang J. (School of Contemporary Chinese studies, University of Nottingham) and Zhao Z. (School of Labour and Human Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing), published in the International Journal of Economics and Business Modeling, opens with a brief summary of literature on the topic and then moves on to an analysis of the effects on inequality of the economic reforms implemented in recent years. A thorough description is then given of the wage and benefits policies aimed at workers, policies which reflect and fully explain the type of corporate culture present in the country.

Above all, however, there’s the future. For the four authors, if the key to growth also lies in technological innovation in China too, this involves a human capital with better pay and education. Without these conditions it is forecast that economic growth in China will be destined to have many problems. Or rather, even more so. If, the article adds, China does not taken into serious consideration the problem of inequality of income of disadvantaged groups of people, it is possible to foresee such political imbalance as to derail economic growth in the country.

All in all, China has opened up to the west but it may have to be viewed in a different light than usual.

Inequality, human capital and innovation: China’s remaining big problems

Wu D., Wu Z., Wang J., Zhao Z.

International journal of economics and business modeling, volume 5, Issue 1, 2014, pp. 233-237

Archive. In this day and age, it is a word without much charm. It sounds old and dusty and evokes images of a place where you pile up things that are no longer relevant or useful. A sort of warehouse of waste or a place to store useless memorabilia. Limited attention (so little as to draw criticism from a great historian such as Giovanni De Luna; see, in Italian: “Memoria usa e getta: le linee guida del ministro penalizzano gli archivi, un grave danno per gli storici” in La Stampa, 25 July) is also paid to archives and related oversight in the reorganisation plans of Italy’s Ministry of Culture (a commendable reform effort launched by Dario Franceschini in order to take better care and make better use of Italy’s cultural heritage), and yet, if we think about it, archives play a crucial role even from the point of view of a sound culture of enterprise as a place to preserve a company’s history and to gather the evidence of how plans and ideas become products and production processes, which exemplifies how, as time flows, we build a present that then transforms into history.

As a historian, De Luna asks that we not penalise the preservation and management of cultural heritage, but rather that we protect it for reasons that have little to do with its ability to generate profits and much more with the memories that are the bedrock of society.

Here, in this blog on culture of enterprise, it’s worth pondering the meaning of documents, technical specifications, advertising graphics, corporate films, annual reports, and files on production processes and labour relations (i.e. the organisation, union negotiations, company welfare) and how to preserve them, not only so that we don’t lose a cultural heritage of such great technological and material value, but also to protect and take advantage of suggestions and testimonies that can point to new ways to revitalise Italian industry.

Indeed, the key to Italy’s growth lies in the “smart lands” where manufacturing is interwoven with culture, as documented by Aldo Bonomi, a sociologist and expert in sound economics (see Il Sole24Ore, 6 July), and the documentation of that culture (that is both technological and aesthetic, with quality and cutting-edge design, something both beautiful and well made) is an indispensable part of Italy’s heritage. That culture, a conscious synthesis of tradition and constant drive for innovation, is our best competitive asset, that which makes our businesses precious and their best products not reproducible at low cost.

This awareness is what underlies the commitment both of great enterprises such as Pirelli and of small and medium-sized businesses to establish foundations that preserve historical archives, providing for document maintenance, restoration and digitalisation (and for opening these archives up to schools, historians, and other researchers), and it is what underlies the decision to think of the “modern relevance of the historical archives” not as an oxymoron intended solely for marketing impact, but as a creative means of achieving innovation for the future by looking back on a company’s past.

Of course, archives and foundations come at a cost (and are not supported very well fiscally, unfortunately). They take space, technical skill, resources for archive restoration and preservation, and investment for their publication and dissemination, but they also give value, value that speaks to a company’s identity and to the future. Initiatives such as Confindustria’s Museimpresa and, in particular, the Centre for the Culture of Enterprise (an initiative in which Assolombarda and the Milan Chamber of Commerce are playing a leading role) to help smaller enterprises to preserve and make use of their archives in public relations and to promote a “culture of enterprise history” can also play a part in all of this.

We need history, including for how it will help revitalise Italy’s industrial pride. We need to make the quality of Italian craftsmanship a part of public discourse and sentiment and to strengthen our sense of responsibility towards our roots. History and the culture of enterprise not only as ephemeral events used to promote business triumphs (although this is a part of good public relations), but also, and above all, as a means of preserving our social and manufacturing values, of preserving Italy, its wonderful monuments, and its factories.