Entrepreneurial Culture. A greatly used, also misused, concept to be written with uppercase first letters to create greater emphasis. The idea of entrepreneurial and corporate culture that this creates has definitely become fashionable. With all the results that follow, including negative ones. In this case too it is increasingly necessary to structure the theory into a system and give practice meaning. Above all when in the name of entrepreneurial culture official action is taken, company decisions are made and financial policies take a certain direction. One example, to understand this better, is how the concept of entrepreneurial culture is used as a tool for promoting entrepreneurship for the lowering of unemployment through job creation.

The question to be asked therefore is what entrepreneurial culture really is, a question without a single answer. The research by Christabel D. Brownson from Akwa Ibom State University seeks to organise the material by analysing a huge quantity of literature, comparing it with reality and arriving at an interesting pattern.

Entrepreneurial culture, according to Brownson, is not a single whole but made up of various components: entrepreneurial attributes, entrepreneurial values, entrepreneurial mindset and entrepreneurial conduct.

The result of all this is action by the company. However most of that which creates the conduct of the entrepreneur cannot be seen. Brownson explains that only the final conduct of those who conduct business can be seen, while all the rest is on two levels: one totally “invisible”, the other “semi-invisible”. Traits and features of every component are then studied in depth to seek to understand the formula on the basis of which, ultimately, an entrepreneur and enterprise are born.

According to Brownson, therefore, entrepreneurial attributes can derive both from the life environment of the actual individual (family, education) and from the social and political context in which he or she grew up. Entrepreneurial “values” are subsequently built on these. Independence, capacity for innovation, honesty and willingness to work are rooted, according to the researcher, in the entrepreneurial attributes and in turn form the basis for the creation of the real entrepreneurial mindset, i.e. the ability to give a positive response to the stimuli received: possibilities of production, new markets, different needs. Finally the visible conduct of the entrepreneur emerges from all this. Definite choices which, in turn, influence that which has created them in a constant exchange of information and signals.

That which emerges from the some ten pages of Fostering Entrepreneurial Culture: A Conceptualization is thus a varied and faceted vision of the figure of the entrepreneur. With confirmation of a basic condition: everything goes to make up all the components which lead to the creation of a business.

Fostering Entrepreneurial Culture: A Conceptualization

Christabel Divine Brownson

Faculty of Social and Management Sciences, Akwa Ibom State University, Nigeria

European Journal of Business and Management, Vol.5, No.31, 2013

Hi-tech humanism. Richard Florida (the theorist of the new “creative class”) maintains that when we talk of the “digital age” it is important to remember that interconnection is a sort of extension and amplification of activities which we have carried out with traditional means and methods. At the base of everything are human relations, physical contact, dialogue, aspects of life which digital technologies do not replace. The assumption on which interconnection is based is the ability and willingness to work together. Naturally, critical awareness, listening and respect for the freedom of others are also fundamental in every relationship which is not obedience, in every culture of competition, cooperation and dialogue which seeks out fusions that suit times of change and the search for new balances.

Florida’s hi-tech humanism is fully suited to seasons of uncertainty and changes and even actual metamorphoses. Methods and languages which were features of the long period stretching from the Eighties to the explosion of the economic crisis have come to the end of the line: the policies of power and the logic of the domination of force, the rapacious individualism of cut-throat finance, frenetic and infinite economic growth, the myths of limitless progress, of unregulated and uncontrolled globalism, of marketism as ideology (despite cultures of a well-regulated market). Goodbye to the “greed is good” of the speculators of the paper economy and financial fraud. Feet are now firmly on the ground of the real economy, of politics which has to rebuild its creditability on transparent responsibility and the idea of power as a service and not domination.

A new age. Ancient values to be restored. Innovative languages to be filled with contemporary meanings. Without the temptation towards nostalgia and looking back with the awareness that words such as sustainability, responsibility, community, participation and a willingness to take on general interests and duties have potential which is yet to be explored.

This is the framework in which we also find the relationship between ethics and aesthetics, consequent behaviour and values. Respect for people, in political, professional, working and private relations. An end to the frenzy of the cool and trendy and the worldly neurosis of the “new at all costs”, to make room for the “pleasant” and the Calvinist “light” substance of the quality of life and of relationships (detailed information on this is given by Maria Luisa Agnese in Corriere della Sera of 28 December 2013). A return into the spotlight of good manners, with a large crop of self-help books in stores, not as an affectation but with the awareness that there is in any case a link between etiquette and ethics, and the endorsement of kindness.

Kindness, as interpreted by Pope Francis in his speeches about the family, remembering the importance of simple words such as “thank you”. This is widely echoed in political science, economics and managerial literature: if we move from the dimension of the subject, the consumer who has been won over and the obedient voter to that of the citizen and of the person, the entire system of relationships (voting, purchasing, work and professional service, etc.) must inevitably meet criteria in which “trust” and “responsibility” are processes to be won over, motivated and rebuilt in the exchange between “individuality” and “otherness”, adding value to humanity.

This is the age of emotional intelligence and the predominance of “feminine” values, welcoming and listening (in place of conflict with the success of the bolder or the stronger), competitive collaboration and no longer the merciless selection of Darwin’s theories. This has a positive effect on the construction of corporate cultures. Rediscovering the all-Italian aptitude of those who for example used the words of Gandhi for extraordinary advertising in the world of telecoms or those who traditionally maintained that power is nothing without control, a demonstration of responsibility.

There are other words in the dictionary of the modern age on which to reflect. “Humility” for example, or “tenderness”. They were used by Pope Francis in fact and give a sense of intense humanity and respect. They mark the end of the cycle of “power”, “domination” and the display of muscle “strength” (behind which an impotent arrogance is often concealed). They inaugurate the new season of the new millennium in which reasoning is based on values and file away finally the time when we knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. Just as we said: “humanism”, or not?

Doing business is, as we know, an adventure. Yet the businessman is not an unprepared adventurer, just as an explorer does not start out without having made proper plans of action. Yet both these figures, entrepreneur and explorer, share many features: spirit of enterprise, a drive towards discovery, the ability to be alone, strength in defeat and wisdom in deciding. Comparing different experiences of people in both these areas of action can also be important for company management. It definitely represents a different approach which adds to corporate culture.

 

L’avventura e l’impresa. Due uomini lucidi e visionari si incrociano e si confrontano [“Business and adventure. The meeting and dialogue of two rational and visionary men”] by Paolo Costa serves this purpose. In the book, with just under one hundred pages to be read from cover to cover, two men – Alex Bellini, sailor and explorer, and Riccardo Donadon, entrepreneur of the Ict – tell their own stories and find many factors in common. 

 

The book starts with a question: what happens when two modern dreamers, two men that are both rational and visionary, come together and swap experiences for two days around their respective life patterns? The dialogue between Bellini and Donadon therefore starts from some common themes such as the sense of challenge and enterprise, the capacity for taking risks, the value of sacrifice, the lessons learnt from failure, the immense pain and richness of solitude and the fear of the unknown. The first, Alex Bellini, refers to himself as an “adventurer”: he has rowed across two oceans and run across America, including Alaska, and is not tired yet. He is currently planning a new adventure which involves drifting on an iceberg along the coast of Greenland. The other man, Riccardo Donadon, is an entrepreneur who has made Ca’ Tron, in the province of Treviso, his own little Silicon Valley, with the aim of transferring to Italy the Californian culture of digital innovation. 

 

Both definitely agree on one point, a moment in time, when you find yourself alone and have to decide whether to give up or carry on. 

 

 

L’avventura e l’impresa. Due uomini lucidi e visionari si incrociano e si confrontano

Alex Bellini, Riccardo Donadon, Paolo Costa

Marsilio, November 2013

 

A large part of corporate culture involves above all relations between workers and owners. While it is true that a company is born from the possibly visionary idea of an entrepreneur, other hands and minds are needed in order to grow and develop these ideas. An understanding of the working of the relations between these two decisive parts of the company, owner and workers, is essential for an understanding of the future of every production system. Bearing in mind that these relations change according to the circumstances and the environment in which they are developed.

One interesting example to be explored is that of Japan, i.e. of one of the most important and advanced economies in the world. The study by Cole E. Short from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, takes this direction.

The research sets out to study how interpersonal relations work within Japanese companies. The goal is achieved by analysing specifically the employee-employer relations “within the modern Japanese workplace”. This produces a picture in which the culture and ideological aspects of the interactions in the workplace together with the principles on which Japanese society is founded create special working habits in companies and between these companies and other firms. Cole therefore also makes a comparison with the system of corporate relations in the USA. The study is also carried out with interviews with managers of Japanese companies.

The aim of the research, also useful for companies in other countries as well as the US, is also that of giving practical hints on business etiquette for better conducting commercial relations in Japan. An approach which also has to pay great attention to aspects that are apparently out of reach for “westerners” but which instead can represent the keystone for creating good commercial relations with companies in the land of the Rising Sun. The usefulness of the work by Cole E. Short is in fact this: a sort of working method for a better understanding of an economy which is also important for Italy.

Employee-Employer Relations in Japan:  An Analysis of Honor-Shame and Authority-Power Relations within the Modern Japanese Workplace 

Cole E. Short

Baylor University, December 2013

Milan, 7 January 2014. The Pirelli Foundation and HangarBicocca are welcoming in the new year with the launch of a new project, “IL TEMPO DELL’UOMO: LAVORO E NO”, dedicated to the residents of Zone 9 in Milan.

Taking advantage of the immense heritage of the Pirelli Foundation archives and the work of HangarBicocca, the project seeks to involve both children and the elderly in rediscovering the area through guided tours, learning laboratories and other events surrounding the world of contemporary art.

Who are we looking for? All residents of Milan’s Zone 9 who have experienced the great transformation of the industrial area into a revitalised neighbourhood of homes and services and who have witnessed the significant social, cultural and economic change that has taken place in the area are invited to participate. We would also ask that you take an active part in the cultural life of the area together with HangarBicocca.

In order to participate or to request additional information, please write to senior@fondazionepirelli.org  or phone +39 0264423971.

We look forward to seeing you.

“Far volare Milano” (literally: “Make Milan fly”) is the slogan that Assolombarda (the largest, most important regional arm of Confindustria) uses to convey the meaning behind the work being done by the association’s president, Gianfelice Rocca, and all of his team, that of reinforcing the region’s role as the leading driver of economic growth throughout Italy. It’s an ambitious goal, yet also very pragmatic given the 50 projects that focus on developing industry (manufacturing in the Lombardy region is valued at 27.7% of GDP, which is ten points above the national average and is already well above the 20% target that the EU wants to reach by 2020) as well as on enhancing services to make them more competitive, expanding credit for businesses beyond the traditional banking relationship, simplifying taxation, legislation and bureaucracy generally, making the justice system more efficient and effective, protecting against the infiltration of organised crime (which distorts markets and leads to a form of competition that erodes wealth and civil order), attracting international investors, reducing the cost of energy, increasing social responsibility and safety in the workplace, increasing the efficiency of digital networks, focusing education and training on real needs of business, and developing and disseminating new technologies. This is no list of vague promises, but a true plan of action from 2014 to 2016, one made of deadlines, milestones and mechanisms for measuring progress and performance. This enterprise is an actual social entity that has been given form.

The culture of enterprise is, by its very nature, at once both competitive and inclusive. It thrives on innovation in the broadest sense of the term (i.e. products and production systems, new materials, new forms of labour relations, new languages and tools of governance), and it grows through dialog and interaction with industry, services, research centres, schools and government. It is expressed through projects that bring a range of actors together. The strategy of Assolombarda is an excellent example of this. Presented just last week (after extensive analysis and the preparation of proposals), the strategy was immediately well received by both government (i.e. the City of Milan) and business (through the Chamber of Commerce) and opened the door to broader based, more constructive dialog. Not the typical list of good intentions, but a real commitment to developing Milan with a view towards Expo 2015 and beyond.

What city are we talking about exactly? About a “polytechnic” Milan, a city backed by tradition and that incorporates both knowledge and production, pure research and applied research, education, communication and creativity. And also about a metropolitan Milan, much like the vast – even “boundless”, as sociologists such as Martinotti and Bonomi sometimes say – city that looks from the northwest of Italy out to the rest of the Lombardy region, to the northeast, to Emilia and to the rest of the nation. And of a Milan that is regaining and redeveloping its international vocation. Competition is not limited to business; it also happens between regional systems, and Milan has much to learn from Munich and Bavaria, from Barcelona and the creative, industrious Catalonia (the dynamism of which is getting the area out of the crisis better and faster than the rest of Spain), and from Lyon and the area of France that creates networks of high-tech excellence.

It is a competition that the city can win, because this metropolitan Milan of which we speak boasts a system of both public and private universities (with both Politecnico and Bocconi taking top spots in international rankings), excellent research facilities, a level of human capital that, based on the parameters of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), places Lombardy on a par with or better than Switzerland (and well above the OECD average) in terms of students’ scientific skills, and a series of firsts in scientific research in the area of life sciences. This blend of manufacturing, finance, high-tech, creativity, culture (from publishing to music, theatre to contemporary art), and organisations that promote social cohesion already make Milan a driver of growth, but this energy needs to be unleashed by placing businesses at the centre of programmes of environmentally and socially sustainable development and by laying claim to a system of tangible and intangible infrastructures that will enable the economic machine to express its full potential. Milan as a “hub of knowledge”, once again an attractor of international business and committed to being a “start-up town”, a physical and cultural home for new and innovative businesses.

From all of these points of view, Milan is an “open society”, to borrow a fascinating concept from Karl Popper, one that remains vibrant despite all the “traps and snares” preventing the full expression of its strength and dynamism. It can move forward and drive Italy forward, too, with its feet firmly planted in Europe.

Nowadays, businesses exist not only because they do good work, but also because the Internet says they do. But that’s not all. The future and very existence of a business increasingly depends on an intelligent use of social networking and the constant sharing of knowledge and information. But that’s easier said than done in the day-to-day management of a business, and the quantity, quality and level of information that continues to flow into and out of a business is an issue that is particularly difficult to condense down into truly useful operating models.

But a map of the interconnections between a business and its system of information has been constructed by Maristella Abarno, who studied Communication Systems & Planning at the University of Pisa. Recently published by Edizioni Accademiche Italiane, her work “L’impatto delle tecnologie digitali nelle imprese. Come la tecnologia ‘social’ genera valore per le aziende” (The impact of digital technologies on business. How social technology creates value for businesses) is based on the assumption that the level of information that is now overwhelming our economy is constantly on the rise, and not just in information-intensive industries (e.g. entertainment, communication, education, etc.), but even in those where earnings are not based solely on the management of information. In other words, the web is changing the culture of enterprise in all businesses.  

The problem is that web technologies are so pervasive that they are becoming increasingly important in running a business and making business decisions for all enterprises. In most cases, however, businesses are still working out just how to make best use of these tools and what real benefits each tool can provide. At just over 200 pages in length, the book seeks to plumb the depths of this issue, going beyond mere theory to actually study how digital technologies can help businesses to improve their communications both internally and with the outside world. This included an analysis of thousands of interviews with the management and employees of over 2,500 businesses around the world and resulted in both a map of the current landscape and a sort of roadmap to help businesses navigate through the infrastructure of online communication.

L’impatto delle tecnologie digitali nelle imprese. Come la tecnologia “social” genera valore per le aziende

Maristella Abarno

Edizioni Accademiche Italiane, December 2013 

All of us at the Foundation would like to wish you a Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year, and we look forward to seeing you again on January 7th.

But before we all leave for the holidays, we have a surprise for you. The image that you see here, which was created by Alessandro Pomi is our Christmas gift to you.

See you on January 7th.

Best wishes!

Before going on holiday, we’d like to thank you.

We thank you for the enthusiasm with which you welcomed the Pirelli Foundation Educational programme, a project launched in October that has already brought more than 30 classes to the Foundation, involving a total of about 800 children and young people.

We told them about the world of production and work, and about advertising techniques and the transformations that have changed the very face of the Bicocca district and of Zone 9 in Milan.

The children and teenagers designed and created a model tyre using salt dough, designed a tread, made their own advertising poster, reconstructed the history of the neighbourhood using multimedia tools, and much more besides.

And we shall continue all this in 2014, but with some new features that we will show you in January. Already 40 classes have booked a place and we are working on many more applications.

If you wish to receive information or to enrol in the programme, please write to: scuole@fondazionepirelli.org or call +39 0264423971.

The Pirelli Foundation wishes you Happy Holidays and looks forward to seeing you on 7 January.

“The knowledge economy was born in the factory”,writes Joel Mokyr, one of the leading experts on the industrial economy, in his book “The Gifts of Athena – Historical Origins of the Knowledge Economy”, published by Princeton University Press in 2002. In this assessment, we see the lessons of Max Weber and of Alfred Marshall, who said that molecular, cumulative and adaptive change comes out of our production systems. Going even further back, there is the lesson of Karl Marx in Das Kapital, where he speaks of the “incoercible vitality of productive forces” and describes the constant, cumulative production of knowledge incorporated and generated within the factory, while insisting that, beyond a certain threshold of development, the factory is, above all, technology and knowledge.

Thus, we see the factory as a place of innovation, of the formation of a new culture, of the production of goods and services, but also of a system of relationships that brings together different types of knowledge—from science and technology to the humanities—that are essential to creating systems of guidance and governance for the people who work there and to constructing the language needed to describe the work being done, the products being made, and the markets in which they are sold and consumed. We see it as a place in which technology meets ethics (coming back to Weber) and, yes, even where it meets the aesthetics of the products and of the attractive, sustainable factories themselves, designed by great architects and featuring layouts and ergonomics intended to inspire each and every individual who works there as they enjoy both the exterior landscapes and the warmth and light of the interior.  Here, too, we could apply the slogan “Enterprise is culture” – a “polytechnic culture”, of course.

The work of Mokyr has also inspired the seminar “Nuove fabbriche – Lo sviluppo industriale a un tornante” (New factories – Industrial development at a switchback), which was held last week in Turin in the former factories in Corso Castelfidardo that are now home to Politecnico di Milano, organised by Bocconi University and by Istituto Superiore sui Sistemi Territoriali per l’Innovazione (SITI) and led by Giuseppe Berta, a talented industrial historian (whose new book, “La produzione intelligente” (Intelligent production), inspired by the evolution of Italy’s industrial system, is to be published by Einaudi in February).

But does it still make sense today to talk about factories when Italian industry appears to be slipping backwards (setting 2008 production at a base index of 100, in December 2012 the number falls to 76 and is continuing to slip in a process that is destroying businesses and eroding jobs and skills)? Yes, it does if we look beyond the symptoms of decline of the “great factories” that made Italy what it was in the 20th century to see the dynamism of a collection of small and medium-sized businesses that are, particularly in northern Italy, managing to grow, to innovate, to combat the crisis by focusing on international markets, and to show a new, Italian brand of vitality.

Berta speaks of competitiveness based on quality and on “high-end” products and explains that, even in the fabric of Italian production, along side the decay of the old-school production apparatus, we are beginning to see a more sophisticated—if still uncoordinated—convergence of numerous enterprises in a range of industries and areas of the economy that are seeking to reclassify their businesses, both to maintain their ties to the territory and to increase their ability to export and to compete abroad.

These factories are experimenting with new relationships between product and service (while helping to bring innovation to a service sector in Italy that remains highly traditional and not particularly competitive), backed by world-leading human capital and Italy’s robust “knowledge economy”, and they are driving development in a direction that makes the EU target (reiterated by Italian Prime Minister Letta) of bringing manufacturing up to 20% of GDP by 2020 more realistic (now we are at just under 17%).

There is one more thing that brings us to insist on the relevance of the factory. “Manufacturing is a sort of stronghold of Italian rational organisation, whereas the same cannot be said for government, for many public services, or for the world of sports,” said Dario Di Vico, a journalist with a great deal of experience and knowledge of Italy’s economy. Industrial rationalism, instilled with creativity and a strong propensity for growth, meaning that the battle for development has not, despite it all, been lost.