Amidst the numbers and charts of a test report from 1937 – preserved in the Pirelli Historical Archives – you’ll find the story of the Pirelli MotoCord tyres that set the land speed record that year on Taruffi’s Gilera Rondine.

Mr V*, an engineer, put down the phone and took a moment to think. On the other end, Piero Taruffi had been categorical: the land speed record “had to” be set. He needed it, both for himself and for the good name of Gilera. The motorcycle, a Rondine 500, was ready. Taruffi had given it a special aerodynamic fairing to be able to draw maximum performance out of the engine, but, being an engineer himself as well as a famed racing driver, he knew that a great deal would also depend on the tyres. So this is what he had said on the phone to Mr V*, then the head of Office B for Pirelli’s Tyre Engineering department: “I’m sure your striped MotoCord is just what we need. I just think that the rear tyre should be looked at again and widened, don’t you think?”.

Taruffi was right. It all came down to the width of the rear tyre, because 80-plus horsepower isn’t easy to transfer to the road. Mr V* got up and went to the file where he kept the specs for the test tyres. There it was, dated 8 June 1937, just a few months ago. “Rigato Ultraleggero” (striped ultralight), tread pattern number 1134, size 3.75 by 19. They had managed to make an excellent rear tyre, but it may still have been a bit too narrow for the power and speed of the Rondine. So Mr V* took a clean sheet of paper and started jotting down some numbers. He reran the calculations, increased the widths by a few millimetres, and designed a new profile for the tread. He checked it all again. Alongside the phrase “Copertura speciale da primati” (special record-breaking tyre), he added his initials and sent it all to the factory where those record-breaking tyres would be produced the next day. It was 5 October 1937.

On 21 October, along the Brescia-Bergamo stretch of motorway, Piero Taruffi’s Gilera Rondine covered the flying kilometre in just 13.13 seconds at a record-breaking speed of 274.481 km/h. We don’t know if Mr V* was among the group of people on hand for the undertaking, and the photos taken at the time can’t tell us, but those MotoCord tyres “designed” by V* on that afternoon of 5 October were most certainly there, and they once again did their job to perfection.

As competitiveness in Italy falters, there are two numbers on which we should reflect: the ratios of investments in education and research to GDP, both of which are below European averages. This has serious consequences both for the Italian economy as a whole and for Italian businesses specifically, as they are forced to combat international competition in an environment in which human capital and ‘innovation capital’ are playing increasingly important roles. Here are the numbers: for education, we are spending just 4.7% of GDP, as compared to an average of 6.3% for all OECD countries; for research, a paltry 1%. Looking more closely at the OECD figures, we see that Italy has slipped to next-to-last place (31st out of 32 countries) in education spending at just 9% of total public investment, compared to the OECD average of 13%. University graduates are on the rise at 15% of the population, but this is just half of the OECD average (of 31%). If look at the 25-34 age range specifically, the generation which is now entering the workforce and becoming a part of the human capital that will be faced with the coming challenges of growth, university graduates account for just 21% of the population, compared to 39% on average for the OECD. Above all, we are lacking the skills most sought after by businesses, i.e. the engineering, economics and science degrees (not to mention the fact that many of the best and brightest take their talents abroad to find better work and living conditions). Italy is also lacking in degrees in the humanities, which could be of interest both in industry and in the service sector (in-house counsel, sociologists in tune with changes in the workplace, philosophers able to decrypt the complexity of social processes, changes in the marketplace, and the expectations of consumers and manufacturers). They are numbers that point to shortfalls in education both in quantitative and qualitative terms (although there are many important exceptions).

Things are a bit better when it comes to the female population, with women continuing to make inroads. In 2012, one out of four women had a university degree (59%), as compared to one out of six for the men, and this is in line with the OECD average. Italy is also in second place in the number of women with science degrees (52%) and has one of the highest percentages of engineering degrees in the OECD (33%), which is a direction to pursue with greater conviction and one where significant progress is already being made within the leading Italian universities. At the Milan Polytechnic, for example, female graduates accounted for 20.6% of all graduating students in 2008, and today they’ve reached 23.9%.

A recent headline in La Stampa (27 September) read “More technology and more women for the recovery” for an article about the meeting between Fiat chairman John Elkann, the managing director of Luxottica, Andrea Guerra, and a group of female researchers and managers, from the newly elected senator Elena Cattaneo to several female engineers from Pirelli, Telecom, the Milan Polytechnic and so on, all brought together by the association “Valore D” (which promotes female leadership in business). The Italian Education Minister, Maria Chiara Carrozza, pointed to the importance of this and to the outlook for the future, saying, “Italy’s decline is not irreversible, and taking care of the contribution of women is the first step to take on the road forward.”

What is needed is more education, greater public and private-sector investment in research and development, greater attention to rewarding talent, beginning with the contribution of women – the engineers we spoke of earlier, but also, of course, of anyone able to provide her own unique contribution within her own context to education and training, attitudes and a capacity to translate that “intelligence of the heart” that is so innately female in whole new ways – all of which will have a positive impact on business and on the number of women who choose a career in the world of science and within organisations with a keen eye for new technologies and for innovation in general. In fact, 66% of women find a job within a year of receiving an engineering degree, and 91% are employed within five years. So it’s a path that we should continue to pursue.

It’s not your typical nice story of Italian firms winning in the marketplace despite all odds, but is rather the tale of the many Italian companies that, when faced with the crisis, were able to react and race towards growth. “Lepri che vincono la crisi: storie di aziende (quasi medie) vincenti nei mercati globali (Nordest Europa)” (Hares beating the crisis: stories of (almost mid-sized) firms succeeding in the global marketplace (northeast Europe)) is a book of two parts, written by Paolo Gubitta, Alessandra Tognazzo and Saverio Dave Favaron. The authors begin with a detailed analysis of the financial performance of 1,548 Italian manufacturers which, on the eve of the crisis, had posted revenues of between 10 and 12.9 million euros, and the study looks at their financials from 2004 to 2010 in order to determine why certain businesses continued, unperturbed, to churn out positive numbers while the rest of the market crumbled around them. The work then moves on to an in-depth reconstruction of three case studies (Gervasoni in Udine, Terruzzi Fercalx in Bergamo, and Andrea Montelpare in Fermo) and how these three businesses continued to grow, telling the tale of how the art of manufacturing and strategic intuition came together with forward thinking and a sense of responsibility typical of the Italian family-run business.

What emerges is a portrait of three “hares of business”, scurrying along not to escape from Italy, but to remain here. Hares that, in their own way, show us various paths that can be followed. These companies were able to adapt their business models quickly and identify new competitive, often unexplored territories, and then started racing for them. The work of Gubitta, Tognazzo and Favaron describes the main stages of this path, the goals reached, and the road that is yet to be travelled.

Lepri che vincono la crisi: storie di aziende (quasi medie) vincenti nei mercati globali (Nordest Europa) 

Paolo Gubitta, Alessandra Tognazzo, Saverio Dave Favaron

Marsilio, 2013

Socially responsible enterprise. Holistic enterprises that create general wellbeing and not just profits. Enterprise social responsibility is a hot topic these days, comes in a variety of forms, and the term is not always used on purpose or taken advantage of for the right purpose. Nonetheless, it’s important that we understand its many aspects, and two recent, almost simultaneous, publications in France can be of help in that regard. These works provide a clear picture of how such a delicate matter is being handled north of the Alps, not only within the academic world, but also among policymakers.

“Responsabilité et performance des organisations” is a ‘public report’ that four French ministries called for in order to better understand the relationship between the work of socially responsible enterprises and their financial performance. Written by Lydia Brovelli, Xavier Drago and Eric Molinié, the report was presented last July and features something that is particularly useful for anyone reading the text and, above all, for anyone who needs to apply it in some way: it provides 20 propositions to give strength to enterprise social responsibility. These 20 principles and operating instructions concern four areas: development of the concept and mentality of ‘global performance’; establishing the means for measuring this performance; identification of the responsible investments to be made; promotion of France’s experience internationally.

Along side this official public document, there is also another important work. “Responsabilité sociale des entreprises” is a book by Philippe Noguès published at nearly the same time as the public report and which discusses both the theoretical and practical aspects of the matter. Noguès (who was a labour leader for most of his career and now works for the National Assembly) first looks at the history of and the theory behind enterprise social responsibility before moving on to a description of a few tools of the trade, but it’s the book’s subtitle that gives meaning to Noguès’ efforts: “Concilier démocratie sociale, écologie et compétitivité” (Reconciling social democracy, ecology and competitiveness).

Because, at the end of the day, the feasibility of enterprise social responsibility comes out of a reconciliation of the needs for profits and competitiveness that are typical of any decent business and the those of democracy and environmental sustainability that are found in any social context.

Responsabilité et performance des organisations

Lydia Brovelli, Xavier Drago, Eric Molinié

June 2013

Responsabilité sociale des entreprises

Philippe Noguès

Fondation Jean Jeaurès, 2013

With flight luggage labels around their wrists and grouped together in a square on a warm mid-September day, a large number of Italian researchers met up in Rome, in front of the Parliament, to declare their readiness to emigrate if lawmakers do not adjust to EU laws enabling and facilitating research. Italy is in fact the Cinderella of Europe as regards research, a key factor in balanced and sustainable development, with investments amounting to just 1% of the GDP, as well as the conditions in which researchers have to work, in social and, unfortunately, political contexts that are often hostile or in any case ignorant of scientific culture, experimentation and the actual most innovative corporate culture. The meaning behind the protest is that the only way out is to leave, with an Italy which in this way remains scientifically more ignorant, more provincial and poorer.

A brain drain therefore which governments attempt to slow down (with tax relief for those who return to Italy, incentives for start-ups and promises of higher investments in research) but with poor results to date. The ISTAT (statistics) figures processed by Fondazione Hume for La Stampa say that 10,643 graduates have left Italy, while only 5,752 have returned. A negative balance of 4,891, higher by 3,649 over the previous year and steadily increasing from 2004 to date. Where do Italian graduates go in search of better working conditions? Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, France and the USA above all, while new and interesting professional opportunities are opening up in China and the fast-moving Far East and also Brazil which has just announced that it needs 4 million doctors in the coming years (a fearsome competitor: a country of Latin culture, with a solid democracy and already with a strong Italian presence). The highest percentage of the brain drain is made up by engineers, graduates in economics and above all science subjects, mathematicians, chemists, physicists and biologists. Precious skills for research and for innovation in companies that need to strengthen the competitive value of the knowledge economy.

Why do they go? Elena Cattaneo, a very famous neurobiologist and newly appointed life senator by the Italian president Giorgio Napolitano (together with other major cultural figures such as Claudio Abbado, Renzo Piano and Carlo Rubbia), has denounced the serious disparity of salaries between Italian researchers and those who work overseas. Fabiola Gianotti, head of the team at Cern in Geneva who discovered the Higgs boson and the most famous female Italian scientist in the world, focuses on the precariousness which generations of researchers in Italy are forced to suffer and the low public investments in research, noting that without essential research there are no ideas, without ideas there are no applications and without applications there is no progress. Another negative condition for Italy.

The Times Higher Education has drawn up a ranking of the market value of a researcher, calculating the amount public organisations and private firms invest in salaries, benefits, bonuses for results, etc. This shows how the 93 thousand dollars of South Korea and the 72.8 thousand of The Netherlands barely correspond to the 14.4 thousand of Italy. In other words a Dutch researcher is paid 5 times more than an Italian one (just to continue with the comparison, we can also recall the 50.5 thousand dollars in China, 46.1 in Sweden, 25.8 in the USA, 19.4 in Germany). It’s not just a question of money but also of social importance and economic role: in Italy there are just 4.1 researchers per 1000 employees, 8.87 in France, 8.25 in Great Britain, 7.74 in Germany, i.e. more or less double the figure in Italy. The EU average is 7.58, a goal we should aim at therefore, doubling, and fast, for example, that measly 1% of the GDP invested in research and in this way building up a new policy for industry, culture and innovation.

Networking and teamwork are two of the conceptual catchphrases which periodically emerge when talking about corporate growth, development of markets, increased production and so on. Concepts that are real, rightful and appropriate yet which come up against the reality of most firms in Italy and a corporate culture often still tied to different patterns.

It is however necessary to get over this hurdle, possibly also with the sort of visionary guides and etiquette handbooks which at least clear the field of incorrect information.

Reti di impresa [“Corporate Networks”], a work by Alberto Bubbio, Enzo Rullani, Luca Agostoni, Rosario Cavallaro, Dario Gulino and Massimo Solbiati, is useful in this respect and constitutes a sort of “manual” about corporate networks as a guide to understanding the strategic importance of these organisational solutions.

The basic concept is that the network of companies appears as a potential driving force for a return to growth in an industrial fabric such as the one in Italy. Through the various contributions presented in this book an attempt is made to grasp the strategic importance of the concept of network and to suggest some possible instrumental and process solutions which allow an increased likelihood that, once set up, it succeeds in functioning effectively. Featuring a real “contract”, the network of companies, according to the authors, allows them to present themselves with a supply range able to compete with that offered by foreign companies, generally larger in size than Italian ones. Designed for small firms, the network should also allow room for the individuality of Italian entrepreneurship and, the authors, write, allow for an increase in size while remaining small scale.

The book therefore examines all the information required, from the actual concept of network to the changes brought about by the contract which provides its basic rules, from the need to share the same “strategic pattern” to some possible management tools.

Reti di impresa is therefore to be read and, above all, put into practice, starting, once again, from a cultural leap which has now become vital.

Reti di impresa

Alberto Bubbio, Enzo Rullani, Luca Agostoni, Rosario Cavallaro, Dario Gulino, Massimo Solbiati

Ipsoa, June 2013

Knowledge in order to make decisions, said Luigi Einaudi yet, now more than ever, knowledge in order to sell. In an increasingly complex economic environment, on markets which are constantly changing and where competition is fiercer each day, the level of knowledge of the cultures where they operate becomes a must for companies. It takes more than a product, inside the factory and out.

For this reason it is important to analyse in greater depth the bonds and influences of aspects relating to intercultural communication in companies, above all with respect to the end market. This is what Ingrida Sedliaková, from the economics and management faculty of the University of Nitra in Slovakia, has attempted to do in Intercultural communication and its role in international business: a clear, brief study which takes into consideration the theory and practice of intercultural knowledge as an important element of corporate culture.

The research starts out with a fact, with the author explaining that in the life of companies it is known that there are many cases of failure of business meetings due to the lead players’ ignorance of intercultural communication.

According to Ingrida Sedliaková the success of the business requires a basic knowledge of the motives which determine different ways of thinking of the people within firms and on the market, as well as awareness of how these differences have a direct influence on the behaviour of the same companies and consumers/customers.

The work therefore covers the techniques and strategies which can be adopted and goes into depth about the negotiation attitudes of five business areas: Germany, France, India, Japan and the Arab world. The understanding of the culture, the micro-culture, the environmental contexts, the perception of social relations and verbal and non-verbal behaviour, the work concludes, increases the likelihood of being an effective and productive manager.

Intercultural communication and its role in international business

Ingrida Sedliaková

Department of Management, Faculty of economics and management, Slovak University of Agriculture Nitra, 2013

Trust. It’s a crucial part of both personal and professional relationships. Without trust, there can be no markets, even though good rules, controls and sanctions help markets to thrive and to grow. So we need mutual reliability and the proper authorities to enforce it and safeguard it.

One of the many festivals that drive Italy’s desire for knowledge, understanding and debate (not counting the mundane, formulaic debate of the all-too-many talk shows on TV) is the “Festival della Fiducia” (Festival of Trust). The brainchild of Alessandro De Lisi, this event is organised in mid-September in Como, Cernobbio and Brienno in city squares and abandoned factories by the anti-mafia group Centro Studi Sociali Contro Le Mafie, by the labour union CISL, and by a series of “civic sector” associations and with the support of businesses and of banks such as Banca Popolare Etica. The goal of the event is clear: To achieve a new cohesiveness between business, politics, banking and society, we need trust in the future, in business and in the territory; cooperation among the leaders of the community, optimism and intelligence.

In other words, optimism in the economy, in harmony with all of the brightest ideas in the economic and civic debate, from the words of Pope Francis to the thoughts of great economist such as Amartya Sen, Joseph Stiglitz and Jean-Paul Fitoussi (authors of a fascinating study into new indicators for measuring social wellbeing beyond just GDP) and of great Italian thinkers such as Federico Caffè and Edmondo Berselli (and the wealth of ideas in their wonderful books).

All of which makes the “Festival of Trust” an invaluable initiative, an event at which people from all realms of society – from businessmen and politicians to journalists, lawmakers, experts and all who drive the various social movements – can come together for open debate in a setting that is anything but formal. Lawfulness is another key (to come out of a careful assessment of the work of Assolombarda). Lawfulness in the broadest possible sense. Lawfulness as a frame around clear laws establishing both rights and duties and which avoid the excesses of laws and of bureaucracy that only serves to slow entrepreneurial dynamism (with business being key to creating stable jobs and wealth) and around an efficient, effective legal system (because it is essential for good businesspeople to be protected against fraud and other illegal or unfair practices, contracts and agreements). Lawfulness as a rejection of the organised crime that is ruining markets and polluting the economy through violence and intimidation (as can be seen in the reaction of businesses in Lombardy and the rest of northern Italy against the growth of crime in the area).

And so lawfulness as good culture of enterprise and as an essential condition for balanced, sustainable growth. Rules and clear relationships within a system of values that rewards merit and individual skill, social responsibility, respect for the environment and all of the various stakeholders, while not forgetting the legitimate interests and goals of the given business itself. A society such as this, a meeting point for government and the social partners, is possible. Helpful ideas in this direction can be found on the pages of Economie de la confiance, by Éloi Laurent, who writes, “Companies fraught with corruption, nepotism and tax fraud are not, as is too easily believed, companies with high levels of distrust. More often than not, they are communities in which the networks of interpersonal relationships take the place of trust in the authorities.”

And this is the point: Trust is an essential component of relationships and of the marketplace, but without the authorities (or policymakers in touch with the interests of the general public), there can be no control over the markets or strategy for reform, only individualist responses to the crisis in relations and in growth which cannot lead to stable change. In other words, high-quality growth takes trust, but trust alone is not enough. Lawfulness is also key.

Business is about profits, but it is also about responsibility in various forms, whether it be financial, humanistic, social or civic. Sure, it may be difficult to see factories as more than just a place where we make things and make a profit, to see them as a place of responsibility. It may be especially difficult nowadays, but it is increasingly true, at least when it comes to businesses that have a true culture of enterprise. Nonetheless, it has – perhaps, and for some time now – been the rule that of a capitalist market populated by businesses seeking to maximise profits with the sole responsibility being that of staying within the law.

However, the idea that legal responsibility is no longer enough, and that we must also add social responsibility, is becoming an increasingly popular topic for discussion. Now, Stefano Zamagni, a professor of Political Economy at the University of Bologna and an adjunct professor of International Political Economy at John Hopkins University, has added another concept: that a modern business must also have civic responsibility. The concept of a civically responsible business is a fascinating one. Imagine a business that sees its production activities and its role in general as having a sort of “global citizenship”, i.e. something that goes beyond profits, of course, but which also surpasses the idea of social responsibility in business.

During a talk at the Italian National Forum of Applied Ethics, Zamagni explained this idea best when he said, “The socially responsible business has certainly made important headway in the direction of making the market more civilised, but it’s not enough. Already today, and even more so in the future, businesses will be asked not only to generate wealth in a socially acceptable manner, but to contribute – along with the government and civil society organisation – to redesigning the economic and political structure that we have inherited from the recent past.” In other words, it is our very future which is at stake, a future in which business and the culture of enterprise can play a determinant role in stopping the decline of the economy and in promoting alternative models of growth and development.

All of this has been condensed down into just 170 pages, but it is a work that is to be read with the awareness that it may provide a roadmap for the future.

Impresa responsabile e mercato civile

Stefano Zamagni

Il Mulino,  May 2013

An entrepreneur is also an artist. In such complicated times as those that businesses are currently facing, it may be difficult to think of company leaders as having those sorts of talents, but creativity has always – even in times of crisis – had to go hand in hand with entrepreneurship. Of course, it’s a delicate balance, the art of properly balancing the books while also taking care of the less tangible aspects of production, even if all the factory is putting out is widgets.

The thesis that Paige Elizabeth Sager prepared for her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Arizona provides a useful overview of that which unites creativity and entrepreneurship.

Entitled “The Relationship Between Creativity and Entrepreneurship”, the work takes a look at the literature on the topic and complements it with a series of interviews with businesses of various sizes. Drawing inspiration from an article entitled “Entrepreneurs: The Artists of the Business World”, Sager seeks to better understand the real-world implications,  while touching on the various aspects of the connection between creativity and entrepreneurship, such as the motivation of entrepreneurs and managers, their awareness and fostering of creativity, and their focus on innovation.

As Sager explains, “A change in the economy has been identified recently, moving from knowledge based activities to activities based on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and imagination.” She also claims that imagination and the evolution of technology “have resulted in more business opportunities. However, the marketplace has also become more crowded, and competition has increased. Creativity enables the entrepreneurs to act on this changing climate to differentiate themselves and gain a competitive advantage for their organization.”

From the excitement of creativity to a table providing a sort of summary and various examples of the motivation behind entrepreneurial creativity, the study is a work that is not to be missed.

The Relationship Between Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Paige Sager (University of Arizona)

Bachelor’s Thesis, May 2013