Milan, in all its immaculate splendour the day after Design Week and the Salone del Mobile; Milan, the cornerstone of international creativity and innovation; Milan, factory and showcase; Milan, once again, attractive and pulsing with energy.

Quite rightly we can play around with all the rhetoric of records and superlatives – even just by reeling off the numbers: over 350,000 visitors to the Salone and Fuorisalone, 1,950 exhibitors from all over the world, more than 1,300 events and an economic impact of 261 million euros, an increase of 13.7% on 2023. A bustle of activity not only in the heart of the city (Brera, the University area, Porta Venezia, the Arco della Pace at Parco Sempione, the Triennale and the ADI Design Museum and via Durini), but also around the Navigli, via Tortona, via Sarpi (Chinatown), NoLo (North of Loreto, that is, via Padova – a trendy, gentrified neighborhood), Scalo Farini and Lambrate, Mecenate and Assago, and so on…

In short, the whole city – streets and squares, palaces and courtyards – extending outwards, for the first time, to the outskirts and Varedo. Bright and surprising installations, nostalgic memories of revered masters such as Alessandro Mendini and Cini Boeri, tributes to the sustainability of the furnishings and the installations themselves. All bound up with a great passion for the colour green in all its shades.

And add in the great to-and-fro with the other two contemporary events, Vinitaly in Verona and, above all, the Biennale in Venice. Flutes and toasts, inaugurations and parties, “A Salone stretching from the sea to the mountains. A real mixed bag”, as Michele Masneri writes, employing a delicious culinary pun in the original Italian (Il Foglio, 16 April).

Rude health all round then? Well, certainly. The important thing, however, is not to delude ourselves that yet another well-deserved success involving an event as great as Design Week is sufficient to resolve Milan’s many ongoing problems or the increasingly frequent signs of crisis in a metropolis that has reached a key stage in its life.

This is a “crisis” and not a “decline”, if we are to insist on semantics, on the deeper meaning of the word: a state of change that might evolve in alternate directions, a ridge separating two different paths leading down either side of the slope, a flour sifter dividing precious wheat and ryegrass waste, weiji in the Chinese alphabet – “danger” and “opportunity” would be a rough translation – or, to be more precise, a “crucial passage”, that is, the time when something begins or something changes.

Here we are, then. Milan is at a watershed moment, surrounded by original ways to renew its ability to be simultaneously competitive and socially inclusive, by opportunities to either boost the kind of attractiveness that polarises and excludes people or to build an economic dynamic limited not only to growth (more business, more money, more instant glitter and ephemeral wealth) but also to the (sustainable, naturally) development of the environment and society. Milan, in short, is facing up to the responsibility of a better future (the Centro Studi Grande Milano association, chaired by Daniela Mainini, has been passionately discussing this for some time).

The debate is, of course, wide-ranging. It concerns the role of metropolises, the future of the knowledge economy, and therefore also of universities, the strategies of companies and Milan’s trade fair district (an economic hub that could take on a role of increasing significance, as a centre for services and a laboratory of ideas). And, above all, it addresses the elements behind a radical social question: how to reconcile the creative logic of competition with the need to break down the inequalities amplified by that logic, if it is not properly governed by welfare policies, urban planning choices and ambitious fiscal and cultural choices.

Aside from the event-related aspects of the various shows, Milan, together with Venice, is preparing for a couple of strategic dates related to the fate of cities: the International Exhibition at the Triennale dedicated to the topic of: “Inequalities. How to mend the fractures of humanity” from May to November 2025 and, in the same period, the next Venice Biennale of Architecture to discuss the concentration of wealth, and therefore inequalities, in metropolises and megalopolises, climate crises, the effective use of artificial intelligence-driven data on flows of people, goods and ideas, and therefore democracy, the circular economy and, indeed, sustainable development (Stefano Boeri, president of the Triennale, and Carlo Ratti, an expert in smart cities at MIT in Boston and curator of the Venice Biennale, discuss this in La Repubblica, 21 April).

It all comes down to the essential function of urban planning and good politics to redesign cities. Starting with Milan. And, as Federica Verona also suggests, this needs to start right from the success of the Salone del Mobile (“Big numbers are not enough, we need projects that endure”, La Repubblica, 20 April) and Dario Di Vico (“The Salone’s upcoming challenges: Milan must continue to be inclusive and attractive”, Corriere della Sera, 21 April).

The fact that Milan is a large university city, with over 200,000 students from the rest of Italy and, increasingly, from abroad, is a great advantage in regards to the strength of its research and ideas. And the fact that there are three women at the helm of Milan’s main public universities may also have a significant impact, providing original solutions to problems. Indeed, Marina Brambilla has just been elected rector of the University of Milan, with Giovanna Iannantuoni at Bicocca and Donatella Sciuto at the Politecnico. The key is to guarantee students, researchers and university professors housing and living costs that do not force them to leave Milan or live there in discomfort, breeding annoyance and hostility.

The Municipality’s social housing projects and the commitment of a multinational property company like Hines (“A city with the right dreams. Milan’s new cycle will be a mix of the market and welfare: student accommodation and housing,” stated Mario Abbadessa, the American group’s head of Italy, in Il Foglio, 11 April) suggest that steps are being taken towards a better civic dimension as regards living and accommodation. Of course, this is in marked contrast to the hype of luxury property transactions, such as the 1.3 billion-euro purchase by Francois Pinault’s fashion group, Kering, of a building in Via Montenapoleone, now the second most expensive street in the world after New York’s Fifth Avenue (as estimated by Cushman & Wakefield, Il Sole24Ore, April 5).

When it comes to the property sector, the market, naturally, does what it is designed to do. But a metropolis, a living organism – a civitas and not just urbs (structures, streets, buildings) – cannot be left to the mercy of market dynamics alone. It needs wise policy-making, efficient public administration, far-sighted urban planning and a solid culture of innovation and social inclusion. If it fails in this it will lose the basic characteristics of Milan, its supportive nature, and therefore, in the long run the city’s very beauty and attractiveness.

Health, environment, quality of life and sustainable development: these are common themes for that highly developed and economically and culturally dynamic area that encompasses the North West, Lombardy, Emilia and the North East – the productive heart of Europe with an original and robust social capital comprising companies, universities, banks, cultural and research facilities and institutions and organisations with a broad range of civic virtues (we wrote about it in the 3 April blog).

The mayors of the Po Valley municipalities (Turin, Bologna, Treviso, Venice, etc., in addition to Milan, with 23 million citizens calculated to live in this large area) are currently discussing this, in Milan, appropriately, for the occasion of Earth Day. And the mayor of Milan sums it up as follows: “In our future, we see green mobility and multi-centric cities” (La Repubblica, 21 April). We will see.

(Photo Getty Images)

A study of immigrant entrepreneurs outlines the importance of relational capital

Immigrant and entrepreneur: not a rarity but, rather, a reality that now has numerous important expressions in Italy. But, even in these cases, it is a matter of an enterprising culture transforming itself into an ability to get things done. With an added element: the relational capital that immigrants bring with them. Understanding the value of relational capital is, then, crucial to studying entrepreneurship as practised by foreign-born individuals.

Paola Paoloni (Università degli Studi La Sapienza, Rome), Federico De Andreis (Università Giustino Fortunato, Benevento) and Armando Papa (Università degli Studi di Teramo, Teramo) have undertaken research work that revolves around these concepts, recently published under the title Capital and Immigrant Entrepreneurship in Italy.

The study, as they explain, aims to investigate the quantitative dimension of foreign-owned entrepreneurship in Italy, identify the drivers of this phenomenon and examine the value of relational capital for the creation and development of immigrant-owned enterprises. In other words, this is a comprehensive investigation that first focuses on the salient features of what is happening, then looks at the elements that are contributing to the growth of immigrant entrepreneurship before analysing the contribution of particular relational capacities.

Indeed, the authors point precisely to this particular human approach as an “intangible asset in the development of foreign companies”. The idea behind the investigation is that relational capital enables start-ups to overcome their main difficulties: the organisational aspect and their financial capacity. Although constrained by the limited number of cases analysed, the research by Paoloni, De Andreis and Papa provides an initial description of an increasingly significant phenomenon in Italy and, above all, indicates how we can gain a better understanding of that capacity for human relations which, not only for immigrants, ultimately remains the real difference between success and failure. For businesses too.

Capital and immigrant entrepreneurship in Italy

Paola Paoloni (Università degli Studi “La Sapienza” Roma), Federico De Andreis (Università “Giustino Fortunato”, Benevento), Armando Papa (Università degli Studi di Teramo, Teramo)

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, April 2024

A recently published book features 12 essays that help us to understand Italy in the period from 1992 to 2022

An awareness of history – including recent history – gives us a better understanding of where and how we are living and, above all, of our direction of travel. This is always a useful lesson to remember, even for those who do business. And that’s why it’s useful to read: L’Italia al bivio. Classi dirigenti alla prova del cambiamento1992-2022 (Italy at a Crossroads. The Ruling Classes Grappling with Change 1992-2022), edited by Franco Amatori, Pietro Modiano and Edoardo Reviglio.

The book is, as the title indicates, a collection of essays whose aim is to take stock of 30 years of Italian history. The picture they paint is not only economic in nature – or even that much – but also social and political. And they all share a special quality: the

12 essays are written by those who witnessed events directly or have studied them in depth, and each one provides an account of the period in question and an interpretation. The focus is on the so-called “ruling classes” that governed the country over the three decades.

The following topics are covered by the 12 essays: failed reforms and public debt (Mario Perugini, Roberto Artoni); Mani Pulite (Clean Hands) and the turning point of 1992 (Pietro Modiano, Giuliano Amato); the great era of privatisation (Franco Amatori, Ruggiero Ranieri, Marco Onado, Edoardo Reviglio, Franco Bernabé); the turning point in industrial relations (Stefano Musso, Sergio Cofferati); the crisis of the old equilibrium and the new economic protagonists (Marco Doria, Andrea Colli, Innocenzo Cipolletta, Franco Amatori, Ilaria Sangalli, Aldo Fumagalli Romario); the enduring North/South divide (Leandra D’Antone, Gianfranco Viesti, Renato Quaglia); and our inadequacies in the face of the global challenge (Piarluigi Ciocca, Laura Pennacchi). The book closes with a long interview with Romano Prodi who pulls the threads of all the various contributions together.

But how, then, do we view the sum of three such troubled decades? From the analyses in the book, a negative assessment of what was done and achieved emerges. The opinion that the book forms is that the period could have led in a different direction, had the ruling classes been equal to the historical moment.

Like any book that sets out to put the record straight, L’Italia al bivio also provokes discussion, inspires debate and accepts that not everyone who reads it will agree. And that is why this work, edited by Amatori, Modiano and Reviglio, is worth reading and re-reading.

L’Italia al bivio. Classi dirigenti alla prova del cambiamento1992-2022 (Italy at a Crossroads. The Ruling Classes Grappling with Change 1992-2022)

Franco Amatori, Pietro Modiano, Edoardo Reviglio (ed.)

Franco Angeli, 2024

Take a closer look at schooling at a time when the knowledge economy dominates. Consider it both in view of the Italian Constitution (Article 34 rightly calls for it to be ‘open to all’ and prescribes that ‘the able and deserving, even if deprived of the means, have the right to attain the highest levels of education’) and in the context of the challenges posed by the world today. Namely, demographic decline, which needs to be offset by far-sighted management of immigration and policies for social, cultural and economic inclusion, and the need for solutions to the environmental and digital transition and the spread of AI (Artificial Intelligence) across all areas of our lives. These are societal challenges. But they are also economic challenges, and relate to citizenship and to building sustainable development, with a focus on the new generations.

So, in what kind of health is Italian schooling? Very good is the answer – that is, if you read the QS World Ranking 2024, which analyses over 1,500 universities and places Italy seventh in the world and second in Europe by rankings in the various Top 10 lists across both humanities and science disciplines. Schools, on the other hand, are still quite bad, if we take Eurostat data on school drop-out rates, which sees the country fifth worst among EU states: 11.5% of our 11-24 year olds are affected, two points above the European average (9.6%).

In short, higher education is improving, although we still have too few graduates (especially in the STEM subjects, i.e. science, technology, engineering and mathematics). But we remain drastically behind in middle and secondary education, where the expectations and hopes of tens of thousands of girls and boys are dashed. This disregards the Constitution and wastes opportunities for a better quality of life and work.

Looking closely at the data, however, we find that some progress has been made: In 20 years, the number of young people leaving the school system with only a secondary school leaving certificate or lower has halved (the Italian rate used to be 24%, compared to an EU average of 17%). We remain among the bottom countries, that much is true. But, in our efforts to catch up, we achieved the EU target for 2020, which was 16%: five points better than expected. In 2030, the target will be 9%. Will we manage to achieve it? There is certainly hope,

but regional gaps remain strong. The specialist portal Skuola.net, analysing in detail the Eurostat data we are talking about here, shows that there are 10 regions with drop-out rates below 10%, in line with the EU’s requirements: Lombardy, Veneto, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Molise, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Lazio, and then the most virtuous regions, Umbria (7.3%), Marche (5.8%) and Basilicata (5.3%).

But in the South, unfortunately, things are not so rosy: drop-out rates rise to 13.8% on average – in Sardinia they stand at 15%, in Campania 16% and in Sicily they are disastrous, at almost 19%.

These figures are, of course, also reflected in employment prospects. Between 2008 and 2020, the rate of 18-24 year olds who left school early and found employment plummeted from 51% to 33.2%.

An alarming rate of school drop-outs, then, with a worsening of the already marked territorial and social differences. But there has also been a decline in the quality of education, if we look at the data from tests conduced by INVALSI (a national body that evaluates education standards). Upon obtaining their upper secondary school leaving certificate, half of the pupils do not reach expected levels in at least one of the three subjects under observation (mathematics, Italian, and English). And almost one in ten students does not achieve a pass grade in all three of the subjects. These levels peak in the most disadvantaged social areas. In the South, that means, in particular, Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia.

From the perspective of balancing future development, the situation is aggravated by constant emigration from the southern regions – hundreds of thousands of girls and boys, those most educated, trained, enterprising and capable of building a future.

Overall, it’s a lopsided unbalanced and unequal picture. But it’s far from lacking any chance of recovery.

It may be true that a pessimist is nothing more than a well-informed optimist, to cite Oscar Wilde’s famous aphorism. But it is likely to be equally true that, in analysing this historical period, the comparison between Italy and the countries we are competing with reveals aptitudes and qualities that need to be leveraged better in order to make them not only, or not quite so much, a source of national pride, but above all a cornerstone of political choices and conscious possibilities for development.

This is why, then, alongside a reasoned and well-founded critique of the many shortcomings of our university system, it is worth taking a look at the QS Ranking 2024 reports mentioned above (in Corriere della Sera, IlSole24Ore, la Repubblica, 11 April) and highlighting the positive results of Sapienza in Rome, the Scuola Normale in Pisa, Bocconi, the Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino, the Luiss in Rome and Federico II in Naples, etc. These are centres of excellence, both for humanistic studies and scientific knowledge, for engineering and architecture, and for design and art. They occupy leadership positions we need to be clear about, to continue to invest in teaching and research, leveraging experience and an aptitude for innovation.

The reference horizon is a cultura politecnica, an original feature of Italian life that can bind humanistic and scientific knowledge together. And this is something companies can also continue to leverage in order to improve the competitiveness of their products and services in particularly selective international markets.

In a nutshell, training must focus on knowledge rather than skills. Because it is knowledge that allows you to know what to do, how to do it and why. It is, in fact, the result of a widespread cultura politecnica, that is, a culture that is capable of fusing technological innovation, as an outcome of scientific research, with a taste for beauty, as an expression of humanistic knowledge. And, in doing so, it reveals the essence of doing business in Italy.

This was discussed a few days ago in Trento at “CamLab: Dialogues on Enterprise and Innovation”, an initiative of the local Chamber of Commerce. It proposed that in a large open country like Italy, which is both competitive and inclusive, training should be conceived as a supply chain process – a network that engages all the companies that are involved in a product. An ability to do things. And a commitment to ‘passing on knowledge’, that is, to building a new narrative of enterprise, creativity and productivity.

Moreover, at the very etymological root of ‘compete’ lies the idea of striving together towards a goal: economic and social growth, with the widespread production of value, across companies and local areas. Which, in turn, attracts investment and quality people, ideas and vessels for knowledge. This is why training must work on mobilising companies, politicians and trade associations. And tax breaks should be used more to stimulate companies, local areas and associations to invest in knowledge – that is, in training. In educational and vocational training that looks to the long-term. ‘Lifelong learning’, as the business management manuals say.

The reasoning behind this goes back to universities and the leading positions they occupy, as revealed by the QS Ranking. It follows the assessment of Francesco Profumo, former Rector of the Politecnico di Torino, former Minister of Education and former President of the CNR and the Compagnia di San Paolo: ‘We are at a period in history where we need to hybridise knowledge. We have realised, fortunately, that the results of technology alone are not enough. We need a more “rounded” vision that has ethical, social and humanistic elements. In this respect, our culture has deep roots that without doubt need to be incorporated into modernity. Last year was the centenary of the Gentile Reform of education, and we also celebrated the 60th anniversary of the unification of the secondary school system. We are a very interesting country that other cultures look to with interest.’ (HuffingtonPost Italy, 11 April).

Profumo is indeed right when he states that ‘the cultural model in which we find ourselves, together with Germany and France, regardless of the individual rankings, is current and modern – and the QS rankings prove it. The central theme is that these countries have preserved a tradition while the Anglo-Saxon world is more focused on immediacy. We focus on knowledge, they focus on skills – but they become obsolete faster and need to be revised and regenerated from time to time. Knowledge, on the other hand, is a true and lasting value for those who possess it.’

The challenge is political and involves long-term national and European choices. And while it may be true that Europe, at this challenging time of major geopolitical conflicts, has, unfortunately, limited clout, it is precisely the EU’s insistence on culture, knowledge, and education that can restore our role and level of contribution.

(photo Getty Images)

The history of businesses from ancient times to the present outlines the components and objectives of these organisations.

For profit (always), but not only that: understanding why and how businesses are created is fundamental to understanding the culture behind and within them. The humanity that must be sought in every instance is a humanity dense in its history, its victories and its defeats. It is a humanity that, on occasion, has made “great history” but also a lowlier history, and which truly builds the present and the future. Reading For Profit: a History of Corporations by William Magnuson, just proposed once more in Italy, serves precisely to understand more about the relationships between profit and other objectives that have almost always given rise to businesses.

In particular, the book is a history of the birth of corporations, their evolution and the role they have played and continue to play in shaping the world and our way of thinking. And it’s not just about the economic aspects. William Magnuson traces the journey of ‘corporations’ over the centuries: from the great buildings of ancient Rome to the ships of the British East India Company, to the rails built by the Union Pacific Railroad Company to cross North America; from oil multinationals in the Middle East to today’s Silicon Valley giants. Magnuson’s narrative begins before the birth of Christ and continues to the present day, offering examples that immediately illuminate the role of companies. A few examples are enough to illustrate this. In 215 BC, the Roman army risked collapsing in the face of the Carthaginian advance. It fell to a handful of wealthy citizens, united in societates – the first companies in history – to save the troops and the Republic. They supplied the soldiers with clothes, cereals and equipment, thus turning the tide of the conflict. In the first half of the 15th century, under the leadership of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, the Banco Medici became the most important company in Europe, capable of influencing wars, truces and treaties thousands of kilometres away. In May 2012, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg’s company that will become Meta, went public. In 2018, it was accused of influencing the elections that led to Donald Trump becoming President of the United States.

Profit, therefore, but also other objectives have animated and animate production organisations and the men who design, build and manage them. Magnuson then recounts the fate of bankers, explorers, pirates, businessmen and digital entrepreneurs in the grey area that exists between personal interest and common welfare. And it is precisely the swing of the pendulum between these two extremes that leads the book to describe successes and failures in doing business but also, of course, the role of profit.

Profitto. Storia delle grandi aziende dall’antica Roma a Meta

William Magnuson

il Saggiatore 2024

Generational changeover in companies from the perspective of emotions

Conceiving, creating and managing a business is also a question of humanity and of emotions. Many entrepreneurs and managers are well aware of this. So too are those who have to face generational changeover at a certain point in their career. Managing emotions and accounts can then become a further exercise in which to prove one’s production culture. Mariano De Vincenzo and Rossella Torretta tackle precisely this question of generational changeover triggered when a company’s founder passes away in their article “Emozioni e passaggio generazionale nelle piccole e medie imprese” (Emotions and generational changeover in SMEs).

The investigation takes a specific (real) case as its starting point, proceeding to frame the topic more generally. An intervention to promote generational changeover in an SME – explain the authors – becomes a point of departure for addressing generational transition also from the perspective of emotions, which are not entirely irrelevant when you’re talking about production, organisational dimension, budgets, management problems and procedures.

But what happened? On the death of the founder, the heirs were locked in a sort of managerial paralysis in which the eldest son had assumed the role of heir by primogeniture, maintaining the structure that was organised top-down by the father-founder and actually asking the consultants to make his siblings and all the employees accept him in that rule, thus delegating his own authorisation to occupy the position to third parties. De Vincenzo and Torretta obtain a more general profile from this situation.

The fundamental term is ‘time’. The death of a founder poses the problem of time in processing the transmission and acquisition of the inheritance and its transformation is an inescapable part of the transition. Time is essential for coming to terms with the loss of the father-founder and, with him, letting go of self-idealisations and encountering reality. Maintaining an unchanged organisation, moving one man to the place of another, proves merely to be a strategy introduced to avoid facing pain and change. It’s a cultural and human process before being a management one, a process that can’t be followed without expert assistance. Successfully identifying the right path and rethinking the organisation and the position of those who come afterwards in the company are steps that can’t be automatic or swift.

To describe all this, De Vincenzo and Torretta first analyse the characteristics of the two main entities at play (family and business) then proceed to delve into specific aspects such as suffering, the history of the business used as a case study itself, the “actors” involved, the particular figure of the founder, the central issue of the generational transition and hence inheritance, and finally the path taken to face and manage it.

Mariano De Vincenzo and Rossella Torretta’s article is by no means an easy read, but reading it is nonetheless important.

Emozioni e passaggio generazionale nelle piccole e medie imprese

Mariano De Vincenzo, Rossella Torretta

Ricerca Psicoanalitica, Year XXXV, no. 1, 2024

Turin: Space for the Future is the underlying theme of the events promoted by the Unione Industriali Torino, celebrating the former capital of the Savoy kingdom. The city has been proclaimed Corporate Culture Capital 2024 by Confindustria, after Genoa in 2019, Alba in 2020-1, the Padua-Treviso-Venice-Rovigo area in 2022 and Pavia in 2023. The celebrations, which started on 19 February, include a rich programme of projects and events designed to showcase and promote the “Made in Italy” label, as well as the manufacturing prowess of the country and the excellence of its products.

The programme also includes the Torino al Futuro. La Cultura d’Impresa, la Cultura dell’Innovazione exhibition, organised by the Unione Industriali Torino. The show will remain open to visitors from 14 April to 30 September at the National Museum of the Italian Risorgimento. The flagship event of the year for Turin Corporate Culture Capital, the exhibition is divided into seven graphic and multimedia sections installed in the monumental corridor of the Camera Italiana inside the museum. Here the visitor will be taken on a journey through the history of Turin’s industrialisation, starting from its origins and ending with an immersive section devoted to the city’s prospects for the future.

The Turin area has historically served as a testing ground for industrial innovations, and it is no coincidence that Pirelli has had a factory for car tyres in Settimo Torinese ever since the early 1950s. This close bond with Piedmont can be seen in the exhibition, from the photos of the first Pirelli factory in Settimo taken by the Dutch photographer Arno Hammacher in 1962 through to the filming of “Canto della fabbrica”, the concert performed by the Orchestra da Camera Italiana directed by Maestro Salvatore Accardo in the spaces of the Industrial Centre in Settimo Torinese. This is one of the Pirelli Group’s most technologically advanced plants anywhere in terms of product innovation, production processes and quality of the working environment. The central services section, known as the “Spina”, and the landscaping works that immerse the factory in an orchard of 500 cherry trees, were designed by the architect Renzo Piano.

The Centre, established through fruitful collaboration with local institutions and the Politecnico University of Turin, exemplifies Pirelli’s vision of innovation. Not just technology, but also sustainability, respect for the environment, and care for people. A story that could not be missing in an exhibition devoted to business culture, chronicling a remarkable industrial journey towards a “space for the future”, and welcoming young people with open arms.

As soon as it was invented in the mid-nineteenth century, the camera became not just as tool for a new art form, but also a crucial asset in the realm of science. It directly spurred the advance of science by assisting in research, documentation, dissemination and the teaching of technical knowledge. From archaeology to botany, to anthropology and geology: forever capturing fragments of reality, it has always facilitated and also encouraged greater levels of understanding. It is this combination of observation and knowledge that was so beautifully expressed in the words of Ingegner Luigi Emanueli: “Adess ghe capissaremm on quaicoss: andemm a guardagh denter (“Now we’ll understand something, let’s go and look inside”). A reference to Pirelli’s approach to research, but also to the very essence of scientific photography.

The pages of Pirelli magazine amply attest to the importance of photography as a tool for the sciences. One article, “Cento anni di fotografia celeste” (“A hundred years of celestial photography”) traces the history of astronomy, from the first image of a star – Vega, in the constellation of Lyra – dating back to 1850, all the way to the stunning shots taken through modern telescopes on the mountain tops which, a century later, were to lead the way in our understanding of the stars. From the infinitely vast to the infinitely small: a 1953 article explores the role of microphotography in analysing inorganic phenomena. The text was illustrated by magnified photograms – authentic “technical records” – showing the effects of ozonised air on vulcanised rubber surfaces, or the gradual tearing of repeatedly stretched rubber sheets. In 1954, an article entitled “Fotografa i messaggi siderali” (“Photographing celestial messages”), the journalist Franco Vegliani profiled Giuseppe Occhialini, a physicist who investigated cosmic rays using emulsions and photographic plates. Coral branches, schools of damselfish, and large octopuses take centre stage in photographs captured by divers in the Mediterranean. These images, from Gianni Roghi’s analysis published in the magazine in 1959, show the importance of photography in the realm of biology.

Photography also emerged as an indispensable tool for documenting the places, equipment and faces of the world of research at Pirelli factories, for scientific work requires full awareness and knowledge of the technological legacy that the Group has built up throughout its history.
In 1922, to commemorate the company’s fiftieth anniversary, a photographic shoot was conducted at the Milano Bicocca factory, ranging from the laboratories to the production departments. Photographs just showing the premises are certainly of great documentary value, but they do not fully convey the true spirit of the laboratory as a vibrant centre of visionary curiosity and as a crucial asset for the company.
Photographs from the 1930s and 1940s provide the first visual testimony of people working in these places of experimentation, with both women and men in white coats engrossed in various experiments. What is interesting is not just the scientists but also the tools they use: the work benches of the chemistry and physics laboratories have microscopes, ampoules, slides, test tubes, torque transducers and plastometers, and we see them being used or in close-ups that highlight the details.
In the 1950s some of the great names in photography were asked to immortalise the complexity of Pirelli research centres, offering new perspectives and personal points of view. These sites were chosen and arranged on the basis of their particular field of research and the areas of experimentation and testing that were involved in the manufacturing of the company’s products. Aldo Ballo visited the various departments of the Milano Bicocca factory, including the textile laboratory, the plastic materials development department and the organic analysis division, taking photos that clearly convey the concept of science as both study and application. Carlo Ancillotti – who in those years captured on film not only the Fiera Campionaria in Milan, but also the interiors of the Industria Nazionale Alluminio (INA) and those of the Duco factory in Avigliana – ventured into the rubber laboratory, going from the compound research and development section to the machine room where tyres were tested for resistance to crushing and impact. Giulio Galimberti, on the other hand, went into the physics labs and photographed the world of testing, with dynamometers, checks on fabric permeability and assessments of the elasticity of rubber samples under stress.

The camera also revealed the importance of the Milano Bicocca laboratories in Pirelli magazine: an article published in 1958 showed the advanced level of technology achieved in the research centre for the cable sector, with the text accompanied by numerous photographs. In 1960 came an article on the purchase and installation of two new pieces of equipment – a microphotometer and an optical comparator – both designed by Pirelli personnel. In 1963 came the opening of a new laboratory for the electrical sector, described as “one of the largest currently existing in the world for very high voltage tests”.

The R&D department has always been key to Pirelli’s activity, and is still today a place of knowledge and documentation, as we see in the 2021 reportage by the photographer and film-maker Carlo Furgeri Gilbert: from the raw materials, obtained from renewable and recycled sources, that are used in the laboratories, through to indoor experiments, and the stringent tests carried out on prototypes to ensure that the products are increasingly advanced in terms of safety, performance and sustainability. The decisive role of Research and Development in the history of the Group is well summed up in the words of Alberto Pirelli in La Pirelli: Vita di una azienda industriale: “Our technology is highly complex, in both the physical and the chemical field and in the mechanical sector. It is a testament to the dedication of our laboratory teams who have helped elevate the technical standing of the Pirelli brand, enabling us to triumph over the fiercest competition.”

The 12th edition of Cinema & History, the free training course for secondary school teachers, has now ended. The event was promoted by the Pirelli Foundation and Fondazione ISEC in collaboration with the Cinema Beltrade of Milan. “The Cosmos: The Next Frontier” was the title of this year’s programme, consisting of six online sessions, which involved about 200 teachers from across all Italy. The topic examined was that of cosmic space. There were five historical lectures given by university professors, while Cinema Beltrade put on a workshop that examined the languages of cinema and provided a selection of films for streaming.

The course started with a lecture by David Burigana, associate professor of History of International Relations at the University of Padua, who examined the geopolitical implications of the Moon race during the Cold War to the launch of the International Space Station, focusing in particular on the importance of space diplomacy.
A delicate intergalactic balance, a state of peace and a sharing of knowledge, but also a danger that threatens it all, are the main elements of the film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, by Luc Besson, which was selected for the first event. A cinematic journey to the edge of the Universe, in a world of alien cultures and pristine lands.

In his lecture, Massimo Sideri, adjunct professor of Socio-economic History of Innovation at the Luiss Guido Carli University of Rome and columnist for the Corriere della Sera, examined the consequences of the launch of the first artificial satellite into orbit by the Soviet Union in 1957. One of the most important outcomes of what became known as the “Sputnik effect” was the birth of a modern form of scientific dissemination.
Star Stuff, a documentary by Milad Tangshir, imaginarily whisked the students off to Chile, South Africa and the Canary Islands, where they found out about three of the world’s most technologically advanced astronomical observatories. Indigenous communities and small villages live alongside these havens of research, which have allowed the international scientific community to make important discoveries concerning the origins of the Universe and of life on Earth.

The third lecture, given by Silvia Cavalli, professor of Modern and Contemporary Italian Literature at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, reflected on how the space race influenced literature, bringing new themes to the attention of authors such as Italo Calvino and Primo Levi.
The importance of science fiction literature was also investigated in Jodorowsky’s Dune, a film by Frank Pavich, which documents one of the most visionary projects in the entire history of cinema: the big screen version, which was never terminated, of the novels of the “Dune” saga by Alejandro Jodorowsky. An innovative concept conveyed through interviews and a personal dialogue with the famous director, filmed over the course of 3 years.

Professor Matteo Landoni, from the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Brescia, highlighted the contribution of the Italian aerospace industry to the most important international space missions. He retraced the economic and technological evolution of Italy, which is now the third largest contributor to the European Space Agency (ESA).
In Paola Randi’s film Little Tito and the Aliens, the protagonist is an Italian professor and scientist cut off from the world in a mobile home in the Nevada desert, next to Area 51. Working on a secret project for the United States Government, “The Professor” sees his solitary life turned upside down by a sudden event. A poignant story that explores the themes of loneliness, the power of love and the process of grieving.

In the fifth lecture of the course, Miriam Focaccia, a researcher at the Enrico Fermi Study and Research Centre in Rome, examines the role of women in the world of astronomy, tracing the biographies of some of the greatest female scientists in history: from the Manfredi sisters, who worked in Bologna in the eighteenth century, to Margherita Hack and Samantha Cristoforetti.
The first Italian astronaut to go into space is also the protagonist of the documentary Astrosamantha, by Gianluca Cerasola, which takes the students through three years of Cristoforetti’s life: from the time she spent training for the mission to the adventure of orbiting the Earth with her team, through to the thrilling return home.

The last part of the course was devoted to the workshop entitled Imagined Universes: Science and Reality in the Viewfinder of Cinema, put on by Cinema Beltrade with the aim of helping teachers make best use of film in the classroom. Monica Naldi traced an extensive journey through the world of science, illustrating its ability to express the social and political hopes and fears of every generation for over a century. In particular, she examined its educational potential.

The Observatory’s latest report on the sector indicates many benefits to aggregating businesses in this way, but also considerable room for improvement

Business networks can be seen as one of the best expressions of a healthy culture of productivity that is good for Italy’s economy and development. They are networks that, naturally, must be well constructed and managed – and which, therefore, need to be understood. And the starting point is the tools they have available, such as network contracts.

For some time now, network contracts have been subject to analysis by the National Observatory on business networks (conducted by Ca’ Foscari University, Retimpresa and Infocamere), which has developed an updated bank of research on the state of the art of this method of corporate aggregation and collaboration.

The series of investigations conducted by the Observatory, now collected in a volume edited by Anna Cabigiosu, therefore allows us to “take the pulse” of this tool and understand how it could evolve. The first analysis concerns the recent dynamics of contracts and the emerging innovations. Next comes a more in-depth look at the characteristics of current contracts and their ability to deliver results, before turning to an exploration of their governance. The report then goes on to delve into specific elements, such as working relationships, the resilience of business networks, geographical proximity as a competitive factor, the degree of innovation in the networks and taxation and financial-related aspects.

“Over the years, the networks have become narrower geographically and sectorally,” says the editor in her conclusions, before adding that “to be effective [the networks] must standardise [their use] of a range of resources”. There is a particular focus on elements that add resilience and innovation, as well as the ability to make better use of the tools made available by tax and labour law regulations.

Business networks are, therefore, important – even if there remains room for improvement. This is the Observatory’s clear message, and it is one that is of great value for the general growth of Italy’s business culture.

Osservatorio Nazionale sulle reti d’impresa 2023 (National Observatory on Business Networks 2023)

Anna Cabigiosu (ed.), Venezia Edizioni Ca’ Foscari – Venice University Press, 2024