A just published book that delves into the human aspects of business

The change from cog to human being. Following the evolution of business management approaches and summarising events, this change is perhaps the parable of the role of work and workers. It is a complex journey, and one that is not yet complete. A journey that needs to be encouraged and so well understood. Some key factors to help with this can be found in “Il lato umano dell’impresa. Vivere la comunità dentro le organizzazioni” (The human side of enterprise. The living community within organisations), a recently published book by Francesco Limone. The title says it all: looking at production organisations also as communities and not only as mechanisms.

The starting point is scientific management, born during the second industrial revolution, which saw workers as cogs in a machine and work as something separate from life. At that time, companies dealt technical problems that could be solved by experts and specific skills. Today everything is different, starting from the context in which companies operate. It is a social system represented by the acronym B.A.N.I.: Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear and Incomprehensible. Uncertainty and complexity call for a different approach in which everyone counts and contributes, and in which corporate goals are reconciled with an anthropological, i.e. human, vision of the company.

It is on these findings that Francesco Limone bases his reasoning. The current challenges, he explains, are mainly adaptive: this is new for everyone, with answers that come from dialogue and quality conversations within a community. The driving force behind the company is not just individual talent, but the entire community that lives and works within it. Leadership becomes diffused, combining challenge and care, building on a sense of belonging and community.

This is a sense of community, which is a complex and difficult condition to build, but it is fundamental, also for companies. Not just to respond to the challenges of the day, but to reinforce weaving together of interdependent lives.

Limone’s book should be read attentively, with a preface by Stefano Zamagni that places the text in a humanistic and historical perspective that helps to understand it better.

Il lato umano dell’impresa. Vivere la comunità dentro le organizzazioni

Francesco Limone

Egea, 2025

A paper discussed at the University of Genoa highlights the countries that are ahead of their time, but also the journey that still needs to be taken

Valuing and respecting those who work in companies is an important and fundamental idea, almost taken for granted, which in reality is not always applied as it should be. This is a question of culture before management. And it is now an essential question for any production organisation, so much so that it has given rise to a specific approach. Diversity management is now an essential part of any good production culture, but it is still a necessity that not everyone embraces.

Erica Rovina’s thesis, discussed at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Genoa, tackles the issue from several angles. The research, entitled “Diversity Management nelle imprese: una visione strategica” (Diversity management in companies: a strategic vision), aims to analyse the causes, challenges and opportunities of diversity management, as explained in the opening pages of the work, focusing on some forms of discrimination, including racial, gender and cultural.

Erica Rovina begins by focusing on the basic characteristics of diversity management as an essential strategy for organisations, aimed at enhancing individual differences and promoting inclusive and competitive work environments. The thesis also examines the set of current rules that govern these practices not only in Italy and Europe, but also in the United States. The research then attempts to highlight the extent to which the rules are actually applied in the various companies and, therefore, the difficulties that still need to be resolved. The theory is finally compared with the practice by means of a case study, that of Cirfood, a company dealing with collective and commercial catering.

The picture that emerges is complex and varied. In fact, the real application of the principles of diversity management ranges from simple compliance with the law, to marketing initiatives, to real strategic actions for the involvement and development of those who work in the company. And it seems that there is still a long way to go on this journey.

Diversity Management nelle imprese: una visione strategica

Erica Rovina

Thesis, University of Genoa, Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Economics, Master’s Degree in Management, 2025

A book by a computer scientist and a philosopher helps us understand new technologies

Understanding in order to act better and wiser.  This applies to everyone, but particularly to certain categories of social and economic actors. In other words, to have the right tools to understand, and then to act more carefully. This must also be done with the new technologies available, including artificial intelligence, perhaps one of the most important, interesting and promising. Provided, that is, that you understand it well.

To help this understanding, a useful read is “Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico” (Towards an ecology of artificial intelligence. Dialogues between a philosopher and a computer scientist) written by Vincenzo Ambriola (already Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Department of Computer Science at the University of Pisa) and Adriano Fabris (Professor of Moral Philosophy, also at the University of Pisa). The two authors, who come from different backgrounds and experiences, have one thing in common: the ethical focus of technology. The book is a dialogue between the two, based on an observation: the advent of artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of the human, inexorably intertwining technology and consciousness. The two then try to answer a series of important questions for everyone, which can be summed up as one big question. How will artificial intelligence change the way we work, relate to each other and understand ourselves? In fact, what is affected by our relationship with technologies is the very idea of the human being that artificial intelligence introduces.

The two academics discuss this historic revolution with their different lenses through which they observe reality and technology. And therein lies the interest of the book (not even 100 pages to read carefully). While the computer scientist guides the reader through the meanderings of the algorithm, revealing the potential and the limits of this new intelligence, the philosopher invites us to reflect on the moral implications of this transformation. One vision of reality does not exclude the other and, on the contrary, it enriches it.

The book is structured in three steps (with as many chapters). The first discusses the ethics of artificial intelligence “in socio-technological systems”, and then goes into detail about what ethics we are talking about, what codes are being discussed, and what the actual novelty of “new technologies” is. The second chapter then reflects on language and the “worlds created by artificial entities” and tries to understand the function, utility and responsibility that these worlds imply. An example of a “conversation with an artificial entity” is also included in this part. The third step concerns the “ecology of digital environments” and relates to the places and spaces of these environments, attempting to define a new way of doing ecology.

Each chapter is based on texts written by the two, and on others written alternately by either the computer scientist or the philosopher.

In their conclusions, the two authors highlight the importance of ethics today, not only for humans but also for machines, and the extent to which the latter’s design criteria “must be inspired by principles such as transparency, accountability, respect for predefined and inviolable rules. The accountability mechanisms governing the operation of these systems must be clarified, separating the training phase from the operational phase”. However, the book – and this is another of its merits – does not provide an answer to all the questions that remain unanswered; on the contrary, it concludes by stressing how complex and difficult it is to achieve a balance in the use of new technologies.

Per un’ecologia dell’intelligenza artificiale. Dialoghi tra un filosofo e un informatico

Vincenzo Ambriola, Adriano Fabris

Castelvecchi, 2025

Bank of Italy study analyses the impact of shocks after 2020

Understand the evolution of social and economic systems, especially industrial systems, in order to make prudent decisions. This also includes a good corporate culture (and, on the other hand, an awareness of every good component of society). A condition that is particularly true today, at a time when we are grappling with the (still lingering) consequences of a pandemic, two wars and major social stresses. “La politica industriale dell’Unione europea tra crisi e doppia transizione” (The industrial policy of the European Union from crisis to double transition) – a study written by Claire Giordano, Giacomo Roma, Alessandro Schiavone, Filippo Vergara Caffarelli and Stefania Villa of the Research and Statistics Department of the Bank of Italy – certainly contributes to a better economic knowledge of the facts of recent years.

The paper (published in the Bank of Italy’s Occasional Papers series) analyses the impact of shocks that have affected the activity and international competitiveness of European Union industry since 2020. After outlining the consequences of events, the study describes the industrial policy instruments developed by the European Union and adopted at both national and European level. There is also a focus on the initiatives taken to address these crises, the dual green and digital transition and the changing international political environment.

The Bank of Italy’s Research Group therefore identifies the sectors most affected by the recent shocks and structural changes for the green and digital transition: energy-intensive industries, mechanics, electronics and the automotive industry. It also shows how the EU’s approach to industrial policy is increasingly focusing on sectoral initiatives to boost investment in strategic sectors and enhance economic and national security. The question of the competitiveness of the European industrial system as a whole remains, it is stressed, and this will require a rethink of the current rules, greater cooperation between the European institutions and the Member States, and targeted and adequate funding.

The Bank of Italy’s study on the last years of the European industrial economy is a good read for entrepreneurs and managers, but also for anyone who wants to get a clear idea of what has happened, with particular attention to European industry.

La politica industriale dell’Unione europea tra crisi e doppia transizione

Claire Giordano, Giacomo Roma, Alessandro Schiavone, Filippo Vergara Caffarelli and Stefania Villa

Bank of Italy, Occasional Papers, No. 931, April 2025

Sicily as the “California of Europe”. And Palermo as an international centre of excellence for biotechnology and biomedical research, capable of “attracting young and experienced researchers from all over the world”. This is neither a Sicilian dream nor a propaganda battle about original development strategies for the South, fascinating to talk about but historically unproductive in terms of results. Rather, it is a real project in progress. There is even a Rimed Foundation to manage it,  and a funded plan to build an international biotechnology research centre within two years in Carini, a village west of Palermo, near the Punta Raisi airport, named after Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. Palermo high tech, Sicily, the land of science and quality work.

This was the headline in the influential pages of “Il Sole24Ore” (20th April), in an interview by Paolo Bricco with Giulio Superti-Furga, for twenty years director of the CeMM in Vienna, the research centre for molecular medicine of the Academy of Sciences, and now coordinator of the activities of the Sicilian Foundation: “Today there are three hundred researchers and six biotech companies in the Vienna cluster. Why can’t we do the same in Sicily? It is a complex but wonderful place, with a great desire for rebirth and redemption, capable of hosting a scientific facility of international standard and attracting scientists and researchers from all over the world”.

The Rimed Foundation has five founding partners: the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the CNR, the Region of Sicily, the American University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Medical Center, the two healthcare institutions that for more than 25 years have created the Ismett, an efficient transplant centre of world renown in Palermo. And next to the biomedical research centre, an Ismett2 will be built, with a €250 million initial investment for the centre, another €348 million for the hospital. Superti-Furga commented: “We will be a unique biomedical hub in Europe, with a precise cultural vision: precision medicine, based on molecular pathological mechanisms and health as a combined effect of genes and environment, prevention as the preferred viaticum for the effectiveness of medicines, an almost philosophical and anthropological approach to biomedical research”.

This is a work in progress and hopes need to be fostered and not dashed.

But the intuition is right. And it can serve as a model for broader reflections and initiatives on the civil, economic and social growth of Sicily and the Mezzogiorno (southern Italy). Overcoming limits and crisis conditions.

The health sector in Sicily is not one of the brightest and most exemplary sides of the regional experience. “The best doctor here is an aeroplane” is a common cliché, confirmed by the fact that every year the Region spends around €140 million (half of it on “high complexity” operations) to reimburse the best and most efficient regional health administrations (first and foremost Emilia, Lombardy and Veneto) for the care they provide to Sicilian citizens. And while it is true that Sicily has high quality public and private health facilities, it is also true that public expenditure is among the highest in Italy, but the level of care is far from commensurate with both expenditure and national standards.

Yet it is precisely high performance in health and, more generally, quality of life that is a key factor in attracting both families and young talent seeking better working and living conditions. And to try to reduce the alarming brain drain (those 191,000 young people aged between 18 and 34 who left Italy in 2024, 20.5% more than the previous year) that impoverishes the country and jeopardises its future.

In the context of a new centrality of the Mediterranean, for reasons linked to the profound geopolitical upheavals currently underway, our Mezzogiorno can indeed regain a significant role as a centre of scientific research, training, industry and high-tech services, linked to the universities (the investments of Apple and Microsoft in Naples, Pirelli in Puglia and Bip, Business Integration Partners, in Palermo are proof of this). Not to mention the opportunities for long-stay tourism aimed at the silver generation, mainly older Europeans.

Here is the goal: a Sicily and a South capable of offering new job and study opportunities to young people returning or even arriving from all over the vast European and Mediterranean basin, but also from other countries that appreciate Made in Italy and its economic and cultural dimensions, as well as an original and pleasant lifestyle.

And the environment is in our favour. The Mediterranean and southern culture is open, communicative and inclusive, reinforcing the attractiveness we are talking about. Not forgetting, of course, Sicily’s history and culture of excellence in the visual arts, literature, cinema, theatre and photography, as well as a solid scientific culture (the Palermo Mathematical Circle and the Schools of Molecular and Marine Biology, Physics and Medicine are historical examples).

In short, a welcoming and dynamic Sicily. Seeking relations with other economic and cultural areas with a European dimension (this has been confirmed by the Milan-Palermo Forum, promoted in recent months by the two mayors Beppe Sala and Roberto Lagalla, and ready to deepen cooperation between companies, universities and cultural organisations).

So what is needed to make Sicily more attractive? Health and quality of life, as we said. A timely and effective focus on the protection and improvement of the environment and landscape. A range of high quality cultural (theatre, music, museums, libraries) and leisure facilities (beginning with sports facilities). A high-quality, international education system, from primary school to university, for the children of families who choose to come and work in Sicily. And efficient infrastructures for mobility, starting with an airport system rich in services and connections with the rest of Europe and the world, which will greatly improve the services offered by the airports of Palermo and Catania, thinking not only of tourism but also of professional, entrepreneurial and work activities.

In other words, we need a forward-looking vision of sustainable development. And a return to good governance. Sicily has shown itself capable of doing so, despite a history of shadows and entanglements between maladministration and organised crime. With the “the papers in order” government of Piersanti Mattarella, President of the region, in the late 1970s and the government, led by Rino Nicolosi in the second half of the 1980s, focused on attracting national and international investment. And there have been other experiences both in the region and in some cities and municipalities.

Experiences that should be studied and considered as good examples, updating them to contemporary contexts. Because Superti-Furga is right when he speaks of a “desire for redemption, for rebirth”. And all those who, in cultural and economic circles, do not give in to the idea of an “irredeemable” Sicily that was feared by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa and the “terrible insularity of the soul” noted with concern by Leonardo Sciascia. Two recent positive examples among many: “Marea” in Catania, an initiative promoted by Antonio Perdichizzi, an entrepreneur, to stimulate connections and interactions between Sicilians who have left and Sicilians who have stayed;  and “Sud Innovation” by Roberto Ruggeri in Messina, to propose reports on new technologies useful for the development of the territory).

There is, in short, a recurring hope, a desire not to resign oneself to a stereotype of Sicily and a Mezzogiorno reduced to marginality.

“L’alba della Sicilia” (The dawn of Sicily) was the title of a collection of essays by a group of economists, lawyers and political scientists published by Sellerio (and edited by the author) in 1996, almost thirty years ago. A promising hypothesis, although it was noted that “in the Sicilian dialect the form of the future is absent, as if there were a historical inability or fear to express the time to come, to name evolution, to recognise the dignity of language for tomorrow”.

Today, thanks in part to investment in science, culture and good economics, it is still possible to believe that the journey to the end of the night will soon allow us to glimpse a new light.

(photo Getty Images)

On 26 April 1960, the Pirelli Group expanded once again with Turk Pirelli Lastikleri SA, a new subsidiary headquartered in Istanbul. Just two years later, the company opened a factory in Izmit to produce radial textile tyres for cars, trucks and agricultural vehicles, making Pirelli the very first tyre manufacturer in Turkey. The move was prompted by the commercial success of its products, which had been imported into the country ever since 1948, and by the rapid growth of the local market driven by the rise of mass motorisation. This, too, was a bold decision, as Leopoldo Pirelli recalled 25 years later, for it was a time of political uncertainty—Turkey had just witnessed the first coup d’état in its history as a republic—and of “a general lack of confidence in the country’s economic and social future”. By 1985, the results spoke for themselves: the plant was producing 1.2 million tyres a year, employing 1,000 people, and had opened a new department for metal-belted radials. Pirelli had established a leading market position, supplying original equipment for every car model manufactured in Turkey and dominating the replacement market through a widespread network of over 500 dealers nationwide. In the 1960s, the Turkish subsidiary launched its own in-house publication. In 1965, the magazine Pirelli made its debut—the official voice of Turk Pirelli, as the subtitle proclaimed. Today, the entire collection can be browsed digitally in the Historical Archive section of our website. It was one of the later Pirelli house organs, coming after those published in Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the UK and, of course, the original Italian magazine Fatti e Notizie. The Turkish edition was unlike other magazines for employees, right from its name, and was something of a hybrid: part in-house publication, part glossy magazine like the Italian Pirelli. Rivista d’informazione e di tecnica. Together with company news, profiles of retailers, reports on company events, and technical articles on tyres and how to fit and maintain them, readers also found articles on cinema, theatre, art, music and sport. There were also many in-depth analyses of Turkish history, traditions and places, including a serialised feature on “The Legend of the Bosphorus”, which came out in 1967 and 1968, and illustrated articles on Atatürk, which were often previewed in evocative cover images. The early issues featured glamorous portraits of actresses such as Hülya Koçyiğit, Gina Lollobrigida, Sylva Koscina and İnci Çayırlı on the cover. Over time, these gave way to pictures showcasing Turkish landscapes and sites of historical and artistic significance.

The last page featured cartoons by Kemal Akkavuk, as well as a tribute to the Turkish cartoonist Cemal Nadir (issue no. 31, 1967), and there was a humour section titled “Let’s Laugh a Little”, edited by Engin Nur.

Each issue included a summary in French, and until 1968, several articles were also published in French—especially those on art and history, and reports, such as the one on the congress for 500 retailers in Yalova (issue nos. 21–22, 1966). From 1969 onwards, some articles were accompanied by abstracts in French.

The magazine came out once a month and was edited by Emil Elâgöz (later Nami A. Elâgöz), followed by Mustafa Özalay and Uğur Canal. Its run ended in 1979 after 183 issues. Pirelli, however, remained in Turkey, as did its communications activities, which have now gone digital. Today, the Turkish arm of the Pirelli Group celebrates 65 years. Its Izmit plant, affectionately known as “the factory of champions” due to its role in motorsport tyre production since 2007, now supplies every major racing series in which Pirelli competes—including Formula 1.

Research turned thesis focuses on gender inequality in companies

Good corporate culture is also about closing the gender gap. This is an important assumption for all, and one that seems to be shared by all within production organisations and social systems. However, there can be a long way between theory and practice. Even today. But once again, solving a company’s problems comes down to understanding the problem at hand and then finding the right tools to address it.

For this reason, it is useful to read “Gender gap: uno studio delle percezioni dei lavoratori e delle lavoratrici: età, genere e provenienza” (The gender gap: a study of the perceptions of male and female workers: age, gender and origin), a study by Sara Ferrario that has become a thesis discussed at the University of Padua as part of the degree course in Management of Educational Services and Continuing Education.

Ferrario points out that over the years, strategies and solutions to reduce the gender gap have been codified and implemented (such as corporate policies, more inclusive leadership, standards and new targets to overcome potential barriers to women’s employment). However, focusing on how to perceive the problem remains crucial.

The research therefore focused on the different aspects of the gender gap in order to understand its deeper causes, its evolution and the countermeasures taken by institutions to limit its impact on social and working life. It was possible to measure the perception of the problem in companies by using a questionnaire given to a representative sample of employees.

Sara Ferrario writes in her conclusions: “The gender gap (…) is not a static phenomenon, but one in the making.  It changes over time, depending on the historical period, the activist movements and the policies adopted. But (…) this phenomenon is closely linked to the vision of the family, and therefore to an education that must be predisposed to change and adapt to a cultural evolution”. And then, how “gender equality must be a lived reality in which we see the reflection of an idea that becomes a desire for a reality to be experienced. For there is little point in imagining, hoping and advocating what would be right if things do not become real and tangible”.

Gender gap: uno studio delle percezioni dei lavoratori e delle lavoratrici: età, genere e provenienza

Sara Ferrario

University of Padua, Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Pedagogy and Applied Psychology Degree Course in Management of Educational Services and Continuing Education, Academic Year 2024-2025

A book has just been published that effectively recounts the life of Giovanni Cottino

Give back and do business. Look after others and make a profit. Be strict yet generous. Create wealth in a non-selfish way. These are attitudes shared by many more entrepreneurs than you might think.  But they are attitudes that, when well communicated and therefore well known, educate, surprise, and excite. And maybe encourage others to do the same. The attitudes of teachers. Perhaps this is why Francesco Antonioli’s latest literary work is entitled “Il maestro silenzioso. Giovanni Cottino (1927-2022): l’imprenditore che ha saputo «restituire»”. (“The silent teacher. Giovanni Cottino (1927-2022): the entrepreneur who knew how to “give back”). Antonioli, for years a distinguished economic journalist at Sole 24 Ore and now a careful observer of the latest developments in economic and local news, wanted to tell the story of an entrepreneur who is on one hand unique and on the other exemplary of a large category people who are public-spirited.

Giovanni Cottino was an engineer turned philanthropist who demonstrated that profit and social commitment can coexist. Described by many as the enlightened entrepreneur of Turin, Cottino is held up as an example to those who wish to combine transparency, generosity and work ethic. Antonioli’s book describes how, from nothing, Cottino created one of the world’s largest manufacturers of components for household appliances, a group that, between the 1970s and 1990s, became a world leader in the “white goods” sector in Turin, a city dedicated to the automobile industry. After a life dedicated to manufacturing, Cottino then guided his grandchildren and great-grandchildren towards what is now called venture philanthropy – that is, giving back – by asking them to run the Giovanni and Annamaria Cottino Foundation. The purpose was to “give back” to the local area the best of what you had received in life.

Cottino is therefore a “silent teacher”, one of those individuals who have kept Italy afloat and who can still show public and private decision-makers a convincing way to build the common good. And you can understand this by reading Francesco Antonioli’s charming pages, where essays alternate with personal testimonies, economic news with the history of a company.

Il maestro silenzioso. Giovanni Cottino (1927-2022): l’imprenditore che ha saputo «restituire»

Francesco Antonioli

GueriniNEXT, 2025

The splendour of Milan is intensified on the occasion of certain anniversaries, including fashion, interior design, culture and international glamour. Fashion Week, for example, between February and March and then between September and October. And, above all, Design Week in mid-April, with the world’s most important Salone del Mobile and the many events of the Fuori Salone, where trends, experiments and projects are discussed in an attempt to make the places where we live and work in our cities a little better.

An everyday party atmosphere, from the joy of getting together to the surprise of meeting new people. Welcoming and open to conversation. A frenzy of business. Money and ideas. All of this with that very Milanese and global chic that knows how to combine tradition, innovation, industrial pride in the best of Made in Italy and world knowledge. Precisely Milan.

This year, however, there was no shortage of shadows.

There was concern among the sector’s operators about the consequences of the seismic shocks caused by the White House’s policy of imposing tariffs on international trade (furniture has an international reach and Milan has always promoted the good culture of open and competitive markets). But beyond the tourist and commercial success of the events, the various aspects of Design Week have deepened the public’s critical reflection on the current state of Milan and the long-term effects that certain phenomena, linked to the cost of living and housing, are having on the city’s soul, on its capacity for integration and, therefore, on its future.

Recent articles have highlighted conflicting economic and social issues and growing inequalities.

Here is Milan, which has risen to 11th place among the richest cities in the world in terms of the number of billionaires and millionaires, after New York and San Francisco, Tokyo and Singapore, London, Paris and Hong Kong, with 115,000 of the very rich: a number that has grown by 24% in the last ten years. In short, an increasingly attractive metropolis, made even more attractive to millionaires fleeing London after the change in the UK’s less favourable tax laws. And it has long since been noticed by the most discerning circles of fashion and global commerce:  Monte Napoleon has higher property values than Fifth Avenue in New York.

The high prices of luxury buildings have infected much of the metropolitan real estate fabric, with damaging effects. “Police on the run from Milan. Housing costs are too high,” denounced Chief of Police Bruno Megale (la Repubblica, 11 April). Atm public transport can’t find drivers for trams, so it’s converting a former depot into affordable housing for its employees. Young university students (there are more than 200,000 in the city) live in student halls in the suburbs, in Mind (the former Expo area) or in the towns of the metropolitan area, in Sesto San Giovanni and Cologno Monzese. And even young middle-class couples are leaving the urban area for the hinterland towns. In short, Milan welcomes those who can afford to spend a lot of money, and drives out or turns away those with less income. Milan, a city of millionaires that leaves the crumbs to the others”, comments Giangiacomo Schiavi, one of the journalists most attuned to the inner workings of the city, “rich, yes, but happy?” (Corriere della Sera, 12 April).

The splendour of business and social tension. The charm of exclusive clubs and the hardships of the once working-class neighbourhoods now undergoing gentrification. A Milan of contrast and of struggle. And of old and new poverty (use of the charity Caritas Ambrosiana is a good barometer of this).

These are far from new issues (we have often discussed them in this blog). The positive thing is that it is finally being discussed, in a critical but also self-critical way.

“Milan is absorbing some of the international problems of metropolises, from high rents to safety. And the primary problem I feel is the growing gap between those who can afford a certain standard of living and those who cannot. And too many low-paid jobs are making rents unaffordable,” said Mayor Beppe Sala a few days ago in an interview with Agnese Pini, editor of Quotidiano Nazionale/ Il Giorno (QN, 11 April). And in newspapers and cultural circles (the Centro Studi Grande Milano, to name but one), the phenomenon of the relationship between the competitiveness and economic attractiveness of the metropolis and the crisis of the tradition of social inclusion and solidarity has been analysed for some years. With incentives for public administrations to better manage urban change and respond to citizens’ needs for development and quality of life. Something is changing.

To meet the challenge of the future, Milan must rethink itself. To capitalise on the virtues of economic dynamism and provide answers to the problems of quality of life and environmental and social sustainability. It remains the metropolis that hosts 36.4% of Italy’s multinationals and generates 13.4% of Italy’s GDP. But it is also the place where the values of a job well done, business ethics and hospitality prevail, and where, in the future too, “Milanese” will become “Milanese” through personal qualities and professional and social integrity.

Strong themes and values, which also recur in the industrial world. And whose echo can be clearly heard in the pages of “Insieme – Assolombarda, la nostra storia” (Together – Assolombarda, our story), the book edited by the Assolombarda Foundation, just published by Marsilio and presented yesterday at the Piccolo Teatro in Milan, a symbolic place for good relations between business and culture. Piccolo Teatro was founded in 1947 by Giorgio Strehler and Paolo Grassi also with the contribution of major Milanese entrepreneurs: Pirelli, Falck, Borletti, De Angeli Frua, Marinotti, as well as Edison and Snia Viscosa, etc.).

The book is a history of corporate and social responsibility, innovation, productivity and the ability to take on general values and interests, not just those of registered companies. It includes speeches of the former presidents of the Association (Bonomi, Rocca, Meomartini, Bracco, Perini, Benedini) and of the current president, Alessandro Spada, and of the general manager, Alessandro Scarabelli, as well as the analyses and judgements of external figures, such as Piero Bassetti and Mario Monti, Cardinal Ravasi and the rector of the University of Bicocca, Giovanna Iannantuoni, as well as Amalia Ercoli Finzi, Carlo Ratti, Carlo Sangalli, Ferruccio de Bortoli and Salvatore Carrubba.

A versatile and dynamic picture of Milan. Convinced that “we have to fly to make Italy fly” (the exemplary strategy of Gianfelice Rocca’s Assolombarda presidency).

The book provides a better understanding of the most obvious aspects and deep roots of economic and social developments, and of the insights that can be drawn from phenomena that involve not only politics and public administration, but also civil society, economic forces and culture.

“Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else,” wrote Italo Calvino in 1972 in “Invisible Cities”. He added: “You take delight not in a city’s seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours”.

So what questions are we asking in Milan today? To remain faithful, even in the midst of radical change, to the ability to combine personal initiative and social values, productivity and inclusion, economic competitiveness and solidarity. Wealth and measure, elegance and rigour. Success and good, open and creative culture. A special blend of capitalism and reformism, market and general interests. A special “social capital”. To serve as a national and European paradigm of how to effectively reject the synthesis of democracy, market and welfare. And how public and private enterprise, production and critical culture, the creation of economic value and the growing space for civil and social values can coexist in a synergy, albeit a laborious one.

The history of Assolombarda reveals some constant underlying characteristics. An open approach to economic and industrial relations, with the awareness of being in the circuits of international competition. An attitude to change that makes the city extremely receptive to innovative impulses, be they entrepreneurial, technological, cultural or organisational. And a solid understanding of the market as a well-organised and therefore effectively regulated competitive space.

In short, there is a sound industrial pride. And a dynamism that is also made up of exchanges and relationships, as well as production specialisation in the mechanical, electrical, rubber, steel, energy and chemical sectors, which flank the traditional textile and agri-food sectors. A peculiar model of development, in the “big Milan” and metropolitan area, with industry structured across several sectors and without a dominant presence (unlike Turin, an automotive city with a strong Fiat imprint). And industry itself, the cornerstone of growth, is confronted in the metropolitan economic fabric with other business cultures, finance and trade, services and newspaper and book publishing. And with universities. A real chorus. An interweaving of interests and values, forces and ideas, attentive to the discovery of what is changing.

Milanese culture is therefore “polytechnic”, an original synthesis of humanistic and scientific knowledge. The sense of beauty is accompanied by the intelligence of new technology. The awareness of the role of history is faced with a pronounced tendency to engage with the avant-garde. And in the economic field, “industrial humanism” is the benchmark for increasing the competitiveness of Italian-made products on global markets. A strength that remains even in times of crisis and radical change.

The installation Library Of Light for Salone del Mobile di Milano, April 2025 (photo Getty Images)

On Friday, 11 April, at 6 p.m., the Biblioteca Archimede in Settimo Torinese will host the presentation of The Sports Workshop: Team Work, Research, Technology, Passion and Social Value, a book edited by the Pirelli Foundation and published by Marsilio Arte. The event, introduced by Elena Piastra, the mayor of Settimo Torinese, will feature a conversation between Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation, and Marcello Capucchio, team manager of the Italian women’s national volleyball team—gold medallists at the recent Paris Olympics—as well as of the Lilliput Settimo Torinese women’s volleyball team.

The event offers a chance to explore the central themes of the book: the culture of sport, not simply as a challenge and a form of competition but also as participation, involvement, community, and civic commitment. The volume sheds light on and takes a close-up look at aspects that do not appear on the pitch or track. It explores how science can enhance athletes’ performance, the factories that produce sports equipment, the construction sites, the music, and the anthems of sport, in which the key players are not only the athletes but the fans as well.

With photographs and documents from the Pirelli Historical Archive as well as original plates by the renowned artist Lorenzo Mattotti, the book weaves a collective narrative. It brings together the voices of key figures from the world of sport, such as Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI and of the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026, and Stefano Domenicali, President and CEO of Formula 1. Alongside their insights are reflections on the history of sport by great names in the world of journalism, such as Emanuela Audisio and original stories by internationally acclaimed writers such as Joe R. Lansdale, the brilliant creator of the wacky detective duo Hap & Leonard.