“Culture is the driving force behind Italian design and manufacturing” was the view that emerged from the Soft Power Forum held in Venice by the Soft Power Club, the association chaired by Francesco Rutelli. And the relationship between sustainable economic development, quality manufacturing and cultural dialogue is growing deeper. Remaining in Venice, on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale, reiterated the fact that “cinema and culture grow GDP and stimulate the economy” (Il Sole 24 Ore, 27 August) while reminding us of the importance of “dialogue” between different cultural forms, the various artistic disciplines and areas of the economy.
Gianfelice Rocca, the new president of the Cini Foundation (also based in Venice) and one of the leading Italian entrepreneurs at a global level, likens the institution’s new course (steered partly also by Scientific Director Daniele Franco, former Minister of the Economy and Director General of the Bank of Italy) to that of a “lantern” that illuminates different areas and talks of it as a place for international dialogue to overcome the limits of contrasting positions between the “two cultures” – humanistic and scientific – and build bridges between the West, China, India and the Global South.
Culture and economy are intertwined. To find broadly effective ways out of the dramatic conflicts and bitter clashes that continue to rage, geopolitics needs new maps of knowledge. Relations between different and highly competitive markets require rules that stimulate genuine fair trade rather than aggressive free trade attitudes. But the technological evolution of the digital economy, the disruptive developments of Artificial Intelligence and the growing power of Big Tech, with its unwillingness to be constrained by rules (including antitrust rules), pose unprecedented and very complex cultural challenges to politics and civil societies. The freedom necessary for research and innovation must coexist with a responsibility for the consequences of choices, changes, radical transformations in consumption, habits, relationships and powers.
And indeed these are all cultural themes – this is about knowledge undergoing a metamorphosis. In addition to deposits of knowledge, above all we need some critical thinking on the “meaning” of knowledge itself. As Carlo Ossola, who has just been appointed by Italian Head of State Sergio Mattarella to the presidency of the Treccani Encyclopedia, also argues: “The foundation of Encyclopedias did not lie so much in extending aggregation or in conveying data, as in circumscribing what could be incorporated by our eyes, by memory, by reading, by memory, by an individual existence.” Contrast that with today, where, unfortunately, “in being transferred to a physically elusive place, more and more knowledge is becoming separated from itself” (Il Sole 24 Ore, 1 September). Instead, we must “go back to that critical lesson: the centre of humankind is the individual. A person’s dignity, their existence, which, unlike objects and digital memories, is unique and short.”
Here, then, is the search for meaning. And the cultural and ethical challenge for governments, knowledge institutions and, of course, businesses.
These are complex issues, which resist demagogic shortcuts, rhetorical approximations, superficial propaganda and the inclination to use factoids and purvey fake news, which are such increasing features of social media. It will be discussed in the coming days in Milan, at the Forum Cultura 2024 event organised by the Municipality with administrators, figures from public and private cultural organisations and businesses. Also on the agenda is a discussion of collaborating on “cultural infrastructure” (Corriere della Sera, 2 September). And this will continue to be discussed at all those events – ranging from literary festivals to award shows (Mantua, Pordenonelegge, the Campiello prize) – where talking about books will involve debating not only cultural issues, but also the new economic landscape and sustainable, environmental and social development.
The idea, seen from this very perspective, is attracting growing sensitivity and attention from the economic world, including from some of the most international and competitive companies associated with Italian design and manufacturing. They have a deep-rooted awareness that their role and responsibility as social and cultural actors goes far beyond traditional displays of patronage (although, in the absence of public funds, this remains a necessary means of supporting art and culture) and extends to fully investing in the relationship between competitive entrepreneurship and creativity.
Indeed, business culture should be considered as Culture with a capital C. Its impulse is to overcome the traditional construct of the “business and culture” hendiadys as a dialogue – albeit a significant one – between different fields, between doing and representing, between producing and narrating, between mechanics and philosophy or poetry. Instead, it insists on following a new semantic path, on radically modifying the course of the sentence by accustoming ourselves to saying “business is culture”, and doing so as part of the Soft Power framework which we talked about earlier in relation to Rutelli’s Forum and the Cini Foundation’s projects.
Culture is, in fact, science and technology, patents, the development of new materials, the evolution of industrial relations (those employment contracts that affect fundamental cultural and social aspects such as power relations and supervisory functions, personal dialectics, wages, corporate welfare and services, etc.). Culture is the languages of marketing and communication, which change behaviours and expectations. Culture is the processes of governance which define relationships between the company, shareholders, managers, employees and the vast world of stakeholders. Culture is reporting, planning tools and accountability. And culture is trade on open and well-regulated markets. Again, culture is a business’ choices of patronage in support of the creative and artistic processes of those who depict and build the wider personal and social imagination.
Business culture, in short, is a choral and polyphonic affair – an orchestral game. One that is in continuous progress.
Over time, businesses have undergone a radical transformation, setting aside cultures and methodologies belonging to the Taylorist era of mass production and economies of scale. Data driven and digital, they look to other organisational and governance cultures and know about other working times and methods of working, as well as ways of calculating productivity and efficiency. They feel a strong sense of responsibility for positive relationships with both their own people and all their stakeholders. And it is precisely this transformation that is giving rise to a new form of narration, a different, more pertinent representation of the company itself. In short, companies must learn to open up and be transparent; to be characterised, in the high-tech neo factories, as “thinking hands”. In short, to undergo a new era of production with obvious cultural connotations. To link “know-how” to “making things known” ever more effectively.
Innovation, therefore, is seen as a very broad path, especially now that we are entering into the heart of new challenges: the electric car and smart city mobility; digital factories; robots; high-tech simulators; nanotechnologies; and Artificial Intelligence applied to research, production, consumption – to multiple aspects of the economy and our lives. These are all chapters in a story that is being lived and written today. A story that also requires of business culture a deep commitment to analysis and proposals for the new economic and social equilibrium. The market, welfare and democracy are themselves in tension. And science and knowledge are called upon to take up a new dimension of responsibility.
(photo Getty Images)
“Culture is the driving force behind Italian design and manufacturing” was the view that emerged from the Soft Power Forum held in Venice by the Soft Power Club, the association chaired by Francesco Rutelli. And the relationship between sustainable economic development, quality manufacturing and cultural dialogue is growing deeper. Remaining in Venice, on the occasion of the Venice Film Festival, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale, reiterated the fact that “cinema and culture grow GDP and stimulate the economy” (Il Sole 24 Ore, 27 August) while reminding us of the importance of “dialogue” between different cultural forms, the various artistic disciplines and areas of the economy.
Gianfelice Rocca, the new president of the Cini Foundation (also based in Venice) and one of the leading Italian entrepreneurs at a global level, likens the institution’s new course (steered partly also by Scientific Director Daniele Franco, former Minister of the Economy and Director General of the Bank of Italy) to that of a “lantern” that illuminates different areas and talks of it as a place for international dialogue to overcome the limits of contrasting positions between the “two cultures” – humanistic and scientific – and build bridges between the West, China, India and the Global South.
Culture and economy are intertwined. To find broadly effective ways out of the dramatic conflicts and bitter clashes that continue to rage, geopolitics needs new maps of knowledge. Relations between different and highly competitive markets require rules that stimulate genuine fair trade rather than aggressive free trade attitudes. But the technological evolution of the digital economy, the disruptive developments of Artificial Intelligence and the growing power of Big Tech, with its unwillingness to be constrained by rules (including antitrust rules), pose unprecedented and very complex cultural challenges to politics and civil societies. The freedom necessary for research and innovation must coexist with a responsibility for the consequences of choices, changes, radical transformations in consumption, habits, relationships and powers.
And indeed these are all cultural themes – this is about knowledge undergoing a metamorphosis. In addition to deposits of knowledge, above all we need some critical thinking on the “meaning” of knowledge itself. As Carlo Ossola, who has just been appointed by Italian Head of State Sergio Mattarella to the presidency of the Treccani Encyclopedia, also argues: “The foundation of Encyclopedias did not lie so much in extending aggregation or in conveying data, as in circumscribing what could be incorporated by our eyes, by memory, by reading, by memory, by an individual existence.” Contrast that with today, where, unfortunately, “in being transferred to a physically elusive place, more and more knowledge is becoming separated from itself” (Il Sole 24 Ore, 1 September). Instead, we must “go back to that critical lesson: the centre of humankind is the individual. A person’s dignity, their existence, which, unlike objects and digital memories, is unique and short.”
Here, then, is the search for meaning. And the cultural and ethical challenge for governments, knowledge institutions and, of course, businesses.
These are complex issues, which resist demagogic shortcuts, rhetorical approximations, superficial propaganda and the inclination to use factoids and purvey fake news, which are such increasing features of social media. It will be discussed in the coming days in Milan, at the Forum Cultura 2024 event organised by the Municipality with administrators, figures from public and private cultural organisations and businesses. Also on the agenda is a discussion of collaborating on “cultural infrastructure” (Corriere della Sera, 2 September). And this will continue to be discussed at all those events – ranging from literary festivals to award shows (Mantua, Pordenonelegge, the Campiello prize) – where talking about books will involve debating not only cultural issues, but also the new economic landscape and sustainable, environmental and social development.
The idea, seen from this very perspective, is attracting growing sensitivity and attention from the economic world, including from some of the most international and competitive companies associated with Italian design and manufacturing. They have a deep-rooted awareness that their role and responsibility as social and cultural actors goes far beyond traditional displays of patronage (although, in the absence of public funds, this remains a necessary means of supporting art and culture) and extends to fully investing in the relationship between competitive entrepreneurship and creativity.
Indeed, business culture should be considered as Culture with a capital C. Its impulse is to overcome the traditional construct of the “business and culture” hendiadys as a dialogue – albeit a significant one – between different fields, between doing and representing, between producing and narrating, between mechanics and philosophy or poetry. Instead, it insists on following a new semantic path, on radically modifying the course of the sentence by accustoming ourselves to saying “business is culture”, and doing so as part of the Soft Power framework which we talked about earlier in relation to Rutelli’s Forum and the Cini Foundation’s projects.
Culture is, in fact, science and technology, patents, the development of new materials, the evolution of industrial relations (those employment contracts that affect fundamental cultural and social aspects such as power relations and supervisory functions, personal dialectics, wages, corporate welfare and services, etc.). Culture is the languages of marketing and communication, which change behaviours and expectations. Culture is the processes of governance which define relationships between the company, shareholders, managers, employees and the vast world of stakeholders. Culture is reporting, planning tools and accountability. And culture is trade on open and well-regulated markets. Again, culture is a business’ choices of patronage in support of the creative and artistic processes of those who depict and build the wider personal and social imagination.
Business culture, in short, is a choral and polyphonic affair – an orchestral game. One that is in continuous progress.
Over time, businesses have undergone a radical transformation, setting aside cultures and methodologies belonging to the Taylorist era of mass production and economies of scale. Data driven and digital, they look to other organisational and governance cultures and know about other working times and methods of working, as well as ways of calculating productivity and efficiency. They feel a strong sense of responsibility for positive relationships with both their own people and all their stakeholders. And it is precisely this transformation that is giving rise to a new form of narration, a different, more pertinent representation of the company itself. In short, companies must learn to open up and be transparent; to be characterised, in the high-tech neo factories, as “thinking hands”. In short, to undergo a new era of production with obvious cultural connotations. To link “know-how” to “making things known” ever more effectively.
Innovation, therefore, is seen as a very broad path, especially now that we are entering into the heart of new challenges: the electric car and smart city mobility; digital factories; robots; high-tech simulators; nanotechnologies; and Artificial Intelligence applied to research, production, consumption – to multiple aspects of the economy and our lives. These are all chapters in a story that is being lived and written today. A story that also requires of business culture a deep commitment to analysis and proposals for the new economic and social equilibrium. The market, welfare and democracy are themselves in tension. And science and knowledge are called upon to take up a new dimension of responsibility.
(photo Getty Images)
