Europe, for Italian businesses, is an essential scenario of reference. A Europe which, above and beyond its founding ideals, needs to reflect deeply upon the crisis which it is suffering and on the way in which its structures and bureaucracy are functioning as they encounter increasing criticisms across wide sections of public opinion.

In order to reflect upon reforms and revival it is worthwhile starting with a speech from the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in front of an audience of university students in Lund, during a visit to Sweden, on 15th November last: Europe “is going through a complex phase”, in which “the trials and tribulations which the common edifice has to absorb are intense” but we need to move forward. “Europe is not simply a customs union” and certainly not a “business committee” but much more than this: “Stability and security”.

Key signals are also coming from the economic world: “If Europe had a spurt of dignity and cultural ambition, it could launch a grand infrastructure plan and could create value for everyone. A far-reaching project would have no difficulty in procuring financing from all the major international banks”, claims Marco Tronchetti Provera, CEO of Pirelli, in launching, with an interview for the “Il Sole24Ore” newspaper on 16 November, his proposal for an investment programme on a Continental scale and calling for a Marshall Plan of the type which followed the Second World War. A suggestion which could also be seen as having a political ambition: “Europe has never been really unified and the union, as history demonstrates, has been created through infrastructure”.

The proposal comes from a critical vision of the current EU; naturally it by no means challenges the idea of the common currency, but suggests a change of direction: “From the Europe of austerity to a Europe of economic development”: following Jacques Delors, according to Tronchetti, in Europe there developed “a system of rules where austerity has destroyed growth instead of promoting economic development and integration. With the madness of uniting the currency without truly uniting the economy. It went ahead with a premature widening to 27 countries which has blocked the system, in the absence of a common infrastructure framework. Not to mention defence, foreign policy, and energy policy”. What we really need, then, is a flash of pride and political imagination, a grand project for a European revival. Infrastructure, both tangible and intangible, the roads, the railways and the ports and the networks of digital connections, all have a fundamental role: they promote economic development, they strengthen bonds, they create communities. Tronchetti’s proposal has been widely well-received, by businessmen and politicians: “We need to invest in networks, and bring Europe up to date”, comments Gian Maria Gros-Pietro, Chair of Intesa San Paolo; “The real Euro-supporters are convinced that the process of integration needs to be launched again,” says Albero Bombassei, Chairman of Brembo. And it is on Europe as a key place for competitiveness that Marco Bonometti, OMR, automotive industry, Giuseppe Pasini, steel, chairman of the industrialists of Brescia, Alessandro Spada, plant engineering, vice chairman of Assolombarda and an authoritative economist, such as Giorgio Barba Navaretti, insist: “Europe as a common dwelling place with rules and projects”.

Tronchetti’s proposal on the Marshall Plan for infrastructure is moving the public debate along towards a responsible idea of reform and revival. He is avoiding the shallows of the “No” propagandists and once again suggests instead the positive message of a strong bond between economic development, the institutions and democracy. A good example of “European reformism”. A path to follow.

Giuliano Ferrara is quite correct, then, when, as a sound connoisseur of European politics, he states, in “Il Foglio”: “Now we’ve had enough of being ashamed of Europe”: And goes on to explain: “Europe in 2019 is a serious matter and the significance of the next electoral campaign will be to clarify what is important, and to make people understand the nature of its conflicts and divisions. Europe is peace, Anti-Europe is war. Now we have had enough joking, and it is time to take on the fight”. Within the passionate and responsible dimension of politics, this call by Ferrara makes a fundamental point: in the context of major choices which affect the future of everyone, we need a debate which is open, frank, free, charged not with propaganda but with the knowledge of values and interests, of facts and consequences. We need, in fact, good politics and sound information.

It is precisely in this context that it is worthwhile recalling another warning by President of the Republic Mattarella, at the centenary of the end of the Great War: “No State can manage on its own. And it is precisely the memory of that so dramatic and painful conflict which must drive us to reinforce the cooperation between peoples. We shall not return to the Twenties or the Thirties. I do not fear the reappearance of the ghosts of the past, even though I am preoccupied by the compulsions of egotism and supremacy of certain interests above those of others”. A historic recollection, against “the nationalism which took us into war”. With a modern-day echo: “In the run up to the Great War, severe manipulations were carried out to the detriment of public opinion: a risk, given the dangers which circulate on the web, of which it would be prudent to be wary today also”.

Europe has generated widespread wealth, from the founding values of the “Ventotene Manifesto” (signed in 1944 on an island for antifascist exiles by four highly cultivated personalities, Altiero Spinelli, Ernesto Rossi, Eugenio Colorni and Ursula Hirschmann) to the political choices of the “founding fathers of Europe” Alcide De Gasperi, Konrad Adenauer, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman and Paul-Henri Spaak, and from the first open markets through to the current-day features of the Euro, of the European Central Bank and of the common fiscal and social policies. Exchanges. The integration of productive sectors (the links between German industry and Italian industry, from the automotive sector to mechanics, from robotics to chemicals, are increasingly close). And that extraordinary popular experience known as Erasmus, those scholastic exchanges which over the course of thirty years have allowed four million students to live at the heart of other countries in the EU, to feel that they are truly European, in the construction of an identity which is rich and multi-faceted. And also peace and international cooperation, one of the longest periods of peace and well-being in the whole history of Europe.

It has been a complex and contradictory process, naturally, like all mankind’s historical constructions. Altogether different from one lacking limits or mistakes. Now, as we already start to think about the prospect of the Spring 2019 elections for the renewal of the EU parliament, there is a clearly emerging responsibility on the part of those sitting at the head of governments and institutions to be able to construct a public debate which is sound, competent, and strong in its ability to forge a credible reform project and one which is not driven by demagogy and contentiously rhetorical animosities. The framework is that of a Europe riven by tensions and contrasts, with nationalistic and populist tendencies, ranging from the far-from-liberal rigidities of the “Visegrad Group” (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, whose well-being, by the way, depends heavily upon EU financing and investments by the main countries of Europe), the fractures of Brexit and the fragility of the traditional axis between France and Germany, the new tendencies of the policies from Italy’s League/Five-Star government, which seek to change the traditional pro-Atlantic and European threads of Italian foreign policy and to espouse instead the USA of President Trump and the Russia of President Putin, both of whom, even though for different motives, are hostile to the EU and indeed, even worse, actively employed towards its dissolution. One of the leading players in this move is actually the Vice-Premier Matteo Salvini, Minister of the Interior and leader of the League, the strong man of the government: “In Russia I feel at home, whereas in some other EU countries I do not” he declared during a visit to Moscow, in mid-October 2018, provoking a flurry of controversy. And, furthering the debate on this issue, here we have the worried opinion of Colin Crouch, a well-respected political scientist: “The nationalists of the Old Continent are at the service of a plan inspired by Trump and Putin: to destroy the EU”.

There is thus a Europe undermined by the forces of global power struggles which have a tendency to weaken it. But Europe is a collection of values which are too important for us not to undertake to avoid them being hit by a crisis. And therefore it is a Europe which is essential, which needs to be reformed and reinforced, as a guarantee of the best balances, both international and internal: a Europe of welfare, of sharing, of social inclusion, of freedoms and of liberal democracy. A “heritage of humanity”, if one wishes to adopt the categories used by UNESCO. A force for positive economic development. More Europe, then. And a more political Europe. Marta Dassù, a sophisticated analyst of international politics, and manager of “Aspenia”, the magazine of the Aspen Institute of Italy, is also convinced of this: “restoring the links between the democracies of the Western world, in this era of the rise in authoritarian regimes, gets us back to the best interests of Europeans and of America”.

“Europe needs more integration,” is how Mario Draghi, Chair of the ECB, summarises it, having been aware for some time of the risks which are being incurred by the aggravation of the clashes between a “sovereignist” Italy heedless of the constraints on ordinary public finances and the “hawks” of the countries of the North which have never appreciated any “Mediterranean” version of Europe and which are always ready to hit on Italy in order to concentrate power and resources within the “Continental” and middle-European land mass.

Europe needs criticisms and reforms, not blows with a pickaxe, for the good of the “common dwelling house”. And Italy was one of the founders of this Europe, and then, over time, one of its primary partners. A role which should be reconfirmed and defended, particularly at a time in which Europe and integration have to make important strides forward for change and improvement.

A Canadian philosopher has published a book that brings together business management methods with those of politics

Business management methods transferred to the sphere of politics and society. Mix-up of roles. A set of management techniques applied to unusual areas. This situation has now been acquired but it has not yet been as fully understood as it should. Business culture in areas that may not be appropriate ones. This is an important topic, also for “good” business culture. To understand this better, you should read “Governance. Il management totalitario” (Governance. Totalitarian management) written by Alain Deneault (a philosopher and Political Science teacher from Montreal) which has just been translated into Italian.

The book revolves around the term which gives it its title: governance. It begins with a premise: that: in the last quarter of the 20th Century, to describe and govern the running of organisations and business facilities, business theorists have resorted to using a term that, since as far back as the 16th Century, was a simple synonym for government: namely governance. In the early Eighties the term was introduced in public life on the pretext of establishing the need for sound management of State institutions and it became the “delightful name” of neoliberal State management, characterised by deregulation and privatisation of public services. But that is not enough. Because, in other words, according to the author, governance is a deliberately indefinite expression that expresses the new art of politics “without government”, in other words without that practice that presupposes a publicly debated policy.

Deneault then develops the concept of governance applied to politics through 50 chapters that each address a different aspect of the topic, starting from an assumption – “Reducing politics to a technique” -, and reaches another – “Turning nothing into a force” -, to which a conclusion is added, in the form of a question: “…But what do you propose?”. The middle of the book is an acute journey with scathing and often irreverent parts, which touch upon many aspects not only of civil life, but also of politics, governance techniques, the attitude of all of us in front of public services and our interests. And of course the relationship between companies and politics. This leads to a statement that specifies how the death of politics has given rise to the “an art of management”, that however clashes with the community.

Deneault thinks like a political philosopher and an acute observer of reality. We have already mentioned that Deneault’s reasoning is irreverent and scathing, yet in any case it is something that leaves a mark. You may not agree with it while reading it, but it is good for everyone, including entrepreneurs and managers, business culture and civil life.

Governance. Il management totalitario (Governance. Totalitarian management)

Alain Deneault
Neri Pozza, 2018

On Thursday 15 November, more than 400 people packed into the Auditorium of the Pirelli Headquarters in the Milano Bicocca district to take part in an evening entitled “Tales of Milan as an Industrial City: Words and Images from the Pirelli Foundation”, organised by the Pirelli Foundation in collaboration with the Teatro Franco Parenti and the University of Milano-Bicocca. In the hall, the public were greeted and introduced to the theme of the evening by videos of Milan of yesteryear and as it is today. In the background was a soundtrack of songs that have made the history of the city, from the famous “S.T.R.A.M.I.L.A.N.O.” composed in 1928 and made famous by the singer Milly, to Roberto Vecchioni’s timeless “Luci a San Siro” by way of songs in the Milanese dialect by Nanni Svampa and Enzo Iannacci, through to Vinicio Capossela’s recent “Pioggia di Novembre”.

The actors Marina Rocco and Rosario Lisma took to the stage with pieces from various periods and moods to illustrate the countless different faces of Milan as an industrial city: a city of streets and alleyways, of loves and traditions, of factories seen from the outside and from within, of skyscrapers and the lives of working-class folk. A city waiting to be discovered and one that, as Guido Vergani liked to say, “is not beautiful, but one of a kind”. Dino Buzzati, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Alberto Savinio, as well as Ottiero Ottieri, Giorgio Fontana and Alberto Rollo were but some of the 13 authors whose pieces – taken from novels and from the historic Pirelli magazine – inspired the reflections of Giuseppe Lupo, Piero Colaprico, and Pietro Redondi, guided by questions put to them by the director of the Pirelli Foundation, Antonio Calabrò. Pictures from the Pirelli Historical Archive accompanied the evening on the Auditorium screen: a visual journey through the urban and social development of Milan, from Arno Hammacher’s photo report on the M1 Metro construction site to shots illustrating the building of the Pirelli Tower, through to the interiors of the company’s first factory in the 1920s and recent pictures by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert of Industry 4.0.

The climax of the evening came with some readings by the two actors from the film script for Questa è la nostra città, commissioned by Pirelli from Alberto Moravia in 1947. A cross-section of working-class life showing the various generations of the Riva family describes the everyday life of industrial Milan.

The dialogue between the actors and speakers on the stage conveyed an image of a city that has changed radically in architectural, social, and economic terms but that still maintains its strong industrial – or rather “industrious, as Piero Colaprico put it – identity.

The Pirelli Foundation is taking part in Coolest Projects Milano 2018 on Saturday 17 November. The international project is promoted by the CoderDojo Foundation and gives young people an opportunity to show their inventions in the world of digital creativity.

The Pirelli Foundation and the company’s Research and Development Department will be presenting Pirelli Foundation Educational and Pirelli Cyber projects with a special talk in the inspiration area.

For more than 145 years, Pirelli has been at the forefront of scientific and technical research and it has recently launched its Cyber ​​Technologies project.

Ever since 2005, Cyber ​​Tyres have gradually revealed their enormous potential, and smart solutions designed to achieve maximum integration between tyre, car, and driver have recently been unveiled. These solutions create direct interaction between the driver and the car by means of a sensor placed inside the tyre. This provides important information on the state of the tyre itself, thus turning it into a digital product that can effectively meet the needs of future mobility. It can also detect dangerous conditions in real time while driving, thus helping prevent accidents.

Road safety and technological innovation are important issues that are also dealt with by the Pirelli Foundation through its educational activities, which are offered each year to students of various ages. Teaching programmes are carried out at the Foundation, but also at the Research and Development Department, in the chemistry and physics labs, in the Next MIRS plant, and at the Industrial Centre in Settimo Torinese, introducing young people to the world of work and to its digital transformation.

Among the various courses, “Tyre Chemistry”, “A Journey to Discover Tyres”, and “Mechanical Eyes, Digital Robots, and Music for the Factory of the Future” show young people the various stages involved in the manufacture of a tyre, from the ingredients used to make the compound through to the creation of the tread pattern, the tests to which tyres are subjected, and automated manufacturing systems.

They are taken on a journey through the documents in the company’s Historical Archive, from the first factory through to the latest technological achievements, such as the Cyber Tyre. Through over a century and a half of research and innovation and into the digital era.

The internationalism of an industrial group can also be seen in its words. Those that it uses to talk to its staff on a day-to-day basis: service information, news about company activities, and reports from other areas. Different languages, different messages, all respecting the diversity of workers in different countries. This is the rationale that has inspired Pirelli house organs for over sixty years: the decision to give each foreign subsidiary its own newsletter came in the 1950s and ’60s. This was during the Pirelli Group’s greatest expansion since the first wave of enlargement from the 1910s to the 1930s, when subsidiaries had been opened in Spain, Britain, Argentina, and Brazil. The ancestor of Pirelli house organs was the Italian Fatti e Notizie, which first came out in 1950: just a few pages with information for employees about the availability of medical assistance, summer holiday camps by the sea for their children, discounts on basic commodities, and best wishes for new Pirelli families. And at the centre of all this, the pièce de résistance, which introduced all Italian colleagues to aspects that few knew much about: the little factory for chemical products, the cooling tower that had grown up among the vulcanisers at Bicocca, raincoats made by the Azienda Arona… The early issues of Fatti e Notizie showed an Italy that needed to be reconstructed from the ground up, but that was happy to have emerged from the war. This Italian house organ still exists: it has accompanied generations of employees, following the evolution of company welfare step by step over the course of almost seven decades.

Towards the mid-1950s, Pàginas came out in Argentina and Noticias in Brazil: the “criança” – childhood – was the absolute star on the pages of these house organs: kids for whom it was right to build schools, kids who would find out “where Daddy works”, kids who in sport – soccer, of course! – would make the name Pirelli shine in the New World. Also Noticias put on a fine show, explaining to colleagues in São Paulo what the future factory in Campinas would be like, or how life was lived in the rubber plantations  in Oriboca, or again, what an effort Pirelli Brasil was putting into the restoration of the Pelourinho neighbourhood in Salvador de Bahia.

Subsidiaries opened in Greece and Turkey in 1960, both with their own house organs: Ta Nea, like the Greek national newspaper of the same name, was the paper that introduced the “new Pirelliani” in Patras to the world of their Italian, German, and Brazilian colleagues. The journal published by Pirelli in Turkey was a case apart, for it was not so much a house organ as a magazine inspired by the Italian Pirelli, which in the early 1960s was blazing a trail as a company publication also on newsstands for the general public. The Turk Pirelli publication was a glossy magazine that dealt with social issues, tourist reports, and glittering stories of singers and film stars. Italian ones in particular. At least one article a month was devoted to the father of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

The German Aktuell specialised in innovative ideas and technologies, and the covers showed meticulous graphic designs to recall the tread patterns of tyres. The English World, which also had the assistance of Derek Forsyth, the wizard of publishing design, was more open to social issues – the company pub, the new headquarters, the company Christmas party, and so on.

And then came the globalisation of the early 1990s. Now the vision stretched out to encompass all Pirelli’s markets around the world. In-house communication spoke as one and was shared by all. With Pirelli World, the periodical launched in 1993, the concept of the house organ became global and transnational, reflecting a unified, consistent production system. A single Pirelli for a complex world.

A book about to be published recounts the role and power of people within production organisations

Not resources as such, but men and women in flesh and bones. Thinking minds. The fulcrums of the business. But also beings who deserve respect and dignity. Not simple resources, precisely. It is the new interpretative and management profile which in recent times has come to the surface in businesses. In other words, people are increasingly understanding how important it is to have qualified, competent and motivated people within their organisation, so people, precisely, not human resources. The cultural – rather than managerial – passage from the concept of “resource” to that of a “person” is anything but self-evident.

The book by Andrea di Lenna which is about to be published – “Risorsa a chi? Valorizzare le persone per migliorare le performance aziendali” (Who’s a resource? Empowering individuals to improve business performance) – can help us to understand the meaning of what is happening. To be honest, this had already been advocated decades ago: In fact “Organisations are the communities of human beings, not just containers of human resources”, stated Henry Mintzberg, as he began to outline the need for a new deal in the management of those who work within companies every day, whatever they are in terms of type, size and area of business.
Men and women, therefore. With all their peculiarities as individuals and groups. Di Lenna, starting with an analysis of reference cultures for companies and with the exploration of the characteristics of vision, mission and values of the organisations themselves, manages to provide answers to some fundamental questions. For example, how should people be recruited in businesses that want to maintain their competitiveness? And what kind of training you should consider to develop people in an adequate manner? And also, how do you manage the motivation of people within organisational contexts? And what are the characteristics of the most efficient workplaces, both from the physical point of view and from the organisational one?

What Di Lenna explains is not only a theoretical approach, but it also contains numerous practical cases and concrete situations of daily business life.
From all this emerges an element that has always been present in companies but which has often, and for a long time, been culpably forgotten: the strong presence of people within production organisations. Not resources, precisely, but the true wealth of every productive context.

Risorsa a chi? Valorizzare le persone per migliorare le performance aziendali (Who’s a resource? Empowering individuals to improve business performance)
Andrea di Lenna
Egea, 2018