“The nation and its Risorgimento first and foremost”: these were the words that Cesare Merzagora used when reminding the shareholders’ meeting of 11 December 1945 of Pirelli’s priorities in the dramatic period of the Nazi occupation of Italy after the armistice was signed on 8 September 1943. The German military authorities took control of the factory in Bicocca, which was still operating despite the bombings. On 16 September, the company set up its “Ufficio T”, which saw to relations with the Germans concerning production and plant discipline, and which reported to the central management of the Cables and Rubber departments. But everyone in the company, from the Pirelli family to the management and the workers, were opposed to this situation, and there was constant sabotage within the factory and active support was given to the Resistance. The documents preserved in the Historical Archive of the Foundation testify to the continuous sabotage of production, particularly aiming at items needed by the Germans for military use. Letters sent by the Germans in the summer of 1944 denounce “the lack of goodwill of those responsible” as the main cause for the low production levels of flexible couplings for motor vehicles. And a note dated 7 June 1944 on the meeting between the company and the Germans concerning Pirelli’s failure to deliver seals for breathing apparatus ends with the words: “the German authorities are extremely irritated with Pirelli and its bosses because they are convinced that nothing is being done to meet their needs.” Even the attempt to send workers to Germany for the Nazi regime was hindered, as we read in the “Memorandum concerning the actions taken to prevent the transfer of our employees to Germany” dated 14 June 1945 and signed by the engineer Paolo Trotto: the request to provide 20% of the workers and 50% of the foremen in the rubber department and 10% of the workers in the cable branch for transfer to Germany was never implemented, thanks to the intervention of Alberto Pirelli, the managing director. “The resistance carried out by the Pirelli company”, the memorandum says, “achieved the desired result for, in the face of continuous opposition, the German authorities eventually stopped applying further pressure for the transfer of personnel”. Along with the sabotage and the opposition to the demands of the Germans, the company gave considerable support to the Resistance in the form of food, vehicles, tyres and financial assistance, which ultimately reached a total of 60 million lire. To go back to Cesare Merzagora’ speech, of all the companies in Lombardy, Pirelli was “one of the most important centres in the fight for liberation”. The fight also involved strikes and workers’ struggles, in which the Milanese company was always a protagonist. In March 1943, a wave of strikes spread out from Turin to all of northern Italy, giving the working class a voice after twenty years of Fascism. This was the first in a series of strikes that culminated in the insurrectionary general strike of 25 April 1945. During this period, the workers were savagely repressed and, especially from the factories in the Sesto San Giovanni and Milano Greco areas, there were mass deportations to Nazi concentration camps. On 23 November 1944, the strike called by the workers at Pirelli Bicocca in response to the execution by firing squad of 15 anti-Fascists in Piazzale Loreto on 10 August – which included two Pirelli workers, Libero Temolo and Eraldo Soncini – led to the arrest of 183 people. The company management and Alberto Pirelli himself contacted the German authorities to request the workers’ release but, as we see in the archival documents, the reply was that “the SS deemed it necessary to set an example” and “chose Pirelli workers rather than those of other companies on strike because the Pirelli workers are the best looked after and yet they are the ones who have been on strike the most.” And, what is more, “the company has always refrained from giving even a single name when asked for the names of the agitators.” After rejecting 27 people because they were physically unfit, the other 156 workers were deported to Nazi labour camps. 14 of them died. As Giuseppe Valota writes in his book Streikertransport. La deportazione politica nell’area industriale di Sesto San Giovanni, this was the “most important mass deportation carried out by the Nazi-Fascists from a single company, second only to that of 1,500 workers, who were taken from four factories in Genoa – San Giorgio, SIAC, Piaggio and the Cantieri Navali – on 16 June 1944.” The sacrifice paid by Pirelli workers in the struggle for liberation is commemorated in a plaque that was placed on the wall of Building 95, the gatehouse of the Bicocca plant, on 23 November 1945. It is dedicated to the “fellow workers who on the shining path to freedom were struck down by Nazi-Fascist barbarity”. Still today it is inside the Bicocca Headquarters, next to the plaque in memory of the workers who died during the First World War.

A manual teaching about change in uncertain times has now been published in Italy

Learning to change in order not to knuckle under, but also, more simply, so as to avoid being “overtaken” by others. A matter of competitiveness, meaning technical and managerial skills, and an awareness of how the world is changing, of others and the pressures these entail. A complex matter for sure, which nonetheless needs to be tackled. This is why reading Change. Come trasformare imprese e organizzazioni in tempi instabili (Change: How organizations achieve hard-to-imagine results in uncertain and volatile times) will prove useful, a book written by John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar and Gaurav Gupta with the specific purpose of outlining a method to transform production organisations – not gradually but ”in leaps and bounds”, as well as effectively. The premise from which Kotter, Akhtar and Gupta’s work unravel is that uncertainty and the speed of change are such nowadays that there is no longer time to take it gradually.

The authors begin by illustrating the challenges that companies must face, such as a world that is rapidly evolving and can be comprehended only through a new change management process that is unlike any other adopted until now. Thus, the key word is “accelerate”, by carefully implementing a form of strategic planning that will not end up smothering corporate innovation, and as the authors explain, this also affects corporate culture, in need of radical alteration – but, they wonder, what is it exactly that makes all the difference? On the whole, the book presents us with just one answer: the creation of widespread leadership, shared by several people who are capable of working together and driving change in a more effective way than before.

Kotter, Akhtar and Gupta’s book should be read like a guide purposefully written for those who, day after day, deal with change – in all its different levels and gradations, as a pervasive phenomenon challenging managers, entrepreneurs, and anyone else involved in a production organisation.

Change. Come trasformare imprese e organizzazioni in tempi instabili (Change: How organizations achieve hard-to-imagine results in uncertain and volatile times)

John P. Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, Gaurav Gupta

Franco Angeli, 2022

“Threshold strategy” as an innovative method to manage production organisations dealing with an uncertain present and an unpredictable future

The ability to adapt to corporate strategies and behaviours that are constantly evolving means being able to change with them along the way, rather than simply focus on the final goal. Indeed, nowadays, good corporate culture is also contingent on this new attitude, which entails firmly holding on to certain principles while not hanging on to outdated strategies.

It is around this topic that the contribution by Luigi Selleri (full professor of Economy and Management as related to insurance companies, Università Cattolica of Milan), recently published online. The premise of his “La strategia dell’impresa tra ieri e oggi: dalla prevedibilità alla creazione del futuro” (“Past and present corporate strategy: from predictability to the creation of the future”) is that traditional approaches to strategy, based on predictions about the future, prioritise “where we want to go” and emphasise choosing a highly attractive market and a single strategic position, while the decision of how to reach the set goal is only made at a later time. This is an “old-fashioned” way to plan and manage, explains Selleri who, instead, highlights the importance of change management skills as the real tools to attain more significant and tangible results, starting with the introduction of complexity and evolution theories related to the biological sciences – as these are approaches focused on growth and change – in companies, too.

Selleri’s aim first provides an overview of corporate management theories and then suggests an initial structure for a “threshold strategy” that “centres on a company’s change management skills pitched to target a continuous and steady market evolution rather than substantial yet rare episodes.” Companies that succeed in adopting this operational method are characterised by a “fleeting, complex and unpredictable” strategy, a constantly developing organisation and intervention times all of their own.

To help readers better understand the key features of this particular management approach, Selleri includes some examples drawn from particularly dynamic sectors, such as high fashion, biotechnology and Industry 4.0.

La strategia dell’impresa tra ieri e oggi: dalla prevedibilità alla creazione del futuro (“Past and present corporate strategy: from predictability to the creation of the future”)

Selleri Luigi

Economia Aziendale Online, Business and management sciences International Quarterly Review, vol. 13, no. 4/2022

Beyond GDP: measuring what counts for economic and social performance, reads the title of the book wrote in 2021 by Joseph Stiglitz (winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics), Jean-Paul Fitoussi (who’d been expecting the Nobel Prize for some time but unfortunately passed away in April 2022) and Martine Durand. And it’s just about time we went beyond the Gross Domestic Product, a tool that measures the amount of wealth produced rather than the quality of economic decisions’ outcomes, when “what really matters is well-being”.

The book, published in Italy by Einaudi, explored the topics discussed in a famous report from 2009, commissioned by then-President of France Nicolas Sarkozy, on measuring the outcomes of economic performance and social processes – a report that had actually been written by Stiglitz, Fitoussi and Amartya Sen (also a Nobel Prize winner) and was then further analysed by a committee of OECD experts. The underlying aim was to propose a new economic agenda accompanied by a new set of metrics that would ascertain a society’s state of health and adequacy, with a focus on inequality, economic vulnerability, environmental sustainability, people’s perception of their life conditions and ways to improve them.

Outside economic debate, this theme has been relaunched at the end of 2022 through a prominent political initiative launched by five heads of state – Jacinta Arden (New Zealand), Sanna Marin (Finland), Katrin Jacobsdóttir (Iceland), Nicola Sturgeon (Scotland) and Mark Drakeford (Wales) – who have chosen to collaborate together in a “Well-being Economy Governments Partnership”, which might also include Canada and Australia soon. Well-being, indeed – a political choice with great strategic value.

The basic concept is to steer political decisions towards matters such as quality of life, environmental and social sustainability, and economic development, going beyond the purely quantitative dimension of growth as measured by GDP. Hence, choosing the appropriate measurement units is extraordinarily important in terms of politics and ethics, to ensure that wealth distribution, the opportunities arising for the new generations, health, education, and the challenging eradication of inequalities are taken into consideration, rather than just wealth production.

These times of crisis, which we’ve been experiencing since the beginning of the new millennium (starting with climate and environmental disasters, pandemics, financial crashes, geopolitical tensions and up to war, social rifts and wider geographical, generational and gender gaps) have re-established the need for a radical review of traditional economic parameters, a shift towards a “just economy” (Pope Francis’s beloved expression) and the adoption of new development paths.

This has certainly nothing to do with the “happy degrowth” theorised by quirky economists inspired by Serge Latouche (rather, a situation with no growth, and therefore no redistribution of resources, available investments for innovation or new employment opportunities, would be an unhappy one). On the contrary, there’s a lot to discuss right at this moment: the environment, social justice, finding a way to bridge the severe ruptures caused by the traditional – and warped – balance between manufacturing and trade, all of which demands a reassessment of current relationships, powers and values, as well as a revision of the new economic maps rather than merely – and scantily – readjusting the distribution of wealth (profits, stock market prices) generated by the current economic system, as new maps are key to rebalancing the global economy.

Civic economy, circular economy, generative economy – all terms that are progressively enriching cultural and social debate, and that have an impact on the search for new and better assets, for life, and for the future.

Essentially, we need a shift from the supremacy of shareholder values (profits) to stakeholder values (the values and interests concerning all those involved in a company, such as employees, suppliers, customers and consumers, members of the community and the territories affected by a company’s activities). Indeed, such shift is becoming increasingly relevant even in the political sphere. Echoes of it are increasingly resounding in “social and sustainability reports” and, above all, in the choices made by several industrial and financial groups that are endeavouring to include those voices in their financial report: a manifest move towards good corporate ethics and true corporate integrity. Well-being, then, and sustainability.

A thorough analysis of the EU’s recent economic decisions, such as the implementation of the Recovery Fund to counteract the post-pandemic crisis, also shows clear evidence of these new concerns, such as a focus on the next generation, education, health, economic research, and a sustainable environmental and digital twin transition. This implies a better future, a future in which Europe, by rediscovering, relaunching and reforming its deep past and current concern for welfare, could play a key role as its aims are clearly in line with those of Arden and Marin’s Well-being Economy concept.

Italy, too, has a prominent role in this reforming process, as demonstrated by its BES (Benessere equo e sostenibile -Equitable and sustainable well-being), an index devised by ISTAT and CNEL that, since 2017, has been part of the Italian government’s Economic and Financial Document, measuring the performance of Italy’s social condition through 12 parameters – an indicator to which we must increasingly pay attention.

As this reform of the economy, its values and indexes continues, it’s worth remembering the great political lecture delivered by Robert Kennedy as part of a speech to students of the University of Kansas in March 1968, three months before he was assassinated, which indeed described the GDP as something that measures everything “except that which makes life worthwhile” and “can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans.”

Here it is, than, Kennedy’s warning: “We will find neither national purpose nor personal satisfaction in a mere continuation of economic progress, in an endless amassing of worldly goods. We cannot measure national spirit by the Dow Jones Average, nor national achievement by the Gross National Product.” The GDP, in fact, “counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.”

Basically, the GDP “does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country.” And more than half a century later, the message remains as relevant as ever.

(Photo Getty Images)

“I never stopped reading, reading, reading; every book I read represented a facet of the infinite, which I chased and chased, and always failed to catch.” Words by Pietro Citati that aptly describe his extraordinary literary passion and outstanding critical sharpness, both featured in La ragazza dagli occhi d’oro (The girl with the golden eyes), published by Adelphi, whose title pays homage to Honoré de Balzac. It’s a book about books, a journey through words and memories, an endless path towards the infinite he embarked on with his friend Italo Calvino. Words, too, that are more essential than ever in making us realise the importance of kindling a passion for reading in children, and from the very start of their education.

Reading as the pleasure of discovery and adventure, a way to experience many other lives besides ours, a means to imagine uncharted worlds, to learn, to understand, to create – to build a genuine Grammar of fantasy, as suggested Gianni Rodari, a master of children’s literature, blending “textual pleasure” with a passion for learning, journeying both within and beyond history.

These are fertile times for good books aimed at children and young adults, with promising publishing opportunities, and new authors discovered and launched side by side with the great “classics”. This can be seen on social media, especially those most popular with the younger generations, as the growing number of “BookTokers” on TikTok demonstrates, but also in the efforts undertaken by the most prestigious literary publications – La Lettura, the Sunday cultural supplement by Corriere della Sera, has recently launched a new edition dubbed La Letturina, devoted “to children and young adults, but also to parents, teachers, educators and all those in touch with their inner child”, full of real-life stories, contributions by great authors, reading tips and suggestions for films and games inspired by books. And there’s also Robinson, the cultural supplement by la Repubblica, quick to jump on the trend with its issue entitled “Merry Christmas kids”, featuring stories by the star authors of fantasy and young adult narrative genres. It’s a whole world to be unravelled, understood, nourished.

Further evidence of this increased interest in young readers is also noticeable in the higher number and quality of the books nominated for the second edition of the Campiello Junior literary prize, promoted by the Campiello Foundation and by the Pirelli Foundation, which comprises two categories: children aged seven to ten and young adults aged eleven to fourteen years.

Only last week, in fact, the technical panel – chaired by Roberto Piumini, a prominent children’s book author, and including Chiara Lagani, Martino Negri, Michela Possamai and David Tolin – selected the three finalists in each category, and has now entrusted them to the popular jury (240 young readers), which will choose the winner next May (all information can be found at www.premiocampiello.org and www.fondazionepirelli.org). A difficult choice, assert the technical jurors, given the authors’ high level. And an auspicious sign that authors will continue to focus on an audience that’s gradually becoming more discerning, attentive and sophisticated – as reading enhances children’s intellectual development.

In fact, Roberto Piumini, talking about the choice to split the Award into two age groups, comments that, “Children and young adults experience reading differently; the former feel more of an emotional and playful connection, the latter a more complex, and at times even emotionally intense, one.” In other words, this is literature in tune with individual and generational needs. Another novelty introduced this year is the inclusion of a volume of poetry in each category: “The aim is twofold: on the one hand, this is a way to formally introduce children to poetry as, though read and studied especially in primary school, remains nonetheless scarce in bookshops. On the other hand, this might also inspire and encourage the publishing industry.” Indeed, the Campiello Junior literary prize could “continue to widen its perspective” and evolve into a “Prize for creative writing, an integral part of the network – or fabric – encompassing writing, publishing, reading and a social practice that, after careful consideration, could prove to be a cure for our times, marked by a great clatter but too few words.”

Here’s the crux of the matter: our times are indeed marked by a great clatter and too few words, by an overabundance of demagoguery and fumbling chattering loaded with resentment (and, worryingly, social media are the main vehicle for this). Hence, we need to insist on the quality of the written – and read – word, which could turn into a good antidote to the corruption of language, speech and relationships, starting from the first stages of education.

In fact, reading provides an extraordinary impetus to the creation of a future-oriented story and also fosters a fundamental human state – happiness. We should be reading not as a chore but, above all, as an exercise for the imagination, as the joyful pursuit of a vivid relationship with the world of ideas and emotions, as a continuous act of discovery, aware that the children we now entice into the world of literature are not just the readers of today, but also the citizens of tomorrow.

“La cultura è come il pane” (Culture is like bread), read the cover of the Rivista Pirelli magazine in January 1951, referring to an article by Silvestro Severgnini expounding on how cultural activities (conferences, concerts, the sponsorship of exhibitions and art exhibits, corporate libraries) played a key role in the process of economic, social and civic reconstruction and the recovery of Italy, which – once the dreadful debris of fascism, racial laws and war had been cleared out – picked up momentum and set the scene for the economic boom.

Indeed, the basic notion of a link between industry and culture was also a familiar one in enterprises such as Olivetti, Eni, and Iri’s Finmeccanica, the latter of which published an excellent magazine befittingly titled Civiltà delle macchine (Civilised machinery), to suggest a bustling, transformative industrial and social civilisation. A concept that’s still very relevant today, when talking about “industrial humanism” – now evolving into “digital humanism” – and its need for a vigorous and widespread “polytechnic culture” able to blend humanities and scientific knowledge.

We live in an era marked by the “knowledge economy”, where not only corporate competitiveness – and thus employment, well-being and sustainable development – but also the foundations of civil coexistence, are at play. As such, we really do need to insist on the development of a widespread culture in order to attain awareness, critical skills, and imagination, the qualities required to conceive and paint a better future – in this perspective, children’s books come to represent the cornerstones of civilisation.

Different economic interpretations on the current situation

Growth and environment, enterprise and territory, looking at all the different nuances engendered by all the different people involved in production processes and in the markets, while also seeing innovation as the drive required to do more and better. The relationship between research, industry, environment and territory is a cross-sectional topic that needs constant research and updating, paying attention to its many interpretations. This is what Fabio Menghini does with his article “Pensiero economico, innovazione e cambiamento climatico” (“Economic thought, innovation and climate change”), recently published in the journal Equilibri.

Menghini tackle this theme topic from an economic sciences viewpoint, and starts with an observation: the economy seems incapable to offer a significant contribution to the climate change debate. The reason for this might actually be just one: economic models consider the great environmental themes that are significantly affecting the future of our planet only as exogenous variables in relation to the system concerned. A big constraint as, as it has now been scientifically established, the production and organisation required to obtain such contribution are increasingly connected with the environment, which, however, is not acknowledged as an economic variant, hence the gap between economy and industry. It is also a matter of culture, which can generate biased and damaging analyses.

Menghini’s contribution does not stop here – it goes on to consider some examples of economic interpretations of what is happening, examples that are fully at odds with each other yet help readers really understand the true complexity of the topic. The author particularly considers three different analyses: one that outlines innovation and growth as completed processes and foresees an era of secular stagnation; one that sees technological progress as unstoppable and able to sustain growth and solve all environmental issues; and, finally, one that conceives innovation as a driver for transformation, necessary to fight climate change but only if actively supported by the government and strong economic policies.

Fabio Menghini’s article is an excellent tool to better understand some of the key interpretations of the current situation.

Pensiero economico, innovazione e cambiamento climatico (“Economic thought, innovation and climate change”)

Fabio Menghini, Equilibri, 1-2/2022, pp. 53-69

Combining profit and purpose is feasible, but requires a different production culture

Goals that do not just entail profit, but wider objectives, too, without the former conflicting with the latter. The future of an increasingly large number of enterprises is precisely this: keeping a good balance, in both financial and social terms, and being mindful to one’s territory. This requires some skill, however, and these aims are not always easy to attain, but need to be nurtured with care and good sense, as well as adequate analytical tools and knowledge. This is also what the recently published book by George Serafeim Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world) wants to achieve.

The work takes its cue from the notion of an absence of conflict from profit and purpose, i.e. a company’s goals, as the author explores the forces at play that are reframing the relationship between these two objectives, and what could be tangibly done to set up the right conditions for businesses to achieve both.

Serafeim goes on to help readers understand various key points. How and why, for example, environmental and social issues are becoming increasingly more relevant for organisations on a global scale, or the different ways in which enterprises could devise and implement strategies able to generate a bigger positive impact on society and territory. Successively, Serafeim points out six archetypes of value creation that can be triggered in line with these new trends. The book then goes on to analyse the role of investors in promoting greater acknowledgement of ESG issues and while tackling ESG principles Serafeim takes the opportunity to develop his own argument. As a matter of fact, the book addresses ESG issues with great skill: “Material investment in sustainability entails costs and investments that actually reduce long-term profits. Indeed, sustainability is not a walk in the park: systems need to be replaced, in order to reduce emissions; new protocols focusing on rules we are not used to need to be written; new skills required to work in new ways need to be learned.” In other words, we need a change in cultural pace, one that needs to be explored and implemented – and this book helps us achieve just that.

Purpose + Profitto. Come le aziende possono migliorare il mondo e veder crescere gli utili (Purpose + profit. How business can lift up the world)

George Serafeim

EGEA, 2022

Food has always been a key part of Pirelli’s corporate welfare programme. Right from the early twentieth century, industrial expansion was accompanied by the need for premises where workers could eat the meals they brought from home. In 1915 the first refectory was set up in the Bicocca factory. A few years later, the Cooperativa Cucine Popolari was entrusted with preparing food for the workers and in 1924 came the first kitchen inside the plant, providing hot meals for the workers. A number of refectories were built in the various departments (three opened in 1937, serving 3,600 guests per day) and a canteen was built for the workers, followed by a canteen for the office staff. During the Second World War, nutrition was always a problem, so the factories opened company outlets which guaranteed basic necessities such as rice, pasta, butter and cheese and in 1943 a “Food Office” was set up to oversee the kitchens and refectories and canteens, as well as the company outlets and food warehouses. The canteens were reorganised in the post-war period. In 1955 the workers’ canteen was modernised. Construction started on a new building for the office workers, however, which included an 800-seat canteen that could serve up to 2,000 meals per shift, with a total of 6,000 meals per day. The project was entrusted to the architect Giulio Minoletti and to the engineer Giuseppe Chiodi, who created a setting that was a perfect blend of aesthetics, functionality and comfort. As the designers themselves put it, it was “one of the most modern examples of social development undertaken by an Italian industry”. 86 metres long and 35 wide, the building receives light from a large window that stretches across an entire side, through which one looks out over a pond and a lawn. The colour of the yellow chairs and red tables predominates inside. The food is delivered rapidly by conveyor belts from the kitchen to a serving counter, with a system to keep the food hot. Diners could help themselves at the counter – the first time a self-service system had been introduced in Italy.

Still today, food is at the heart of Pirelli’s policies for ensuring the well-being of its employees. A company restaurant was recently opened inside the Cinturato Building, which opened in 2020 to house training and welfare services. In a bright setting overlooking the garden of the Bicocca degli Arcimboldi, diners can also enjoy their meals out of doors and there is great focus on the quality of ingredients and a healthy style of cooking.

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Sickness benefits were the first form of assistance provided by the company, starting back at the end of the nineteenth century. They were calculated on the basis of the employee’s salary and length of service, in other words on their level of responsibility and number of years on the job, and they aimed to encourage workers to remain with the company. In the early twentieth century, assistance began to include “fees paid to doctors for home and outpatient visits” and in 1902, as part of an agreement between the company and the Workers’ Commission, assistance became mandatory, permanent and available to all employees. In 1926, a Healthcare Service (Servizio di Assistenza Sanitaria) was set up for employees, and was extended to family members as well shortly afterwards, providing free treatment at an in-company clinic or at home. It also offered specialist visits and diagnostic tests both internally and externally.

The service was way ahead of its time and the first in Italy, and it gradually expanded to include the supply of medicines free of charge and free hospitalisation in subsidised hospitals and nursing homes. Still today, the healthcare that Pirelli offers its employees is one of the most advanced in Italy. The Healthcare Fund (Fondo Assistenziale Sanitario, or FAS) reimburses employees and their families for various healthcare services and specialist visits. Medical examinations are offered free of charge at the Poliambulatorio at the Milano Bicocca headquarters. The “Pirelli Wellbeing” programme offers a wide range of courses to improve employees’ psycho-physical wellbeing, with 12 disciplines, including yoga, mindfulness, pilates, stretching, and bioenergetics.

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Accommodation for employees and energy-efficient mobility solutions for the trip between home and work are two issues that also reflect the evolution of Pirelli’s welfare services. After the contributions towards rent introduced in the very early years of the company’s history, the first social housing project was launched in 1920. In collaboration with the Istituto Autonomo per le Casa Popolari ed Economiche in Milan, Pirelli built the Borgo Pirelli, a village next to the Bicocca factory, with 1,200 homes to be rented at discounted prices to employees. Designed by the Pirelli engineers Giacomo Loria and Pietro Allodi in the manner of the garden-village, “in harmony with the modern precepts concerning the construction of workers’ villages”, as the Monitore Tecnico put it in an article on the project, it consisted of villas and gardens, “arranged to provide 100 square metres for each apartment”. As part of the INA-Casa state initiative to solve the housing problem after the war, the Pirelli Group continued building social housing for its employees from 1951 to 1953. A series of houses were constructed in the Suzzani district and in Via Latisana and Ripamonti in Milan, as well as in another 12 places where its plants were located. These were in Cinisello Balsamo – with the construction of an authentic Pirelli Village with 16 buildings, which was later expanded – and in Cusano Milanino, Seregno, Monza, Pizzighettone, Rovereto, Arona, Livorno, Naples, Turin, Vercurago, and Tivoli. More apartments were added in 1955, and 1957-8 brought the construction of a new village between Cinisello Balsamo and Cusano Milanino and yet others were built in 1960.

In today’s rapidly changing world, with its concepts of smart cities and green mobility, the company is committed to optimising the trip between home and office. Various methods are available to improve the mobility of Pirelli workers to and from home and make it more sustainable. These range from season tickets for trains and public transport bought directly from the company – also refundable through the conversion of the company performance bonus into welfare services – to changing rooms and showers for those who choose to go by bicycle, through to a completely free e-bike rental service.

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