In this long and controversial period marked by uncertainty and conflict, vulgar and slovenly populism and authoritarian rhetorics further fostered by fake news, the only way to neither succumb nor become complicit or end up a helpless onlooker could be found, for example, in a thought by Italo Calvino concerning the new millennium that was about to dawn: “Focus only on difficult things that have been perfectly accomplished; be wary of easy ways, laziness, slapdash attitudes. Focus on accuracy, both in language and in the things you do”, as recalled by Ernesto Ferrero in his essential book Album di famiglia – Maestri del Novecento ritratti dal vivo (Family album – Live portraits of 20^th-century masters), recently published by Einaudi.

Calvino was a strict, inquisitive and creative man. An intellectual aware that new maps of knowledge needed to be written to include humanities and sciences, and of the responsibility to never give in to the rhetorics of success, but rather commit to the endeavours of depth, because in order to appropriately perform intellectual work we need “not to abandon our job as scholars, but widen it, engage a larger audience, if one has something to say that might be of interest to that audience. This requires the ability to reinvent oneself without betraying one’s job” (a quote by Sabino Cassese, a great jurist and a wise civil servant).

We should do difficult things the proper way, then, just as Gianni Rodari, another 20^th-century master in literature and life, advocated: “It’s difficult, doing difficult things: talking to deaf people, showing a rose to a blind person. Children, learn how to do difficult things: offer your hand to blind people, sing for deaf people, free the slaves who believe to be free.”

In Calvino’s commitment we find a passion for narration, a painstaking dedication to the theory and practice of literature (his editorial work for publisher Einaudi is proof of this), but also the care required to delve into things and spread scientific teachings: a kind of humanism that is mindful of Renaissance virtues of conciseness and of a sophisticated and international polytechnic culture.

Indeed, his cultural and civic teachings (“be wary of laziness”, “focus on accuracy”) come to mind when reading the Aspen Global Initiative in Favor of Pure Science report, recently published following a debate on the Aspen Institute’s initiatives in Italy and in the US that lasted a few years (the full document is available at https://www.aspeninstitute.it/system/files/inline/Pure-Science-Aspen-Institute-2022.pdf ).

Its aim is a valuable one: to place pure science at the centre of public and private policies and make political and economic decision-makers aware of the importance of investments in this field (this has already been mentioned in our blog posts from autumn 2021, when the document was being drafted). The underlying notion is, basically, to stimulate “an enlightened leadership at a global level” able to keep values and interests for the “general welfare of humanity” in the foreground.

In fact, the document explains how progress in pure science is, in itself, a beneficial thing, as it represents one of the fundamental paths towards civilisation: a path leading towards the full understanding of who we are and of the physical and biological characteristics of the world in which we live. These are strong values, reiterates the Aspen document, that also have an impact on our material progress and quality of life. if we had not discovered thermodynamics, relativity and quantum physics, the theory of evolution and theoretical chemistry – to mention just a few scientific findings – we would lead a much more impoverished and less interesting life.

In these past years, marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change taking a turn for the worse, we have become much more widely aware of the need to focus on research. We were able to develop COVID-19 vaccines with such celerity precisely thanks to the progress made in basic research concerning medical “vectors”, and, in fact, research activities concerning energy, water, nutrition, harmful emissions, deforestation and the alarming changes in natural cycles and in vegetable and animal life can, today, offer precious insights on the so-called twin environmental and digital transition, also thanks to the support of Artificial Intelligence in tackling sustainable development issues.

Research, then, as a priority in political strategies but also in private investments.

Unfortunately, the Aspen report further points out, support to basic scientific research is plummeting pretty much everywhere and thus needs to be revived, through the collaboration of governments, public administrations, universities and private companies.

The report dedicates a chapter to each of the Aspen countries involved. With regards to Italy, as well as a low rate of public investment (much below the EU average), it also highlights a fragmentation in initiatives and a scarce collaboration between public and private spheres (whose division a proper use of PNRR – the Italian recovery and resilience plan – resources could significantly overcome).

This, then, is the reason why this debate needs to be rekindled. We need to apportion a larger part of funding to basic research and measure its outcomes according to criteria that go well beyond the mere achievement of immediate results. This is the responsibility of great international organisations and of European countries, starting with those featuring an obvious liberal democracy (the Aspen document aptly reminds us of the link between intellectual and democratic freedom), but it’s also the duty of a more sensitive and forward-looking public opinion, fully aware of the connections between knowledge, environmental and social sustainability (fighting inequality), innovation, quality of life (health is, of course, an essential part of this), and confident expectations in the future of younger generations.

A challenging task, indeed. A difficult one (back to Calvino and his urging to do, and do well) yet also a necessary one, to avoid the deterioration of everyday life and development prospects – to avoid, in other words, plunging into a hellishly ruptured economic and civil life.

Speaking of “hell”, rereading another of Calvino’s key teachings, found in the last pages of Le città invisibili (Invisible cities), a novel written at the beginning of those complex and painful 1970s: “The hell of living people is not something to come; if there is one, it is here already, it’s the hell we live in every day, which we form staying together. There are two ways not to suffer from it. The first comes easy to many: accept hell and become part of it, to the point you don’t see it any more. The second is risky and requires continuous attention and learning: to look for and recognise who and what, in the middle of hell, is not hell, and to make it last, and give it space.”

Recognise, make things last, give them space. A focus on quality, then, and on “accuracy” – here, too, lies the responsibility of science and research.

Tuesday 11 October, 11 a.m. – Biblioteca Archimede, Settimo Torinese

The Festival dell’Innovazione e della Scienza is back, in collaboration with the Fondazione Esperienze di Cultura Metropolitana, and organised by the Municipality of Settimo Torinese. The town has close ties with Pirelli for it is home to the Group’s most advanced Industrial Centre, and from 9 to 16 October it will be the arena for the tenth edition of the Festival, which this year is devoted to the digital world.

The Pirelli Foundation will take part in a meeting on the theme of “Pirelli and our future on the roads – Sustainable mobility, innovative tyres and road safety” on Tuesday 11 October at 11 a.m. in the Sala Levi of the Biblioteca Archimede. Using quizzes, videos and virtual tours, the Pirelli Foundation Educational team will help secondary school students find out about the greatest landmarks in the 150-year history of innovation at Pirelli. Thanks to the company’s Micromobility Solutions team, the young people will gain a greater understanding of the transformations that our cities – authentic “smart cities” – have been subjected to with the advent of micromobility services. One example? The Pirelli Cycl-e Around service, a corporate e-bike sharing scheme that is open to any accommodation facility or private community that wishes to invest in environmental sustainability.

Bookings at: Scuole 11 ottobre – Festival dell’Innovazione e della Scienza (settimo-torinese.it)

A volume collecting seven conversations with seven women who have reached important milestones

Leaderships that are not better but different than male leaderships – unique leaderships. It’s on this observation, which should not be taken for granted, that Tonia Cartolano – journalist and keen observer of real life – developed her LeadHers a collection of seven conversations with seven women who have chosen to talk about themselves without filters and mediations. These are not interviews but rather stories, which illustrate life experiences, successes and failures, a willingness to do and, above all, an image and content depicting women in a significantly different manner than the two (erroneous) extremes that are still used to describe women nowadays: subservient to men on one side, and striving to be better and more than men at all costs on the other. Notions that are found everywhere, in society and in companies, in organisations, in associations, and that damage both women and men.

Cartolano, on the other hand, writes, “Not a fresco of rebellious heroines, contemporary Wonder Women, but women who tell us who they were and who they are, what they used to dream and what they are dreaming now that they are older. Not a catalogue of exemplary women, yet these are educational stories, models to be imitated, an inspiration to other women, especially younger women who need this, because the path to women’s success is short, recent and not to be taken for granted.” And further, “The stories you will read are not lectures on female leadership.”

Thus, the almost 200 pages (including an original foreword by cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi) fly by, with the stories of Elisabetta Belloni (Director of the Italian Department of Information for Security, DIS, since 2021), Tania Cagnotto (European diver with the most wins of her career so far), Elisabetta Franchi (designer at the head of a company that earned €130 million in 2021), Gaia Pigino (Associate Head of the Structural Biology Research Centre at the Human Technopole), Titti Postiglione (Deputy Head of the Italian Civil Protection Department), Speranza Scappucci (conductor and pianist, the first Italian woman to direct an opera at the Teatro alla Scala of Milan), Paola Severino (lawyer, the first woman Minister of Justice in Italy and first woman rector at LUISS University of Rome, President of the Italian National School of Administration since 2021).

Tonia Cartolano’s book is packed with information yet very readable. Dialogues without questions that nonetheless provide a lot of answers and incredibly valuable advice: “a talented woman can succeed as much as a man. Without prejudices, differences or categories. And, above all, without trying to behave like men.” The author also adds, “Female leadership does not mean rising to the top of a multinational or the world, but to the top of one’s own world.”

If carefully read, Tonia Cartolano could make many women and men angry, and that is what makes it a good read.

LeadHers

Tonia Cartolano

Santelli Editore, 2022

A recently published research study reveals the damage caused by gender stereotypes

Women and men at the head of a company. A perennial (and often useless) comparison around which conflicts arise also because of insufficient knowledge of actual reality. In order to bring some clarity, Mariasole Bannò and Giorgia Maria D’Allura have conducted their research with the particular aim of proposing an interpretative framework and empirical validation concerning the impact women CEOs have, looking at three main themes: the innovation, internationalisation and sustainability of the companies themselves. Starting from an assumption: “The strategic choices and behaviour of companies can be at least in part explained by the profile of those who govern them.” Highlighting, however, a given fact: “Obviously, there is no correlation between the skills and competences of people at the top and their gender. Nonetheless, the gender composition of governance bodies has widely attracted the attention of researchers and has been studied from several theoretical perspectives. The scientific output generated so far deserves attention in terms of a topic central to gender studies: stereotypes.”

This research work provides an overview of the main studies but also attempts to outline a new, and especially balanced, interpretation, of situations that arise within companies.

Bannò and D’Allura first examine European and Italian statistics related to gender inequality, and then take into consideration the contribution of feminist and managerial theories, while in the second part, the two researchers tackle the three themes in need of a more accurate interpretation.

Amongst their conclusions, the researchers note how, on Board of Directors, “women are token members when there are only a few of them and as such are not listened to, while when reaching a critical number they feel they can express themselves freely and that they will be listened to”, but also that it all depends on the kind of company under consideration.

Bannò and D’Allura especially emphasise that “The literature summarised (…) clearly shows that the current misconception about women’s skills and competences must be revised.” However, we need a “new managerial approach focused on developing the awareness that while skills or competences are not tied to gender, there are contexts in which stereotypes influence the assessment of such competences.”

Donne e governo d’impresa. Prospettive teoriche ed evidenze empiriche (“Women and corporate governance. Theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence”)

Mariasole Bannò, Giorgia Maria D’Allura

Franco Angeli Open Access, 2022

Expertise. A recurring term in political debates following the elections of 25 September as well as, of course, in discussions pertaining the economic and entrepreneurial world, currently struggling amidst geopolitical shocks, energy, inflation, post-pandemic issues, the recession. We need “expert” ministers. We need “urgent decisions and solid expertise” to face the crisis. We need to make the most of “knowledge and expertise” to provide effective responses to the various emergencies and build sturdy development prospects.

Finally.

Indeed, the government led by Mario Draghi had already shown, with great clarity, how relevant expertise and international credibility are in order to restore a high level of confidence, especially for Italy, which other European countries have traditionally looked at with a critical attitude. It acted with political intelligence and technical skill, efficiently implementing PNRR (the Italian recovery and resilience plan) projects and intervening on concrete issues, thus also demonstrating how important it is to hold together political values and expertise with regards to possible problems and solutions. And then, it was prematurely brought down – a poor decision, of course, right when the various crises we face are getting worse.

That’s how the story went, in any case. People have expressed their preference and voted centre-right (i.e. those political parties that cast doubts on Draghi as an “expert”), and, due to the strong majority of votes, those are the MPs and senators who hold the most power in Parliament. Yet, their leader Giorgia Meloni is now the one who’s loudly calling for “expertise”.

We should really take her at her word.

Meloni has also urged, showing some responsibility, a dialogue with “social organisations” (i.e. entrepreneurial associations, trade unions, social and cultural institutions, etc.). An interesting step, after such a long period of time marked by political powers that seemed to court “disintermediation”, favouring a direct link between leader and “the people”, blaring propaganda on TV or social media and very little patience for proper critical debate.

“Let’s welcome this focus on social organisations. We expect the new government to listen to us concerning issues such as employment, industrial investments, economic development, issues in which we are, indeed, experts”, answered Giorgio Marsiaj, President of the Unione Industriali di Torino (Industrial Union of Turin, during the association’s assembly (just to mention one of the many Confindustria meetings scheduled over these days).

Will an awareness of the gravity of the crisis and the need to find adequate answers to the deep economic and social unease lead to a new era of “record expertise”? We’ll see. Let’s hope so.

The pandemic had the merit to show us how groundless the rash rabble-rousing motto of “uno vale uno” (“one is worth one”) and mocking scientists, economists, cultural personalities, “experts” really are (despite the flourishing of conspiracy theorists and lovers of fake news). Now, too, we can no longer accept that issues such as energy shortcomings and inflation, war and environment, should be treated as if the decisions concerned were the result of some bar room chatter.

The right to free expression and speech is, of course, a fundamental one in a democratic country. After which, decisions should be made by those who have been elected to represent the people, applying some “expertise” – this is no longer a time for “mediocracy”, far from it.

This is also well explained by Lorenzo Codogno, professor at the London School of Economics and Giampaolo Galli, vice-director of the Osservatorio sui Conti Pubblici, Italy’s public finances watchdog, and professor at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan in Crescita economica e meritocrazia – Perché l’Italia spreca i suoi talenti e non cresce (Economic growth and meritocracy – Why Italy is wasting its talents and can’t achieve growth), recently published by Il Mulino. In order to take on international competition, in such struggling global markets, “we should have focused on research and the enhancement of talent. Instead, more in general and except for a handful of exporting manufacturing companies, when it comes to employment and career, merits have been pushed aside by favouritism and political endorsement”

This old practice, according to the two economists, concerns all areas of society: universities, public administration, the political and judiciary spheres, local health authorities, the job market and even the appointment of managers in the financial sector.

The Constitution, which asserts that “the capable and deserving” should be rewarded, has also been pushed aside, and a large part of the most capable and enterprising young people go abroad to find better work and life conditions.

Economy and society are in decline.

How do we get out of this? Relevant advice could fill up entire libraries, yet rewarding merit and personal and professional skills, stimulating initiative and fostering competencies, passion, commitment and culture, rather than corporations and cronyism, sounds like the best way to go.

As such, will all this talk about “expertise” from the new government, lead to good results?

Manlio, the professional name of Manlio Parrini (1901-1968), was a painter who worked mainly in the late 1920s and 1930s. He became one of the greatest exponents of the monumentalist style that was in vogue at the time and he created many advertisements, especially for the Fiera di Milano, while also putting his name to a number of posters for Wolsit and Legnano bicycles, which both fitted Pirelli tyres. The Società Anonima Wolseley Italiana (abbreviated to Wolsit) was set up in Legnano in the early twentieth century, when Franco Tosi formed a joint venture with Emilio Bozzi to purchase the licence for the English brand Wolseley to manufacture cars, bicycles and aeroplanes. Car production was abandoned almost immediately (and that of aircraft was very short-lived, lasting from 1912 to 1925), but Wolsit continued to manufacture bicycles, which became famous for their design and mechanical quality. Pirelli, which had started producing bicycle tyres in 1890, supplied the tubulars. In the 1920s, Manlio designed an advertisement for the company in Legnano. This large 140 x 100 cm wall poster, recently acquired by the Pirelli Foundation, shows the cyclist Costante Girardengo with his Pirelli-tyred Wolsit bicycle over his shoulder. The advertisement dates from 1925-6, when Girardengo raced with the team, winning the  Milano-Sanremo for the fourth and fifth time, and coming second in the Giro d’Italia after winning six stages. In 1927 he was forced to retire due to injury. That year, when Franco Tosi left the company, Wolsit changed its name to Legnano. Manlio also produced an advertisement for the latter, in a style closer to his normal monumentalist manner: the  poster, now in the Salce Collection in Treviso, features a visionary view of a monumental factory from which an arm emerges holding a bicycle. Great champions for great posters, telling the stories of companies, products and champions through pictures.

In his latest book, Gianfranco Dioguardi outlines a new production organisation able to match innovations with innovation

 A chameleon-like enterprise – an enterprise that keeps on transforming, constantly adapting to new circumstances, situations, sudden contextual shifts, markets, policies. As such, an enterprise that must possess a larger, more complex amount of knowledge and skills, just like an encyclopaedia. These are the notions on which Gianfranco Dioguardi – engineer and professor of economics and business management at the Polytechnic University of Bari – wrote L’impresa enciclopedia. Organizzazione come strategia per il Terzo Millennio (Encyclopaedia-like enterprises. Organisation as a strategy for the Third Millennium), recently published.

Dioguardi, who in Italy is considered one of the fathers of management engineering, notes how the complexity of the Third Millennium has turned companies’ traditional strategic dynamics upside down. It is no longer possible to first implement a definitive corporate strategy and then build on it a corporate structure able to actualise it. The changeable nature of situations forces the realisation of ‘just in time’ organisational structures, and as such the ability to implement operational strategies that constantly take into consideration growing needs of sustainability and resilience. And, actually, it is the company itself that must modify its own culture, making it increasingly versatile, by promoting research and young people, Dioguardi explains.

The book starts by offering a very perceptive snapshot of current events – from pandemic to war and their impact on economy and society – and then goes on to explore first the concept of research (including its motivations, such as inquisitiveness and doubt) and then the new protagonists in such organisations (young people and entrepreneurs). It then examines some “lost values” such as corporate spirit, a culture conceived in the widest sense of the word, as well as the meaning of sustainability and the focus on digitalisation. Some industrial, territorial and urban scenarios are subsequently outlined, suggesting a future marked by “encyclopaedia-like enterprises” and urban territories able to develop in a new manner that is more mindful of people and the environment.

In his conclusion, Dioguardi writes, “As such, we need to conceive new ways of doing business, adopting new “system architectures” based on network models (“network enterprises”), in order to develop organic organisational models whose flexibility can be adjusted in real time according to the shifting needs presented by the external context and capable, moreover, to blend a large corporate dimension with the small and medium companies typical of the Italian economic context. We need to conceive institutions as “encyclopaedia-like enterprises”, which can acquire and determine the culture of its individual collaborators, turning it into a strategic tool that can be deployed on the territory in order to fight the danger of social exclusion.”

L’impresa enciclopedia. Organizzazione come strategia per il Terzo Millennio (Encyclopaedia-like enterprises. Organisation as a strategy for the Third Millennium)

Gianfranco Dioguardi

Guerini Next, 2022

A contribution published in journal Quaderni di economia del lavoro (Labour Economics Papers) encapsulates a clear analysis of the new forms of corporate organisation

“Remote” or “agile” working – either way, a new mode of working that, from the pandemic onwards, has challenged the organisation of factories and offices, as well as a new topic for discussion in terms of the continuous evolution of corporate culture. Fabio Pantano’s “Il lavoro a distanza dopo la pandemia: problemi organizzativi e soluzioni giuridiche” (“Remote working after the pandemic: organisation issues and legal solutions”), recently published in Quaderni di economia del lavoro, is a valid contribution to the debate, helping us understand the current state of play through an effective analysis.

Pantano starts by highlighting the fact that the disruptive arrival of COVID-19 allowed us to experiment with the main organisational issues that “remote” working engenders in terms of employees’ mental and physical well-being, their performance and the sense of achievement they feel for what they do. An operational mode that, in one way or the other, was already present in organisations but that the pandemic has pushed to the limits, bringing to the fore all its possible merits and defects.

The author then explains that a rational approach to these topics would require a radical change in organisational models, a shift from management systems based on control to a new approach focused on trust, autonomy and collaboration. Goals that, however, cannot be achieved due to the lack of appropriate legal provision – a provision that, according to Pantano, is clearly showing its lack of preparedness in this respect. In particular, the new policies implemented seem to be based on a traditional perspective dictating that real work is only carried out by employees physically present in the workplace. Indeed, Italian Law no. 81/2017 defines “agile” working as an individual agreement between employer and employee, ignoring the role that a collective agreement could play, while, on the contrary, at a European level, trade union agreements especially show a huge potential – though not as yet fully explored – to ensure that organisational issues engendered by remote working can be adapted to fit the peculiarities of each different production sector and company.

Thus, Fabio Pantano illustrates the gap existing between fact and legislation: on the one hand, markets, companies and the real economy proceeding along a path that seeks new solutions, both from an organisation and a cultural viewpoint, and on the other hand we have laws (as well as, often, short-sighted views from those in charge) that reiterate schemes and procedures that are now obsolete and inefficient.

Il lavoro a distanza dopo la pandemia: problemi organizzativi e soluzioni giuridiche (Remote working after the pandemic: organisation issues and legal solutions)

Fabio Pantano

Labour Economics Papers, 2021 Issue 113

Katia Da Ros, Venetian entrepreneur (her company, Irinox, manufactures high-tech cold-storage appliances for the food industry) and Vice President for Sustainability and Culture at territorial entrepreneurial institution Confindustria, believes that we should work towards “a gentler capitalism”. In other words, towards an economic system based on a set of values (environmental and social sustainability, caring for people, quality of life, occupational safety) that should inform products, services, markets, consumption. A system that, if respected, would allow us to build the kind of long-term economic values (profits, stock market returns, etc.) that drive companies to grow, invest, create employment and widespread prosperity.

Using the term “gentleness” within an economic and corporate context is really not that unusual today (though inconceivable ten years ago) and it reveals an underlying trend that’s increasingly spreading in innovative businesses mindful of sustainability issues as well as in trade associations and social and cultural environments busy working on the values and content of good corporate culture.

On Monday morning, at LUISS University, Symbola and the Franciscan community of Assisi held an event to rediscuss and relaunch the “Manifesto of Assisi”, the manifesto they drafted to advocate “an economy on a human scale”, too – a document that in January 2020 was promptly countersigned by major associations (Unioncamere, Confindustria, Coldiretti) and, over time, several large companies (Enel, Novamont, Arvedi, Illy, etc.) alike.

The underlying message is clear: sustainability, culture and a “gentler capitalism” are the choices that allow enterprises – Italian ones in particular – to take on the current crisis, to deal with emergencies but also, and above all, to look to the future and as such turn these choices into drives for competitiveness and success on markets that have become increasingly difficult, aggressive and demanding.

We are indeed experiencing a dramatic period, one of crisis and uncertainties, amidst war, energy shocks, inflation and recession and the heavy impact they have on certainties, employment, income and development opportunities. Enterprises are under pressure and thus are rediscussing investment projects and trade relationships, as it’s precisely in this difficult context that we must be able to establish ourselves, firmly and unequivocally, in those global niches that feature greater added value.

The original “polytechnic culture” is in fact constituted by our distinctive values, a blend of arts and humanities, science and technology – a story that looks to the future and a solid propensity for quality. Sustainable choices are of the essence, just like a good corporate culture, conveyed through historical museums and archives that can be used as strategic tools to guide us through this crisis and devise plans for growth – in fact, their promotion and appreciation positively affect the brand, reinforces a sense of loyalty and pride in employees, strengthens marketing and communication activities as well as market relations, and, more in general, consolidates the prestigious allure of goods “made in Italy” worldwide.

This is why investing in beauty and quality is important. In the widest and most complex sense of the concept, the best designs are linked to technological innovation, and as such enhance the mechatronics, robotics, automotive, chemical, aerospace and shipbuilding industries, as well as, of course, more traditional “made in Italy” sectors such as furnishings, fashion and the agro-industry.

This is know-how, the notion of “knowing how to do” but also of “doing it well, and doing good” – an attitude that’s deeply rooted in the expertise of the most productive regions and that is reflected in the scientific research carried out by polytechnic institutes and the best Italian universities. It’s also an approach that has recently demonstrated great resourcefulness in taking on the twin green and digital transition, as well as economic and social shifts, and stimulated the competitive skills of businesses.

This is where the thoughts that animate public debate in the corporate world and cultural, education and research hubs, precisely in these uncertain times of crisis, are leading us: to a “gentle capitalism”, indeed. “Reformist enterprises” driving the critical rewriting of production and services maps in smart cities, which then turn into smart lands, or, productive territories where innovation and positive social capital predominate, as well as a proper economy, “on a human scale” or – even better – “on an individual and communal scale”, referring to the contemporariness of Adriano Olivetti’s ideas (as also suggested by Paolo Bricco’s inspiring book about “a 20th-century Italian man”, published by Rizzoli).

It’s mostly the new generations that are leading us in this direction – not just as consumers but also as entrepreneurs, producers, informed individuals who make responsible financial decisions through their choice of products and services, and who prefer to work in companies that tangibly share their sustainable value system (while punishing, with critical intelligence, companies called out for greenwashing).

In this way, we’re also recovering our ancient knowledge, rooted in the medieval culture of Benedictine abbeys (the teachings of ora et labora, pray and labour), a taste for beauty in cities populated by merchants, bankers and manufacturers such as Siena and Florence, the relationship between Franciscan friars and bankers, brought together by their regard for both goods and “common goods”, as great Catholic economics such as Stefano Zamagni and Luigino Bruni have shown (Bruni’s latest book Capitalismo meridiano – Alle radici dello spirito mercantile tra religione e profitto (Meridian capitalism – Getting to the roots of the trading spirit amidst religion and profit), published by Il Mulino, provides some really good evidence of this). Adding one essential remark: “The European economy was conceived by a spirit larger than the trading spirit. And if it were to lose this larger spirit, it’d be in serious danger of extinguishing itself.”  Here it is then, a new possible dimension, which we can keep on “gently” discussing.

“Entering the vast, tidy halls of the Bicocca canteens and visiting their annexed services; taking note of the organisation of the outlets and dining halls; becoming acquainted with the workings of the medical service and the infirmaries, with their modern equipment; visiting the kindergartens, nursing homes, apprenticeship workshops and so on; all this gives grounds for great satisfaction for what has already been accomplished and it also spurs us to do even more.”

This is how, in his 1946 book, La Pirelli. Vita di un’azienda industriale, Alberto Pirelli looked back over what the company had achieved in terms of what we would now call “corporate welfare”, to which his father Giovanni Battista, who had founded the company, had devoted himself right from the outset. A few years after the company was set up, Pirelli well understood the importance of investing in forms of social security and assistance and he launched cutting-edge projects, such as the creation, in 1877, of a “welfare fund” which provided grants in the event of illness. This was one of the first examples of assistance to workers to be introduced by a large company. And in 1926 a healthcare service was set up for employees and their families, providing specialist advice, laboratory tests, home care and notable facilities for admission to hospitals and nursing homes. As the company grew, ever greater assistance was provided to the workers, covering not just healthcare issues but also services for the family and for leisure and sport.

New materials illustrating these services, dating from the post-war period to the early 1970s, are now available in the online Historical Archive, with many photographs from the archives of the Pirelli “Direzione Propaganda”. These were mainly used to inform employees, as well as the wider public through company magazines, about the welfare services provided by the company. For example, the photographs show the canteen service at the Bicocca factory: one for the blue-collar workers, photographed after it was refurbished in 1955, and the staff canteen designed by the architect Giulio Minoletti and the engineer Giuseppe Chiodi, with its construction phases, its ultra-modern interiors, and its dining hall with 770 seats. And there were services to assist families, from childcare (with kindergartens, after-school child services, and summer camps – the first of which opened in Pietra Ligure in 1947 – and the Piero Pirelli Institute, which opened in 1958 as a professional training centre for the children of employees) through to care for the elderly, with a retirement home in Induno Olona, in the province of Varese. The pictures also document the work carried out by the company in the field of healthcare, with the surgery and the psychotechnical laboratory, which was set up in 1935 to perform tests and examinations for the selection of personnel and accident prevention. And then there was housing for employees, with the village in Cinisello Balsamo, which was built in 1953 as part of the INA-Casa construction plan.

A sizeable collection of photographs documents the activities of the Pirelli Sports Group, which was set up in 1922 with the aim of promoting sports among the workers and their families. In the 1970s it was divided into 18 sections, one for each sport, with more than 2,500 signed-up members who trained in the sports facilities opposite the factory. Some of the photographs are signed by such great names as Vincenzo Aragozzini, Aldo Ballo, Ugo Mulas, and Enzo Nocera.

Coming back to the words of Alberto Pirelli: “So we were born and raised among workers, machines and company developments, and we soon learnt to love our jobs, the workers, and this company, which was part of the best years of our life.”