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Knowing in order to grow better – in companies, too

A recently discussed thesis demonstrates the positive relationship between sharing and development in production organisations

Turning knowledge into a shared asset, so as to promote the better development of an enterprise. An important benchmark that is difficult to attain for more or less all production organisations, a goal that highlights a corporate culture that not only strictly cares about production, but also about the global impact of its activities – Sara Pax explores this tangle of issues in her thesis, discussed only a few weeks ago at Franklin University.

Indeed, “Examining the influence of knowledge leadership behaviours on the enablers of knowledge management in small and medium-sized companies” summarises a complex investigation focused on the management of knowledge in companies, where knowledge is understood as a key factor for the financial success and the long-term sustainability of a small business. In particular, the goal of this study is to understand whether a relationship exists between leadership behaviours and knowledge management tools. In addition to this, Sara Pax’s work provides leaders, especially in SMEs, with important evidence that supports their efforts to adopt knowledge management practices allowing everyone to adequately benefit from them within their company.

The outcomes of this analysis show the existence of a statistically significant link between a management mode that fosters learning and positive relationships with employees, the creation of a collaborative atmosphere within the company itself, and the improvement in the management of the whole production organisation. Making knowledge available to everyone and as such turning it into an enterprise’s shared asset is, in other words, one of the best ways to leverage competitiveness, a tool available to those entrepreneurs and managers who know how to use it. Moreover, it is also one of the best expressions of that good corporate culture that succeeds in seeing production organisations as entities not purely focused on making a profit, but on attaining something more complex and comprehensive, too.

EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS ON THE ENABLERS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES

Sara Pax

Thesis, Franklin University, June 2022

A recently discussed thesis demonstrates the positive relationship between sharing and development in production organisations

Turning knowledge into a shared asset, so as to promote the better development of an enterprise. An important benchmark that is difficult to attain for more or less all production organisations, a goal that highlights a corporate culture that not only strictly cares about production, but also about the global impact of its activities – Sara Pax explores this tangle of issues in her thesis, discussed only a few weeks ago at Franklin University.

Indeed, “Examining the influence of knowledge leadership behaviours on the enablers of knowledge management in small and medium-sized companies” summarises a complex investigation focused on the management of knowledge in companies, where knowledge is understood as a key factor for the financial success and the long-term sustainability of a small business. In particular, the goal of this study is to understand whether a relationship exists between leadership behaviours and knowledge management tools. In addition to this, Sara Pax’s work provides leaders, especially in SMEs, with important evidence that supports their efforts to adopt knowledge management practices allowing everyone to adequately benefit from them within their company.

The outcomes of this analysis show the existence of a statistically significant link between a management mode that fosters learning and positive relationships with employees, the creation of a collaborative atmosphere within the company itself, and the improvement in the management of the whole production organisation. Making knowledge available to everyone and as such turning it into an enterprise’s shared asset is, in other words, one of the best ways to leverage competitiveness, a tool available to those entrepreneurs and managers who know how to use it. Moreover, it is also one of the best expressions of that good corporate culture that succeeds in seeing production organisations as entities not purely focused on making a profit, but on attaining something more complex and comprehensive, too.

EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF KNOWLEDGE LEADERSHIP BEHAVIORS ON THE ENABLERS OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES

Sara Pax

Thesis, Franklin University, June 2022

Reforming higher technical institutions: high-tech training to provide jobs for young people and make companies more competitive

Amongst the most significant legacies of the Draghi government are the reforms to ITS, higher technical institutes, training institutions that are indispensable to fulfil the demand for qualified employees in companies operating within the digital economy. The law has been fully and unanimously approved by the Italian Chamber of Deputies in mid-July. Now, to become wholly operative, it requires 19 implementation policies, including 17 decrees, and the involvement of several ministries and regions. The hope is that this untimely government crisis and the tensions of a brief yet intensely polemical and conflictual election campaign won’t slow down the political and administrative decisions necessary to meet the employment and career needs of thousands of young people and to guarantee that companies, in such a difficult economic situation and on the brink of recession, can get the crucial skills needed to withstand competition, stay on the market and keep on growing.

The Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi and his advisers, the Minister of Regional Affairs and the leaders of the Conference of the Regions are working hard to avoid discontinuity – keeping an eye on their efforts and support their prompt actions will only prove beneficial.

Back to the law, then. Public financing (with a dedicated fund holding 48.3 million from 2022 and PNRR – Italian and recovery and resilience plan – funds amounting to 1.5 billion over five years) will be tied into a three-year plan, in order to grant stability to the educational offering, and will reward the quality of training paths (thus, none of that indiscriminate all-round funding so dear to egalitarian drifters who have been lowering education standards for far too long).

Companies will be key to the ITS Academies (a name that, indeed, recalls corporate training structures), with teaching provided by professionals from the working sphere amounting to “at least 60% of the total number of hours”. In-company internships and apprenticeships will have to take up “at least 35%” of the training path and can also be undertaken abroad, supported by scholarships. Each ITS Foundation’s administration will have to represent the founding and participating companies, and businesses investing in the ITS will be granted a 30% tax credit, rising to 60% in the provinces with higher unemployment rates.

The law also provides for multi-regional and multisectoral ITS, thus complying with the trends of the production world, organised in networks and supply chains comprising different and converging territories and specialisations. And now (through the implementation policies) we will also need to define the new technological areas for training (currently dating back to 2008) in line with the most up-to-date productive dimensions concerning chemistry and mechatronics, life sciences, cybersecurity, the many applications of Artificial Intelligence, and so on.

It’s “a pivotal relaunch to engage with innovation and recovery”, states Giovanni Brugnoli, vice president for Human Capital, Confindustria, and textile manufacturer in the dynamic industrial area around Varese, who spent years working for the promotion of a high-level vocational training (including courses by private university LIUC, Libera Università Carlo Cattaneo). And “finally, since the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s, enterprises regain their role as key training sites for our young people, co-designing specialisation paths and providing their experts as tutors” (Il Sole24Ore, 13 July).

The forecast is for a rapid growth, from the current 121 ITS with 21,000 students to much more substantial numbers, which will meet the demands of both the economic world and of students and their families, as, on average, 80% of young people graduating from an ITS find employment within a year (with peaks of 100% in territories with greater and more sophisticated industrialisation) and, in 91% of the cases, within their specialisation sector.

And there’s yet another aspect of this reform that should be highlighted: “ITS’s flexible formula, able to continuously adapt: if, for example, in four years’ time the industry were to be different, the training paths can be rapidly adjusted and new skilled workers can be promptly be provided”, explains Brugnoli.

Here’s the key point of this reform: in order to keep on competing in increasingly demanding markets, also in these times of “selective re-globalisation” (“Reinventing globalisation” was the cover headline of The Economist‘s issue of 18 June), the Italian manufacturing industry requires human resources able to feel comfortable with technological transformation and to combine different sets of knowledge and skills. We therefore need a high-tech education that can continuously update and improve itself (“Learning to learn”, say the experts), built on a high-level technological and scientific foundation and closely interconnected with work processes.

ITS and university STEM courses (focused on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, to which we should add the “a” for arts, i.e. the humanities, for STEAM) are vital tools, just as indicated by the PNRR, as per the prescriptions of the EU Next Generation Recovery Fund. A milestone in terms of opportunities for development – to be defended and rigorously translated into investments and reforms, also and above all in such extremely hard times of crisis.

(foto Getty images)

Amongst the most significant legacies of the Draghi government are the reforms to ITS, higher technical institutes, training institutions that are indispensable to fulfil the demand for qualified employees in companies operating within the digital economy. The law has been fully and unanimously approved by the Italian Chamber of Deputies in mid-July. Now, to become wholly operative, it requires 19 implementation policies, including 17 decrees, and the involvement of several ministries and regions. The hope is that this untimely government crisis and the tensions of a brief yet intensely polemical and conflictual election campaign won’t slow down the political and administrative decisions necessary to meet the employment and career needs of thousands of young people and to guarantee that companies, in such a difficult economic situation and on the brink of recession, can get the crucial skills needed to withstand competition, stay on the market and keep on growing.

The Minister of Education Patrizio Bianchi and his advisers, the Minister of Regional Affairs and the leaders of the Conference of the Regions are working hard to avoid discontinuity – keeping an eye on their efforts and support their prompt actions will only prove beneficial.

Back to the law, then. Public financing (with a dedicated fund holding 48.3 million from 2022 and PNRR – Italian and recovery and resilience plan – funds amounting to 1.5 billion over five years) will be tied into a three-year plan, in order to grant stability to the educational offering, and will reward the quality of training paths (thus, none of that indiscriminate all-round funding so dear to egalitarian drifters who have been lowering education standards for far too long).

Companies will be key to the ITS Academies (a name that, indeed, recalls corporate training structures), with teaching provided by professionals from the working sphere amounting to “at least 60% of the total number of hours”. In-company internships and apprenticeships will have to take up “at least 35%” of the training path and can also be undertaken abroad, supported by scholarships. Each ITS Foundation’s administration will have to represent the founding and participating companies, and businesses investing in the ITS will be granted a 30% tax credit, rising to 60% in the provinces with higher unemployment rates.

The law also provides for multi-regional and multisectoral ITS, thus complying with the trends of the production world, organised in networks and supply chains comprising different and converging territories and specialisations. And now (through the implementation policies) we will also need to define the new technological areas for training (currently dating back to 2008) in line with the most up-to-date productive dimensions concerning chemistry and mechatronics, life sciences, cybersecurity, the many applications of Artificial Intelligence, and so on.

It’s “a pivotal relaunch to engage with innovation and recovery”, states Giovanni Brugnoli, vice president for Human Capital, Confindustria, and textile manufacturer in the dynamic industrial area around Varese, who spent years working for the promotion of a high-level vocational training (including courses by private university LIUC, Libera Università Carlo Cattaneo). And “finally, since the economic boom of the 1950s and 1960s, enterprises regain their role as key training sites for our young people, co-designing specialisation paths and providing their experts as tutors” (Il Sole24Ore, 13 July).

The forecast is for a rapid growth, from the current 121 ITS with 21,000 students to much more substantial numbers, which will meet the demands of both the economic world and of students and their families, as, on average, 80% of young people graduating from an ITS find employment within a year (with peaks of 100% in territories with greater and more sophisticated industrialisation) and, in 91% of the cases, within their specialisation sector.

And there’s yet another aspect of this reform that should be highlighted: “ITS’s flexible formula, able to continuously adapt: if, for example, in four years’ time the industry were to be different, the training paths can be rapidly adjusted and new skilled workers can be promptly be provided”, explains Brugnoli.

Here’s the key point of this reform: in order to keep on competing in increasingly demanding markets, also in these times of “selective re-globalisation” (“Reinventing globalisation” was the cover headline of The Economist‘s issue of 18 June), the Italian manufacturing industry requires human resources able to feel comfortable with technological transformation and to combine different sets of knowledge and skills. We therefore need a high-tech education that can continuously update and improve itself (“Learning to learn”, say the experts), built on a high-level technological and scientific foundation and closely interconnected with work processes.

ITS and university STEM courses (focused on science, technology, engineering, mathematics, to which we should add the “a” for arts, i.e. the humanities, for STEAM) are vital tools, just as indicated by the PNRR, as per the prescriptions of the EU Next Generation Recovery Fund. A milestone in terms of opportunities for development – to be defended and rigorously translated into investments and reforms, also and above all in such extremely hard times of crisis.

(foto Getty images)

Piero Pirelli: A Life Devoted to Industry, Social Issues and a Passion for Sport

The eldest son of Giovanni Battista Pirelli and Maria Sormani, Piero Pirelli played a key role in the history of the industrial group that was founded by his father in 1872. Born in 1881, he started working as a teenager in the company business – together with his brother Alberto, who was a year younger – helping his father both in the factory in Via Ponte Seveso, and on underwater telegraph cable-laying campaigns with the ship Città di Milano, as well as on business trips abroad. In 1903 the two brothers graduated in Law from the University of Genoa and the following year they officially joined their father in running the company. As the Group rapidly expanded in those years, the brothers took turns in going on trips abroad. In 1904 Piero was in America to oversee Pirelli’s participation in the St Louis World’s Fair, and he later returned several times to the United States, as well as to Spain, where he directly supervised the factories. During the First World War, Piero served as a cavalry officer in the Supreme Command. Once back in the company, in 1920, he and his brother were appointed as managing directors of the two companies that were set up as part of a restructuring plan: Società Italiana Pirelli (later Pirelli SpA) and the Compagnie Internationale Pirelli, the holding company of the foreign group. From then on, the two brothers’ roles became more specialised. While Alberto mainly worked on international relations and activities abroad, Piero focused on business in Italy, and on trade union relations and welfare projects. In 1919, it was he who led negotiations for the reduction of working hours from 60 to 48 per week, and in 1946 he promoted the Piero and Alberto Pirelli Foundation to assist the company’s elderly employees. Upon the death of his father in 1932, Piero was appointed president of the Group, a position he held until his death on 7 August 1956. With a great love of sports, in 1899 he helped set up the “Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club” (becoming its president from 1909 to 1929) and he helped in the construction of the San Siro stadium in 1926. His life was one of business, social activities and a great passion for sport.

The eldest son of Giovanni Battista Pirelli and Maria Sormani, Piero Pirelli played a key role in the history of the industrial group that was founded by his father in 1872. Born in 1881, he started working as a teenager in the company business – together with his brother Alberto, who was a year younger – helping his father both in the factory in Via Ponte Seveso, and on underwater telegraph cable-laying campaigns with the ship Città di Milano, as well as on business trips abroad. In 1903 the two brothers graduated in Law from the University of Genoa and the following year they officially joined their father in running the company. As the Group rapidly expanded in those years, the brothers took turns in going on trips abroad. In 1904 Piero was in America to oversee Pirelli’s participation in the St Louis World’s Fair, and he later returned several times to the United States, as well as to Spain, where he directly supervised the factories. During the First World War, Piero served as a cavalry officer in the Supreme Command. Once back in the company, in 1920, he and his brother were appointed as managing directors of the two companies that were set up as part of a restructuring plan: Società Italiana Pirelli (later Pirelli SpA) and the Compagnie Internationale Pirelli, the holding company of the foreign group. From then on, the two brothers’ roles became more specialised. While Alberto mainly worked on international relations and activities abroad, Piero focused on business in Italy, and on trade union relations and welfare projects. In 1919, it was he who led negotiations for the reduction of working hours from 60 to 48 per week, and in 1946 he promoted the Piero and Alberto Pirelli Foundation to assist the company’s elderly employees. Upon the death of his father in 1932, Piero was appointed president of the Group, a position he held until his death on 7 August 1956. With a great love of sports, in 1899 he helped set up the “Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club” (becoming its president from 1909 to 1929) and he helped in the construction of the San Siro stadium in 1926. His life was one of business, social activities and a great passion for sport.

The Reliability, Technology and Style of Pirelli Tyres on Display at the Guggenheim Bilbao

Last chance to see the exhibition Motion: Autos, Art, Architecture, an exciting journey through the world of art, cars and technology, which closes at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on 18 September 2022. Those who have not yet had a chance to visit the exhibition and admire the five original advertising sketches from the Pirelli Foundation – which were selected by Lord Norman Foster, the brain behind the exhibition, and by the curators – can go on a virtual tour put on by the museum on its website, which can be seen here. Pirelli Stelvio and Cinturato tyres, which starred in motor races and in technological development in the 1950s and 1960s, add their iconic glory to the Sporting gallery and interact with the other works around them, from screen prints by Andy Warhol to designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. Alan Fletcher’s “+ km” advertisement, which alludes to the reliability and durability of Pirelli tyres, Pavel Michael Engelmann’s tread marks for a tyre “that bites the road”, the chain of tyres and “successes” on a yellow ground by Ezio Bonini, the “safety” of the man behind the wheel by André François and the lion by Armando Testa, with a Stelvio tyre in place of a mane, that “claws the asphalt” and becomes a symbol of control and grip. The gallery also has a place for the Pirelli Tower, the company’s first headquarters, which is represented by a drawing of the ground plan with its characteristic diamond shape and by a photographic reproduction of an original in our Historical Archive, which shows off its amazing modernity and purity of form.

Last chance to see the exhibition Motion: Autos, Art, Architecture, an exciting journey through the world of art, cars and technology, which closes at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao on 18 September 2022. Those who have not yet had a chance to visit the exhibition and admire the five original advertising sketches from the Pirelli Foundation – which were selected by Lord Norman Foster, the brain behind the exhibition, and by the curators – can go on a virtual tour put on by the museum on its website, which can be seen here. Pirelli Stelvio and Cinturato tyres, which starred in motor races and in technological development in the 1950s and 1960s, add their iconic glory to the Sporting gallery and interact with the other works around them, from screen prints by Andy Warhol to designs by Frank Lloyd Wright. Alan Fletcher’s “+ km” advertisement, which alludes to the reliability and durability of Pirelli tyres, Pavel Michael Engelmann’s tread marks for a tyre “that bites the road”, the chain of tyres and “successes” on a yellow ground by Ezio Bonini, the “safety” of the man behind the wheel by André François and the lion by Armando Testa, with a Stelvio tyre in place of a mane, that “claws the asphalt” and becomes a symbol of control and grip. The gallery also has a place for the Pirelli Tower, the company’s first headquarters, which is represented by a drawing of the ground plan with its characteristic diamond shape and by a photographic reproduction of an original in our Historical Archive, which shows off its amazing modernity and purity of form.

Corporate art

A recently published book brings together advertising, literature, music, dance, cinema and much more

 

Advertising: science, technique, tool or art? It certainly expresses the culture of a particular period, as well as a corporate culture that evolves, changes, shifts depending on contemporary collective imagination, entrepreneurial feeling, that fleeting creative moment that makes every production organisation unique. Some see advertising as a science, others as an art, and it is the latter approach that informs Pubblicità è arte. L’undicesima musa (Advertising as art. The eleventh muse), a recently published book curated by Emanuele Gabardi, which looks at advertising as the outcome of a particular art, be it literature, music, dance or cinema. This is a book for readers who wish to take a look at this aspect of the corporate world from a different perspective, a book that, by the by, begins by drawing an innovative parallel between advertising and all other expressions of human activity.

Indeed, curator and authors are led by the classical muses, highlighting how Clio is part of the history of advertising, as well as how Calliope, Erato and Euterpe inspire its different forms – epic, sentimental and lyric – of poetry, individually or, at times, together. Calliope is also the muse of “beautiful voice” and, certainly, voices have to be pleasant in advertising, while Erato engenders the desire for what is being advertised, and Euterpe creates a pleasant association by making us smile. Further, the authors also look at Melpomene and Polyhymnia’s musical influence on advertising, at Thalia when narration acquires a comic tone, or at Terpsichore when the audience’s thoughts are made to dance. Not to mention Urania, the “heavenly one”, the muse of astronomy and geometry, which together with Clio inspires the creation of design objects conceived for public and private places, as well as the perspective for paintings and sculptures. Finally, the early 20th century saw the birth of cinema and, with it, of the tenth muse, with which advertising always had a special relationship since the very beginning.

Once concluded this fascinating story, Gabardi argues that advertising itself represents the eleventh muse and this is the concept that underlies the book, focused on the mutual and complementary relationships between advertising and history, literature, music, dance, cinema, art and design – a book that, as we learn in its first pages, had a “long gestation period”, but that is definitely worth a careful read.

Pubblicità è arte. L’undicesima Musa (Advertising as art. The eleventh muse)

Emanuele Gabardi (curated by)

Franco Angeli, 2022

A recently published book brings together advertising, literature, music, dance, cinema and much more

 

Advertising: science, technique, tool or art? It certainly expresses the culture of a particular period, as well as a corporate culture that evolves, changes, shifts depending on contemporary collective imagination, entrepreneurial feeling, that fleeting creative moment that makes every production organisation unique. Some see advertising as a science, others as an art, and it is the latter approach that informs Pubblicità è arte. L’undicesima musa (Advertising as art. The eleventh muse), a recently published book curated by Emanuele Gabardi, which looks at advertising as the outcome of a particular art, be it literature, music, dance or cinema. This is a book for readers who wish to take a look at this aspect of the corporate world from a different perspective, a book that, by the by, begins by drawing an innovative parallel between advertising and all other expressions of human activity.

Indeed, curator and authors are led by the classical muses, highlighting how Clio is part of the history of advertising, as well as how Calliope, Erato and Euterpe inspire its different forms – epic, sentimental and lyric – of poetry, individually or, at times, together. Calliope is also the muse of “beautiful voice” and, certainly, voices have to be pleasant in advertising, while Erato engenders the desire for what is being advertised, and Euterpe creates a pleasant association by making us smile. Further, the authors also look at Melpomene and Polyhymnia’s musical influence on advertising, at Thalia when narration acquires a comic tone, or at Terpsichore when the audience’s thoughts are made to dance. Not to mention Urania, the “heavenly one”, the muse of astronomy and geometry, which together with Clio inspires the creation of design objects conceived for public and private places, as well as the perspective for paintings and sculptures. Finally, the early 20th century saw the birth of cinema and, with it, of the tenth muse, with which advertising always had a special relationship since the very beginning.

Once concluded this fascinating story, Gabardi argues that advertising itself represents the eleventh muse and this is the concept that underlies the book, focused on the mutual and complementary relationships between advertising and history, literature, music, dance, cinema, art and design – a book that, as we learn in its first pages, had a “long gestation period”, but that is definitely worth a careful read.

Pubblicità è arte. L’undicesima Musa (Advertising as art. The eleventh muse)

Emanuele Gabardi (curated by)

Franco Angeli, 2022

The difficulties of a different way of working

A recently published research study looks at labour organisation on digital platforms, including their social aspects

 

Digitalisation of production and, as such, of labour – not just a mere technological shift, but something that is more complex and deep-rooted, that needs to be investigated in order to better understand its scope and future, starting from the notion that any technology will always entail a social foundation. Marco Marrone (researcher in sociology of economics and labour at the University of Salento) explores this tangle of ideas in his research study entitled

“La piattaformizzazione dello spazio-tempo. Appunti per una teoria della relatività organizzativa” (“Turning space and time into digital platforms. Notes for an organisational theory of relativity”), published a few weeks ago in Labour and Law Issues. His contribution represents an attempt to think logically, from a social perspective, about the various labour organisational models that, over time, have succeeded one another in the entrepreneurial world. Marrone, however, does not look at the past but starts from the present, examining the organisational innovations that digital platforms have introduced and linking their analysis to the historical evolution of labour organisation.

“From this perspective,” writes Marrone, “digital platforms do not merely arise as the result of the new potential offered by digital technologies, but as the outcome of a more articulated and dynamic social process.”

The author, then, outlines the evolutions of the different organisation models that have been adopted in the industrial sphere (from Fordism to network capitalism, to the rise of digital platforms), highlighting how all these transformations achieve the same goal when meeting any social and political rationale: “To control labour”. Thus, according to Marrone, digital platforms appear as “the latest element of these transformations, and can fracture the spatial and temporal coordinates” of production processes. In other words, Marrone believes that, today, digitalisation has made it easier to control labour, even if people can now work in different and non-traditional places. This leads to a production culture that is radically different from the past but that, however, should not be seen as absolute – in fact, the researcher writes that “Platforms do not seem to be fully in control of their destiny” as workers demanding their independence and rights are increasingly “mobilising”. Indeed, these facts emphasise how much the digitalisation of labour organisation is undergoing changes, both in material and in legal terms. Hence, the culture of production organisation continues to be a complex outcome of technology and humanity, difficult to define with accuracy and, as such, still a very intriguing feature of corporate life.

La piattaformizzazione dello spazio-tempo. Appunti per una teoria della relatività organizzativa (“Turning space and time into digital platforms. Notes for an organisational theory of relativity”)

Marco Marrone, University of Salento, researcher in sociology of economics and labour

Labour and Law Issues, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022

A recently published research study looks at labour organisation on digital platforms, including their social aspects

 

Digitalisation of production and, as such, of labour – not just a mere technological shift, but something that is more complex and deep-rooted, that needs to be investigated in order to better understand its scope and future, starting from the notion that any technology will always entail a social foundation. Marco Marrone (researcher in sociology of economics and labour at the University of Salento) explores this tangle of ideas in his research study entitled

“La piattaformizzazione dello spazio-tempo. Appunti per una teoria della relatività organizzativa” (“Turning space and time into digital platforms. Notes for an organisational theory of relativity”), published a few weeks ago in Labour and Law Issues. His contribution represents an attempt to think logically, from a social perspective, about the various labour organisational models that, over time, have succeeded one another in the entrepreneurial world. Marrone, however, does not look at the past but starts from the present, examining the organisational innovations that digital platforms have introduced and linking their analysis to the historical evolution of labour organisation.

“From this perspective,” writes Marrone, “digital platforms do not merely arise as the result of the new potential offered by digital technologies, but as the outcome of a more articulated and dynamic social process.”

The author, then, outlines the evolutions of the different organisation models that have been adopted in the industrial sphere (from Fordism to network capitalism, to the rise of digital platforms), highlighting how all these transformations achieve the same goal when meeting any social and political rationale: “To control labour”. Thus, according to Marrone, digital platforms appear as “the latest element of these transformations, and can fracture the spatial and temporal coordinates” of production processes. In other words, Marrone believes that, today, digitalisation has made it easier to control labour, even if people can now work in different and non-traditional places. This leads to a production culture that is radically different from the past but that, however, should not be seen as absolute – in fact, the researcher writes that “Platforms do not seem to be fully in control of their destiny” as workers demanding their independence and rights are increasingly “mobilising”. Indeed, these facts emphasise how much the digitalisation of labour organisation is undergoing changes, both in material and in legal terms. Hence, the culture of production organisation continues to be a complex outcome of technology and humanity, difficult to define with accuracy and, as such, still a very intriguing feature of corporate life.

La piattaformizzazione dello spazio-tempo. Appunti per una teoria della relatività organizzativa (“Turning space and time into digital platforms. Notes for an organisational theory of relativity”)

Marco Marrone, University of Salento, researcher in sociology of economics and labour

Labour and Law Issues, vol. 8, no. 1, 2022

Pushing on with Draghi’s good government to avoid the disappointments of “A country without…”

In 1980, Alberto Arbasino wrote “A country without”, published by Garzanti, in an attempt to come to terms with that difficult decade, the 1970s, marked by political violence (neo-fascist bombs, Red Brigades terrorism), social crisis, fractured democracy (the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro to disrupt the dialogue between the Christian Democratic and the Communist parties, aimed at a radical renewal of Italian politics), as well as cultural disarray. Ten years later, in 1990, Arbasino revised that same essay, after a futile period that had promised much but had delivered nothing (the beginning of wealthy modernisation), when new rifts appeared (the continuous decline of politics, the explosion of Italy’s public debt to the detriment of future generations), describing it in the same clear-headed, critical, grave tone.

“A country without”, then – “A country without memory/ A country without history/ A country without past/ A country without experience/ A country without greatness/ A country without dignity/ A country without reality/ A country without motivations/ A country without programmes/ A country without plans/ A country without a head/ A country without legs/ A country without skills/ A country without meaning/ A country without knowledge / A country without self-image/ A country without self-examination/ A country without self-understanding/ A country without a future?”

In our times, so difficult and controversial, it’s worth rereading Arbasino’s pages, rich in pungent irony and admirable civic passion, in order to mindfully ponder about memory and the need for believing in the future, as we’re pushed in a narrow corner by current politics: dark clouds loom on the Draghi government, just when Italy – this “country without” that we love, regardless – must face economic and social tensions, climate emergencies, thunders of war in the heart of Europe, as well as an energy transition rife with geopolitical implications and environmental complications.

Harsh civic denunciations on the limits and contradictions of Italian identity are an essential part of our literary history, from Dante to Machiavelli and Guicciardini, from Leopardi to Manzoni and Carducci, from D’Azeglio to Croce, from Goretti to Gramsci. Yet, those lines by Arbasino on a country “without plans”, “without skills”, “without self-examination”, “without self-understanding” precisely and prophetically capture our contemporary context, featuring a certain populist, sloppy political presence that, “without knowledge”, goes against the interests and general values held by Italian citizens for the sake of its own narrow-minded, biased self-interests, fickle agreements, paltry powers.

Will Italy end up “without a future” just while Europe gets ready to revisit the guidelines of the Stability Pact, after committing to 200 billion EU funds to be wisely spent in reforming the country, and when we could play a prominent part in redefining the geopolitical balance in the Mediterranean area and in the world? It’s a serious risk.

The fracture affecting the majority in support of the Draghi government, caused by the Five Star Movement with Conte at its head, has dramatically warped the political situation, leading to the Prime Minister’s resignation. These are days laden with concern. The immediate future is more uncertain than ever.

The Quirinale, the key reference point for all Italian people who care about the future of the country, is working to maintain the stability of Italy and its institutions, as well as to perpetuate a sense of responsibility.

It’s precisely in such hard times that we must take heed of the pleas we hear from the whole economic world, the myriad of mayors from large and small cities, the Church, the rectors of major universities, the very many cultural and civic personalities, as well as from the EU Commission in Brussels, European governments and the US. To ensure the continuation of the Draghi government, the “GDP party” (with Confindustria at the forefront, flanked by all territorial and trade associations) is mobilising, and a militant newspaper like Il Foglio revives, on its front page, that “Whatever it takes” slogan with which Draghi, as president of the ECB, saved the Euro (and as such the EU and an Italy weighed down by public debt).

“Yet, it’s time for duty” was the Sunday headline of Avvenire, the newspaper published by CEI, the Italian Episcopal Conference and that “Yet” encapsulates all the intensity of a severe criticism for those who dabble in partisan opinions, personal grudges, envy, shrewd propaganda and narrow political views, while “duty” refers to the general good, for which, always with that great sense of responsibility, president Mattarella and prime minister Draghi always did, and continue to, care.

Indeed, Italy and the Italian people, despite the limitations and disappointments of a “country without”, patronage-driven inclinations and excuses such as “I have a family”, are nonetheless better than this common, negative image often painted by Italy and the people themselves. These people deserve a better narrative, considering the great spirit of solidarity and civic sense demonstrated in tackling the pandemic. Enterprises, since the great financial crisis of 2008, have been investing, innovating, exporting, creating employment and wealth, so much so that the GDP has been boasting an excellent growth (it’s now the strongest in Europe) even after those incredibly tough lockdown periods. “Social capital” is positive and even in terms of environmental and social sustainability, the economic world is showing greater commitment and enhanced effectiveness than in the rest of Europe (the Symbola report entitled “L’Italia in dieci selfie” (“Italy in ten selfies”), on the circular economy, the quality of products and production, the virtuous relationships between companies and territories, it’s proof of this). This was also authoritatively confirmed by president Mattarella: “Our economy is stronger when is backed by a robust solidarity network, a system of enterprises aware of their social function, a foundation of laws, widespread knowledge, civic passion.”

As well as Arbasino’s work, we should also reread and remember the words of Eugenio Scalfari, secular promoter of accurate information as the essential driver for quality politics: “Thank goodness, here’s a country that grows and, despite all, is stronger than the weight it carries on its shoulders”, read his editorial for the first issue of newspaper la Repubblica, on 14 January 1976 – words that endure.

A “Country with” we should say, then, heeding to Scalfari and turning Arbasino’s critical acumen into hope.

It’s precisely in such an Italy that we should trust, in a strategy focused on progress and development, rather than escapades; in a story that looks to the future;

in good governance – “Whatever it takes”.

(photo by Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

In 1980, Alberto Arbasino wrote “A country without”, published by Garzanti, in an attempt to come to terms with that difficult decade, the 1970s, marked by political violence (neo-fascist bombs, Red Brigades terrorism), social crisis, fractured democracy (the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro to disrupt the dialogue between the Christian Democratic and the Communist parties, aimed at a radical renewal of Italian politics), as well as cultural disarray. Ten years later, in 1990, Arbasino revised that same essay, after a futile period that had promised much but had delivered nothing (the beginning of wealthy modernisation), when new rifts appeared (the continuous decline of politics, the explosion of Italy’s public debt to the detriment of future generations), describing it in the same clear-headed, critical, grave tone.

“A country without”, then – “A country without memory/ A country without history/ A country without past/ A country without experience/ A country without greatness/ A country without dignity/ A country without reality/ A country without motivations/ A country without programmes/ A country without plans/ A country without a head/ A country without legs/ A country without skills/ A country without meaning/ A country without knowledge / A country without self-image/ A country without self-examination/ A country without self-understanding/ A country without a future?”

In our times, so difficult and controversial, it’s worth rereading Arbasino’s pages, rich in pungent irony and admirable civic passion, in order to mindfully ponder about memory and the need for believing in the future, as we’re pushed in a narrow corner by current politics: dark clouds loom on the Draghi government, just when Italy – this “country without” that we love, regardless – must face economic and social tensions, climate emergencies, thunders of war in the heart of Europe, as well as an energy transition rife with geopolitical implications and environmental complications.

Harsh civic denunciations on the limits and contradictions of Italian identity are an essential part of our literary history, from Dante to Machiavelli and Guicciardini, from Leopardi to Manzoni and Carducci, from D’Azeglio to Croce, from Goretti to Gramsci. Yet, those lines by Arbasino on a country “without plans”, “without skills”, “without self-examination”, “without self-understanding” precisely and prophetically capture our contemporary context, featuring a certain populist, sloppy political presence that, “without knowledge”, goes against the interests and general values held by Italian citizens for the sake of its own narrow-minded, biased self-interests, fickle agreements, paltry powers.

Will Italy end up “without a future” just while Europe gets ready to revisit the guidelines of the Stability Pact, after committing to 200 billion EU funds to be wisely spent in reforming the country, and when we could play a prominent part in redefining the geopolitical balance in the Mediterranean area and in the world? It’s a serious risk.

The fracture affecting the majority in support of the Draghi government, caused by the Five Star Movement with Conte at its head, has dramatically warped the political situation, leading to the Prime Minister’s resignation. These are days laden with concern. The immediate future is more uncertain than ever.

The Quirinale, the key reference point for all Italian people who care about the future of the country, is working to maintain the stability of Italy and its institutions, as well as to perpetuate a sense of responsibility.

It’s precisely in such hard times that we must take heed of the pleas we hear from the whole economic world, the myriad of mayors from large and small cities, the Church, the rectors of major universities, the very many cultural and civic personalities, as well as from the EU Commission in Brussels, European governments and the US. To ensure the continuation of the Draghi government, the “GDP party” (with Confindustria at the forefront, flanked by all territorial and trade associations) is mobilising, and a militant newspaper like Il Foglio revives, on its front page, that “Whatever it takes” slogan with which Draghi, as president of the ECB, saved the Euro (and as such the EU and an Italy weighed down by public debt).

“Yet, it’s time for duty” was the Sunday headline of Avvenire, the newspaper published by CEI, the Italian Episcopal Conference and that “Yet” encapsulates all the intensity of a severe criticism for those who dabble in partisan opinions, personal grudges, envy, shrewd propaganda and narrow political views, while “duty” refers to the general good, for which, always with that great sense of responsibility, president Mattarella and prime minister Draghi always did, and continue to, care.

Indeed, Italy and the Italian people, despite the limitations and disappointments of a “country without”, patronage-driven inclinations and excuses such as “I have a family”, are nonetheless better than this common, negative image often painted by Italy and the people themselves. These people deserve a better narrative, considering the great spirit of solidarity and civic sense demonstrated in tackling the pandemic. Enterprises, since the great financial crisis of 2008, have been investing, innovating, exporting, creating employment and wealth, so much so that the GDP has been boasting an excellent growth (it’s now the strongest in Europe) even after those incredibly tough lockdown periods. “Social capital” is positive and even in terms of environmental and social sustainability, the economic world is showing greater commitment and enhanced effectiveness than in the rest of Europe (the Symbola report entitled “L’Italia in dieci selfie” (“Italy in ten selfies”), on the circular economy, the quality of products and production, the virtuous relationships between companies and territories, it’s proof of this). This was also authoritatively confirmed by president Mattarella: “Our economy is stronger when is backed by a robust solidarity network, a system of enterprises aware of their social function, a foundation of laws, widespread knowledge, civic passion.”

As well as Arbasino’s work, we should also reread and remember the words of Eugenio Scalfari, secular promoter of accurate information as the essential driver for quality politics: “Thank goodness, here’s a country that grows and, despite all, is stronger than the weight it carries on its shoulders”, read his editorial for the first issue of newspaper la Repubblica, on 14 January 1976 – words that endure.

A “Country with” we should say, then, heeding to Scalfari and turning Arbasino’s critical acumen into hope.

It’s precisely in such an Italy that we should trust, in a strategy focused on progress and development, rather than escapades; in a story that looks to the future;

in good governance – “Whatever it takes”.

(photo by Massimo Di Vita/Archivio Massimo Di Vita/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images)

Pirelli and Argentina: A Global Company on Show

Unforgettable Knowledge: The Legacy of Italian Companies and Entrepreneurs in Argentina is the title of an exhibition that opened on 24 June at the Italian Cultural Institute in Buenos Aires. Curated by Francesca Fauri and Donatella Strangio, the exhibition tells the story of Italian emigration to Argentina, particularly through the experience of some of the great names of Italian industrial excellence that arrived in the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. One of these was Pirelli, which was founded in Milan in 1872 and soon acquired an international calling, taking its first steps in Argentina in 1898 with the appointment of a local sales agent, Alvaro Company. In 1910, after taking part in the Centennial International Exposition in Buenos Aires, Pirelli opened its first commercial branch in Calle Esmeralda 940 in the capital. In 1917 the Buenos Aires branch was transformed into a manufacturing company, Pirelli SA Platense, based in Calle Santa Fe. The company chairman was Giuseppe Pediali, an Italian engineer who had moved to Buenos Aires in the early twentieth century. A factory for the production of electrical cables was opened in 1919 on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in Calle Donato Alvarez and in 1921, with the take-over of a factory already operating in Calle Costa Rica, production expanded to include a number of rubber products. 1930 saw the opening of the La Rosa factory, which was considerably expanded over time, in the porteño district of Mataderos. A new company, Industrias Pirelli SAIC started manufacturing tyres in 1948, and it was followed in 1950 by the Compañia Platense de Neumaticos (COPLAN), which emerged from a partnership with the US Rubber Company, which moved its production to the Merlo plant. The company and the factory were later taken over entirely by Pirelli and are still operating today. In 2021, Pirelli celebrated 111 years of operations in Argentina with the opening of a motorcycle tyre production division and significant investments in the Merlo plant.

The exhibition includes reproductions of photographs from our Historical Archive, showing the Pirelli offices and factories in Argentina from the 1920s to the 1950s, as well as some covers of the house organ for the staff in Argentina, Paginas Pirelli, which can also be seen on our website.

Unforgettable Knowledge: The Legacy of Italian Companies and Entrepreneurs in Argentina is the title of an exhibition that opened on 24 June at the Italian Cultural Institute in Buenos Aires. Curated by Francesca Fauri and Donatella Strangio, the exhibition tells the story of Italian emigration to Argentina, particularly through the experience of some of the great names of Italian industrial excellence that arrived in the country in the second half of the nineteenth century. One of these was Pirelli, which was founded in Milan in 1872 and soon acquired an international calling, taking its first steps in Argentina in 1898 with the appointment of a local sales agent, Alvaro Company. In 1910, after taking part in the Centennial International Exposition in Buenos Aires, Pirelli opened its first commercial branch in Calle Esmeralda 940 in the capital. In 1917 the Buenos Aires branch was transformed into a manufacturing company, Pirelli SA Platense, based in Calle Santa Fe. The company chairman was Giuseppe Pediali, an Italian engineer who had moved to Buenos Aires in the early twentieth century. A factory for the production of electrical cables was opened in 1919 on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in Calle Donato Alvarez and in 1921, with the take-over of a factory already operating in Calle Costa Rica, production expanded to include a number of rubber products. 1930 saw the opening of the La Rosa factory, which was considerably expanded over time, in the porteño district of Mataderos. A new company, Industrias Pirelli SAIC started manufacturing tyres in 1948, and it was followed in 1950 by the Compañia Platense de Neumaticos (COPLAN), which emerged from a partnership with the US Rubber Company, which moved its production to the Merlo plant. The company and the factory were later taken over entirely by Pirelli and are still operating today. In 2021, Pirelli celebrated 111 years of operations in Argentina with the opening of a motorcycle tyre production division and significant investments in the Merlo plant.

The exhibition includes reproductions of photographs from our Historical Archive, showing the Pirelli offices and factories in Argentina from the 1920s to the 1950s, as well as some covers of the house organ for the staff in Argentina, Paginas Pirelli, which can also be seen on our website.

Multimedia

Images

The Noorda Language:
Style and Creativity in Pirelli

“When I first arrived in Italy, industrialists were still entrusting their advertising to illustrators and painters. We were some of the first to introduce modern graphics and a coordinated corporate image, which is a mixture of company interior architecture, design, and advertising”, was how the Dutchman Bob Noorda, born in 1927, recalled his arrival in Milan in the early 1950s.

His rationalist-style training (his professors came from the Bauhaus school), and his experiments to find orderly, structured solutions, were just some of the reasons why Noorda was able to establish himself so quickly. The entrepreneurial spirit of Milan in the 1950s proved to be fertile ground for graphic artists and designers. They were able to create advertisements with a robust design approach, making the communication easy to read, and they could impose the graphic element as a recognisable sign, eliminating anything superfluous: clean lines, in perfect harmony with the context, fully express the concept of “coordinated design” that was so dear to the community of graphic artists at the time.

Pirelli commissioned a huge number of works from Noorda and appointed him as its art director in 1961: it was he who created the poster for the Cinturato in 1959, with the wheel turning towards the right, and he who made the advertising campaigns with the N+R tyre and with the Rolle.

Noorda managed to open up space and use colour as well. His lines became more flexible and his powerful blacks gradually gave way to nuances of grey. This led to what was termed “soft” advertisements, which created a feeling of lightness, as can be seen in the advertisement for the “ball for champions“. In other cases, such as the advertisement for belts for threshing machines, the graphic element is multiplied, creating space-time dilations and giving the image a great sense of movement.

“When I first arrived in Italy, industrialists were still entrusting their advertising to illustrators and painters. We were some of the first to introduce modern graphics and a coordinated corporate image, which is a mixture of company interior architecture, design, and advertising”, was how the Dutchman Bob Noorda, born in 1927, recalled his arrival in Milan in the early 1950s.

His rationalist-style training (his professors came from the Bauhaus school), and his experiments to find orderly, structured solutions, were just some of the reasons why Noorda was able to establish himself so quickly. The entrepreneurial spirit of Milan in the 1950s proved to be fertile ground for graphic artists and designers. They were able to create advertisements with a robust design approach, making the communication easy to read, and they could impose the graphic element as a recognisable sign, eliminating anything superfluous: clean lines, in perfect harmony with the context, fully express the concept of “coordinated design” that was so dear to the community of graphic artists at the time.

Pirelli commissioned a huge number of works from Noorda and appointed him as its art director in 1961: it was he who created the poster for the Cinturato in 1959, with the wheel turning towards the right, and he who made the advertising campaigns with the N+R tyre and with the Rolle.

Noorda managed to open up space and use colour as well. His lines became more flexible and his powerful blacks gradually gave way to nuances of grey. This led to what was termed “soft” advertisements, which created a feeling of lightness, as can be seen in the advertisement for the “ball for champions“. In other cases, such as the advertisement for belts for threshing machines, the graphic element is multiplied, creating space-time dilations and giving the image a great sense of movement.

Multimedia

Images

Corporate colours

Two books dedicated to the relationship Olivetti had with art narrate the spirit of a unique enterprise

The factory seen as a production site for culture and beauty, too, without concealing the hardship inherent in work and manufacturing, but actually juxtaposing it to the search for its more compelling and meaningful aspects.  Olivetti certainly is one of the most prominent and significant examples of such a production culture, which recreates itself every day, learns from the past and plans for the future. As such, learning as much as we can from Olivetti’s experience – through objects, images, texts, and the impressions gathered by Adriano Olivetti’s work, life and company – it’s a very useful undertaking.

This is also why reading the series of books dedicated to Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture), is both interesting and significant. So much so that the town council of Ivrea has decided to ‘translate’ them into a number of exhibitions and publications (a lengthy, complex effort made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Olivetti Historical Archive Association, Olivetti/TIM and the Garda di Ivrea Municipal Museum).

They all revolve around the artworks collected by Olivetti, now made available to the general public. A wealth of cultural heritage that includes artworks, documents, footage and photographs commissioned by the Olivetti society, and which asserts the value of culture as a factor in society’s growth – from factory to territory.

The recently published second volume (out of six), concerns the collaboration between Olivetti and Belgian artist Folon, selected as the emblematic example of the kind of relationship the company builds with contemporary artists. In 1969, Folon illustrated the first desk diary for Olivetti, as well as two gift books in the 1970s and then a calendar. He worked a long time for the company, focused on its graphics and design, and created the graphic artwork for its posters, gifts, gadgets, and advertising campaigns. An important alliance between enterprise and artist, which in this book (and at the exhibition in Ivrea) finds its perfect expression through colours, concepts, innovative graphics and challenging images.

This volume, focused on the relationship between Olivetti and Folon follows another one – part of the same initiative – that showcases the Olivetti Collection’s artworks, a collection that attempted to concretise and actualise the notion of beauty, a notion that should always exist in factories and offices.

Adriano Olivetti, the volumes’ preambles explain, thought that knowledge, beauty – or “grace”, in one word – should always accompany the days and hours of all the human beings that surrounded him, of all those people he met in the factories and around the world. Olivetti, in other words, believed he had to give back as “grace” what he was given by fate, and to those who asked him what the opposite of sin was, he replied, without hesitation, that it was not “virtue” but “grace”. He thought that generating beauty was a duty.

Indeed, the two books  in this series dedicated to Olivetti and responsible corporate culture impeccably narrate this human and entrepreneurial adventure.

Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile. La Collezione Olivetti (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture. The Olivetti Collection)

Stefano Sertoli , Costanza Casali (curated by)
Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (testi) Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (texts)

Allemandi, 2021

Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile. Olivetti e l’arte: Jean-Michel Folon (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture. Olivetti and art: Jean-Michel Folon)

Stefano Sertoli , Costanza Casali (curated by)
Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (testi) Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (texts)

Allemandi, 2022

Two books dedicated to the relationship Olivetti had with art narrate the spirit of a unique enterprise

The factory seen as a production site for culture and beauty, too, without concealing the hardship inherent in work and manufacturing, but actually juxtaposing it to the search for its more compelling and meaningful aspects.  Olivetti certainly is one of the most prominent and significant examples of such a production culture, which recreates itself every day, learns from the past and plans for the future. As such, learning as much as we can from Olivetti’s experience – through objects, images, texts, and the impressions gathered by Adriano Olivetti’s work, life and company – it’s a very useful undertaking.

This is also why reading the series of books dedicated to Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture), is both interesting and significant. So much so that the town council of Ivrea has decided to ‘translate’ them into a number of exhibitions and publications (a lengthy, complex effort made possible thanks to the collaboration with the Olivetti Historical Archive Association, Olivetti/TIM and the Garda di Ivrea Municipal Museum).

They all revolve around the artworks collected by Olivetti, now made available to the general public. A wealth of cultural heritage that includes artworks, documents, footage and photographs commissioned by the Olivetti society, and which asserts the value of culture as a factor in society’s growth – from factory to territory.

The recently published second volume (out of six), concerns the collaboration between Olivetti and Belgian artist Folon, selected as the emblematic example of the kind of relationship the company builds with contemporary artists. In 1969, Folon illustrated the first desk diary for Olivetti, as well as two gift books in the 1970s and then a calendar. He worked a long time for the company, focused on its graphics and design, and created the graphic artwork for its posters, gifts, gadgets, and advertising campaigns. An important alliance between enterprise and artist, which in this book (and at the exhibition in Ivrea) finds its perfect expression through colours, concepts, innovative graphics and challenging images.

This volume, focused on the relationship between Olivetti and Folon follows another one – part of the same initiative – that showcases the Olivetti Collection’s artworks, a collection that attempted to concretise and actualise the notion of beauty, a notion that should always exist in factories and offices.

Adriano Olivetti, the volumes’ preambles explain, thought that knowledge, beauty – or “grace”, in one word – should always accompany the days and hours of all the human beings that surrounded him, of all those people he met in the factories and around the world. Olivetti, in other words, believed he had to give back as “grace” what he was given by fate, and to those who asked him what the opposite of sin was, he replied, without hesitation, that it was not “virtue” but “grace”. He thought that generating beauty was a duty.

Indeed, the two books  in this series dedicated to Olivetti and responsible corporate culture impeccably narrate this human and entrepreneurial adventure.

Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile. La Collezione Olivetti (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture. The Olivetti Collection)

Stefano Sertoli , Costanza Casali (curated by)
Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (testi) Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (texts)

Allemandi, 2021

Olivetti e la cultura dell’impresa responsabile. Olivetti e l’arte: Jean-Michel Folon (Olivetti and responsible corporate culture. Olivetti and art: Jean-Michel Folon)

Stefano Sertoli , Costanza Casali (curated by)
Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (testi) Paola Mantovani, Marcella Turchetti (texts)

Allemandi, 2022

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