“The Economy of Beauty” is worth 24% of GDP. It determines companies’ competitiveness in international markets and therefore has a profound impact on Italy’s weight and prestige in the world. It is also a key driver for building a better economic and social future. This figure comes from a recent study by Banca Ifis, which studied the issue for a second year in the 2020-2022 period, during the pandemic crisis and recovery. The bank tried to calculate the value of companies that make “beauty” (quality, design, an optimal relationship between form and function, virtuous relations with stakeholders, the synthesis between the two dimensions of the Greek kalos kagathos) an integral part of their identity, a characteristic of the purpose economy (that of companies which have a social purpose, or a social impact in terms of sustainability), indeed a competitive advantage.

The Banca Ifis study was verified using Museimpresa, Federculture and Altagamma assessments, and included six in-depth company case studies (Lavazza, Foscarini, Trend Group, Mevive, Serveco, and ACBC). It was presented to the public in mid-June, at Villa Fürstenberg, the bank’s headquarters in Mestre. The report shows that 58% of Italians think a company’s values are a decisive factor when choosing products and services. It looks at different industrial sectors (from the traditional Made in Italy clothing, furnishings and agri-food sectors to mechatronics, chemistry, pharmaceuticals and other quality high-tech sectors). It also shows that the impact of the “economy of beauty” and the purpose-driven ecosystem (large, medium and small enterprises, districts and production chains) on GDP has increased from 17.2% in 2019 to 24% today.

Quality development, positive social capital, values, and having a story to tell. When companies have a story to tell, it creates a space for the values that make the economy and society grow: enterprise, innovation, care for people, widespread well-being, inclusion, and a focus on sustainability. A culture that links solidarity, heritage and change.

We can find confirmation of this in our history, according to Carlo Maria Cipolla, one of the greatest historians of the 20th century: “Since the Middle Ages, Italians have been accustomed to producing beautiful things that the world likes in the shadow of bell towers”. An age-old manufacturing culture that is linked to the territory, where a sense of beauty stimulates the production system and creates an aptitude for quality, which can conquer the most demanding international markets. It has also achieved repeated success in global niches with the highest added value, from fashion to design, from mechatronics to automotive, from nautical to chemistry and other sectors of Made in Italy excellence.

The strength of businesses lies in a “polytechnic culture” where humanistic and scientific knowledge are combined, in tune with the drive for innovation. Our “industrial humanism” is a formidable condition for competitiveness. History is turning to the future. New generations of businessmen and women are growing with an impressive range of original products and services. Corporate heritage is not only an awareness of the traditions that distinguish a family business but is, above all, an effective tool when it comes to identity and competitiveness.

There is a great capacity for productivity in the regions with widespread enterprise, industrial districts, business networks and supply chains. Renzo Piano, an exponent of “social tailoring”, explains it further: “I spent my life building public spaces: schools, libraries, museums, theatres… And then streets, squares, bridges. Places where people share the same values and feelings, learn about tolerance. Urban spaces that celebrate the ritual of meeting with others, where the city is understood as civilisation. Places for a better world that can light up the eyes of those who pass through them”.

The economy of beauty goes beyond what is commonly associated with the fashion and furniture worlds, it can also be found in the design and efficiency of mechanical hinges, machine tools, the moving arm and rotating head of a robot, digital lathes, the tread of a tyre, the complete DNA map published in Science (Italian scientists from the Biology Department at the University of Bari contributed to this), the dovetail joint in a bookcase, the special tempered glass in the window frames of a large boat, and the shape of a wooden speedboat’s bow, the chemical formula of a special substance or a life-saving drug. Let’s consider a chemical formula,

to understand this better, pick up Primo Levi‘s “The Periodic Table” (published by Einaudi: by the way, the economy of beauty can also be found in the elegant fonts and graphics on the cover of a book), flick through its pages and read: “Mendeleev’s periodic table, which we industriously learned to unravel, was a poem, the highest and most solemn of all the poems we studied in high school”. Levi was a chemist, and, at the same time, an extraordinary poet, a major literary figure of the 20^th century.

Beauty, quality, the balance of form and function. In other words, design. These elements characterise productivity and, therefore, the competitiveness of Italian companies, so we are able to talk about economic resilience and the possibility of recovery even in these difficult times, fraught with danger and marred by uncertainty. In fact, to avoid giving in to fear and the risk of economic and social degradation, and to equip ourselves to cope with inflationary peaks and shortage economy fractures (the shortage of raw materials and semi-processed goods, starting with microchips), we need to insist on the need for European public policies and, at the same time, rely on our all-Italian ability to do, to do well and, consequently, to do good. Our manufacturing and related service sectors are active, credible, future-oriented examples of this.

The challenging events we are currently experiencing (the consequences of climate change, the Covid 19 pandemic, recession, the war in Ukraine and the crisis of traditional power and trade mechanisms) require an urgent paradigm shift in political relations, as well as economic and social development.

We need a critical review of the catalogue of ideas that have driven the recent stages of globalisation and the digital economy, together with the drafting of new knowledge, production and consumption models. In this way, we can reassess political, economic and cultural choices about “progress” and geographical, social, gender and generation balances. Environmental and social sustainability, accompanied by strong reformist convictions, is key: we’re not talking about implementing greenwashing or welfare adjustments, but about forging a new political and economic path following the criteria inherent to a civil, circular and “just economy” (to reiterate the message from Pope Francis, a message also widespread within the most prominent international economics literature and major financial and business circles).

Italian companies possess some fundamental qualities at their core: the innovative power integral to a dynamic social capital and the depth of a culture moulded by industrial humanism, an ideology that has defined Italy’s economic history.

It was July 1907 and just one month since the start of the Peking-Paris race, the most extraordinary motor race of the early twentieth century, in which Pirelli provided the tyres for Prince Scipione Borghese’s Itala, when the company signed another agreement for the supply of tyres. This time it was for bicycles made by Officine Türkheimer per Automobili e Velocipedi (OTAV) in Milan. The agreement provided for the use of Pirelli tyres for the fifth edition of the most famous cycling race in France: the Tour de France, or “Grande Boucle”, better known in Italy as the “Giro di Francia”. The Gazzetta dello Sport announced that there would be 14 stages, covering more than 4,488 km across France. They would start in Paris and go through the most important cities in the land, including Roubaix, Lyon, Nice, Toulouse, Nantes and then back to the Ville Lumière. The bicycles that were fitted with Pirelli tyres were those of Luigi Ganna, Eberardo Pavesi and Carlo Galetti, who in later years became known as “The Three Musketeers”. Eberardo Pavesi was the only one of the three Italians to complete the Tour de France, ending the race in Paris in sixth overall position, and first among the isolés – cyclists registered as individual racers who were not part of a team. 93 cyclists took part in the Tour de France in 1907 but only 33 reached Paris. After its triumph in the Peking-Paris Motor Race that year, participation in the Tour de France helped promote the commercial expansion of the Pirelli Group on the French market and a couple of years later, in 1909, in response to the Tour, the first Giro d’Italia was held, organised by the Gazzetta dello Sport.

A few years later, in 1950, Gianni Brera wrote a comment in Pirelli magazine on the importance of bicycle racing: “It is a proven fact that champions are the most effective ambassadors of a country and its products. And ours are almost unchallenged in their domination of international cycling events.” And indeed, though the Italian cycling champions did not dominate the Tour in 1907, the Italians Gino Bartali and Fausto Coppi repeatedly triumphed at the Tour de France from the late 1930s to the mid-1950s. Cycling fans went wild about the sport, especially after the Second World War, when the champions began to be hailed as real heroes, becoming examples of redemption at a time when the whole country was being reborn. Pirelli tyres made an even greater mark in this climate of euphoria, taking the racing world by storm, and the “Long P” logo became the banner of champions, teams and companies that have made the history and written the legend of cycling.

A contribution by the CEO of the Bank of Italy provides useful elements to further understand what is happening and how to act

Aiming for development, even when everything might point to the contrary, and doing so with foresight and determination. This is the task of every entrepreneur and, on closer examination, it is at the heart of every good corporate culture whose goals include a balanced growth. Of course, discipline and earnestness are paramount, as Luigi Federico Signorini, CEO of the Bank of Italy, argues in his speech entitled Scelte per lo sviluppo sostenibile, tra emergenza e transizione (Choices for sustainable development, between emergency and transition), delivered in Venice on 11 June 2022, at the Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation conference.

Asked to comment on the situation of these “last 100 days” and on the choices that should be made, Signorini provides an analysis on how to face challenges that will prove useful to us all as, in his words, “a reaction is possible, as long as we are forward-looking in setting goals and wise in choosing means.” This is the beginning of Signorini’s argument, which first outlines “the emergency economy” that we are currently experiencing and then explores the theme of energy supplies, examining not only what Italy is doing now but, above all, what needs to be done for the future. Thus, he identifies four goals: “Free ourselves from excessive dependence from energy supplies; mitigate the economic consequences of increasing prices on families and companies, especially the most vulnerable ones; avert inflation; all while keeping well in sight, as far as possible, climate change issues.” And he proceeds to provide a careful – and, above all, clear and comprehensible – analysis for each point.

Hence, the conclusion he reaches concerning not just on climate change, environmental and energy choices, but also civil society and market, is a very important one. Signorini asserts that, “The market is a means, not an end. It does not possess “a ‘nature’s vision’; it should not be treated as a concrete reality and it should certainly not be ‘idolised’. The market is us, consumers, entrepreneurs; its values are our values. It is governed by laws which not easily help us understand whether we really want a common good; yet, at the same time, it represents a system, the least perfect one we have conceived until now, to allocate resources according to individual preference, as well as to the rules and incentives established by the ‘welfare state 4.0’. It dynamically responds to the price system. It should be exploited.” And further, “Wise and forward-looking policies meant to tackle the new challenge of this century should see the market as a powerful ally to be enlisted, not an enemy to be defeated.”

Luigi Federico Signorini’s contribution makes for yet another – unmissable – chance to increase, enhance and improve one’s knowledge about the current situation, a useful tool to better understand what is happening.

Scelte per lo sviluppo sostenibile, tra emergenza e transizione (Choices for sustainable development, between emergency and transition)

Luigi Federico Signorini

Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation, Venice, 11 June 2022

A recently published book lays out and explains soft skills

Self-development at work, beginning with one’s individual skills – which, however, need to well understood and properly harnessed, in the awareness that everyone has particular soft skills that allow them to achieve unlooked-for results. With a team of collaborators, Gian Carlo Cocco – who has over ten years’ experience in the corporate world – explores these concepts, outlining features and uses of a capital that everyone possesses: 23 soft skill strategiche. Per valorizzare il capitale professionale (23 strategic soft skills. Enhancing professional capital) is the result of his work.

The book – of about 200 pages – starts by clarifying the basic concepts, such as the idea that human capital (also termed professional capital) comprises both acquired knowledge and, above all, personal attributes that should be exploited. Cocco then discusses soft skills in more detail, that is, the mental resources and practical attitudes that we can apply to different activities (negotiation, decision-making, conflict management, etc.) and that lead us to obtain the results we want. Soft skills can be empirically verified by observing simulated activities online and in person, which recreate real situations.
As such, the book identifies – as per its title – 23 soft skills: each comes with its own definition, a description on how to put it into practice, how to discern it in others, and how to develop it. Thus, we go from analytical to organisational, from communication to training, from negotiation and stress-management skills to those related to decision-making, long-term vision, flexibility, openness to innovation and much more.

This books seeks to be an important tool for workers, who would then able to become aware of, and enhance, not only their own individual value but also that of colleagues, collaborators and people who operate with each other in synergy. A tool also useful to young people, to help them identify and develop a capital they yet have to fully express, and to facilitate their entry into the work sphere.

On top of all this, these 23 soft skills also illustrate a multifaceted corporate culture, always in transformation, aware and widespread, the knowledge of which can only benefit those, whether entrepreneurs or managers, whose role is to oversee a production organisation.

23 soft skill strategiche. Per valorizzare il capitale professionale (23 strategic soft skills. Enhancing professional capital)

Gian Carlo Cocco

Francio Angeli, 2022

People live on words. Words have a soul, and wings. Words announce, call to mind, define the world, create. They’re not such stuff as dreams are made of, yet have such a weight on history and on the destiny of people that they can move things forwards and, perhaps, even change what was previously said – they change those who write them, for sure. We’re made of words and, indeed, it’s precisely during the worst times of crisis, when feelings and emotions plunge us into confusion – as it’s happening, yet again, in these restless and sorrowful times – that we should re-read them, trying to understand where we’re coming from and then, with increased awareness, resume our journey towards the end of the night. And narrate this journey. Words, indeed, are our wings…

A journey connects places and people, weaves relationships. A story helps us experience them, confides them to memory and as such to the future. Weaving creates fabrics, or textiles, a word that shares its semantic roots with ‘text’. And Pope Francis proficiently illustrates the value of this word, when, in his message for the World Day of Social Communications, in January 2020, he talked about the “weaving of the world”, writing that “the world itself is a fabric and the stories told by people are the threads of this fabric, put under severe strain.”

Over time, that message has provoked various reactions, comments, in-depth contributions by learned women and men. The Osservatore Romano, the Vatican City State’s newspaper, gathered them, printed them and now collected them in a thick, valuable volume curated by Andrea Monda, director of the newspaper, and edited by Libreria Editrice Vaticana and Salani, with the title La tessitura del mondo (The weaving of the world), a “Multi-voiced dialogue with great cultural figures on narration as a way of salvation”. Among others, contributors include Roberto Andò, Eraldo Affinati, Piero Boitani, Mario Botta, Giancarlo De Cataldo, Francesco De Gregori, Nicola Lagioia, David Mamet, Colum McCann, Daniel Mendelsohn, Edna O’Brien, Renzo Piano, Annie Proux, Marilynne Robinson, Donna Tartt, Mariapia Veladiano, Sandro and Alessandro Zaccuri. Women and men shaped by different cultures, as well as different intellectual and religious experiences, yet all in agreement on the need to emphasise debate, dialogue, a dialectic of ideas and emotions that can “weave” a new, sturdier fabric of human relationships – a textual fabric, a narration.

We live in an era that’s heavy with risk and uncertainties, where words end up decaying amongst the chattering that constantly crowds social media, mostly driven by an ideological extremism exposing an impoverished public debate obsessed with ‘political correctness’ and ‘cancel culture’, by the growing supremacy of fake news and biased, derogatory opinionists, in a veritable “Endless Babel of the web” (Maurizio Ferraris, La Stampa, 23 May).

An admonition by TS Eliot comes to mind, “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” Nowadays, we could also add: where is information, in this background noise caused by an incessant flow of news providing neither a sense of priority nor context or some guidance on how they should be read and interpreted. “Media jam”, say the critics – not sweetened or flavoured by understanding.

The world, in its compelling and unsettling complexity, is crushed between a like and an unassailable game of abuse or praise, between a tweet and a sketchy story on Instagram. Critical judgement and grounds for understanding and responding are on the decline. Civil coexistence and the quality of a community’s social capital, the trust on which formative processes and trade – and, ultimately, the substance itself of liberal democracy – are built, are suffering serious harm.

We need to recover “the ethical rigour of words to fight this chattering merry-go-round” (as suggested by Massimo Recalcati, quoting Italian president Sergio Mattarella, la Repubblica, 31 January); to see literature and its many different stories as “a bridge” that can connect different worlds and sensibilities, values and interests; to promote the ability to “write about things”, which is not the same as to “write about words” (as Luigi Pirandello used to say, when arguing against Gabriele D’Annunzio’s rhetorical inclinations). And we need to insist on the good quality of writing, on a full and pertinent use of words themselves (instilled from the very beginning of compulsory education).

And on this path, we also need to return to the “weaving of the world” suggested by Pope Francis, in order to make some space for spiritual values and a “fairer” and more “sustainable” economic and social reconstruction.

As part of his message about Social communications that inspired this blog post, Pope Francis wrote that “We are not just the only beings who need clothing to cover our vulnerability; we are also the only ones who need to be ‘clothed’ with stories to protect our lives.” In essence, human beings “are storytellers because we are engaged in a process of constant growth, discovering ourselves and becoming enriched in the tapestry of the days of our life. Yet since the very beginning, our story has been threatened: evil snakes its way through history.”

The “Sacred Scripture,” reminds us Pope Francis, is a “story of stories,” with a God “who is both creator and narrator” but also the main character of a “narrative” through which we can learn to know him. In order to narrate, we need to remind, as “to ‘re-mind’ means to bring to mind, to ‘write’ on the heart”. And this is the key function of literature, as the works quoted by Pope Francis – such as Saint Augustine’s Confessions, but also Alessandro Manzoni’s The betrothed and Fyodor Dostoevsky’s The brothers Karamazov – illustrate. Penetrating the inner side of human beings, in all its aspects, including the most controversial ones, looking for some kind of “redemption” through narration, requires intense efforts.

Indeed, “it is not a matter of simply telling stories as such, or of advertising ourselves, but rather of remembering who and what we are in God’s eyes, bearing witness to what the Spirit writes in our hearts and revealing to everyone that her or his story contains marvellous things.”

Pope Francis’s words gave rise to a long debate on the pages of The Osservatore Romano. And provided valuable advice: we need to build a profound narrative of the people, fight against what Andò terms “the dictatorship of the obvious”, take “moral responsibility when we communicate, acting as a counterpoint to social networks” (Alessandro Zaccuri), ensure that “evil is not perpetrated without a witness” and that “literature becomes illumination and embraces the whole world” (Edna O’Brien), “approaching mystery through myth” (David Mamet), “feeling compassion and understanding for the characters” (Annie Proux), seeking “a new and more conscious connection with oneself, to defeat the neurosis of contemporary individuals” (Daniele Mencarelli) and “build, adding some poetry” (Renzo Piano). In essence, we should live lives “interwoven and embroidered with words” (Marcelo Figueroa), knowing full well that “a true story is a good story” (Daniel Mendelsohn).

Donna Tartt provides an ideal summary, noting that the stories we tell, re-tell and pass on to one another are “tents under which to gather, banners to follow in battle, indestructible ropes to connect the living and the dead” and the intertwining of these vast plots across centuries and cultures “binds us strongly to one another and to history, guiding us across generations.” Once more, the bond between memory and future is reaffirmed, building new roots and drafting new maps in order to retrace perspectives and values for a better future.

All these different voices deserve acknowledgement, which is what Pope Francis did in his afterword, highlighting the unbreakable relationships between “telling” and “listening”, the significant weight of “silence” against the daily media racket and, above all, the “compassion”, not only within ourselves but also in the “public, social sphere” to ensure that “storytelling is not revealed as a force of memory, and thus, a guardian of the past, but also, precisely for this reason, a leaven of transformation for the future” – the future of memory, in fact.

(Photo by Franco Origlia/Getty Images)

This week we bid farewell to our students from across all Italy and we look forward to seeing them in September. The school year programme for 2021-2022, during which Pirelli celebrated its 150th anniversary, has now come to an end. Again, it was “all-digital”, in order to maintain our strong bond with the classes. And it made it possible for over 3,500 students to take part in the courses put on by Pirelli Foundation Educational, during which they learnt about the fundamental aspects of Pirelli’s corporate culture: from its “green” production of tyres to its focus on the quality of its workplaces, to sustainable mobility and its top innovations in the field of technology.

One of the courses in greatest demand, Under the Pirelli banner, which examined the evolution of the company’s advertising graphics, encouraged the students to try out their own creativity by making posters and “Save the date” cards to promote an exhibition on the history of Pirelli.

In the Planning and designing the workplace course, other classes virtually entered the workplaces at Pirelli, from those in Milan to the factory among the cherry trees in Settimo Torinese, and they tried to imagine and design what might be the ideal workplace for themselves in the future.

The students also tried creating podcasts in the On the road to innovation course, which looked at the innovations introduced by Pirelli in the design and manufacture of tyres.

Another course, Milan from the car window, was appreciated by younger primary school students for it took them on a virtual educational tour through the streets of the city with a special map and a guide.

Once again this year, about 200 teachers attended the online Cinema & History training and refresher course entitled Italy and its periods of decline and rebirth: an economic history, created in collaboration with the Fondazione Isec.

In-person guided tours for classes on school trips and groups of university students from all over Italy started up again in April.

The month of May brought a new venture, with support for the 20th National Chemistry Competition, hosted this year by the Istituto Molinari in Milan. This partnership meant that the teachers accompanying the students could visit the chemistry laboratories in the Pirelli research and development area in the Bicocca district of Milan.

The staff at the teaching department of Pirelli Foundation Educational are currently working on projects for the next school year, so stay in touch with us through our newsletter and through the Foundation’s social media channels to see when the new educational programme for 2022-2023 is published. See you soon!

Seven stories by seven women who succeeded in becoming key company assets

Not “women-driven”, but all-round enterprises – basically, just enterprises. As they should always be, at least when a company really is an enterprise, that is, something that’s alive, grows and evolves. Thus, enterprises where the contribution of women is significant and representative, rather than a simple “extra” or a concession made by a dominant male majority. A key element of the enterprise itself, which is then enhanced and strengthened by different ways of conceiving production organisation, by the integration of diverse perspectives that, ultimately, will merge into a single one.

The theme of women’s and men’s roles at work is a sensitive one, and Adriano Moraglio – life-long economic journalist for Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore – treats it with the due attention and perception in his L’impronta delle donne. Sette racconti: quando in azienda il contributo femminile diventa fondamentale (The impact of women. Seven stories: when women’s contribution becomes key in a company), which, as the title suggests, includes seven stories about women who succeeded in achieving significant roles in successful companies. Just to be clear, these are not women tycoons or women who have inherited large fortunes. These are people who, due to social conventions or particular circumstances, did not have the chance to act on their dreams at a young age and yet, thanks to their special ability to adapt to circumstances, have undertaken unexpected paths that led them to accomplish their career ambitions. Thus, women who, on the one hand, managed to climb up the ladder while, on the other hand, also fulfilled their maternal desire, without losing their individual attitude to life and work. Above all, women who succeeded in becoming who they are thanks to the equal relationship they established with their partners, which enables them to pursue their goals out of mutual respect, rather than having to fight for them.

In about 150 pages, the book narrates the stories of women managers working in enterprises that make pens or household accessories, in the food industry and in the field of robotics. Different stories that, nonetheless, share some common features – having to abandon certain dreams yet discovering new ones, the path to adulthood, a sense of duty, the struggle in reconciling life’s different aspects, as well as life’s defeats, victories, disappointments, joys and sorrows. Thus, this work outlines a corporate culture seen from a different, yet wholly comprehensive, perspective. Its main message is perfectly summarised in its Introduction by Marianna Carlini: we must be aware of how valuable diversity is – diversity understood not as “an issue related to the gender debate”, but as a feature that “when it transcends gender, becomes a universal value.”

L’impronta delle donne. Sette racconti: quando in azienda il contributo femminile diventa fondamentale (The impact of women. Seven stories: when women’s contribution becomes key in a company)

Adriano Moraglio

Rubbettino, 2022

A recently published research study analyses the different ways in which smart working can be implemented

Reconciling life and work, family and salary. Hours that used to be spent in offices and factories and that are now spent in different places – hours that are diversified, dematerialised, take different shapes, involve different tasks. All due to a general change in attitude, but also because of recent events, starting from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has radically changed the way work is organised in several companies. A basic fact, however, remains: work-life balance is developed to suit individual and professional circumstances that will change over time, especially in relation to different stages of life.

Reconciling life and work, however, is still everyone’s goal and it is precisely on this theme that Claudia Santoni and Isabella Crespi developed their research study, entitled Conciliazione famiglia e lavoro tra smart-working e diversity management. Una riflessione su pratiche e nuove semantiche (Reconciling family and work through smart working and diversity management. A reflection on practices and new semantics), published in recent weeks.

Santoni and Crespi start from a simple premise: the practices and strategies aimed at reconciling life and work are effective only when they can adapt to the transitions of family life cycles and of changing processes in work organisations, especially with regard to technology.

The study looks at smart working as an innovative tool that guarantees temporal and spatial flexibility – also facilitated by recent Italian laws – and aimed at giving employees the freedom of organising their own work according to set objectives.

So far, so good. Yet, the two researchers also note how inequality is still affecting these practices and how tools are not always easy to access, which leads to the need of revising and extending their meaning and applications. In other words, even when smart working modes are implemented, some disparities remain and they need to be taken into account. The study explains that the notion of diversifying operational tools and their flexibility according to employees’ resources and individual requirements has an impact on how a company approaches diversity management. As such, explain Santoni and Crespi, an analysis of work-life balance and smart working, as compared to a diversity management approach, could lead to a new practice in itself that could illustrate how workplaces that focus more on welfare issues and tailor them according to people’s needs and differences could guarantee more efficient policies related to work-life reconciliation.

More in general, this research study clearly highlights a particular theme: how a corporate culture and organisation embracing new working tools must also be aware of how they can be implemented in different ways.

Conciliazione famiglia e lavoro tra smart-working e diversity management. Una riflessione su pratiche e nuove semantiche (Reconciling family and work through smart working and diversity management. A reflection on practices and new semantics)

Claudia Santoni, Isabella Crespi

Autonomie locali e servizi sociali, 1/2022

“How is the night?

Clear.”

These are the last lines in Bertolt Brecht‘s Vita di Galileo (Life of Galileo): the scientist has just given in, has bowed to the power of the doctors of the Church, and has disavowed his discovery that the Sun is at the centre of the universe and Earth is a planet revolving around it, thus tarnishing the integrity of scientific evidence in favour of the theologians’ beliefs. He has surrendered, out of fear, to those powerful authorities. Yet, he doesn’t give up and continues to study the stars, the laws of physics and astronomy, because science always entails a certain amount of strength, and research, discoveries, knowledge and truth, – to be verified, debated, put to the test – embody extraordinary beauty.

A new beginning we must experience.

A night sky we must contemplate.

“How is the night?

Clear.”

In spite of everything.

Vita di Galileo premiered at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano on 22 April 1963. The director was Giorgio Strelher and the starring role was entrusted to Tino Buazzelli, who gave one of the most intense and effective performances known in the history of theatre. Even today, people still reminisce about Strelher’s play, especially as part of the Piccolo Teatro’s initiatives to commemorate Strelher’s 100^th birthday, because those dialogues, those scenes, that performance – intense and piercing, yet full of hope – captured the poignant moment when human experience has to deal with scientific and moral issues that will make the history of progress and development, leading to a more balanced civilisation.

Thus, the night is clear – even in our difficult times, marked by health crises and technological frailty, extraordinary opportunities for economic growth and insufferable social disparities, great scientific progress and increasing environmental disruption, heart-rending wars, such as the one in Ukraine, and the violation of millions of people’s right to a better future.

These are uncertain times, as we’re coming to terms with the dangers of a recession, of growing inflation, with rising rates leading – after years of stillness – to higher prices, and with rifts in the international trade system. Jamie Dimon, CEO of major international bank JP Morgan, expressed his concerns and his prediction that “an economic storm is approaching” now needs to be taken seriously.

Risky times, then, which we might be tempted to view poetically, as per Eugenio Montale’s words: “All we can tell you today/ is what we are not/ what we want not”), though we should also confide in the opportunities – related to health, quality of life, improvement of working conditions – brought on by scientific achievement. We need to move forward, through the crisis, avoiding the shadowy traps of so-called “magical thinking” that fears knowledge and science, and welcoming the prospects that research offers in terms of tackling the challenges engendered by such a complex period (as the work of Giorgio Parisi, winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics, shows). In his Lezioni americane (American Lessons), Italo Calvino detects that same complexity as a constant feature of the human condition, as well as a drive towards innovation, following non-linear paths and thinking patterns, yet with the awareness that, in spite of everything – twists, disagreements and contradictions – as we journey through this night we can already glimpse the first light of dawn, just like Galileo.

Particular sites exist where these complex and contentious cultural and social conditions interweave and evolve: production facilities, industrial plants, factories. Factories, indeed: an outdated word that has, nonetheless, recently made a comeback and is now at the heart of public debate, in a period where Italian and European “industrial pride” is on the rise.

In the 19^th century, factories were a symbol of modernity, of the new dimensions of production and consumption, of disruptive social and economic transformation. Then, over a long and controversial 20^th century, a century marked by the advent of cars and mass mobility, chemistry and telecommunications, consumption and new lifestyles, conflicts and widespread wealth, factories became central to the political and economic spheres, And even now, while scientific and technological innovations, the digital economy and Artificial Intelligence, are leading “services” and so-called “third-sector” activities to the forefront, factories – or, even better, neo-factories – maintain their pivotal position within the economy, because that’s where developments affecting science and technology, work and life, research and production, economic needs and social values, innovation and environmental protection, converge, generating competitiveness and environmental and social sustainability.

At the beginning of the new millennium, factories seemed to have disappeared, were confined to large yet peripheral areas, were hidden away from the heart of “progress” – now they’re back on the scene, with new assets and new values.

Factories, that is, “civilised machinery” and “industrial humanism” – now turning into “digital humanism” as it gradually incorporates scientific and technological innovations. Special places where original production and cultural concepts arise and are experimented with, and in which the awareness of a relationship between industry and culture, of the vital bond between industrial manufacturing and cultural production, is growing.

In fact, industry and culture don’t actually belong to two different spheres, but are part of the same world (this gave rise to a long debate last week, in Rome, at the Stati Generali del Patrimonio Industriale (General assembly on industrial heritage) conference, organised by AIPAI (Italian association for industrial archaeological heritage) and Museimpresa (Italian association of business archives and corporate museums).

Doing business, especially in terms of industrial manufacturing, means investing in – and working on – the changes that are reshaping markets, consumption, production technologies. It means focusing on research and innovation, keeping abreast of technical and social transformations. Innovation it’s key, as it embodies a strong cultural and symbolic significance and as it encompasses pretty much everything: technologies, materials, new products and the new processes required to make them, industrial relationships between the various segments of the corporate and working worlds, corporate governance, the languages of marketing and communication. What’s all this if not scientific culture, economic culture, humanist culture – in brief, entrepreneurial culture? In other words, we need to shift from the traditional juxtaposition of “business and culture” to a more robust, valuable notion: “business is culture”.

In this context, a historical perspective will pick up on a particular concept, that of a “progressive” company, to emphasise the term used by Giovanni Battista Pirelli in a speech from 1873, one year after the company was founded (and its echo resounds among the pages of Una storia al futuro. Pirelli, 150 anni di industria, innovazione, cultura (Thinking Ahead. Pirelli, 150 years of industry, innovation, culture), recently published by Marsilio).

A company, that is, bolstered by cutting-edge technologies applied to the manufacturing of rubber products, but also a company that shows great care for the “human touch”, and that is open to innovation in the widest sense of the term (products and production, materials, corporate organisation, social commitments). A company intensely aware of its role, amid agreements and disagreements, as a driving force in building a common history offering a better economic, cultural and social balance.

Wisdom, both old and new.

“All things are full of labour more than we can say; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing” we read in Ecclesiastes 1.8 – essential reading when one has to deal with history and the pace of its change. And the idea that “the eye is not satisfied with seeing” extraordinarily captures a desire for discovery, scientific curiosity, technological passion – essentially, all that restlessness about innovation that characterises an enterprise – not much driven by profit (although that’s still a requisite) but, above all, by change, as a company’s culture and ethics will inform values, conditions and the future, as well as its own activities and attitudes.

Innovation, then.

“Adess ghe capissarem on quaicoss: andemm a guardagh denter” (Let’s try and understand it: let’s have a look inside) were the words beloved by Luigi Emanueli, engineer and father of modern electrical engineering, who, in the first half of the early 20^th century, introduced several innovations related to Pirelli cables and tyres. Let’s, indeed, have a look inside machines and products, and fully understand how they work. Let’s build, disassemble and reassemble. Let’s glimpse inside with a scientific attitude and mechanical knowledge.

Those words also encapsulate a deeper feeling that has inspired the best developments and competitive aspects of the entire Italian industry. A commitment to do and do well, creative intelligence, a preoccupation with constant improvement – essentially, the acknowledgement of one’s own excellence, which allows Italy to remain as competitive – in technical and production terms – as other European and international countries that benefit from robust businesses, financial wealth, availability of raw materials, public funding for enterprises, scientific research and its related technological applications. The EU Recovery Fund, which in Italy takes the shape of PNRR (Italian recovery and resilience plan), points in this direction, just as other potential future EU plans related to energy and safety might do. The path is steep, but it’s the one we need to follow – finding strength, perhaps, in Galileo and in a “clear night” for science.

London, 1851. The first ever universal exhibition was held in Hyde Park, attracting about 14,000 exhibitors in sections devoted to raw materials, machines and inventions, manufactured products and the fine arts. This was the first of a long line of World Expos, which are commercial but also cultural events, held periodically in major cities around the world, where countries show off the progress they have made in industrial production, and in science and technology. The Paris International Exposition was held in 1889, celebrating the centenary of the French Revolution with a tower standing more than 300 metres tall, built by Gustave Eiffel. We know that Giovanni Battista Pirelli was there at the event. He wrote a letter to Giuseppe Borghero, the director of the Pirelli factory in La Spezia where they made submarine telegraph cables, inviting him to visit the sector devoted to electricity: “I have recently returned from the exhibition and you may yourself find that, if you wish to limit yourself to a quick general visit and a more detailed inspection of the mechanical and electrical sector, a week may well suffice.”

Very early on, Pirelli had started showing its products at trade fairs and national events (such as the Italian general exhibitions of 1881 and 1884, and the international bakery and milling fair in Milan in 1897, with a pavilion devoted to electricity), and it took part for the first time in a World Expo in 1900, in Paris. Although the company already had a vast range of rubber articles, it was decided to show only those used in the electricity sector. This was partly due to the lack of space, which, as a brochure pointed out, was something from which “the whole Italian Section suffers”. Samples of all manner of cables were shown at the 10 x 5-metre stand – cables insulated in gutta-percha, in textile materials, in vulcanised rubber, for telegraphs, telephones, electric lighting, and for transporting energy. And then there were submarine cables – with a model of the cable-laying ship Città di Milano on show in a glass case – and underground cables, including a special type used for transporting energy at 2500 volts, which was used to light up 500 lamps on a panel inside the stand, showing how Pirelli cables could carry electrical energy at extremely high voltages. Pirelli and Franco Tosi, a metalworking company at the exhibition with three 1200 horsepower steam engines for power plants, won the Grand Prix awarded by the Expo.

In 1904Pirelli took part in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, under the personal guidance of Piero Pirelli, who went to the United States also so that he could look at American industry and sign new sales and supply agreements. Here there was far more space, as the head of the electricity department of the Expo pointed out in the letter, dated 11 May 1903, in which he invited Pirelli to take part: he presented it as an opportunity that should not be missed, for the space available (500 hectares), which was much more than had been offered by the fairs up to that moment, and for the participation of exhibitors from all over Europe but also from Latin America, Canada, China and Japan, which meant it would be possible to get in touch with representatives from these countries as well as with those from the United States.

At the Saint Louis stand, Pirelli put on a large sample display of its rubber products (technical, sanitary and haberdashery items, toys, coloured balls and a deep-sea diver’s suit) and of insulated electric wires and cables and it was awarded the Grand Prix in the Manufacturing section of the Elastic Rubber and Gutta-percha Industry group, as well as the Gold Medal in the Electricity section of the Telegraphy and Telephony group. The Gold Medal was the highest honour awarded to any of the electric cables companies present, both American and European. A gold medal was also awarded by the Exhibition to engineer Emanuele Jona, who had taken part in the International Electrical Congress, which was held in the city from 12 to 17 September 1904. On that occasion, he had presented some important breakthroughs in the field of very high voltage electrical cables, which had caused a considerable stir in the field of international electrical engineering. As expected, the Exhibition was a great opportunity for establishing important relationships in the sector. The engineer Elvio Soleri, a member of the Italian Electrotechnical Association, wrote to Pirelli saying that “Messrs Holmes Brothers of Chicago wish to enter into relations with you as representatives”, that the Canadian Compagnie Internationale d’Électricité “wishes to enter into correspondence immediately” and that the Ontario Power Co. representative had left his business card.

This led to a whole series of relationships with the world of industry that has continued to this day, also through participation in recent trade fairs and exhibitions of international importance.