A sociological research tackles the topic of relationships between companies and territories during periods of severe crisis, illustrating the full importance of welfare

Tackling a pandemic. A task that concerns various levels of society and that we succeeded in fulfilling by combining different strengths, which have acted in different ways. A task that has also had an impact on enterprises, closely linked to the territories in which they are established and operate. Now that the challenge has been overcome – though not entirely – it is worth taking some time to understand what happened and, more specifically for companies, how production culture and organisation have changed.

This is the topic examined, from a particular perspective, by Elena Macchioni in her investigation entitled “Territori che conciliano: il benessere aziendale alla prova della pandemia” (“Territories that can conciliate: the pandemic challenge to corporate well-being”), published in the first 2022 issue of journal Studi di sociologia (Sociology Studies).

Macchioni’s analysis is the result of sociological and territorial research, of virtuous links between corporate welfare and corporate social responsibility as related to the regions in which companies operate and tackle the pandemic.

The key concepts underlying this research can be encapsulated in two words – “well-being” and “conciliation” – that embody the essence and meaning of what has happened in several parts of Italy. As such, the study demonstrates how, through corporate welfare tools (which, nowadays, are often already regulated by Italian collective bargaining agreements), companies succeeded in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic not only by creating working environments that were previously largely unknown, but also novel ways with which to reconcile life (often necessarily confined to small spaces) and work, which have in turn been able to generate a new feeling of solidarity within corporate structures, as well as preserving their production operations. A model, the research shows, which has reverberated throughout the territories in which the companies are based.

The image evoked by “territories that can conciliate” is therefore fitting to represent the result of a virtuous synergetic relation between enterprises and local social systems, between the need to preserve productive facilities as the virus spread and the need to create a supportive network that could hold economy and society together.

Essentially, Elena Macchioni describes the evolution undergone by doing business and corporate social responsibility, a process that, having overcome the challenge brought on by the pandemic, could now also prove viable to overcome other challenges.

“Territori che conciliano: il benessere aziendale alla prova della pandemia” (“Territories that can conciliate: the pandemic challenge to corporate well-being”)

Elena Macchioni, Vita e Pensiero, Studi di sociologia, LX, 1/2022

https://www.torrossa.com/en/resources/an/5189919

A book collecting corporate stories that could set a good example for all

Corporate tales – 26 to be exact – interlinked by an intent that goes beyond profit-making. These are the tales that Francesco Morace (sociologist) has collected in his latest book, which recounts the stories of various Italian companies illustrating how to best recover from the crisis and, above all, do so in harmony with a utopia founded on beauty, humanity and creativity.

Indeed, L’alfabeto della rinascita (The alphabet of regeneration), is a collection of tales arranged in alphabetical order – 26 tales, one for each letter of the Italian alphabet, each one corresponding to an Italian company, from the “A” of Alessi to the “Z” of Zanotta.
According to the author, the pandemic could act as an unexpected driving force for a new Renaissance era, something that, just a year ago, no one would have believed. Indeed, life cannot generally provide any guarantees and this is a lesson that particularly concerns this period of radical change that we are experiencing, and it is even more so for companies. The companies narrated are those that (more than others, yet also just like others) succeed in safeguarding the fragile health of a diverse territory such as the Italian one, tackling issues related to self-governance, responsibility and decision-making. Thus, one after the other, we read the stories of companies such as Alessi, Berlucchi, Cosberg, Dallara, Expert, Fastweb, Granarolo, Herno, Inglesina, Jacuzzi®, Kartell, Lago, Melinda, Nexi, Opto Engineering, Pedrollo, QC Terme, Rotaliana, Sofidel, Treccani, Unione Nazionale Consumatori, VéGé, Würth, X Instant, Yomo, Zanotta. Each company is characterised by a particular image and, above all, by a corporate nature that goes beyond the usual management standards.
The volume is further enriched by three essays: one written by journalist Marzia Tomasin, on the importance of companies’ narrative abilities, one by philosopher Roberto Mordacci, and one by designer Giulio Ceppi who, amongst other things, is also the author of the book’s graphics, which include pictograms telling, through the (freely reinterpreted) initial of each name of the 26 featured companies, an idea, a project, a vision distinguishing them. The book concludes with a decalogue of Italian Human Design aiming to summarise the various complex messages somehow embodied by the 26 companies.

At the beginning of the book we are told that, “With L’alfabeto della rinascita, we have taken on the challenge to narrate, in a printed book, the know-how, the ingenuity and, more in general, the intangible heritage that the selected companies embody, considering the actual narrative as both an echo chamber and an instrument for awareness.” And it is fair to say that the challenge has been met, although, perhaps, we might not all end up agreeing with all we find in Morace’s latest literary effort. Yet, after all, the function of a respectable book is also that of fuelling debate.

L’alfabeto della rinascita. 26 storie di imprese esemplari (The alphabet of regeneration. 26 tales about exemplary companies)

Francesco Morace

Egea, 2022

“A new era”, announced Emmanuel Macron under the Eiffel Tower, a few minutes after his re-election as President of the French Republic. Victory rhetorics aside, when reiterating his commitment to provide effective answers to issues related to social hardship and environmental crisis, he referred several times to Europe – actually, better: “our Europe”.

Indeed, Macron’s re-appointment at the Élysée Palace has dissipated the threat of the EU really imploding. Although it’s true that the pressure exerted by a right-wing, sovereignist and populist public opinion remains alarming – more than 40% – it’s also true that the path to relaunch the European strategy towards greater and better integration – along the axes of France, Italy, Spain and Germany – can be resumed with renewed energy and a more resolute will. Good news, in a period so heavy with tension and rifts, starkly marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the war caused by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

Three action plans can be glimpsed on the horizon: the EU’s strategic autonomy, contingent on defence and energy; the critical reconsideration of the Stability and Growth Pact with a view to further flexibility; a European foreign policy that, even if channelled through a consolidation of the transatlantic alliance, could offer new opportunities for dialogue with other major international – Mediterranean and global – actors. These are complex, difficult, arduous, controversial yet feasible undertakings. Macron’s pro-European France, together with the authoritativeness acquired by Italy under the dual leadership of Mattarella and Draghi, are today the most reliable drivers to achieve these aims.

Debate in Brussels and in other main European capitals is raging, focused on strategic autonomy, and as such on defence and energy themes (including the repercussions, also entrepreneurial, on topics such as environmental and social sustainability and the technological innovation, the twin – green and blue – transition). And the notion of launching, after the EU Next Generation Recovery Plan implemented to deal with the pandemic crisis, a new European fund that, backed by the EU guarantee, would gather resources on the international markets to be invested in non-repayable grants – rather than repayable loans – is gaining momentum. Of course, reservations (from Germany, above all) and opposing views (from the so-called “frugal” countries obsessed with the possibility of Europe further falling into debt) are not lacking, and the debate that we can already sense will be very intense. Yet, lately, Northern European countries are precisely those who are developing a heightened awareness of how vital and urgent a rapid introduction of tools that can safeguard us from Russian pressure has become. Moreover, the recent decision by Sweden and Finland to join the NATO supports this trend towards security. Is the notion of a European army becoming a real possibility? Not just yet, though it’s clear that some steps forward in the achievement of a shared defence strategy are being taken.

A stronger, more autonomous Europe, then, and as such more assertive and open to dialogue.

Further steps forward are also being taken to reconsider the Stability and Growth Pact, which was suspended after the pandemic crisis and which, in any event, many countries – Brussels, France, Italy, Spain and (with some caution) Germany – no longer judge feasible if applied under the same terms, defined just about 30 years ago, by the Maastricht Treaty.

Janet Yellen, Secretary of the Treasury of the United States, offers some significant cultural and political support: “The Stability and Growth Pact is no longer reasonable for many of the countries that are heavily indebted, such as Italy. In order to increase investments, more flexibility is required.” (a quote from Il prezzo del futuro (The price of the future), by Alan Friedman, published in Italy by La nave di Teseo).

Yellen, indeed, reiterates the need for public investment in infrastructure and innovation, citing as an example the current economic policies implemented by Washington, and makes it clear that “borrowing is justifiable when funds are employed for development and a more productive economy.” This is clearly in tune with the neo-Keynesian distinction between “good debt” (namely, innovation and productivity) and “bad debt” (feeding the current welfarist public spending driven by political patronage and corporations) advocated by Mario Draghi. The path we need to take in order to make Western economies more robust and competitive is clear. And, with regard to major international players (like China, primarily) such competitiveness would also become very valuable in terms of strategic autonomy and security. Basically, everything’s interconnected, and the positive impact on market economy, the international standing of Italian businesses and the authoritativeness of Western democracies are all part of the same discussion – soon to be rekindled and relaunched – on how to achieve new balances and better globalisation governance (a “selective re-globalisation”, to use a term currently recurring in economic debates).

The third theme we referred to at the beginning lies precisely here. We are not witnessing a “decline in globalisation”, but a critique of the bias inherent to globalisation, as well as its radical realignment – through tragic events such as the war in Ukraine and other heavy strains felt in various parts of the world, from the Middle to the Far East – as well as new possibilities for reform. And it’s precisely in these conditions, when fragile and unstable balances could easily and dramatically shatter, that we need to reconsider the political value of dialogue. There are topics – the environment, food, water, health, individual and social rights – that should only be contemplated within a global framework that we need to re-establish. Indeed, the response to the pandemic crisis, involving open scientific, medical, technological collaboration, has provided positive indications on which we need to rebuild – and the EU’s decision to take care of the next generation is a good starting point.

In 1881, Pirelli took part in the Italian National Exhibition in Milan: this was the first in a long series of attendances at the most important national and international trade fairs, including those in Paris (1900), Osaka (1903), and Saint Louis (1904). And indeed it was at these events that Pirelli’s first forms of communication began to appear: there were brochures introducing the company and showing off its products, and signs that were displayed on the stands with great emphasis on the imagery of the factory and its workers, effectively conveying an idea of the development and solidity of the company.

In some cases, the illustrations of the factories were entrusted to painters such as Antonio Bonamore, who in 1889 created a drawing of the factory in Via Ponte Seveso, and Mario Stroppa, who in 1911 created a perspective view of the factory in Bicocca. In other cases, the works were by draughtsmen hired by the company to do technical drawings, but who were often also used for creating figurative drawings for celebratory purposes or for advertisements. Giuseppe Galli, for example, was taken on in 1886 to work in the first department for the production of technical items made of rubber, but later became the technical assistant to the engineer Emilio Calcagni thanks to his artistic talent. He was assigned “drawing works, both geometric and ornamental”, as we read in his personal file, which is now in our Historical Archive. Galli created a variety of illustrated communication materials, including the“Catalogue of Tyres and Accessories” of 1899, the postcard of the Staff Cooperative Company of the Pirelli & C. factory in Milan of 1901, and the view of the Villanueva y la Geltrù plant, published in 1911 in Pirelli & C. 40 anni di industria, next to a view of the Bicocca factory made by Stroppa. During his time as an employee at Pirelli, Galli also worked as a watercolourist, achieving some success and indeed, in 1917, he was nominated as an honorary member of the Accademia di Brera. In 1921 he left Pirelli to devote himself exclusively to painting.

The illustration of the factories was naturally again at the centre of Pirelli’s fiftieth-anniversary celebrations and, once again, the artists who created the views were employees of the company. In 1922 Domenico Bonamini and Umberto Ubaldi created some large posters with views of the factories and statistics concerning production, which went on display in the Museo Storico delle Industrie Pirelli, set up inside the Bicocca degli Arcimboldi. Both these artists were graduates from the Accademia delle Belle Arti (between 1902 and 1914, Ubaldi had also been a painter for Rovescalli, a set designer in Milan): one worked in the Plant and Maintenance Department, the other in the Tyre Technical Office.

Two large drawings, recently restored, of the interiors of a department of the Pirelli cables sector, were also made in 1922. Even though they do not appear to have been part of the series of posters on display in the Museum, the date, the dimensions (about 85 x 65 cm) and the subject all suggest they were made for the fiftieth-anniversary celebrations. The drawings were the work of Giuseppe Meloni, who joined Pirelli in 1917 as a draughtsman in the machinery office of the cable sector, upon the recommendation of Luigi Emanueli, who was then the technical director of Cables. Meloni had attended three drawing courses at the Accademia delle Belle Arti and two courses at the Scuola Superiore d’Arte Applicata all’Industria, the high school for art applied to industry, in Milan. The drawings, made with pencil, Indian ink, watercolours and pastels on cardboard, are part of a series of works, preserved in our Historical Archive, which retrace the history of Pirelli’s products and international research in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries..

On 29 May 2016, at the Teatro Bibiena in Mantua, the Governor of Regione Lombardia awarded the Rosa Camuna Prize to the Pirelli Foundation “for safeguarding and promoting the cultural, historical, and contemporary heritage of the Pirelli Group with materials and archives that tell the story of the company and the history of Italy”. This outstanding honour, which has been awarded by the Region every year since 2009, is a public recognition of the commitment, hard work, creativity and ingenuity of those who have particularly distinguished themselves in their contribution to the economic, social, cultural and sporting development of Lombardy.

And here we find an extraordinary coincidence. The prize itself is in the form of a circular golden medal depicting the Rosa camuna, which is a symbol of the Lombardy Region. This symbol was created in 1975 by a pool of designers that included Pino Tovaglia, Bob Noorda, and Bruno Munari: names that left an indelible mark on the history of Pirelli’s visual communication. For the Pirelli Foundation, receiving the award was an acknowledgment of the important role it plays in the cultural life of the region of Lombardy and in the city of Milan in particular: not only in preserving the company’s historical heritage but also in its extensive activity of promoting, disseminating and giving its support to a modern form of corporate culture.

One image gives a perfect idea of how deeply rooted the company is in the Milan area: at the entrance to the Historical Archive of the Foundation, which contains over three thousand linear metres of documents, there is a large photograph entitled Workers Leaving the Pirelli Factory in Via Ponte Seveso. It was taken in 1905 by the photographer and film director Luca Comerio, who wanted to give a sense of the grandeur of this industry, which since 1872, the year of its foundation, had expanded into a large multinational group. The thousands of workers immortalised by Luca Comerio outside the gates of the factory in Milan were there precisely to recall the deep Lombard roots of the company founded by Giovanni Battista Pirelli. The Rosa Camuna Prize is conceptually dedicated to all those workers of the early twentieth century, and to the thousands and thousands who came after them in Pirelli factories around the world.

There have been lots of events to promote our corporate culture in 2019. Our visitors have been able to explore our heritage by means of guided tours. From participation in Museocity with “Pirelli, a History of Innovation and Passion: Rubber, Technology, Work and Environment”, a sweeping story spanning a century and a half of industry and revolving around the theme of sustainability, to Photoweek, which, in addition to the evolution of photography in Pirelli’s modern visual communication, starred the famous slogan “Power is Nothing without Control” which celebrated its first 25 years in 2019. Visitors also took part in a photo bike tour as part of the Archivi Aperti (“Open Archives”) event of Rete Fotografia, in which they learnt about the transformation of the district while riding Pirelli e-bikes. Then, of course, we took part in the 18th Settimana della Cultura d’Impresa (Corporate Culture Week):  with the exhibition Industry is Imagination: Great Names for Kartell and Pirelli Projects and Products, in collaboration with Kartell Museo, which told stories of research, innovation and design, and an event for schools: “Bach: Music and Science in the Factory” on the interaction between music and science, with Maestro Salvatore Accardo, the Orchestra da Camera Italiana, and Pirelli engineers. The Bach event was one of a series of educational activities put on by our Foundation: educational workshops on the history and technology of tyres, and on advertising, corporate cinema, photography and many other topics that helped bring young people closer to the world of Pirelli’s corporate culture. The training activities also included Cinema & History, a refresher course for teachers organised with the Fondazione ISEC and the Fondazione Cineteca Italiana under the title “State, Nation, Sovereignty: Stories of Changes and Conflicts in Politics, Society and the Economy” and participation in the 14th National Geographic Science Festival with the exhibition Pirelli, A Passion for Rubber: A Long History of Commitment and Innovation, an exhibition that told the story of the tyre and its scientific and technological breakthroughs, from the first patents in the late nineteenth century to the “smart” tyres of today.

Special events for schools included Facciamo squadra con i libri – “Teaming up with Books” – in collaboration with #ioleggoperché, opening up a conversation between young people and great names from the world of literature and sport, including Javier Zanetti, on the importance of reading as a means for opening the doors to the world. Viaggiare…ma sul sicuro [“Maybe! But I prefer to travel safely”], a series of courses on road safety, was put on in collaboration with the Traffic Police during the Week of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

2019 also saw the creation of a new digital platform, rivistapirelli.org, published at the same time as the release of the Foundation’s latest publishing project, entitled Industrial Humanism: An Anthology of Thoughts, Words, Images and Innovations, published by Mondadori, which documents the extraordinary experiment that was Pirelli magazine, a truly multidisciplinary journal published from 1948 to 1972. The volume is an authoritative analysis of the cultural importance of the publication, which it examines through a thematic selection of articles written by some of the magazine’s most important authors and contributors. The photographic illustrations – selected from a collection of 6000 negatives, slides, colour transparencies and black-white and colour prints – that accompanied the original articles are particularly interesting, with almost 2500 previously unpublished photos, some selected for the anthology, others for use on the site. The book was presented in July 2019 at the Teatro Franco Parenti in Milan, in an evening packed with readings, stories, music and focus sessions, with the participation of Marco Tronchetti Provera, Antonio Calabrò, Gian Arturo Ferrari and Ornella Vanoni.

Also our digital communication has been expanded with the launch of the new fondazionepirelli.org website which appeared in September with new graphics and new features and content, complete with a new virtual tour of the Foundation which – in addition to showing the physical spaces where the documents are kept – offers insights into the Historical Archive and the history of the company. November saw the launch of a technology that uses artificial intelligence to assist and guide the visitor through the site.

We can only hope that 2020 will be equally packed with events and initiatives; keep following us on our social media channels Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and on the fondazionepirelli.org website and sign up to our mailing list.

Happy Holidays!

Based on the studies of the engineer Luigi Emanueli and patented in 1951, the Cinturato established itself on the international market in the 1960s as an authentic icon of the economic boom and of Italy on the move. The success of Pirelli’s first radial tyre was also hailed in the 1950s and 1960s by the great advertising campaigns that the company entrusted the creativity of famous designers such as Ezio Bonini, Riccardo Manzi, Alessandro Mendini, Pino Tovaglia, and Bob Noorda.

Born in Holland in 1927, Noorda became the art director of the Pirelli Group in 1961. His graphic style was unadorned, making the communication clear and immediate, as we see in the 1959 poster in which the Pirelli Cinturato consists of just three elements: the stylised drawing of the tyre, the logo, and the name of the product.

“With Eyes Closed” (1961), for another Cinturato, was the most iconic advertising campaign by Riccardo Manzi. In the advertisement, the driver’s eyes are obscured by a tyre that prevents him from seeing the road, and only the use of Pirelli tyres means that he is perfectly safe. The artist’s style is humorous and caricatural, and his touch is rapid and instinctive: all traits that make it instantly recognisable as his work.

In 1966 Arrigo Castellani, who was the head of the Pirelli Advertising Department at the time, and the graphic designer Pino Tovaglia created an advertising campaign under the slogan “A journey on the safe side – Pirelli Cinturato”: a sort of experiment based on the interaction between word games and images.

In 1968, Pino Tovaglia again put his name to a new advertising campaign, which focused on the popularity of the Cinturato abroad: a series of colour plates in which the dominant motif is that of the stylised flags of various countries, with a headline in each language stating that “also in France [or in Britain, Denmark, Holland or in the other countries where the tyre had become established] it is called Cinturato”.

#IOLEGGOPERCHÉ is back. This year, the largest reading promotion initiative in Italy, organised by the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), will for the first time be together with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and the Centro per il Libro e la Lettura, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. The project, which aims to inspire new readers by setting up and expanding school libraries, involved 15,000 schools and over 3 million young people in 2019 and, thanks to the tireless work of students, booksellers, publishers, parents and teachers, it has brought over 1 million new books to Italian libraries over the past four years. Last year, the Teaming up with Books meeting saw considerable participation with over 300 students in our Auditorium, with Javier Zanetti, Luigi Garlando, Regina Baresi and Mario Isola on stage. This year, Pirelli is again continuing its support for #ioleggoperché, inspiring a passion for reading among the very young, and inviting everyone to buy a book to donate to a school.

The donation can also be made from afar: for this fifth edition, the ioleggoperché website lists all the bookshops through which books can be ordered from home, together with a list of the schools taking part in the project.

At the end of the campaign, publishers too will be making a contribution, by donating up to 100,000 additional books to the schools that request them.

Join us and part of it! Because books always bring us together, however far apart we are.

The ADI Permanent Design Observatory selected the Skyscraper Stories project for the ADI Design Index 2021. The project brings together the results of the research and promotion work designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Pirelli Tower in Milan, which has always been a symbol of the modernity of Italian technology and industry. The project, which consists of a book, a website, an exhibition, and a series of related events, is curated by our Foundation and by the architect Alessandro Colombo, and it is promoted together with the Lombardy Region.

Since 2000, the ADI Design Index has published an annual selection of the best Italian design, and this prestigious publication also includes essays penned by great names from the world of culture. This year it is presenting the second volume in the biennial series with the products nominated for the 2022 ADI Compasso d’Oro, an award launched in 1954 to honour the technical and aesthetic quality of Italian design. Its accumulation of the products that have won the accolade has led to the largest historical collection of design objects. The products selected, 233 out of the more than 1,000 items submitted, are divided into a number of thematic areas: next to the Design for the Home section, there are numerous products from the Design of Materials and Technological Systems, and from Corporate Research and Theoretical Research, all of which testify to the vitality of Italian innovation.

The selection of the Skyscraper Stories project in the Theoretical, Historical and Critical Research and Editorial Projects category fits into the historical long-term bond between Pirelli and the Compasso d’Oro, which dates back to the very first year of the award: it was the little monkey Zizì, a toy designed by Bruno Munari and made by Pigomma, a Pirelli subsidiary, that won the first edition of the famous award. Also our Foundation has become part of the history of the ADI and of the Compasso d’Oro: with the selection of the Rubber Soul exhibition in the ADI Design Index in 2012, as well as with the candidacy of the Advertising with a Capital P publishing project at the 2020 edition of the Compasso d’Oro Award.

Today, with the publication of the 2021 ADI Index, the history of Pirelli continues to intertwine with that of design and the very best of the Made in Italy label.

“LIUC per la maturità 2021” is a project run by the Università LIUC Carlo Cattaneo di Castellanza to assist sixth form students in the run-up to the state exam in the school year, which has proved so complicated for the world of school. Thanks to the participation of its teachers, the University is offering a series of in-depth mini-lectures on various topics: from anxiety management to the gender gap in the labour market, to literature, culture, and business history.

Snippets of Industrial Cinema – A “Beautiful” Factory: Can It Be Done? is the title of the meeting organised by the Università Cattaneo and the Archive of Industrial Cinema and Business Communication, in collaboration with the Pirelli Foundation, with the participation of Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation, and Daniele Pozzi, lecturer at LIUC and director of the Archive of Industrial Cinema and Business Communication. The webinar helps the students reflect on some issues closely related to the history and culture of the company and the relationship between them and the society we live in. The issues are introduced by a number of short videos from the vast heritage of industrial cinema and communication created by Italian companies. Starting with some provocative ideas, this interaction between current affairs and historical documents helps the students reflect on the complexities and contradictions of the industrial development of Italy during the economic boom and on the relationships, which have been improving over time, between factories, the environment and people. It helps them reflect on company profits, which can be used to improve the quality of life and well-being of the individuals and communities that have dealings with the company, and takes them through to today’s digital factories and the “Il Canto della Fabbrica” project, with which Pirelli illustrated the new world of the factory through music. The musical score composed by Maestro Francesco Fiore for the violin of Maestro Salvatore Accardo and his Orchestra da Camera Italiana took inspiration from the rhythms of the Pirelli factory in Settimo Torinese – a centre of excellence on the cutting edge of Italian industry. The music tells of one of the “beautiful factories” in Italy, created as a welcoming, bright, sustainable and safe place.

Click here to see the text drafted by LIUC to illustrate the project and put it in context.

Click here to watch the video.