{"id":104117,"date":"2025-05-23T13:58:19","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/?p=104117"},"modified":"2025-05-23T13:58:19","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T12:58:19","slug":"the-exemplary-story-of-a-businessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/corporate-culture\/the-exemplary-story-of-a-businessman\/","title":{"rendered":"The exemplary story of a businessman"},"content":{"rendered":"

A study recently published that highlights the importance of middle workers in factories and offices<\/em><\/p>\n

Workers or big business owners – in almost all historical business literature, these two categories occupy the most pages. In a recently published essay analysing the \u201cmiddle class\u201d of businesses, Andrea Negro, a PhD student in historical, geographical and anthropological studies at the University of Padua, sums up this tendency well.
\nHis essay \u201cIl progresso tecnico non \u00e8 mai nato da sogni e favole\u2019. La storia di Mario Croce, dalla Societ\u00e0 per azioni ferriere e acciaierie di Udine (Safau) al mondo\u201d (Technical progress has never been born from dreams and fairy tales. The story of Mario Croce, from the Udine iron and steelworks joint stock company (Safau) to the world) starts specifically with this observation. In the opening lines of his research, the author writes: \u201cOvershadowed on the one hand by the study of entrepreneurial events and on the other by the history of workers’ labour, the intermediate levels of the factory, such as foremen, technicians, engineers and designers, have received less attention in historical studies.\u201d This is certainly not the case in general literature dealing with corporate history, but, as mentioned, the phenomenon is relevant in literature paying more attention to historical aspects. Andrea Negro aims to address this shortcoming.
\nThe research intertwines theory with the real-life story of Mario Croce, who worked in a factory. A steelmaking technician from 1947, he first worked for Safau in Udine and then for Danieli & C. Croce. He made a significant contribution to the development of continuous casting, a major innovation in the global steel industry, and directed the installation of almost 110 plants worldwide. He was, however, always a somewhat intermediate figure, important and decisive but still a “halfway” piece in the organisational charts. Andrea Negro bases his investigation on the story of Mario Croce, who is taken as a representative example of a category of workers. This is how the business culture of industry, which is often attributed to either the entrepreneurial or working classes depending on the study, finds other champions who are essential for its growth and diffusion.
\nNegro’s research, which was conducted through documents from Mario Croce’s private archive, is worth reading and appreciating. It demonstrates, if there were any doubt, that the history of businesses must always be traced back to the people who make them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIl progresso tecnico non \u00e8 mai nato da sogni e favole\u201d. La storia di Mario Croce, dalla Societ\u00e0 per azioni ferriere e acciaierie di Udine (Safau) al mondo
\nAndrea Negro
\nSOCIET\u00c0 E STORIA (society and history), 2025\/187<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A study recently published that highlights the importance of middle workers in factories and offices Workers or big business owners – in almost all historical business literature, these two categories occupy the most pages. In a recently published essay analysing the \u201cmiddle class\u201d of businesses, Andrea Negro, a PhD student in historical, geographical and anthropological […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-104117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corporate-culture","category-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe exemplary story of a businessman - Fondazione Pirelli<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fondazionepirelli.org\/en\/corporate-culture\/the-exemplary-story-of-a-businessman\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The exemplary story of a businessman - Fondazione Pirelli\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A study recently published that highlights the importance of middle workers in factories and offices Workers or big business owners – in almost all historical business literature, these two categories occupy the most pages. 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