Who are we?
Why «Culture
e Impresa» («Cultures and Enterprise»)
Why a bilingual
e-magazine?
Who are we?
The Centro per la Cultura d’Impresa (Centre
for Business Culture) and the Fondazione Ansaldo –
Archivio economico delle imprese liguri (Ansaldo Foundation
– Economic Archives of Ligurian Businesses)
are cultural institutions that have grown out of the
entrepreneurial system. Our goals are to promote
business culture and safeguard the historical
and cultural heritage (archives, artefacts, technical
libraries, etc) generated by profit-making organizations.
The Centre was set up by the Milan Chamber of Commerce
and the Foundation by Ansaldo-Finmeccanica. We share
the basic principle that a business is not
only an economic force, but a pivotal point
for social and economic advancement of a country.
For this reason, the Centre and the Foundation conduct
their activity in the context of the business concern
seen as an agent of modernization and, a wellspring
for co-ordinated cultural initiatives.
Why «Culture
e Impresa» («Cultures and Enterprise»)? |
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Business often acts as an incubator for economic,
organisational, technological, scientific and anthropological
cultures. With this first issue of «Culture
e Impresa» («Cultures and Enterprise»),
we have chosen:
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to underline that diversity
of constituents and the knowledges
that each one generates.
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to make historical business
documentation available to researchers,
and to the general public. By making operational
procedures more visible, business reduces the
sense of distance that is often perceived by
its surrounding community.
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to analyse first-hand accounts
of well-known entrepreneurs who have organized
business ventures.
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to give equal voice to the
many
people who contribute to achieving
the goals of an enterprise.
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Engineers, blue
and white-collar workers, managers, consultants –
but also external stakeholders – form the surrounding
human resources on which the success of the entrepreneurial
project is based and whose activity ensures
its success.
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" to be a forum for discussion
and exchange of ideas among entrepreneurs, business
leaders and researchers grounded in both the
cultural significance of these objectives and
a scientific approach to company operations
- analysis, decision and achievement appraisal.
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to raise the issue of memory
as a cultural and ethical basis for business. |
Memory, i.e. the
set of the constituent elements of the historic and
cultural heritage of an enterprise. Also, the willingness
to analyse one's actions retrospectively. Memory,
according to Le Goff, is power. It is a powerful organisational
tool, for forming social consensus both inside and
outside a business. It is one way of attenuating the
contradiction between the public aspect of the economy
and the private aspect of business ownership. Memory,
when reviewed by the entrepreneur and the entire team,
can become an ethical point of reference, thereby
reinforcing concepts such as social responsibility
and
company reputation.
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to create a tool that facilitates
access to business culture for those involved
in educational purposes.
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Why a bilingual
e-magazine? |
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We are aware of the increasing need for rapid, complete,
and at the same time, systemic information. Reconciling
the immediacy of multimedia with deeper analysis of
issues and complete data is our greatest challenge;
we aim to communicate to our readers not only through
written articles, but also through interactive use
of image and sound.
«Cultures and Enterprise»
is a vehicle of communication and comparison in an
international reality which is increasingly linksed
to small
and medium enterprise in Italy, in
terms of both ownership, and market operations.
Small and medium
enterprises are increasingly successful in achieving
their business objectives beyond the limits of national
boundaries. This data represents an innovative trend
for sme. In the case of multinational enterprises,
the construction of complex company cultures have
been observed which even oblige employees to identify
with the corporate
culture to the point of subduing their national identity.
In central and northern Europe the cultural heritage
of individual enterprises has long been considered
worthy of protection and vigorous cultural institutions
have emerged around them. Italian business culture
has much to learn, but at the same time offers a growing
contribution.
In this also, «Cultures
and Enterprise» intends
to be an organ of interchange and communication.
