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Business is the leading
force of the change that took to the current
knowledge civilization and to the subsequent
logistic and communication revolution of
just in time and zero time. But with no
active memory practice, the leading power
of business is at risk.
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According to
Peter
Drucker, one of the greatest contemporary experts
of business management,
organizations
are the
habitat of human beings and
their «social ecology».
Indeed, over the last 250 years, business has spread
various forms of organizational logic. Beginning around
1750 up to the 1900s, the application of technology
evolved to gradually conquer the world. The Industrial
Revolution established a new civilization that radically
changed the meaning of the word «knowledge».
The path of this development can be traced through
phases:
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from 1750 until the last
quarter of the 19th century, knowledge was
applied to tools, processes and products |
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then, up to WW II, knowledge
was applied to work; the «productivity
revolution» took place |
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following WW II up to
our time, knowledge has been applied to itself,
thus defining the «management
revolution». |
This fairly linear course, has led to what is nowadays
called the «knowledge civilization»,
and business has been its leading force. This continuously
accelerating path, however, has moved us beyond
mere clock time.
Another more
troubling feature in the development of organizational
logic is its increasing acceleration. In the final
and contemporary phase, we started from
clock
time marked by the stopwatch of the Fordist
assembly line, leading to the just-in-time logistic
revolution, a sort of eternal present in which time/space
are compressed, or a
zero time
digital revolution, in which instant response to
customers is made
possible
by the in multimedia communication.
In an
extended present, even the
notion of progress itself ages quickly. As a result,
the power of enterprise to spearhead progress and
initiative may be jeopardized.
«Culture e impresa»
was created to respond to this risk. Our journal
aims to promote both a critical use of memory and
«active recall», where past, present
and future interact.
The same goal is pursued, in full accordance with
its statute, by the Fondazione
Ansaldo, whose basic targets are preservation
and enhancement of memory. This is a time
of pluralism where many «cultures» co-exist.
We strongly believe in recognizing the real value
of business as a virtual place where knowledge and
work meet through the active practice of
memory and project in
order to reconquer time and space on a human level.
