The interview with Mr. Gonizzi took place before
Culture
e impresa was founded, and the Schedule research
project was planned. Therefore, some of the data mentioned
in the above introduction do not appear in this interview.
However, we have decided to publish Mr. Gonizzi’s
interview here because it explains the original features
of the Barilla business archive.
This archive was not created as a natural consequence
of the Barilla company organization. Previously,
there was nothing but the belief (typical of a multinational
company such as WR Grace &Co) that company identity
is just a leftover from old-fashioned family capitalism,
and that the achievements arising from good archives
management are insignificant.The retrieval of historical
records was carried out thanks to the dedication
of Pietro Barilla, who realized that this could
be a tool to assert his leadership (see 1994 issue
of Cento anni di pubblicità e comunicazione,
ed. Giancarlo Gonizzi).
The archives, coined by Mr. Gonizzi as an «archives
of reconstruction», was formulated
by collating records found within and outside the
company. This is the reason why the order of the
records is actually based on library,
rather than archival, standards.
Lastly, the archives development: the presence
of a professional archivist from the beginning helped
to make sense of discrepancies and create a real
archives based on the organizational make-up of
the company.
To sum up, the cultural institution was created
through an act of business policy designed to bridge
the gap between two different styles and times in
the Barilla management. The «archive of reconstruction»
described by Mr. Gonizzi is a symbol of the family
commitment to the business conceived as a community.
The archive is now a key moment in the training
of new employees, thanks to its growing value.
The links between entrepreneurial family, company
and archives becomes irrevocable and is demonstrated
by a section of the company archive concerning the
family.
This process doesn’t necessarily follow the
basic principles of classic archival science, but
has proved effective in terms of leadership assertion,
and business organization.
We are invited to a further reflection on this
subject by Mr. Gonizzi’s use of the expression
«business cultural institutions», thus
escaping the ineffectiveness of the traditional
taxonomy (archives, museums, collections) as far
as cultural assets are concerned. The core of the
matter is that a company has no established place
within the traditional classification of «cultural
assets». Business culture is a complex
whole, which cannot be split up into types
or origins.
