More corporate welfare, more investments in technology, more innovation and greater involvement of young people. In the list of things to do to revive the Italian economy, with the handbrake on for decades, these slogans are recurrent.
Yet in this Italy that is growing at a slow pace, where the average age advances and companies struggle every day with bureaucracy, there is no lack of visionaries and innovators. Like Adriano Olivetti, whose sip on April 11th celebrated the 120th anniversary of his birth.
The new podcast series
On corporate welfare, technology, young people and more, Olivetti is always one step ahead. To him and to the history of Olivetti (before and after his death) The sun 24 hours dedicates a new series in podcast online on the site and on all streaming platforms from Sunday 25 April. The series, entitled Olivetti, the lost opportunity, is signed by Paolo Colombo, Professor of History of Political Institutions at the Catholic University of Milan. The one on Olivetti is the second podcast in the “history telling” series after the one dedicated to John Fitzgerald Kennedy released in November 2020.
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The lack of made in Italy hi-tech revolution
«The series – explains Colombo – wants to tell an unconventional entrepreneur whose conception of a company goes beyond the mere logic of production and profit. It is a company that certainly focuses on innovation and the product. But also people’s lives. With extremely innovative corporate welfare measures for the times ». An example? “The Olivetti worker assistance regulation which provides for nine months of maternity and assistance for mothers and children against the two required by law. Or medical assistance which is also extended to depressive syndromes”.
But the story of Olivetti is also that of the failure of the Italian hi-tech revolution: «The need to face financial problems after Adriano’s death will push us to put aside the most innovative sectors such as electronics. And today we just have to imagine what country we could have become if history had taken another course ».