Essere impresa nel mondo (‘Being a company in the world’)

DESCRIPTION
In the 1950’s, the process of internationalisation of Olivetti made a qualitative leap. In a favourable international context, the company managed to acquire an important productive or commercial presence in all continents. At the base of this success, Camillo Olivetti’s entrepreneurial choices in the 1920s and 1930s, when the company moved on two strategic fronts for growth: process and product innovation in sectors that were then at the technological frontier, and direct investments abroad to create its own production and commercial buildings. This enabled the company to overcome the Great Depression of 1929-32 almost unscathed. Adriano remained faithful to the cornerstones of his father’s entrepreneurial strategy, strengthening them with a more modern organisation of work, new plants, careful attention to the company’s image and corporate communication. He built a company on a global scale, which established itself through innovation and culture, efficiency and social responsibility, such that in 1959 it was able to take control of a historic brand of typewriters, the American Underwood, and at the same time to present the first Italian electronic computer. The sudden disappearance of Adriano in 1960 made it difficult to continue developing the international presence together with technological innovation: but that path remains a model to this day.

Author: Adriana Castagnoli
Publisher: Edizioni Il Mulino
Series: Collana di studi e Ricerche dell’Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti
Year: 2012
Language: Italian
Dimensions: 13.5 x 21 cm
Pages: 267
ISBN: 978-88-15-24067-5