Gold plaques for three product patents, two for the production process and three for materials were presented at the Castello degli Arcimboldi, Bicocca, on Thursday 26 November. The winners were 17 inventors of Pirelli Tyre and Parts, who received their plaques from the chairman of Pirelli, Marco Tronchetti Provera. Speakers who described the importance of the award-winning inventions were Francesco Gori, managing director of Pirelli Tyre and director general of Tyre and Parts, Pier Giovanni Giannesi, director of Industrial Property, and Maurizio Boiocchi, Pirelli Tyre Product director.

For the inventors of Pirelli Tyre, Pirelli Labs and Pirelli & C. Eco Technology, authors of the 53 patents deposited in 2008, there was the silver plaque ceremony on Monday 30 November in the Auditorium of the Pirelli Tyre Building, Bicocca. Speakers at that ceremony were Francesco Gori, Pier Giovanni Giannesi, Bruno Tronchetti Provera, managing director of Pirelli & C. Eco Technology, Maurizio Boiocchi and Enrico Albizzati of Pirelli Labs.

The awards scheme, launched by Confindustria (the Confederation of Italian Industry) in collaboration with APQI – Associazione Premio Qualità Italia (the Quality Award Association of Italy) and a number of experts of the sector, has as its objective to make known and diffuse organisational and strategic models oriented toward growth through innovation.

The Premio was received on behalf of Pirelli Tyre by Maurizio Boiocchi, head of the company’s Product Development. The ceremony was attended by the President of the Italian Republic Giorgio Napolitano, the president of Confindustria Emma Marcegaglia, the vice-president for Research&Innovation Diana Bracco and Mariastella Gelmini, Minister of Education, as a testimony to the authorititativeness of this initiative, now in its third year.

To know more and to listen to the interview to M. Boiocchi (available in Italian only):

http://www.confindustriaixi.it

The reorganization will allow for significant downsizing of the corporate level structures, with savings, once the reorganization is completed, of at least 10 million euros on an annual basis starting in 2010, and regrouping of operating activities necessary for growth of the core business: tyres (Pirelli Tyre) and filters (Pirelli Eco Technology) within the new Department, thus ensuring one single management of corporate processes. This Department will incorporate the activities of Purchasing, Administration and Control, Pirelli Labs, Advertising and Events, Human Resources, Health, Safety & Environment (which also reports to the Group General Counsel), and the Service Centers for information technology and administrative activities.

In addition to the new Department, the following will report directly to the Chairman:

• the Group General Counsel, Francesco Chiappetta, who will be in charge of, in addition to Legal and Corporate Affairs, Group Compliance, the Risk Officer, Industrial Property, and Security;
• the Finance Department, led by Francesco Tanzi, who joins the Group and who will be in charge of Finance, Tax, Budget, Risk Management and M&A. Francesco Tanzi was also appointed by the Board of Directors to be the Manager mandated to draft corporate accounting documents;
• the Institutional and Cultural Affairs Department, headed by Antonio Calabrò;
• the Image and Brand Extension Department, headed by Andrea Imperiali;
• the Investor Relations Department, headed by Valeria Leone;
• the Media Communications Department, headed by Maurizio Abet.

The following will also report directly to the Chairman: Maurizio Sala, as Group Controller (also in charge of Administration and Control for Pirelli Tyre); Human Resources, headed by Fabrizio Rutschmann, for HR strategy and senior management HR; Internal Audit, headed by Maurizio Bonzi; Pirelli Broadband Solutions; Pirelli Ambiente and PZero.

In line with the focus on industrial activities, the reorganization includes closing the Operations Department, headed by Claudio De Conto, who managed with skill and authority the roles and functions assigned to him in recent years. Claudio De Conto, who participated in mapping out the above-indicated Group reorganization, will now focus his activity, as CEO Finance, on Pirelli Real Estate. Together with the other CEO of Pirelli RE, Giulio Malfatto, Claudio De Conto will continue to manage the positive turnaround process underway.

To download the .pdf document, please access Press Release section of our site.

• Green performance is the Group’s password by which to affront the recession and sustain global competitiveness. In Pirelli World, the commitment of Pirelli Eco Technology in Holland and China through interviews with Davide Fedeli and Francesco Ceriani.
• Working Pirelli: 137 years of work in the factories of the world told by a book, an exhibition and a conference. The Pirelli Foundation is born for the promotion of Pirelli’s business culture.
• The search for excellence never stops. At B.U. Moto they change the approach to sales with a new training programme for the whole commercial structure.
• How do you achieve 40% of market share? The Petinsa-Pirelli case: focus on model distribution in Uruguay.
• And then from Brazil the backstage pictures of the 2010 Cal, the Pirelli PZERO collection for the next season and much, much more…

Pirelli World nr 56 Aug09

 Pirelli World, an English language quarterly magazine targeted at the Group’s management around the world, is published in Milan and distributed to all Group  affiliates worldwide.

The conference, in which members of the political, union, culture and entrepreneurial worlds took part at the invitation of the President of the Chamber, was born of the recent publication of “PIRELLI – STORIES OF WORK. Men, machines and ideas”, a book produced by Pirelli and published by Mondadori, which covers 136 years of the company’s history, recounting the social and economic reality of the country.

‘Internationalisation’, ‘technological innovation’ and ‘moral stature’, the values of Pirelli on which President Fini paused in his introductory speech, before handing over to Marco Tronchetti Provera, chairman of the Pirelli Group, who reminded the audience at the Sala della Regina that ‘passion’, ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘competence’ have enabled Pirelli to continue to be a bearer of innovation over time.

Of an anthropological, economic and social type, the contribution of Jean Paul Fitoussi, author of one of the three prefaces of the book (the others were by the writer  Erri De Luca and Antonio Calabrò, Pirelli’s director of Institutional Affairs and External Relations), remarked on how “one cannot imagine the future of the world without the wheel“, because “the wheel is an indispensable instrument that enables man to move about, like glasses are to reading”.

“An unusual book, particularly courageous, also of great usefulness“, was the comment of Sergio Cofferati, who in his speech recalled Leopoldo Pirelli as one of the most avant garde contributors to the debate on the social conflicts of industrial civilisation.

Lastly, the remarks of the Minister of the Economy, Giulio Tremonti, who directed the attention of the audience to the importance of the patrimonial account in evaluating a company, an account that gives back the historic patrimony of a company, ‘photographing’ in that way a system of values and the values themselves that its financial account does not contemplate. A sophisticated metaphor for administrators, for whom the Minister recalled how ‘competence and prudence’ are at the basis of a successful management.

The conference concluded with the wish, on the part by President Gianfranco Fini, for at least another 136 years of life for Pirelli.
An extremely important afternoon for the Group which, in the splendour of the Sala della Regina, gave voice to the work of all the Pirelliani, advocates of a model history for the economy, but also for the social and cultural life of Italy and the world.

The new Regional is a revolutionary tyre able to combine two points of view that, until recently, seemed irreconcilable: the severe norms in favour of the environment and the needs of the client. FR:01 for directional axles and TR:01 for traction axles anticipate the norm concerning respect for the environment, at the same time satisfying request for a reduction in the costs of management coming from clients due to greater mileage, reduction in fuel consumption, remouldability and respect for the environment, as emphasised by the Ecoimpact icon on the sidewall of the tyre.

The Bolognese event was also the right occasion on which to introduce a packet of new services in support of the operators: the Pirelli Retreading System, the renewed Pirelli system for remoulding tyres, the assistance on the road CQ24 International and Credit Tyre, the financing system for fleets and dealers.

Truck, the Pirelli Group’s new three-monthly magazine devoted to the world of transport, was also presented to the public and opens a channel of communication between the company and end users for continuous updating and closer examination of product innovations and the needs of the client. Tyres of the R:01 series were donated to the Civil Defence organisation at Aquila to equip the heavy vehicles of the Fire Service.

This year’s conference previewed the results of one of the most important revolutions in the recent history of the thoughts of man, the decoding of DNA, begun in the Fifties by James Watson and Francis Crick and concluded in 2000 by Craig Venter.

Brought together for three days on the Island of St. George, a number of the world’s most authoritative scientists will analyse the impact of this discovery on biotechnology, the comprehension of living beings, the protection of health and thefight against the principal illnesses such as cancer, on agriculture and the management of biological resources and new bioethics raised by the genetic consequences.

Also involved is the AIRC (Italian Association for Research Against Cancer), Italy’s point of reference in cancer research, which organised ‘Cancer Genetics’, the seminar on the evaluation of the risk, prevention of the risk, staminal cells of cancer and, finally, therapy with the targeted objective of discussion by world leaders in these areas.
“Thanks to the DNA revolution, we have discovered the genetic bases of many illnesses that has permitted us to extend the duration of the life of man, also improving its quality”, explained James Watson, the Nobel Prize winner for the discovery of the DNA structure in the Fifties, who was present at this morning’s press conference. He continued, “In the next 10 years, we expect to arrive at understanding, in particular, ‘the essence of cancer’. Today, in the anti-tumour therapy target there are staminal cells that are the right objectives with which to defeat the illness. In addition, genetic engineering guarantees us a higher global level of health and well-being, helping us to obtain better foods from animals and better plants. A fundamental factor will also be the reduction of the cost of genomic research, which today is very high. The cost of the sequencing individual DNA will be increasingly within the reach of everyone“.

Those who participated in the presentation as well as James Watson were Umberto Veronesi, President of the conference, Chiara Tonelli, Secretary General, Giovanni Bazoli, President of the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Marco Tronchetti Provera, President of the Silvio Tronchetti Provera Foundation and Maria Ines Colnaghi, Scientific Director of the Italian Association for Research Against Cancer.

The programme of the Fifth World Conference is available on:
www.thefutureofscience.org

The Pirelli Foundation was officially established some months ago to fulfil the wishes of Pirelli & C. SpA, Pirelli Tyre, Pirelli RE and the Pirelli family and its own offices are soon to be inaugurated at Bicocca.

Building 134, at which reconstruction work supervised by Pirelli RE will be completed in June, will host the newborn Foundation, starting with the Historic Archives, which hold all the rearranged, restored and catalogued material that constitutes the history of Pirelli. A rich and composite patrimony, from the illustrations and works of Marcello Dudovich of the early 20th century to the 131 editions of Rivista Pirelli, which were published between 1948 and 1972 with illustrious contributions from writers including Montale, Saba, Gadda and Eco, as well as commercial and financial documents, films, photographs, publicity posters etc.

In the building, which will be open in the future to experts and private citizens, there will also be a room for consultation, another for video and a space for meetings, because the Foundation certainly wants it to be an activity of memory enhancement, but also that it should carry out a constructive role in the present through the organisation of initiatives based on themes associated with the culture of business (exhibitions, publications, seminars, competitions…)

The Pirelli Foundation is presided over by Marco Tronchetti Provera, Chairman of the Pirelli Group, and directed by Antonio Calabrò, Director of Institutional Affairs and External Relations. Members of the Board of Directors are Alberto Pirelli, Vice-President Pirelli Group, Carlo Puri Negri, Vice-President of the Pirelli Group and Managing Director of Pirelli RE, Francesco Gori, Managing Director and Director General of Pirelli Tyre, Claudio De Conto, Operative Director General of the Pirelli Group and Managing Director, Finance of Pirelli RE.

The Honorary President is Cecilia Pirelli.

Its first initiative is the establishment of the School of High Education for Management.

Convinced that, also in periods of crisis, it is necessary to invest in the future, the three foundations have decided to respond to the need for better education for the young with concrete initiatives, giving their backing to quality and openness to innovation. It is from that premise that the School of High Education for Management has been established, in collaboration with the Collège des Ingénieurs, one of the most authoritative European institutions in the field of management education.

The School of High Education for Management will be aimed at young graduates in engineering and in scientific and economics disciplines (15 the first year, 40 at full capacity) offering them a full-time Masters Degree in Business Administration based on four months of education in-hall and six months of action training in a company: the young people will join client companies as junior consultants and will work on projects of strategic interest.

The Masters Degree will be free of cost for course members, who will be selected exclusively on the basis of merit and preparation (not for income), who will be paid, as a result of a contractual engagement that will terminate at the end of the duration of the period of education: that distinguishes the initiative from other similar undertakings.
The start of the courses is scheduled for September 2009; in-hall education (in the English language) will take place in part together with lecturers and the students of the Collège des Ingénieurs in the offices of Paris, Stuttgart and San Gallo, in part in the offices in Turin with lecturers from the Italian polytechnics and universities and from the world of business.
Those who participated in the press presentation of the school were John Elkann, vice-president of the Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, Riccardo Garrone, president of the Edoardo Garrone Foundation, Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation and Philippe Mahrer, president of the Association du Collège des Ingénieurs. Gustavo Bracco, head of the school, presented the fundamental principals of the initiative.