Managerial Insights

Support the “Culture of Proximity,” Now More Than Ever

We know that many cultural organizations are intrinsically fragile: poorly capitalized, very dependent on cash flow, often self-referential and stuck in niches. We know well that cultural organizations – in particular those “of proximity” such as theaters, museums, libraries, and third sector entities with prevalently local aims and funding – are going through a very difficult period from a financial standpoint. And finally, we know that they are in excellent company: apart from a few sectors and a very small number of companies that are deriving great economic benefits from satisfying ...

Best Workplaces for Women, too?

What makes a workplace "the best place" to perform a profession? Many elements certainly regard various subjective variables (age, the contingent situation, or future aspirations), that make people more or less sensitive to specific aspects (financial stability, career prospects, or also proximity to one's family). While the historic Maslow pyramid reminds us that it is necessary and a priority to satisfy basic needs, the studies on the issue and the most recent organizational experiments insist on intangible and relational elements. According to Ariely, for example, it is essential for the associates ...

Pandemic, Money, and Debt: the Lessons from the Serenissima Republic

The two largest central banks in the world – the FED and the ECB – have shared a common hope in recent months: that fiscal policy will be effective. There is a substantive difference, however: although the heads of the two institutions – Powell and Lagarde – have the same problem, the COVID effect, Powell has an extra problem, the effect of the presidential elections, whoever the winner will be. The mix between the pandemic recession, politics, and money can lead to unforeseeable consequences, as the history of the Republic of Venice and its Bank show. The understand above all why the ...

The Great Race for a Vaccine that China Wants to Win

For more than a month the People’s Republic has not recorded any new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19;[1] schools and universities have reopened, and if we don’t consider the restrictions on entering the country and digital contact tracing,[2] everything seems to have returned to how it was prior to the pandemic. The Chinese economy was the first to breathe a sigh of relief, and the “Communist Party for the Chinese people, hit by the storm, has demonstrated the most reliable backbone,” President Xi Jinping declared last September 8, when he gave awards to the SARS-CoV-2 war heroes: ...

The Great Race for a Vaccine that China Wants to Win

For more than a month the People’s Republic has not recorded any new locally transmitted cases of COVID-19;[1] schools and universities have reopened, and if we don’t consider the restrictions on entering the country and digital contact tracing,[2] everything seems to have returned to how it was prior to the pandemic. The Chinese economy was the first to breathe a sigh of relief, and the “Communist Party for the Chinese people, hit by the storm, has demonstrated the most reliable backbone,” President Xi Jinping declared last September 8, when he gave awards to the SARS-CoV-2 war heroes: ...

Anti-COVID Vaccine: A Global Public Good

The events of recent weeks, from the start of the first wave of COVID-19 infections in some countries to the arrival of what seems to be a second wave in others, indicate that the world will have a hard time emerging from the current economic crisis linked to the pandemic if a safe and effective vaccine is not discovered first. There is no precedent in human memory of the health and economic sustenance of so many people depending on a single healthcare intervention; and the hopes of so many people being placed in the hands of a professional category, that of scientists, that in recent years has ...

Anti-COVID Vaccine: A Global Public Good

The events of recent weeks, from the start of the first wave of COVID-19 infections in some countries to the arrival of what seems to be a second wave in others, indicate that the world will have a hard time emerging from the current economic crisis linked to the pandemic if a safe and effective vaccine is not discovered first. There is no precedent in human memory of the health and economic sustenance of so many people depending on a single healthcare intervention; and the hopes of so many people being placed in the hands of a professional category, that of scientists, that in recent years has ...

Economic Policy, Finance, and Real Estate

More than six months after the start of the pandemic, we can use market prices to understand the opinion of investors regarding the consequences of the health shock. This is a particularly important analysis, especially given the contrast between the data coming from the real economy and that from the financial markets. Drawing inspiration from the customary international benchmark to then derive implications for Italy, we note that the United States economy contracted by one-third in the second quarter of the year, and the Fed foresees a drop in GDP of 7 percent for 2020. At the same time, the ...

Passion and Business in Publishing

A discussion with Carlo De Benedetti

Before talking about your new publishing venture, I would like to ask you some questions about your previous experience. You have been present in the publishing world since the 1980s. In these thirty years you have seen the evolution of the Italian publishing sector and the decline of the press, due first to television and then internet. This decline took place both internationally and naturally also in Italy. In this scenario, what position di Repubblica occupy? And what were the positive and negative aspects of your experience as the publisher of that newspaper? The most negative experience ...

Pinduoduo: The New Chinese E-Commerce Giant

Colin Huang is not a name known outside of China. Yet he is the man who together with Jack Ma of Alibaba and Pony Ma of Tencent (and thus WeChat) is competing for the top spots among China’s millionaires. Born in 1980, Huang comes from a working-class family and grew up in the suburbs of Hangzhou, the city in Eastern China where Jack Ma is also from, and where Alibaba has its headquarters. The company Huang created in 2015, Pinduoduo, has exceeded the value of the oil giant Shell in just five years. It is an e-commerce platform that competes directly with Alibaba and JD, but that uses messaging ...