Maurizio di Robilant is the founder of agency Robilant & Associati and president of Italia Patria della Bellezza Foundation, a no profit project whose aim is to relaunch Italian cultural and touristic identity. We asked him at what stage our beautiful country is in the enhancement of entrepreneurial and territorial resources and which role is played by communication in this path that also Superstudio has embraced since its beginning.

Italy is the cradle of beauty. Was the idea to create Italia Patria della Bellezza Foundation born from a personal passion only or also from your professional experience?                                                                  
Both certainly, but there is no doubt that my passionate culture about the value...

Maurizio di Robilant is the founder of agency Robilant & Associati and president of Italia Patria della Bellezza Foundation, a no profit project whose aim is to relaunch Italian cultural and touristic identity. We asked him at what stage our beautiful country is in the enhancement of entrepreneurial and territorial resources and which role is played by communication in this path that also Superstudio has embraced since its beginning.

Italy is the cradle of beauty. Was the idea to create Italia Patria della Bellezza Foundation born from a personal passion only or also from your professional experience?                                                                   
Both certainly, but there is no doubt that my passionate culture about the value and potential of branding were the engine that pushed me to contribute to the Italian strength and reputation in the world, proposing beauty as part of the Competitive Identity of the Country.

With the last call the Foundation has decided to dedicate itself to "the last mile" of project planning: communication. How did it go?  
Very good! After years spent acting "top down", trying to bring our vision to government levels where, although with some appreciation, we found neither listening nor support (...the fact is not surprising, given the relationship between Power and Citizen), last year we reversed the strategy by acting "bottom up". We have thus identified a "blue sea" where to position ourselves:  distributing funds and services to small no profit entities taking care of the protection, creation and valorization of the Italian Beauty.

The Italian beauty heritage is a true gold mine for companies based here. Italia Patria della Bellezza Foundation may represent a great opportunity for the most sensitive ones...                                               
More than 70 participants from all over Italy responded to the call and the proposal we made to some communication agencies to adopt one of these projects has been very successful. So, from the 4 winners planned, 11 projects were launched this year. This result has convinced us to offer to companies interested in acting for common good the opportunity to be a partner of the 2022 call in different forms, including a prize directly sponsored by the company. The partner can choose a project either on territorial or content basis related to its field of action, becoming the protagonist of a socially relevant action.

Beauty, art, fashion, design, communication are five pillars of Superstudio. As a Milanese and as a communicator, what struck you during the 40 years of activity of Superstudio?
Its innovative inclination and the ability to always maintain a high reputation.
When Superstudio was born, the Tortona area was essentially a neighborhood "in the middle of nowhere", made of warehouses and laboratories for industrial use. Superstudio can be considered a real territorial marketing project, where the ability to identify the qualitative potential of the place has given dignity to a neighborhood that did not have any until it turns into an internationally recognized center for fashion and creativity.
Superstudio is also a project open to all but with a strong direction and a rigorous and qualitative editorial line by Gisella Borioli, a fundamental feature to spread culture and beauty with quality.

You got to know several large companies from the 80s to today. How much has the awareness of these important actors changed regarding their role and social impact?                                                         
In 40 years much has changed: the profession that every 10 years has reinvented itself, the society that, despite the complaints, has evolved by improving its services, the companies that have traveled the most virtuous roads even if the gap between Italy and the rest of the Western world is still large and this is due to a controversial aspect of the Italian paradigm. On one hand we find a widespread entrepreneurial spirit that characterized the "Italian miracle". In the years '50 to '70 creativity, flexibility and passion have produced the myth of Made in Italy. On the other hand we encounter a mentality that has led to the crystallization of organizational structures, fundamentally familistic. These aspects are still slowing down meritocracy, together with the social role of our entrepreneurial context.

In your way of approaching and leading companies in their positioning, ethics and maieutic are two recurring terms of the classical world. What is their value and how do you apply them to business? Commercial success, long-term one, is based on the trust between Enterprise and Customer (I do not like the term consumer, it suggests an abstract and empty entity) and is consolidated thanks to the sharing of fundamental values; the maieutic action that we operate on our Customers is just turned to the revalorization of the roots on which lays the "Know-how" (often forgotten) of a Company and on its ethical behaviors towards all the Stakeholders, guarantee of lasting success.

What position has Italian entrepreneurship in your mind on the international scene? Can being Italian still be considered as a "trademark"?        
I am deeply convinced that there is an Italian model of doing business that is unique in the world, made of passion and genius, accompanied by great flexibility and love for quality. These factors must guide us to serve the niches of the world that are our preferred markets. What prevents us from giving full development to this potential is the lack of willingness of our Entrepreneurs to create a network among themselves, typical provincial attitude of "fo' tutto mi" (meaning ‘I do it all by myself’ according to the Milanese dialect) of which many small and large entrepreneurs are victims.