The Giannino Bassetti Foundation was called in by the Carlo Cattaneo-LIUC University in Castellanza to run the “Innovazione e Creatività” module directed at students in the second year of the Master’s Degree Course in Corporate Economics (academic year 2005-2006).
This exercise in innovative teaching gave rise to an organic debate on the crux of the FGB’s thinking and mission, which culminated in the publication of the first issue of the Quaderni della Fondazione Giannino Bassetti, entitled: “Innovazione, creatività e responsabilità. Formare gli imprenditori del futuro.”
The case-study method was adopted, placing the emphasis on first-person accounts given by innovative entrepreneurs who had created opportunities for success even in low-tech environments. A wide range of accounts of real ways in which innovation had been achieved was held out, commencing with the background problems and the motives that spurred the entrepreneur on and going on to examine the technical problems encountered in each corporate context in depth.
These first-person accounts were intended as encounters with a range of entrepreneurial and personal experience acquired on the Italian and international scene. Each of the witnesses brought his own point of view on innovation and responsibility, on the political and moral constraints on innovative entrepreneurial strategies and on the personal gratification that innovation brings.
The entrepreneurs involved, whose accounts are published in the volume, were: Ottavio Missoni (chairman of Missoni SpA), Ernesto Gismondi (chairman of Artemide SpA), Silvio Scaglia (chairman of Fastweb SpA), Rosario Messina (chairman of Flou SpA), Silvano Pedrollo (chairman of Pedrollo SpA) and Alberto Schena (foreign strategies and business manager with InfoCamere SpA).