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The Borsalino Foundation: an Interview with Roberto Gallo and Elena Masoero
by Giuseppe De Luca
Asti, October 21st, 2009

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Fundamental Tenets of the Foundation: The Valorization of Borsalino’s Cultural Heritage and the Development of Corporate Communication


The Birth of the Borsalino Foundation
The Borsalino Hat Museum
The Foundation's Relationship with the Company and its Management
The Foundation's Global Development: "its heart in the village and its eyes on the world"


G.D.L.: What motivated you to create the Foundation?
R.G.:
Borsalino is a 150 year old company whose brand [of distinctive hats] is recognized worldwide. It is an original "made in Italy" enterprise that combines craftsmanship in its handmade products, art and culture; it preserves a historical collection and demonstrates true business culture values. Thinking about it, I felt that a Borsalino Foundation already existed, as a sort of hidden container of these values. But no-one could see it and so it was up to us to 'open' it [ up to the public]. From the very moment that architect Elena Masoero, and I realized this, the Foundation was born. Elena has worked with me throughout all the planning and organizational stages. At one point, I decided to check if there were valid reasons not to create a Borsalino Foundation. I found only one short-term financial reason. If you believe in a project, that it has value and an important role to play; all this will be assessed like any investment .in due time. Borsalino possesses a treasure of heritage and exceptional values; I am convinced it would have been a crime not to carry out this initiative.
G.D.L.: So the Foundation can be thought of as a sort of collector and a showcase of entrepreneurial values which – to use your metaphor – are a real treasure built up over 150 years of corporate history. Tell me, when did your love for Borsalino's heritage begin?
R.G.: My love for Borsalino began the moment I went into the factory for the first time. I am a professional accountant, with a degree in economics and in 1992, when my family purchased Borsalino, it was decided that I would manage it.
G.D.L.: Does your family have entrepreneurial origins?
R.G.: Yes, it is and we are a reference point for the construction industry in the area of Asti (Piedmont). With the purchase of Borsalino, a hallmark brand whose center is located just 30 kilometers from home, we accepted a real challenge.
G.D.L.: So, you were fascinated by this new world that you discovered in the factory.
R.G.: Let's say I grew up in an industrial and business environment, but I had never seen a production process like the one I saw at Borsalino. When you get in there and see what it means to make felt – seven weeks of manufacturing, more than 50 steps, a lot of manual work, finished pieces, each one distinct from the other– either you couldn't care less about it because it isn't your field or you fall in love with it. You witness the production process of a hat, which substantially hasn't changed in 150 years. Here is an example: the proportion between the number of items produced and employees is always the same. In 1900, when Giuseppe Borsalino died, the company manufactured around one million hats with 9 hundred workers. After the hat crisis, the market shrank, and consequently, the company produced around 85-90 thousand hats with 85-90 workers. You see, the proportion did not change. How many companies in 100-150 years did not face a technological development or use new techniques to reduce this proportion that weighs strongly on the budget? When, at the beginning, I confirmed the strong element of craftsmanship in the handmade production, I based my observation on hard evidence. In the most important dictionaries, the brand-name Borsalino is listed as a synonym of hat. Even if this might raise some issues about the popularization of the brand, it certainly reflects the evocative strength acquired by the brand.
G.D.L.: Your interest and passion for the historical and cultural core of the company were sparked with your first contact with the company itself, is that right?
R.G.: Yes, indeed.. Long before deciding – in January 2008 – to create the foundation, architect Masoero and I had decided to start some initiatives to highlight and valorize the cultural aspects of the company, which were preliminary to the setting up of the Foundation. I am speaking of all the work we did with Turin and Milan Polytechnics on the research of new prototypes created by their young students. We also closed the Borsalino boutique in Rue de Grenelle in Paris in order to host artistic exhibitions ; so the boutique became an art gallery three months a year. In addition, we decided to go ahead with the project for the Borsalino Hat Museum [in Alessandria in Northern Italy].
G.D.L.: This means that even the most specific considerations about the importance of Borsalino's heritage and the historical memory of the company started with its acquisition.
R.G.: We understood this aspect immediately and how difficult it would have been to retrieve and catalogue the entire historical patrimony. Architect Masoero can probably add something about this point.
E.M.: When we started to think through the values of Borsalino and its cultural heritage – that it should not be neglected, but valorized – we felt that the first step was to communicate it. We took small steps and decided to organize and grow slowly, trying to understand from past experiences what didn't work and what could be improved so that we could create the Foundation with conditions that were reassuring to us and, at the same time, strengthened our credibility outside the company. After the first initiatives, we created the Museum, the result of an agreement between Borsalino spa and the Municipality of Alessandria. This was an important step since it meant the return to its territory of a past, a history, a bond that had loosened over the years. For a long time, every family in Alessandria had at least one member working for Borsalino. This percentage decreased with the passing of time and consequently, this living bond diminished. While we were working on setting up the Museum, we were told that the life of the city revolved around the time schedules of the factory – as it happens in every one company town – and that there was a total overlap of public works, daily rhythms and cultural offers. Making this Museum a reality meant giving the city and the territory their history back, but it also meant communicating the company's past and its longstanding values to people who work there now. Therefore, this was the initial investment by Borsalino spa, first created as "Progetto arte e cultura" (Art and Culture Project) and then redirected to the Foundation.

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