Fundamental Tenets of the Foundation: The Valorization of Borsalino’s Cultural Heritage and the Development of Corporate Communication
The Birth of the Borsalino Foundation
IThe 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.: The foundation began, to use your words, as part of Borsalino; above all in order to valorize the company's cultural heritage, but also to broaden its communicative potential. Well, in this initial stage, How would you describe the relationship between the two groups?
R.G.: The relationship between the foundation and the company is, for now, the most evident problem. We have established a participatory foundation in which all possible associates should play an active role from time to time . By this I mean the involvement of third parties: companies, institutions, organizations, or whoever shares our objectives and goals and contributes financially or in some other way, to the growth of the Foundation and also wishes to make use of it.
G.D.L.: Does this mean that participation has gone beyond the exclusive involvement of the company?
R.G.: No, not for now. We are still creating a credible project to present outside the company in order to find partners who want to communicate and publicize their brand, their company and their products in a new and different way, by means of a cultural vehicle. And this is where the problem arises in the relationship between Borsalino spa and Borsalino Foundation.
G.D.L.: Are you saying that the company's support of the Foundation and its activities is not yet what you would like it to be?
R.G.: The main difficulty stems from the fact that, at the moment, the only ones who are really involved with the daily running of the foundation are the architect, Masoero, the accountant, Caretto and myself, since we are part of the board of directors. In addition, we have the curator, Elisa Fulco and others who cooperate with us. Instead, the people who work for Borsalino should see the foundation as a powerful means to accomplish public relations. Up to now, the results are not what we expected and the participation in our initiatives of the those from the Group is not what we thought it would be. Perhaps this is because the foundation is young and we haven't yet made a strong impression on people. This is a very delicate issue: I certainly don't want to interfere with the effective running of every single business area in the company. [For now,] we will keep working to develop the Foundation, and obtain some results.
G.D.L.: What sort of human resources does the foundation have to help achieve its goals? What kind of staff and organization does it have?
R.G.: As far as the internal organization is concerned, the principle of strictly respecting roles and functions is applied. I believe this notion is fundamental for the positive performance of all companies.
G.D.L.: I hope you'll excuse the joke but…it sounds like a very Savoyard structure.[ note: the Royal House of Savoy once ruled the Kingdom of Italy before it became a republic in 1946.]
R.G.: That's true but it's a joke that matches with reality. Surely, my role is to indicate strategies and how to implement them to the Board, but then there are people who look after the administrative part, people who follow the projects, such as Elena Masoero and people who take care of the museum like Elisa Fusco―she also gives us valuable conceptual input. Strict respect for these roles, strong belief in the foundation and of course, hard work: these are the three cornerstones that make up our strong points and give us substantial agility in making decisions. We are fortunate that we can decide on issues without too many restrictions. It's just the three of us; so we meet and we decide. I began my professional life in a joint stock company and I am not an expert of non-profit organizations or foundations, so I am studying them. I am lucky enough to have wonderful co-workers, in particular architect Masoero, who has followed the project with me from the beginning through all its difficulties. We have had many meetings with professionals but with disappointing results, so we are a little reluctant to resort any further to consultants.
G.D.L.: So – let me guess – you still do not have a Scientific Committee.
R.G.: Even if the By-law provides for the creation of scientific and ethical committees, as well as the related commissions, for the moment we prefer to have a more agile structure.
G.D.L.: [I suppose] this choice avoids what appears to be a burden, the same choice that has been made by several business foundations such as the Dalmine Foundation and the Famiglia Legler Foundation.
R.G.: For the moment, we prefer to keep this structure, to clarify our plan for accomplishing our goal and to work hard, with particular thanks to our ladies who are very competent. At the moment I am working on a strategy to achieve full interaction between Borsalino spa and the foundation. Up to now we have only carried out a few actions, but we hope to increase them and to make them successful. In the meanwhile, we are also working to create a network of individuals and organizations who want to cooperate with us. We are well aware that if we just stay in our own backyard, we won't go anywhere. We are making considerable efforts to increase our communications; we take part in conferences and seminars and we have created a large database of contacts that will help us to identify those whose path is similar to ours.
G.D.L.: After human resources, there is the issue of foundation's financial resources. Does your budget set limits on your strategy or do you not worry about it too much and just follow your heart in spite of the obstacles?
R.G.: If it were only a question of following my heart, I would do anything for the foundation. It's my co-workers who bring me back to reality. Within Borsalino SpA, I'm the one who decides the budget, keeps an eye on it and analyses the variance. However, I still need to work on some of my ideas; so for the moment we are simply moving ahead with all the initiatives we can. Apart from that, I have created, within Borsalino Spa, a funding mechanism for the foundation in which a part of the earnings of the 17 Borsalino shops is directed to the foundation. This way, every quarter, there will be a transfer of funds (taken from the shops' earnings) from Borsalino SpA to the Foundation. This new system started with the quarter which ended on December 31st, 2009.
G.D.L.: Is it a large sum?
R.G.: Bear in mind that 80% of the earnings of Borsalino SpA is made in that period. We are talking about a sum starting from 200 thousand Euros.
G.D.L.: That's a pretty substantial amount for a foundation, especially now.
R.G.: It is. This financing system was formalized, and accepted by the company. It seemed the best way to start involving them more regularly, rather than asking them for funds now and then.
