Federico Brunetti

The Cluetrain Manifesto: Customers and employees as people

The Cluetrain Manifesto is a document, published in 1999, on the World Wide Web which, on the basis of the opportunities offered by the Net, introduces some rather innovative ideas on company communication whose effects involve company management as well as, in a broader sense, the way the company is conceived. Being considered a contribution deserving some interest, in this paper a critical analysis of the Cluetrain Manifestos contents is carried out in order to highlight the positive aspects as well as those that seem to be less convincing. In the final evaluation, a thesis is exposed according to which the Cluetrain Manifesto belongs to that heterogeneous group of studies which, from different points of view, are presently challenging the role of marketing as a company function, the legitimacy--or at least the reputation--of the management as a professional activity and, last but not least, the position of the company as an institution of our society.

Il valore dello store design nel settore grocery : le scelte differenzianti della catena distributiva MPreis.

I punti vendita del moderno grocery sono generalmente realizzati in base a logiche di funzionalita ed efficienza, piu che di stupore e coinvolgimento sensoriale ed emotivo dei clienti. Anche in letteratura, la maggiore attenzione dal punto di vista dello store design e dedicata all’analisi dei contesti non grocery. Questo lavoro si propone di presentare la singolare esperienza di MPreis, catena di supermercati austriaca, che si caratterizza per valorizzare i diversi elementi di store design, tra cui in particolare l’architettura, al fine di creare identita e differenziazione competitiva nei territori in cui opera. Sulla base dell’approccio di ricerca qualitativo del case study, l’analisi dei dati raccolti evidenzia il coraggio della diversita, l’impegno nella ricerca estetica e il senso del dono come elementi centrali delle condotte dell’azienda oggetto di studio. Il paper consente cosi, da un lato, di includere lo store design tra le leve competitive a disposizione del retail grocery e, dall’altro, di far emergere il senso del dono e il possesso di un adeguato company ethos come componenti tra i piu imprescindibili per l’impresa del futuro.

New enterprise models: trial runs of “capitalism with a human face”

Purpose – The intent of this paper is to discover whether practical examples of new forms of business enterprise are to be found in the real world and what the peculiarities of any such experiments are.Design/methodology/approach – The research conducted is of an eminently explorative nature. The research operations are fundamentally based on direct observation and use is also made of secondary sources – especially publications and the contributions of independent web‐based agencies.Findings – The number of companies that the research conducted made it possible to identify is not actually very high. Indeed, at present the list counts nine such firms. What should be underlined is that these are not enterprises that have decided to adopt a corporate social responsibility or corporate citizenship approach while still leaving their basic nature substantively unchanged. They are, rather, firms that can be termed “anomalous”, given that, in one way or another, they operate outside the conventional rules on the ...

Corporate History in a Managerial Perspective

These reflections were first sparked by the direct observation that it is all too easy for the individual to forget actions carried out during his or her work activity, even as regards the actions of recent months. Empirical observation of how easy it is to forget such information was followed by the short step to apply the question to the company or enterprise, i.e. can memory improve the quality of the company’s decisions? And if so, how? Leaving aside the literature for the moment, it can be said that the answer is in the affirmative, and the following pages will first seek to explain why this view is held and will then seek to illustrate an approach that emphasises or re-values corporate history as it relates to company decision making. The attention to memory is not the result of a purely personal perspective. The tendency to forget is equally a characteristic of the corporation. Nowadays enterprises have to operate under conditions that are characterised by:

Web 2.0 as Platform for the Development of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is a recent development that has changed the way start-up business are created and funded, as well leading to investment opportunities and boosting related markets. In a broad perspective, the consequences of crowdfunding for the organisation and functioning of economic activity in general are potentially significant and largely unexplored. Indeed, if crowdfunding continues to expand, the whole system of production and distribution could change. This possibility is not, however, considered here.

Percorsi di sopravvivenza per il commercio urbano: insegnamenti dai “piccoli leader”

Urban retail is nowadays facing an hard situation, due to the wide diffusion of large-scale shops located outside urban city centres. On the other hand, the presence of a number of shops in downtown seems to be highly desirable, not only from a strictly commercial point of view, but also in a socio-cultural perspective. In this paper, the results of a survey among the Verona city centre historical shops are presented, in order to elicit some competitive factors that made it possible for them to survive and prosper for a long time. Even if difficult to be reproduced, such factors - very close to an entrepreneurial craftsmanship - show at least a possible direction to move along.