Andrea Colli, the Historian Who Wanted to be...an Historian
Andrea Colli wanted to be an historian. But his parents did not share his enthusiasm: he had to choose between Engineering and Economics. "I went for the latter. It best suited to my idea of studying historical and philosophical subjects". It was a brilliant choice nonetheless: Colli is now Full professor of Economic History and Director of the Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management at Bocconi.
He was one of the first graduates in Business Administration at Bocconi University who presented a dissertation in Business History (about Aeronautica Macchi). He was and is still convinced that we can use History to analyse business organizations in depth. One day, after having served in the military, he was wandering around the university. He chanced upon Marzio Romani, who was then leading the Institute of Economic History. "He told me: if you want to get a doctorate you should better hurry up, because the admission announcement has already been released. That's what I needed to hear".
The PhD in Economic and Social History offered him the chance to keep on studying Italian entrepreneurship, merging historical perspective and economic analysis. He is interested in different topics: industrial districts, small enterprises, medium-sized firms. In the meanwhile, he investigates the role of family firms in economic growth. Family capitalism, corporate governance and global history are now his main research areas. "I have always focused on Italy first only to turn these issues into research streams that could be interesting for the international academic community".
Whenever he can, he also loves to spend time in the mountains: he is a ski mountaineering instructor. Yet the challenge is not in the snow-capped slopes, it's in the university. "Being part of Bocconi is itself a challenge", he says. "The radical change that the university has undergone during the last years has broken any habit. We have the duty to constantly reinvent our role and to do it efficiently. We can be a part of the change by proposing innovative teaching methods, implementing internationalization of research strategies and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue".