The Revolution that Returns to the Roots
In the beginning there was Ferdinando Bocconi, an enlightened entrepreneur. With a philanthropic donation, he decided to give the city of Milan and Italy a university that would educate what then was called with pride and without fear of populist attacks, the classe dirigente. Leopoldo Sabbatini, author of the original study program, and first president and rector of the University, was quick to recognize the founder's merits. In his writings, he recalls how Ferdinando Bocconi wanted to set up Bocconi University studies respecting "harmony between school and life", and how he sensed the importance of the role of culture and science as the foundation of the nation's economic and moral growth.
Today Bocconi increasingly identifies itself with these roots, as if rediscovering the taste of an innovative startup in rapid growth and evolution, while continuing as an established institution that has an impact on society thanks to its alumni and its research production.
More and more often, this happens as we respond to an international call that has led us to inaugurate the SDA Bocconi Asia Center in Mumbai, the pan-Asian hub of our School of Management, and to strengthen our faculty with colleagues from the best universities in the world. Just in these days, we have in fact completed the process that will bring to Bocconi Peter Pope, from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Annita Florou, from the Queen Mary University of London. They join recent arrivals Antony Bertelli (New York University) and Dirk Hovy (University of Copenhagen).
Our alumni are also more international than ever. Regardless of their passports, today they lead multinationals in the most diverse fields, as shown by the two CEOs in this issue: Vittorio Colao (Vodafone) and Camillo Pane (Coty). They are both exceptional examples of a new type of manager propelled by the thrust of the digital century. The phase of disruption we are currently experiencing is bringing a revolution of Copernican proportions into the business world. It is a revolution that is centered on the entrepreneurial spirit, the same spirit that burned so bright in Ferdinando Bocconi.