A83222 Heritage and Competition

Access to the Laboratory is limited to a maximum of 12 students.

To be allowed to participate, it is required a score of minimum 6.5 points on 10 in the first intermediate test (23/10/2014). Available places will be assigned starting from the higher mark in the test (in case of equality, points in 'flash-quizzes' will be accounted).

Students willing to participate to the Laboratory must notify it in advance, at the beginning of the course (in any case, by the 4th class, September 25th).

Every student is allowed to participate to the laboratory as individual or joining small groups (up to 3 peoples), following their personal preferences about both work methodology and fellow group members. Groups composed both by Italian and international students are warmly recommended.

Aim of the Laboratory is to put the student directly in touch with companies with strong heritage assets. At the end of the activities, students will be able to autonomously build a scheme of interpretation of the attitude of the firm toward its heritage, proposing explanations and hypothesis of intervention.

The laboratory will focus on the history of the Italian motorcycle industry, considering the case of the industrial group revolving around the entrepreneur Claudio Castiglioni (1947-2011). The history of the brands Cagiva, Ducati, MV Agusta and Husqvarna will be presented through primary sources, contribution of guest speakers and visits.

The students will be invited to consider how different brands (of the same brand in different moments of its history) relied on their heritage asset and how their heritage quotient could change along the time. Finally, the student will focus on the relevance of heritage for strategy and corporate identity, considering the complex evolution of the brands once part of Castiglioni's group.

It is possible to recognize 4 topic areas, broadly referring to one of the brands which are analyzed during the laboratory (as a matter of fact, aim of the activities is to bring the students to explore the complexity behind each case history, not to present rigid schemes):

1. Tradition and local roots during the pioneering era (MV Agusta)

2. The growth of a family business between sport and mass-market (Cagiva)

3. Marge / acquisition and heritage: a troubled identity (Husqvarna)

4. How to make heritage a long lasting asset (Ducati)

The Laboratory awards from -3 to 5 points, which will be added to the score gained during the course (points exceeding 30 will be considered for 'distinction').

Student could choose if sustain evaluation individually or in group.

Students will gather in a Power Point presentation the key features of the cases presented, the elements emerged during the activities (interviews, visits) and their own comments and suggestions. The assessment will evaluate the capability to extract information from the sources and to combine them into original hypothesis.

More details will be communicate at the beginning of the Laboratory.