Contrasting Industrial Decline through “Place-brand” Strategy: Notes and reflections on civic activism of entrepreneurs in Italy

Abstract

These notes are based on the experiences of taking an anthropological approach to help the management of business organizations in northern Italy. Anthropology is actor (human)–centred and context (socio-ecological complex)–focused. Its approach to improving business performance tends to raise the actors’ awareness of their own contexts, not only at the micro-level (organization, stakeholders, market segment) but also at the macro-level (community, place-system). An anthropologist’s help in management is basically about raising business actors’ awareness and sustaining their efforts in adding value to their organizational assets and resources, as well as in improving the quality of their operational context. The anthropological difference rests with a holistic perspective and a long-range view to enhance the value of products/services of the workplace and human resources, of the business process, and of the entire context where the business is going on (place-system, community).