ARNIA Societa Cooperativa Sociale MADE IN ITALY at the Adriano Olivetti National Award Ceremony in Rome
Celebrating a human-centred idea of enterprise at the Italian Ministry for Enterprises and Made in Italy
On 25 November 2025, ARNIA’s President Carlo Rola attended the awards ceremony of the first Adriano Olivetti National Award at the Ministry for Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT) in Rome.
The event took place in the historic Sala degli Arazzi of Palazzo Piacentini, the headquarters of the Ministry, in the presence of Adolfo Urso, Italy’s Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy. Ites Jacopo Barozzi
During the ceremony, ARNIA received a commemorative plaque recognising its participation in the “Imprese” (Enterprises) section of the Adriano Olivetti National Award. The plaque formally acknowledges ARNIA’s commitment to promoting a business model that is attentive to the needs of people, local territories and communities, in line with Olivettian principles of responsible and human-centred enterprise.
Who was Adriano Olivetti?
For many international readers, the name Adriano Olivetti is not immediately familiar – yet he is one of the most important figures in 20th-century European industrial culture.
Adriano Olivetti (1901–1960) was an Italian engineer, entrepreneur, publisher, intellectual and politician, and the son of Camillo Olivetti, who founded the Olivetti company in Ivrea, Northern Italy. Under Adriano’s leadership, Olivetti became one of the world’s leading manufacturers of typewriters and calculators, and later computers.
What makes him unique is not only his industrial success, but his vision of the company as a community:
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He is recognised as a social innovator and pioneer of urban planning: he redesigned Ivrea as a “company town” where factories, housing, green spaces, cultural centres and services for workers formed a coherent whole. Fond. A. Olivetti
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His project of community-based social reform aimed to connect material progress and technical efficiency with a strong ethics of responsibility towards workers and the wider territory – a vision that many scholars today describe as an early and advanced model of sustainability.
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He believed that enterprise should create shared value and beauty for employees, customers and communities, not just profit, and invested heavily in welfare, culture, design and architecture.
In other words, for Olivetti a company was not just a place of production, but a living part of the social fabric – responsible for improving people’s quality of life and for caring for the territory in which it operates.
What is the Adriano Olivetti National Award?
The Adriano Olivetti National Award is a national initiative created by the Chamber of Commerce of Cosenza and the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, in collaboration with Unioncamere, the association of Italian Chambers of Commerce. Fond. A. Olivetti AWARD
Its goal is to involve Italian enterprises and schools in promoting and practicing the values that Adriano Olivetti embodied:
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Sustainability
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Community and social responsibility
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Respect for the environment
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Development of Southern Italy (the Mezzogiorno)
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Innovation
The award is divided into two sections:
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Enterprises (Sezione Imprese) – open to companies based in Italy
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Schools (Sezione Scuole) – open to upper secondary schools engaged in educational programmes inspired by the Olivetti model.
Companies are asked to present an innovative project in one of several thematic areas, such as:
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employee well-being and corporate welfare
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local development and sustainability, and relationships with public and private stakeholders
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culture and research, and partnerships with schools
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continuous training of personnel
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participation, social justice and integration between local and global dimensions
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the impact of the enterprise on its territory and community
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commitment to the development of Southern Italy. Camera di Commercio di Cosenza
Participation is free of charge, and the prize consists in the award of a plaque that formally recognises the value of the project at a national level.
In its first edition, the award attracted more than one hundred enterprises and several dozen schools from across Italy, each presenting concrete projects in areas such as welfare, sustainability, culture and local development. Corriere della Calabria
ARNIA’s presence in Rome and the plaque received at the Ministry place the cooperative within this national network of organisations working to renew the meaning of responsible enterprise in contemporary Italy.
What is the Ministry for Enterprises and Made in Italy (MIMIT)?
The Ministry for Enterprises and Made in Italy (Ministero delle Imprese e del Made in Italy, MIMIT) is a ministry of the Italian Government responsible for industrial and economic policy.
According to the Ministry, its mission is to support and sustain enterprises, and to protect the quality, innovation and excellence of “Made in Italy” products and services. MimiT
In practice, the Ministry deals with:
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industrial policy and competitiveness
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support and incentives for businesses, including small and medium-sized enterprises
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innovation, intellectual property, patents and trademarks
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energy and certain economic infrastructures
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telecommunications and aspects of the digital economy
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protection of consumers and promotion of tourism
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internationalisation and the global projection of Italian companies.
The Ministry’s headquarters are in Palazzo Piacentini in Rome, where the Sala degli Arazzi – the hall used for the award ceremony – is located.
Since October 2022, the Minister for Enterprises and Made in Italy has been Adolfo Urso, a member of the Italian Government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
During the Olivetti Award ceremony, Minister Urso emphasised that Adriano Olivetti had interpreted in an exemplary way the “social function of enterprise” envisaged by the Italian Constitution: an entrepreneur who not only produced technology, but also organised cultural activities, invested in environmental and social sustainability, and even took care of workers’ housing – issues that remain highly relevant in today’s Italy. MimiT
Why this matters to ARNIA MADE IN ITALY
For ARNIA – Società Cooperativa Sociale Made in Italy, being present at the Ministry for Enterprises and Made in Italy and receiving a plaque in the context of the Adriano Olivetti National Award is more than a ceremonial moment.
As a non-profit social cooperative operating in the Italian textile and fashion sector, ARNIA MADE IN ITALY / TEXTILE FASHION DIV. is committed to a model of production based on:
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environmental sustainability (certified fabrics, reduced waste, circular projects)
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social inclusion (job opportunities and training paths for people from vulnerable backgrounds)
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ethical working conditions and transparent supply chains
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long-term value creation for local districts and communities, not just short-term profit.
In this sense, ARNIA sees itself as part of the Olivettian tradition:
an enterprise that strives to be competitive and innovative, while at the same time placing people, territories and communities at the centre of its choices.
The plaque received in Rome, in the presence of Minister Adolfo Urso, is therefore not only a recognition of ARNIA’s participation in a prestigious national award. It is also a public affirmation of a shared belief:
that business can and must be a positive force for society,
combining excellence in “Made in Italy” with responsibility towards workers, the environment and future generations.
For ARNIA MADE IN ITALY, this is both an honour and a commitment – to continue developing a human-centred model of sustainable luxury that remains faithful, in contemporary form, to the principles that Adriano Olivetti helped to pioneer.
