L'impresa come organismo

Two main interpretive insights lie at the heart of this research on the oil and energy company ERG, based on a vast original inquiry in unpublished records comprising family papers, company materials, business records from other companies and institutions (prominent among them British Petroleum International Ltd. and Banca Commerciale Italiana), as well as over two dozen interviews to the protagonists of this story. First, the one adopted here is essentially a view from above. It focuses on the entrepreneurial and managerial levels of the company, but also encompassing the broader economic, political, and social world in which ERG has operated and still operates. Second, there is a strong emphasis on the cultural aspects of the history of the firm, namely the strategic ideas, the values widely shared within the company and underpinning its day-by-day operations, and the image projected by ERG while addressing its customers, the consumers, and the society at large.