Franco Folini's Page

WHAT did the tenor Luciano Pavarotti and the automobile company founder Enzo Ferrari have in common? For one thing, a hometown: the lovely city of Modena, 90 miles north of Florence, in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. But it was neither arias nor revving engines rumbling through Modena’s cobblestone streets this spring, when a series of severe…

Book Review by "The Economist": Less than a decade ago, Fiat, the largest private manufacturing company in Italy, seemed bound for the scrapheap. The carmaker had celebrated its first 100 years in 1999 and had weathered other financial storms in the recent past. However, when it had to negotiate a huge…

It's called the North American International Auto Show, the big carmaking gathering that kicked off this morning in Detroit. It is -- as most auto shows are -- an event where manufacturers show off their new machines.

The Dodge Dart is Chrysler's big entry this year in what looks to be a fairly promising year for the Big Three. Sergio Marchionne is the CEO of Chrysler and the Italian automaker Fiat, which owns almost 60…

More than 70 percent of Italy's gross domestic product comes from small businesses — and they're not growing. Economists are worried this will make it impossible for Italy to climb out of its massive $2.6 trillion debt.

Even in a global economy, something as small as Italy's accordion industry can have an impact. The work of its craftsmen has…

This is a case study on how to destroy an international brand. Italian companies went for the short term profit while destroying a powerful and popular internationally recognized brand, the "Extra Virgin Italian Olive Oil".

Here the article and podcast from…