file soluzioni inglese

Italy's Service Sector and the Growth of Coffee Culture

1. As much as 70% of Italy's work force is employed in the service sector.

2. During the 1950s and 1960s Italy grew at the speed of a developing country.

3. One cause of this growth was the application of new technologies - seen in both industry and cafés.

4. Another reason why Italy grew so fast was the migration of southerners to the north.

5. The cafés are still the same, 40 years later - no innovations.

6. There are visible signs that they are ageing, like Italy.

7. About 90 years ago, the espresso coffee maker was invented by Francesco Illy.

8. Andrea Illy is against foreign competitors giving their drinks Italian-type names.

9. However, it is companies such as Starbucks that are changing the coffee business.

10. Coffee is being launched in countries where tea-drinking is the custom.

11. Illy is a leader when it comes to marketing coffee as a fashion accessory.

12. Andrea Illy makes a comparison between his coffee and Champagne.

13. Emilio Lavazza

was a genius at selling the idea of a cup of Italian coffee.

By vacuum-packing ground coffee he brought café-quality into homes.

He was quick to realize how clever advertising could send up sales.

He exploited the 1970s and 1980s popularity of all things Italian by expanding in Europe and also in the States.

The Starbucks brand started off as just a coffee-roasting business in Seattle.

It was only after Schultz’s visit that it became a coffee shop.

Starbucks Milan is the meeting place of two different coffee cultures.

There is such a high level of coffee drinking everywhere in Italy that competition for Starbucks will not be easy.

What Starbucks offer is an experience more than a product.

Foreign products are likely to fail in Italy if they do not adapt to Italian taste.

Capitolo 5:

Text A:

Is Mediobanca like an old soldier who has reached the end of the road?

Mediobanca is famous for the way it has influenced the higher levels of Italian

4 Enrico Cuccia has been head of the bank since its establishment in 1946.

5 Mediobanca's shares rose at the news of Cuccia's illness.

6 Is the market hoping in Cuccia's withdrawal from the scene?

7 Banca Intesa's recent decision was to transform BCI into a director competitor to Mediobanca.

8 On Banca Intesa's acquisition of a 71% interest in BCI, Mediobanca had thought it had found an ally, not a rival.

9 This defeat followed a series of successes, like Mediobanca helping Olivetti to take over Telecom Italia.

10 Another success was the Mediobanca management of the privatization of Enel.

11 Mr Cuccia could only wield such influence because he could rely on a web of cross-holdings and interests.

12 Mr Cuccia's intricate web of contacts allowed the bank to exert an influence far beyond its size.

13 The focal point of Mr

Cuccia's business was the 'good drawing-room'.¹⁴ Mr Cuccia's methods are inappropriate for modern markets.¹⁵ Not only has Italian business changed, but also global investment banks have opened up in Italy.¹⁶ Recently Mediobanca has brought in some changes in order to line it up with its American rivals.¹⁷ Some suspect that the changes are not radical enough - too few and too late.¹⁸ In the past Mediobanca's core interests centred on its investments and influence.¹⁹ Mediobanca is famous for ignoring its small shareholders and their interests.²⁰ Its three great influences were over Fiat, BCI and Generali, only one of which remains.

Enrico Cuccia would played a major role in any of the main European economies.²¹ He is famous for having used Mediobanca to reshape Italy after WWII.²² In addition, he played a central role in a network of European alliances.²³ Mediobanca was secretive in its operations, just like Cuccia.²⁴ The mechanism Cuccia used to

shareholdings.37 The changes the Bank is making now are quicker than may seem.

38 Nagel has developed an expansion programme at a European level.

39 Mediobanca now has branches in Madrid, Paris and London

40 Mediobanca is doing well in the mergers tables abroad.

41 It is also managing to hold its own in its home market.

42 Mediobanca has also made a move into retail banking.

43 With its acquisition of Linea, Mediobanca has become Italy’s third largest creditspecialist.

44 The name CheBanca! is an eloquent expression of the changes being made atMediobanca.

45 But can the name change the reputation Mediobanca earned with Cuccia?

Text A,B,C:

1 Enrico Cuccia had been head of Milan’s famous Mediobanca right from its origins

2. By the year 2000 Cuccia had been top figure in the bank for over 50 years.

3 In its role as an investment bank Mediobanca has been very influential.

4 Its decisions have affected both finance and industry in Italy.

5 Whatever it has done, it has done very discretely.

adapt to the times?²⁰

Some think Mediobanca cannot function without Cuccia’s web of contacts²¹

Others feel that no core interests have been identified, beyond its portfolio of investments.²²

As shown by its 1999 figures, Mediobanca controlled a considerable amount of Italian business by means of its shareholdings.²³

A bank with such a poor performance and large assets is ready for a takeover.²⁴

Mediobanca had already lost two of its three points of influence- Fiat and BCI²⁵

Making alliances was an essential part of Cuccia’s banking.²⁶

No ambitious businessman could afford to ignore Cuccia’s good drawing-room.²⁷

Cuccia was careful about whom he let into the good drawing-room.²⁸

Cuccia was responsible for creating Italian capitalism in a period in which capital markets were hardly there.²⁹

He was also the creative force in the development of a first corporate finance arm.³⁰

A long list of important transactions were carried out under the management of Mediobanca³¹

1. On the day Gianni Agnelli died, an important meeting of the family trust was due to be held.
2. The first important item on the agenda was the nomination of a new head to

Mediobanca belonged to IRI until 1988.³² Cuccia was too independent for Prodi, who tried to get rid of him.³³ The Mediobanca Cuccia left has been criticized for being too Italian and too tied to its core shareholdings.³⁴ Mediobanca is changing, though the complex of shareholdings is still there.³⁵ Branches have been set up in Europe, in order to expand the Bank's field of action.³⁶ Mediobanca had also diversified by moving into retail banking.³⁷ There is nothing grand or pompous in the name chosen for Mediobanca's new retail bank.³⁸ There are now more than 100 branches of CheBanca! operating on national territory.³⁹ There are 13 branches of CheBanca! in the Milan area, more than down in Rome, where there are 7.⁴⁰ Will Chebanca! be enough to allow Mediobanca to forget its old reputation?

replacethe dying Gianni.

3. The second very important item was the probable investment of more family moneyin Fiat, the famous but troubled car maker.

4. Gianni Agnelli’s funeral was a national event, with both the president of Italy andprime minister attending it.

5. Fiat Auto, the heart of the Agnelli empire, was in a state of accelerating decline.

6. The profits made by other parts of the Agnelli empire were being drained by Fiat Auto’s enormous losses.

7. In 2002, Fiat Auto had not managed to break even or reach the rescue target for the last quarter.

8. Few now believed in a recovery and many thought the group could be in line for a break-up.

Text B:

1. In the mid-eighties, Fiat was in the dominant position in the European car market.

2. It had ambitious plans for expansion beyond the European market behind the Iron Curtain and into Brazil.

3. However, by 2003 Fiat’s debts were such that it risked not surviving.

4. The 2002 survival plan lists three main points for intervention.

6. There was fear of General Motors taking over Fiat.

7. And the Agnellis needed to make improvements to their balance sheet.

8. There was a chance of Fiat Auto being spun off as a separate company.

9. Apparently, the Agnellis were in favour of floating off divisions like Iveco.

10. The article asks how such a key player in Italy's post-war economic miracle had come to this point.

Text C:

1. During his long-extended youth, Gianni Agnelli was a playboy, pursuing beauty and pleasure in both women and cars.

2. Though heir to a great industrial fortune, he paid little attention to the business world.

3. He lived the dolce vita to the full - a trend-setter in a country that was in love with trendiness.

4. After