COLOMBO DESIGN ONCE AGAIN PARTNER OF THE MASTER COURSE IN DESIGN MANAGEMENT

For the second year running, Colombo Design was partner of the Master Course of Sole 24ORE in Design Management.
In May, the chairman Michele Colombo spoke to the students of his experience as CEO in the design sector, as he is convinced that an enthusiastic and heart-felt story of success is the best way to give a future to youngsters.

“We believe in youngsters”. This is how Michele Colombo, CEO of Colombo Design, started his speech to youngsters from all over Italy attending one of the full-time post graduate courses organised by Sole 24 ORE, the master in Design Management – Business & Web Design.
The meeting was held in May at the headquarters of Sole 24 ORE in via Monte Rosa, a luminous building designed by Renzo Piano, that changed the face of a large former industrial park in Milan, turning it into a stylish example of urban architecture.

In the speech Michele Colombo delivered on his work and company, he repeatedly emphasised the confidence he has in youngsters; and the fact that he was only 27 years of age when he founded Colombo Design, makes him more credible.
Coming from an entrepreneurial family, he spoke about an episode where, one day, his father, who had just terminated a business partnership, informed him that he intended to take on a new entrepreneurial challenge and start manufacturing handles again; he accepted but at one condition: that the goal was to become the largest and best handle manufacturers in the world.
It was March 1st 1990; almost 25 years after this pact between father and son, Colombo Design is preparing to celebrate this exceptional landmark, a success accomplished with coherence, curiosity, verve, skill, enthusiasm, passion and very hard work.

The partnership with Il Sole 24 ORE allowed Colombo Design to kindle up discussions and exchanging of opinions with the academic world, to guarantee unique objects to its clientele, in terms of aesthetic and technical quality.
This led to the organisation over the years of the international competition called Hands on door handles(where an outstanding 6,210 projects were submitted) and in collaboration with Poli.DESIGN (Milan Polytechnic Consortium) the Creative Identity workshop on the topic of communication and the presentation of products at points of sale; in addition, open days are regularly organised at the company premises for students specialising in design

The partnership with Il Sole 24 ORE allowed Colombo Design to kindle up discussions and exchanging of opinions with the academic world, to guarantee unique objects to its clientele, in terms of aesthetic and technical quality.
This led to the organisation over the years of the international competition called Hands on door handles (where an outstanding 6,210 projects were submitted) and in collaboration with Poli.DESIGN (Milan Polytechnic Consortium) the Creative Identity workshop on the topic of communication and the presentation of products at points of sale; in addition, open days are regularly organised at the company premises for students specialising in design.

Among the various tips Michele Colombo gave the students, one in particular made the most impact: “Everything you do must be faster, better and cheaper, so you must do things in the quickest, best and cheapest way possible”.
To emphasise how fundamental timing is when seizing opportunities, he used the example of a tourist who was slow preparing his bags, was 10 minutes late getting to the airport and missed his flight: “A partially wrong idea at the right moment is better than a perfect idea at the wrong time”.
A skill that the CEO of Colombo Design demands of his staff is the ability to be concise when expressing a concept: “Ideas need to be expressed in a clear, concise, rapid manner and, above all, with no room for misinterpretation. Clarity and professionalism pay off in the long run, whilst mediocrity doesn’t take you anywhere”.
And it is this mediocrity that, in his opinion, is the cause of failure of so many enterprises which the economic crisis has excluded from the market because, as he says, “there is no room for mediocrity in today’s economy”.

A student asks him a question: “What is the secret behind maintaining competitivity in a medium-high end market such as yours?”
“The secret is consistent quality” replies the Colombo Design CEO. “The Colombo Design products are all manufactured in accordance with criteria of excellence during the various processing phases that guarantee absolute quality; a series of minimum requirements apply to each single article produced.
It is the figures that highlight this consistent quality. From the beginning of the year, the percentage of non-conforming material is 0.20%, a figure that mirrors the level of quality of our products, equal to the top ranking global manufacturers.”
An important aspect of the Colombo Design manufacturing process is ecocompatibility.
“The environmental impact of each individual manufacturing phase is carefully analysed.
We believe it is important to actively safeguard the environment and have invested fairly heavily in this direction, with interventions on the processing system to eliminate hazardous emissions. Our industry uses potentially highly polluting agents such as chrome, but we use an environmental management system to eliminate all danger of pollution.
The commitment of every single citizen and, above all, large industries is required to safeguard the environment”

Among the various questions asked by the students, one referred to the Colombo Design logo: “It was a gift from a dear university colleague. It is the graphic synthesis of our name where we wanted to use the word design to highlight the orientation of our products. The logo is screen-printed on each article and represents a pair of stylised handles resembling the beating wings of a dove (‘Colombo’ in Italian means ‘dove’). The colour, red, was chosen to make sure they stand out on shop shelves and on adverts.

Other major brands that promoted the second master in Design Management include Bang&Olufsen, Cappellini, Damiani, Porsche and Poltrona Frau, which proves that corporate culture is increasingly approaching an academic culture encouraging virtuous relations between universities, institutions, manufacturers and free lance professionals,
Luca Napolitano, a tutor at the master course, commented on this aspect: “The success stories that the Sole 24 ORE Business School presents to the participants is a fundamental element.  Over the six months in the lecture rooms, we have seen professionals from the sector, CEOs and designers who have not only conveyed their passion for their job and their brand, but also given some tips and useful advice concerning our course syllabus focusing on helping students enter the job world. In the case of the presentation by Colombo Design, the CEO Michele Colombo introduced us to different perspectives of his company, showing a talent for integrating with youngsters and acknowledging their fundamental role in the near future for the growth and recovery of Made in Italy enterprises. Many youngsters remain constantly enthusiastic and cultivate a passion for brands, corporate philosophies but also, and most importantly, the transparency with which companies like Colombo Design present themselves.

The third edition of the Master Course in Design Management will commence in October. http://www.formazione.ilsole24ore.com/business-school/LA6671-design-management.php

For further information please contact the Master Course referent Cristiana Guida at 02.3022.3874 or send an email to cristiana.guida@ilsole24ore.com.