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copertina 2-08-2000 10:21 Pagina 3
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The quarterly magazine for Pirelli’s management throughout the world - July 2000 - No. 24
Pubblicaz. non in vendita. Spediz. in abb. post. comma 34 art. 2 legge 549/95 - Milano. Registrazione presso il Tribunale di Milano n. 494 del 24.9.1994
E-Manufacturing:
the Backbone
of E-Pirelli

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:04 Pagina 1
CONTENTS
March 2000: launch of the e-Pirelli project: the Group
announces it is ready to exploit the numerous and farreaching
opportunities offered by the Net. After only
four months, this issue of Pirelli World highlights the
determination with which the project has been undertaken
by the Group in all aspects of Company life. If on
one hand new strategies in e-procurement lead to streamlining
the supply chain, allowing lower transaction prices
and slimmer bureaucracy (page 5), on the other, the
launch of the first MIRS factory projects the Group into
the e-production era, where the process is entirely managed
on line (page 2).
The Net Value
As far as e-commerce is concerned, the motorcycle tyres
are experimenting the on line sale of some of its products
through a new portal entirely dedicated to 2-wheel enthusiasts
(page 15).
It is only natural for a Group so firmly involved in new
technologies, to have a co-ordinated internal information
system: Mobile Sales, the new Cables and Systems project
is exactly that, a system linking all export offices world
wide (page 9). But what brings the most important internal
change of all is the content of the Group’s new intranet
site: from a simple vehicle of information to a proper
instrument of work.
MIRS: the first on line
tyre plant - page 2
King Juan Carlos visits Pirelli’s tyre
factory at Manresa - page 7
The Cables and Systems Export Division
inaugurates new e-links - page 9
Pirelli’s restyled intranet - page 12
Pirelli Motorcycle opens its on line
tyre shop - page 15
Pirelli cableship at work in the Isle of
Man - page 20
The Factory of the Future ...............................2
Streamlining the Supply Chain ......................5
King Juan Carlos Visits Manresa ...................7
Architects of Light, Engineers of Optics .......8
A Multicentrum Net .......................................9
Worldwide Press Reports on Pirelli..............11
Employee Online..........................................12
Rewarding Awards........................................14
Motorcycling in Cyberspace ........................15
Pirelli: Preferred Quality Tyres ....................17
2001: a Cal Odyssey.....................................19
The World’s Longest Undersea AC Cable ...20
An International Culture...............................22
World Brief ...................................................24
1

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:04 Pagina 2
E-PRODUCTION
MIRS: a revolutionary e-process
for a revolutionary e-tyre
The Factory
of the Future
Five e-factories in three years; a total investment of 500
million euro: Pirelli’s e-manufacturing and e-tyre will
revolutionise the competitive system of the tyre industry
Daniele Pirola reports from the first
MIRS plant in Milan
A
fter only seven months
from the first announcement,
on 11 July 2000
Pirelli presented to the press and the
financial world the first tyre manufacturing
plant based on the revolutionary
MIRS (Modular Integrated
Robotised System) process, managed
entirely on line.
Bicocca hosts the first
on line plant
The start up of this first e-factory,
located in Milan’s Bicocca area, is a
fundamental step in the process of
creating e-Pirelli, launched on 20
March and destined to be completed
in three years thanks to important
investments in human and financial
resources. This Group transformation
project, will permit the on line
management of the entire company
business cycle, from purchasing to
marketing, from R&D to design,
from production to logistics. MIRS
represents its authentic backbone:
e-manufacturing.
Only a few months after its first
announcement, MIRS is already an
industrial reality, a plant completely
managed on line for the production
of a family of tyres with completely
new characteristics: the e-tyres.
The plant which was inaugurated
on July in Milan is the first of five
MIRS operating units that will be
opened over a three-year period in
Italy, Germany, the UK, the United
States, and the Far East, with an
investment of 500 million euro entirely
financed within the Sector and
for a total installed production capacity
of 10 million tyres/year. This
corresponds to a 25% increase in
Pirelli’s current production capacity
of car tyres, which will not replace
existing capacity but will cover new
demand and will thus have no impact
on global Group employment levels.
The Bicocca e-factory is destined
to the production of high-performance
tyres (V/Z segment, for the most
prestigious cars), as well as a highly
advanced run-flat tyre (capable of
running even at zero pressure) to
respond to the requirements of total
mobility under the Pirelli Total
Mobility (PTM) project.
Company plans also include using
the new MIRS process to produce a
new tyre concept, CYBER, an
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Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 3
intelligent tyre capable of interfacing
with the user. This is a new tyre concept
that Pirelli intends to introduce
this autumn.
Consisting of two e-factories of
125,000 tyres a year each (the first
factory in operation now will be joined
by a second by February 2001),
the MIRS operating unit at Bicocca,
in Milan, would therefore have a
full-capacity production of 250,000
tyres per year. The Milan plant will
become also a pilot unit for further
development of this technology, for
the training of human resources and
the development of products and
prototypes, facing the needs of the
different production unit within the
Group. The software developed at
the Bicocca plant will be transmitted
on line to the other MIRS units
throughout the world, to allow the on
line start of the production of new
The presentation of MIRS in Milan.
tyres. It should also be underlined
that studies are on going to widen the
application of MIRS to the production
of motorcycle and truck tyres.
The first two prototype lines will be
realised in the Milan production
location by 2001.
MIRS: e-manufacturing is born
With MIRS, Pirelli has totally revolutionised
the technologies and traditional
methods of tyre production.
The new process is based, in fact, on
the concept of the highly flexible
"mini-factory" (flexible to the extent
of one tyre per size) that can be strategically
located according to market
demand.
On a robotised space of about 350
square meters, necessary to lodge a
MIRS mini factory, robots, working
at an unprecedented speed for this
industry, MIRS will accomplish the
entire production cycle from compounding
to finished product,
without interruption, without intermediate
handling or storage phases,
and without wasted energy. Thus the
MIRS robots are capable of producing
a tyre every three minutes.
This makes it possible to reduce
the lead-time, from the raw materials
warehouse to the finished products
store, from six days with the traditional
process to 72 minutes with
MIRS. It is precisely by eliminating
the storage phases that the entire production
process can be concentrated
in an extremely limited area, virtually
eliminating the space required by
the enormous quantities of materials
and products that normally remain in
circulation during the traditional
process, in which only 12% of the
materials are being processed at a
given time, while 88% are stored
waiting to enter the production
cycle.
Integrated software controls every
stage of production: robot movements,
automatic provisioning of
materials, selection of the size of
tyre and thus construction drum, tyre
building, curing, quality control, and
finished product handling. But that is
not all: this program, in turn, is part
of a global software complex that
upstream from the manufacturing
phase presides over the engineering
process to design. It is a single architecture
that starts with the definition
of product specifications and automatically
designs the mould, selects
materials and designs the construction
drum. The same software also
defines the path drivers for the
robots and manages their working
cycle.
It is here, in this total integration of
design and manufacturing and product
and process design, that the real secret
of MIRS total flexibility resides.
MIRS: the e-tyre is born
This innovative process and product
technology offers the market a pro-
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Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 4
duct of radically new conception in
structural composition - the e-tyre -
slated to appear this year on OEM
fittings.
The MIRS e-tyre has totally innovative
characteristics insofar as performance,
reliability and comfort are
concerned.
The elimination of the batch approach,
in fact, makes it possible to redefine
product quality parameters,
since each interruption, each human
intervention introduces the theoretical
possibility of product nonconformity,
from the temperature excursions
of intermediates during handling
and storage to building joints
and again to non-uniform heat distribution
in the curing chamber. The
MIRS e-tyre thus possesses a quality
level far superior to the already high
level of products obtained by the traditional
process.
Joint tests of this new tyre are
already running with leading car
manufacturers, and homologation is
expected soon.
The flexibility of the MIRS production
process also accelerates the
homologation process: whatever
changes in specifications are requested
by a carmaker, these are immediately
reflected in the sample tyres,
shortening the prototype industrialisation
time.
A contest on the Web to give a
name to the e-tyres
To stress again that the new MIRS e-
tyre belongs to the cybernetic universe,
Pirelli has launched an international
contest on the Internet, open to
the creativity of all young Web surfers,
to give a name to the new products
that will be manufactured with
this revolutionary technology. The
rich prizes available mean the names
chosen by Pirelli will also give their
authors great economic satisfaction.
On its web site Pirelli will provide
ample information about the contest,
that will continue for one month and
end in the autumn.
4

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 5
E-PROJECTS
An overview on the Company’s e-procurement strategy
Streamlining the
Supply Chain
A new project for Internet procurement is now in its pilot phase in Italy and Spain.
Cost reduction, lower transaction prices, slimmer bureaucracy are its main benefits
P
rocurement is one of the
largest areas in which companies
can use extendedenterprise
resources to lower costs
and improve operations. Browsing
supplier catalogues electronically
on CD-ROM has been going on for
some time now, but providing realtime
availability and pricing information
directly from multiple suppliers
over the Internet is an important
improvement that speeds sourcing
and reduces transaction costs.
On line requisitioning and its
impact on internal bureaucracy is a
change that would be hard for most
to miss. Requests for quotations are
also a source of potential savings
when extended to e-Services available
on the Internet. Companies can
open a public bidding window for
goods and services they want to
acquire and watch their conditions
decline or their terms improve by
the minute.
Equally important as knowing
when to buy on line is knowing
when not to buy something.
How does a company prevent
unnecessary purchases?
In other words,
does the e-procurement
system check what’s in
the warehouse before
looking outside the enterprise?
And what if there are
numerous storeroom locations
throughout the organization? Proper
e-procurement checks all of these
sources first and automatically.
Expected benefits are lower prices
(external benchmarks show 5-10%
A systemic
and integrated
approach
price reduction on average), which
in turn include: faster dissemination
of global contracts, material codes
reduction managed through endusers
requirements standardization
(catalogue standardization), purchase
price reduction through
volume aggregation, and
buyers focus on strategic
activities (negotiation
and market intelligence).
Not to mention hard-tosource
items which can
typically be found and purchased
quickly and at lower
cost.
Other benefits consist of lower
transaction costs, which can be cut
dramatically through e-procurement
(figures frequently cited are a cost
of $125 to $250 per purchase order
E-procurement: key benefits for internet users
Traditional/Manual
Internet Procurement
Price of materials and services - 5% to 10% reduction
Purchase and fulfilment cycles 7.3 days 2 days
Administration costs $ 107 per order requisition $30 per order requisition
Inventory - 25% to 50% reduction
in inventory costs
Source: Aberdeen Group
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Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 6
being reduced by 70%), through
process speed and transparency,
invoice and order matching, user
friendliness. Such a strategy generates
cash, reduces inventory and
lead time; at the same time, it guarantees
higher accuracy of data
entry (products, material
groups…), and redirects
resources on value added
activities.
Many companies are
today approaching e-procurement,
starting from
Maintenance, Repair and
Operations. This area represents
an average 20-30% of the total
purchased volume and is the one
with the highest process costs and
potential benefits.
A new Pirelli e-procurement
System is in pilot phase now in
Purchase
orders down
by 70%
The objective is to implement
such a system in the major
European countries by the end of
2000. The project has been structured
analysing in deep several external
benchmarks and developing a
solution that is so far one of the
most advanced in Europe. This
shall give the company an
important lead versus
competitors in terms of
sourcing practices and
buy side marketing. The
system will support the
user in managing the complete
process (passive cycle):
item search on the catalogue (parametric
search engine), shopping
basket creation, on line approval
flow, purchase order placement,
goods receipt, invoice management.
Starting from 2001, the solution
The adoption of international
standards should lead to a solution
towards global marketplaces outside
Pirelli (www.totalmro.com -
www.endorsia.com -
www.hubwoo.com - www.mro.com)
and/or become a service provider to
other companies (see what British
Telecom is trying to do with
www.marketsite.com).
Pirelli is facing all buy side area
with a systemic and integrated
approach, eager to get the maximum
out of the new environment.
Remarkable experiences have been
made by the sectors to improve the
effectiveness of their activities. The
challenge is strong not only on the
business side but from a technological
point of view. Borderline
technology and new dimension
software shall be managed with the
Shift in procurement practice and Pirelli’s actions
BEST PRACTICE
• Suppliers/Items Rationalization and
Volume Leverage
• Process Standardization
• Process Speed up
• Process Control Enhancement
• External Catalogue Maintenance
ACTION
• Joint Contracts across Sectors
• World and European wide Contracts
• Purchase Processes re-engineering
(across Sectors and across Countries)
• Automatic approval flow
• Order tracking and monitoring
• Leveraging of supplier agreements
and reduction of maverick buying
• Implementation of electronic catalogues
Italy (Tyres and Corporate) and
Spain (Cables and Systems). The
goal is to provide the user (maintainance
and employee) with a transparent
and lean “self service” tool
for buying what they need out of an
electronic catalogue. The new scenario
is boosting a radical shift in
procurement practices and Pirelli is
leveraging all related aspects.
will be extended to the rest of the
Pirelli world. It is important to
highlight that the project represents
a unique chance to rationalize supplier
and item base across sectors as
well as countries and also to standardize
product coding at world
wide level through the adoption of
international standards such as
UNSPSC.
support of the best skilled resources
on the market to sustain development
at adequate speed.
Marketplaces, Exchanges, Hubs
and the like shall create significant
opportunities for value creation if
we are capable of exploiting their
dynamics and master the technology
behind them.
by Alessandro Longhini, Milan
6

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 7
ANNIVERSARY
Pirelli’s first overseas tyre factory celebrates its 75th birthday
King Juan Carlos
Visits Manresa
King Alfonso XIII in 1925, King Juan Carlos de Bourbon today.
Two royal visits, two important dates: the inauguration and the 75th anniversary
I
n 1925, Pirelli’s Manresa tyre factory
was a small unit which had change. The 1925 visit was charged
History repeats itself, but amid great
only just been opened in the province
with significance and foreshadowed a
of Barcelona. A significant event
for the country and for Pirelli, especially
as the installation was the Group’s first
overseas tyre plant. Seventy five years
long association between Pirelli and
Spain. That relationship, which had
already got under way with the establishment
of a cables factory in the country
ago, just 40 people
worked there, but to them
the new venture meant
work, progress, new prospects.
On inauguration
day, everyone was excited,
not only due to the
presence of the Group’s
founder, Giovanni
Battista Pirelli, but also
because their King,
Alfonso XIII, was to cut
the inaugural ribbon in
person. The village residents
lined the streets,
emotion and excitement
filled the air. Emotion
which repeated itself
three quarters of a century
later, when Spain’s
present monarch, King
Juan Carlos, took part in
celebrations to mark the
King Juan Carlos and Marco Tronchetti Provera during the visit.
75th anniversary of that
same but much changed factory,
together with the Group’s current president,
Marco Tronchetti Provera. As his
grandfather did before him, King Juan
Carlos visited the plant, greeting its
at the beginning of the last century,
was enhanced by the opening of
Manresa and has flourished ever since.
The recent visit of King Juan Carlos is
equally significant, in that it recalls and
employees and watching several stages renews the profound friendship
of tyre production.
between the factory and the city of
Manresa, whose history has grown in
parallel over the last 75 years.
The Manresa factory has played a
fundamental role in the economic and
social development of the area in which
it is situated. The small plant of 1925
has grown into an installation which
now provides work for
1,200 people, a number
which increases to 2,200
when taking into account
the other five Pirelli factories
active in the Tyre and
Cables and Systems
Sectors in the country.
Today, Pirelli leads
Spain’s top-of-the-range
tyre market segment and
is the third biggest tyre
manufacturer by turnover
in the Spanish and
Portuguese markets. In the
last two years, Pirelli
Neumaticos has invested
three billion Pesetas
(about 15 million Euro) in
the renewal of its production
technology and
increased capacity at
Manresa, with the objective
of soon being able to
produce seven million tyres a year at
the plant.
Manresa is a meeting point between
the past and the present which continues
to confirm Pirelli’s tradition of
innovation.
by Livia Armellini, Milan
7

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:05 Pagina 8
TELECOMS
Pirelli at Supercomm 2000: exhibiting the future
Architects of Light,
Engineers of Optics
Pirelli Cables and Systems show their latest innovations in optical fibre technology
to the world’s communications professionals
Pirelli’s stand with a submarine amplifier on the foreground.
Simone Piattelli Palmarini reports
from Atlanta, Georgia, USA
O
ver 800 exhibitors gathered
from all over the world on the
450,000-net-square-foot
exhibition floor of the Georgia World
Congress Centre for the 2000 edition of
Atlanta’s Supercomm, the world’s largest
annual communications technology
exhibition and conference. The proud
Southern city welcomed international
visitors and exhibitors with impressive
hosting logistics, including reliable
ground transportation, effective street
signalling on how to get to the exhibition
centre and functional “info points” located
in every single hotel lobby.
Advertising from all the major communication
companies participating in the
event were scattered all over the city.
Pirelli Cables and Systems displayed
its latest breakthroughs in optical fibre
technology: by visiting our stand, the
world-wide audience of leading telecom
players had the opportunity to select
from the wide range of innovative products
and solutions based on state-ofthe-art
technology. Pirelli’s significant
presence at Supercomm 2000 was a
further testament to the Company’s
dynamic expansion within the competitive
world of advanced telecommunications.
The new generation of cutting
edge optical and fibre-based solutions
shown at Supercomm included live
demonstrations of some of the Group’s
most advanced applications in the optical
components field, such as state-ofthe-art
PMD compensators and a pioneering
reconfigurable OADM (Optical
Add Drop Multiplexer) to satisfy the
need for flexibility and networking
capability of the future optical network.
Optical Components on display at
Pirelli’s booth also included the entire
range of active fibres for EDFA, Lithium
Niobate Modulators for very high bit
rate transmitters, high power Gallium
Arsenide Pump Lasers, Grating technology
for Dispersion Compensation devices
and small channel spacing filtering,
tuneable integrated attenuators. Also on
display, Pirelli's latest fibre offerings
FreeLight TM , DeepLight TM and
WideLight TM , the new fibre for metropolitan
communications, as well as optical
cables and cutting edge solutions for
submarine systems. Visitors to the Pirelli
booth were attracted, too, by the catchy
display of the yellow submarine amplifier
incorporated into a special glasscase
looking like a water basin. Last, but
not least, the large screens of the “e-
Pirelli” workstations showed the public
the colourful graphics of the Corporate
and North American Pirelli web sites.
Supercomm is literally a fascinating
“map of the industry”: participants navigate
among the key technologies and
applications presented by the very best
hi-tech companies on the planet. They
can explore first hand the latest advances
in Wireless, High-Bandwidth Access,
Voice over the Internet and Broadband
Wireless and can evaluate the various
approaches to Converging Voice, Data
and Video. As traditional industry roles
blur and new players step forward,
Supercomm offers an efficient way to
keep up with industry changes. Beyond
the exhibits and formal sessions, it is a
place to meet those who together will
shape the future of communications.
And, once again, Pirelli was there, ready
to provide the best solutions for this
future.
8

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:06 Pagina 9
E-PIRELLI
Cables and Systems speed up their information management
A Multicentrum Net
Mobile Sales is an advanced informatics system to interactively link
the Cables and Systems’ export offices worldwide
F
rom Malaysia to Milan and
back. Not the name of a
Hollywood blockbuster,
but one of the many information
superhighways which Pirelli is opening
up internally to revolutionise
information management in the
Cables and Systems Export
Division. With the introduction of
this new system, the Export
Division will have all its local sales
offices into a network interconnected
with the Milan back office.
Technology eliminates distance:
no small thing if one considers that
the previous Export Division
Information System, the old PRO-
IV which registered order intake,
inquiries and offers, was only used
internally in the DES head office
and could not give the peripheral
offices many interface/support.
The newcomer’s name is Mobile
Sales: a younger, more flexible
information system able to interconnect
simultaneously the DES back
office in Milan with the DES local
commercial offices worldwide.
Mobile Sales, which results from the
work of a team made up of Pirelli
cables export and Information
Technology Department, will also
enable the start-up of a B2B application
with the Sector’s principal
distributors in Hong Kong: a first
step in an operation which later will
involve Pirelli’s top distributors
throughout the world.
Born from the need to provide the
off-line mobile sales force with an
integrated view of customers, products,
services, competitors and
other activities linked to the market
- such as offers in progress, enquiries’
status and orders intake - the
system facilitates the sales process
by effectively managing customer
data. Its main functions are to collect
centrally all information relative
to the Pirelli market and then
provide appropriate customer, pro-
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Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:06 Pagina 10
The new system allows the Cables and Systems Export Division to interconnect all local sales office with the Milan back office.
duct and competitor information
when needed; to integrate data such
as product and pricing configurations;
to manage selling projects
across sales teams and to generate
enquiries, offers and orders. To this
end, the flexibility of Mobile Sales
means it will be able to link up with
the SAP system of the cables organisation
in Basle.
Like all schemes of wide and frequent
use, Mobile Sales’ interface is
essential and user friendly: it is
important that the system’s first
impact on users is sufficiently familiar
to make it of daily use. On line
pages make it possible to quickly
identify the most important data for
the business operation in progress:
in addition, the pages give a broad
overview of and easy access to additional
commercial information.
There are forward and reverse buttons
for fast navigation and the
system automatically links up with
other related fields.
From now on - and for the first
time - DES Peripheral Offices will
have the ability to prepare and submit
a standard cables offer to customers
by using cost lists in a real
time/on line operation. For nonstandard
cables, peripheral offices
will still send the appropriate file
electronically to Pirelli’s headquarters,
so as to involve entitled departments
and complete the “draft” proposals.
Mobile Sales will also handle key
functions such as master table handling
for customers, costs and competitors.
The first includes
customers’ branches, contacts,
action items in progress
or to be implemented,
key facts about the
customer, in/out mail,
More than
20 countries
connected
meetings schedule,
telephone calls, agents; the
second relates to general, technical
and costing data, but includes
also automatic input of data from
the engineering department and
descriptions of items in four languages,
Italian, English, French and
Spanish. Finally, competitors’
master table handling embraces
competitors’ assets, sales conditions,
financial information, key
facts, marketing information, production
capacity, and commercial
information.
The first and most intuitive advantage
of such a system is the time it
saves when dealing with enquiries
received, the rationalisation of order
registration and flow management.
Another element not to be overlooked
is the effect of an on line
visibility of back offices, field commercial
activity and monthly
reports of activity. On line
management of commercial
information will certainly
allow a faster, better
quality of response,
improving customer service
and increasing customer
loyalty.
Mobile Sales will be operating
progressively from July, 2000, starting
from the back office in Milan,
then in Paris and, after the summer,
in Singapore, as a pilot local office
scheme. The complete implementation
of the new system, which will
link all local offices - in more than
20 countries world-wide - will have
taken place by spring 2001.
by Himara Mansueti, Milan
10

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:06 Pagina 11
PRESS REVIEW
What the printed mass media say about the Group
Worldwide Press
Reports on Pirelli
From an “Old World industrial stalwart” to a pioneering
technology company: the latest comments on the Group’s e-way
I
n recent
months,
new projects
unveiled
by Pirelli have
set the world’s
press talking. The
most important
newspapers and
magazines have
reported Pirelli’s
different initiatives,
especially the recent
presentation of the
MIRS, as a way of
analysing the progress
of the Group
so far and the
highway it will
take to the future.
In fact, the pres
t i g i o u s
American
magazine
Business Week
defined Pirelli
as an “I-way hot rod”.
In its issue of 15 June, BW published
a large article on “The Stars of
Europe: 50 leaders at the Forefront
of Change”, or people “challenging
and even breaking down the old
national business and political
models. They are people willing to
take big risks in a Continent where
clubby business culture has been
traditionally about as risk-averse as
it gets. They are the generation that
is building a “Europe Inc.” In a
break with the past, thinking outside
the box is the key to the success
of the people featured in the story:
businessmen, politicians, managers
sub-divided into categories ranging
from “empire builders” to “innovators”
to “dealmakers” e “agenda
setters”. Among the “turnaround
artists” is the CEO of Pirelli,
Marco Tronchetti Provera: “an
impatient manager who expects his
team to move at Net speed”. A
justified assessment seeing that, at
the same time, he “aims to turn the
Old World industrial stalwart into a
pioneering technology company”.
In addition, “Thanks to
Tronchetti’s early bet on fiber
optics, Pirelli is a powerhouse in
optical components”. All set to
achieve success, Business Week
concludes: “With competitive spirit
to spare, Tronchetti’s remake of
Pirelli could very well lead the
11

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:06 Pagina 12
E-PIRELLI
company down surprising new
roads”.
The English news weekly The
Engineer has given over one of its
May covers to a picture of PZero,
protagonist of the heading “How
Pirelli changed tyres”. Of MIRS,
the cover says: “Made by robots in
a plant almost devoid of people and
controlled over the Internet.
Welcome to the future”. The article
inside attributes to the Group a
“grip on robot production” and
expounds in fine detail on how
robotised manufacturing works and
how it is reshaping high-performance
tyre supply. “As for the rest
of the manufacturing industry,
Pirelli’s Bicocca plant remains an
extreme example”, the article concludes,
“the fully automated process
relies on a still secret technology
specific to tyres. However, the
degree of interaction between production
schedules and demand -
enabled by the Internet - will become
increasingly common across all
sectors. Plenty of others will be
following in Pirelli’s tracks”.
The Dutch newspaper De
Standaard is another that takes its
cue from the CEO in a story on
Pirelli in its 26 May issue: “The
Pirelli top man is smooth. The
flamboyant head of the italian tyre
group believes its future lies with a
strategy of high-technology, diversification
and revolutionary production
systems”. So does the
Financial Times in its 22 May
issue: “Mogul in a slicker mould”,
is its headline, and opens by talking
about a further break with convention
and with the traditional secrecy
of the tyre makers by citing the July
MIRS presentation. Then continues:
“Pirelli’s main competitors
are all working on similar projects.
But the Italian company, which
trailed Michelin in the development
of the revolutionary radial tyre, has
this time taken the lead”.
by Riccarda Zezza, Milan
The Group’s new intranet took off at the beginning of July
Employee
Online
The new system is a practical omnicomprehensive tool,
which works as a digital desk
W
e are in the third phase.
First, computers managed
information, then they
went on to select and simplify, and
today the Network is something more
again. It has become an instrument: a
powerful, all inclusive instrument - of
work to some, of entertainment and
other things to other people. The process,
so total and irreversible, is pervasive.
It is everywhere, it involves
everything. Its impact on the market is
clear: dot-com companies, e-marketplaces,
B2B projects, all of which are
supported by tentacular latest generation
I.T. infrastructures. Change has,
obviously, also taken place inside companies.
Employees are pressed into
change by a fibrillating environment:
the new technology demands it and a
new mentality is necessary to keep up
with the new economy.
Life inside a company reflects its
own particular revolution in an instrument
which, hand-in-hand with its surroundings,
must today enter into a
third phase: intranet. Pirelli’s intranet
will be four years old in December; a
reasonable age, if compared with the
times of the Network: enough to be
considered the right age for a re-styling.
But the new intranet is not just a
face-lifted version of the old. Its third
phase does, in fact, mean much more:
from an information vehicle to a simplifier
of processes, the Pirelli intranet
is destined to very quickly become a
true instrument of work, nothing more
and nothing less than a briefcase, a lap
top, a desk.
12

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:07 Pagina 13
A growth which must “make things
grow”: with this instrument, though,
the mentality of those who use it must
also change and on that the guidelines
traced by the new system are clear.
Transparency, efficiency and interactivity
distinguish the functions of
“Employee on line”- the name of the
new intranet, a name which immediately
reveals who are the real protagonists
of change.
The new scenario presents a complexity
which must, naturally, be
managed. It is difficult to throw open
doors where previously there were
only windows left ajar, unleash a flow
of information for everyone without
creating chaos. The unique function of
information technology is precisely to
organise the information and make it
accessible to everyone in a rational
way, building walls where necessary
and structuring personalised paths
right up to the one-on-one stage.
“Employee on line” will do that,
making available to everyone a wealth
of information in all the Group’s areas
of interest both internal and external.
It does the same with subjects of
interest to individual employees, simplifying
operations traditionally weighed
down by inevitable bureaucracy.
The intranet can even be modified
during interaction with the user, to the
point that it becomes a completely personalised
site which meets his or her
professional needs.
In fact, “Employee on line” is much
more than simply a portal. It is the first
project of its kind in Europe and it will
probably take more than a year to be
fully completed. However, the first
version has been operational since 1
July and will spread progressively to
all the Group’s desk tops across the
world.
The intranet appears practical,
without frills: a real digital desk, some
of the instruments of which are traditional
and others decidedly innovative.
To the left of the screen the organisational
structure divided into business
and function with all the information
which, in a Group the size of
Pirelli, it is impossible to carry in
one’s head. The section closes with
three special utilities: e-Business for
those who want to know more on that
subject, e-Shop which sells Pirelli
products and my-Pirelli which is an
easy formula for personalising the site
with frequently used items. To the
right, news from the Pirelli world
brought up to date in real time and the
on line versions of local and international
publications. In the centre, the
The home page of the new intranet.
desk’s “heart”: prices of stocks and
shares plus a series of interactive
instruments with which to execute
work traditionally carried out on
paper and gather detailed information
on subjects ranging from repayments
to travel.
Finally, two icons which mirror the
innovatory nature of the intranet: the
Learning Lab and Career
Opportunities. The first contains courses
of self training on line; the second,
to which it is possible to reply directly
by computer, shows the jobs available
within the Group.
“Made Italy, now you need to make
the Italians”, a famous Piedmont statesman
once said and it is a phrase
which can be applied to many things
today. Like the evolution of technology,
which has gathered such speed
that it seems difficult for human
beings to keep up with it. But that is
where a solution with the power of the
Pirelli intranet comes in: with its simplicity
of management and its stratatype
structure which even enables
novices to enter it by grade but, at the
same time, embodies more complex
functions ready for those who know
how to use them. A daily meeting with
this instrument will be all that is needed
to distribute uniformly and efficiently
the renewed mentality of e-
Pirelli throughout all the countries of
the Group. So, after completing
“Employee on line,” it will be time to
see “the employees on line”.
by Livia Armellini, Milan
13

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:07 Pagina 14
AWARDS
T
he TV’s switched
on. Then the
advertisements
begin. Status quo until up
comes a few startling
seconds packed with dramatic
images and sounds. It is
the Pirelli’s 2000 tyre advertising
campaign, which has
been on television since the
beginning of the year and
today, even if still brand
new, has already won five
advertising awards. Success
born of collaboration
between Pirelli and its new
advertising agency
Armando Testa, which has
not just made itself felt in
Europe but overseas, too.
First screened in Italy last
February then in other countries,
the film was produced
by BRW, the Italian market
leader in its field and one of
the top production companies
in Europe. Prominent
names from the cinema like
sound technician Dane
Davis, winner of this year’s
Oscar for soundtrack
effects, worked on the
Pirelli spot.
And now, after the work,
the glory: starting with
Europe, where so far the
advertisement has won four
high-level awards. The first
was in Belgium, where the
city of Knokke bestowed its tyre category’s
Golden Exclusive Award on the
Pirelli commercial.
Another two were won at the Festival
Européen du Film Publicitaire
Automobile de Clermont-Ferrand, the
Cannes film festival of the advertising
world. Created in 1989 in the French
city of Clermont-Ferrand and still the
only one of its kind, this festival honours
the best advertising films for both the
large and small screen produced in
France and the rest of Europe which promote
the world of the automobile.
Pirelli ad wins recognition
in both Europe and America
Rewarding
Awards
The Tyre Sector’s year 2000 TV advertising
campaign has won four European awards
and is up for an ‘Oscar’ in September
The road to success: from the Moab Valley, Utah,
to the lights of Manhattan, at the New York Festival.
Pirelli’s TV ad won the awards for the
“Best Production” and for the creation
of the “Univers de l’Automobile”.
Another was won at the Grand Prix
organised by Pubblicità Italia, Italy’s
leading advertising industry publication
and an event which is twinned with the
prestigious New York Festival. The
Grand Prix, which has just celebrated its
12th anniversary, gives its awards for the
brand strategies which best exploit an
original communication and for particularly
effective team work between company
and agency. Here, Pirelli’s commercial
won “The challenge”
category, which
honours the brand that accelerates
its development time
with particular reliance on
the stimulus of advertising.
From Italy to America,
where it would seem more
difficult for European-originated
commercials like
Pirelli’s to make an impact
as the U.S. is the home of
special effects.
That is what makes The
New York Festival award so
much more satisfying. Its
jury has nominated the
Pirelli TV ad a Grand Prix
Winner, meaning it will go
forward to represent Italy
during the Big Apple’s festival,
which will take place in
September. Rather like the
Cannes Film Festival is to
drama, The New York
Festival is the world’s leading
advertising event of its
kind. It first took place in
1957 as a means of recognising
the best in non-radio
communication and, over
the years, has enlarged its
area of interest to take in all
principal fields of communication:
television, radio,
press campaigns, design and
photography. In 1992, an
award category was also
created for multimedia interactive
communication, essential to keep
the Festival in step with new technology.
The importance and authority of the
NYF have continually grown, as shown
not only by the explosion in the number
of entries it attracts, from 1,000 in 1979
to over 16,000 this year, but also by the
prestige of its jury, considered a real
“Who’s Who” of world leaders in communication.
Only five months old, the spot has
already won five awards: if the beginning
sounds good, the future even more.
by Enrico Gandolfi, Milan
14

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:07 Pagina 15
E-COMMERCE
Introducing 2-wheel tyre sales on line
Motorcycling
in Cyberspace
Pirelli opens its motorcycle tyre shop and a whole
lot more at www.pirellimoto.it
O
n 23 June, Pirelli motorcycle
tyres went on sale on
line in Italy, through the
new Internet web site www.pirellimoto.it.
A complete service, from
booking the tyres to having them fitted
and paying for them. The Pirelli
Dragon Evo “Nardo WR”, the tyre
which established 12 world speed
records for production bikes at the
Nardò circuit in Italy, was given the
honour of taking motorcycle tyres
into this brave new world with its stable
mate the Dragon Supercorsa SC3,
top tyre in Pirelli’s sports range.
Now motorcyclists can
log on to the new Pirelli
site, choose the tyre they
want, identify their nearest
point of sale using the site’s map
of Italian dealers selected to take part
in the “e-shop” scheme and book their
purchase by compiling a sales form,
with which a dealer appointment is
also made. Final step in the process is
to pay on line, which has been made
possible by the involvement of a bank
(“safe server”) which guarantees
maximum security of the transaction.
To have their tyres fitted, customers
Passion
Performance
Power
simply call into the selected dealer
with a document confirming payment
has been made or with a simple order
code.
Passion, Power, Performance:
words close to the heart of every
motorcycle enthusiast, and the reason
why the site could have been called
“ppp.pirellimoto”. In fact, it is not by
chance that those three words welcome
visitors to the new Motorcycle
Tyres web site, together with a spectacular
video shot using a microcamera
fixed to a motorcycle: an
expert touch by people who know
how to reach dedicated bikers.
The people to whom www.pirellimoto.it
sells its tyres on line are, in
fact, very special: they are, of course,
motorcyclists and as such are a clearly
defined audience with specific tastes
and needs; people with whom one
must communicate using their ‘language’
of technical terminology and
well-established slang.
After a century of experience -
Pirelli Motorcycle Tyres marked its
100th anniversary a year ago - the
company did not limit itself to just
establishing an e-shop on the Net and
leaving it at that, perfect and homogenised:
it also created a real virtual
community for two-wheel enthusiasts.
For bikers keen on sport, on road
riding, on off-road, with extreme
passion for motorcycles,
who just use their machines
to cut through heavy
traffic to get from A to B:
these riders - and many
others - will find an area on
the new site dedicated to
them, with advice, news and,
obviously, recommendations on the
most suitable tyre for their bikes.
A particularly effective and entertaining
concept can be found on the
web site. It says: «The motorcycle is
a universe of a thousand facets with
many ways of interpreting one single
and great passion. Common to the
entire clan, from slow, purposeful
commuters to “race replicas” to Easy
15

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:08 Pagina 16
Rider “customisers”, is the pleasure
of riding and the feeling of freedom it
generates. To maximise these pleasures
you must have the right tyre
for your style of riding;
discover which style and
what more Pirelli can offer
so that your enthusiasm
can take off». And if some
of the site’s terminology is
not very clear, it also has a
comprehensive glossary. So the
site presents itself as a container of
information and services for the
Italy’s two-wheel community: a point
of reference not only for all motorcyclists
and enthusiasts, but also for
A net
community
for 2 wheel
fans
The Nardò Records
beginners, newcomers.
The new site has three main themes:
the first, Riding the Web, is a fun section
on different styles of riding
In a 24 hour period between 3 and 4 June, Pirelli set up 12 world speed records for production
motorbikes on the prototype test track at Nardò in the province of Lecce, Italy.
For its assault on two categories, the 750cc and 1300cc, the Pirelli team used a Suzuki
GSXR 750R and a Suzuki Hayabusa 1300. The successful attempt was a challenge which
proved a tough test for men and machines. Only the ability and advance preparation of the
Pirelli service team enabled the record
men to make 36 rider changes, 35 pit
stops for fuel and oil and 4 tyre changes,
all in record time.
(to which style do you
belong), web itineraries (a
reasoned guide to the best
the Net has to offer on two
wheels) and the glossary.
There is also the chance to
sign up and receive the latest
news from the two-wheel world
directly from Pirelli through its own
newsletter, which gives all navigators
the opportunity to join the
“Pirellimotoclub”.
The “Tires” section offers a complete
on line catalogue of Pirelli products,
plus a series of functions which
enable motorcyclists to identify the
right tyre for their bikes or scooters,
their nearest dealer, the “secrets” of
the test riders and more.
With www.pirellimoto.it and, in
particular, the operation linked to the
sale of Dragon Evo “Nardò WR” and
Dragon Supercorsa SC3, Pirelli also
underlines the fundamental importance
of having telematic links with the
product’s end user. Integration
between the web and the distribution,
service and maintenance networks is a
basic requirement on which to build
every operation connected with the
web-tyre, in order to provide the
customer with maximum transparency
and total openness, which is
essential with on-line sales. Pirelli
Moto’s arrival on the Net, after car
tyres with the P2500 Euro, and the
truck net project (for truck tyres),
represents a new and important step
towards the achievement of e-Pirelli,
destined to be soon extended
worldwide.
by Federico Angrisano, Milan
16

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:09 Pagina 17
QUALITY
Success over the hardest tests and the hardest judges
Pirelli: Preferred
Quality Tyres
The very authoritative German Automobile Club tests
and recommends our P6000 Powergy and P3000 Energy tyres
“Winner or Loser?”: one of the tests carried out by the German Automobile Club photographed by ADAC Motorwelt.
A
ll good products on the
market are constantly
monitored and tested in
order to establish which is the best.
Tyres are severely tested in exactly
the same way and for the same reasons:
the toughest judge of all in
this field is ADAC - the German
Automobile Club - which rules with
absolute authority.
During the last series of tests,
ADAC declared Pirelli the indisputable
winner. The only company to
have had the best evaluation in all
three categories with its P6000
Powergy and P3000 Energy, Pirelli
has achieved a result without precedence
in the comparative test to
which ADAC subjected the most
important tyres of their kind available
on the market.
The first success was achieved
with the P6000 Powergy which,
tested against 15 of its competitors
on a Volkswagen Golf IV in size
195/65 R 15 V, came out on top gaining
praises as the one “particularly
recommended”. The overall results
of the various disciplines (driving in
dry and wet conditions, comfort,
noise, rolling resistance and even
wear), describe the multi-role tyre
as one of extremely high quality,
able to score top marks in sports driving
in the dry and wet as well as
braking and smooth running.
The second success is due to the
excellent performance of the P3000
Energy, which came first in the
medium-small car tyre range with a
three star rating.
The tyre was tested against 11
brands of leading competitors on a
Volkswagen Golf IV in size 175/70
R 13 T: not only did it return excel-
17

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:09 Pagina 18
A Dedicated Ad for a Dedicated Market
Everyone knows the German motoring press is one of the toughest collective judges when reviewing a new product, not least of all tyres. So
when nine of the country’s top motoring magazines each gave an enthusiastic thumbs up to the new Pirelli Snowsport, the PZero of winter tyres,
something had to happen. And it has.
The Tyre Sector has built a special press advertisement for Central European countries around the stunning results the Snowsport achieved when
the top German motoring magazines pitched the new winter tyre against its leading competitors.
The advertisement is an icy version of the new
Armando Testa Pirelli summer tyre campaign, but
instead of standing resolutely on the top of a craggy finger
of rock jutting up from what looks like Colorado’s
Grand Canyon, the Pirelli Snowsport balances just as
resolutely on a pyramid of ice, surrounded by fields of
snow. An exaggerated pictorial representation of the
black magic the Snowsport will work in the ice and
snow of next winter, backed up by German press comments.
The heading of the startling picture says: “Tested in
extreme conditions by the leading motoring magazines”.
To drive home that message is a black band along
the bottom of the page with this statement, reversed out
in white: “Tested and recommended by …” after which
are listed the names of nine of the most prestigious
German motoring magazines which judged Pirelli
Snowsport the new number one, the doyen of them all,
Auto Motor und Sport, leading the pack.
Research carried out in Germany to gauge public
reaction to the new winter tyre advertisement produced
extremely positive results, both among tyre dealers and
motorists.
Snowsport has been developed by Pirelli to give
maximum sports performance in the toughest winter
conditions. It is an all-round tyre which produces
powerful adhesion on all slippery, cold and wet road
surfaces. The new product clearly expresses the philosophy
on which Pirelli has based its new breed of winter
tyres: it is to enable high performance cars to continue
to express their sporting nature, even when the
roads are not in optimum condition.
lent performance in wet and dry driving
conditions, it also proved to
resist very well to wear and tear.
All of which fulfils Pirelli’s
objective of developing a particularly
well-balanced tyre in essential
areas such as wear and sports
performance, guaranteeing the
minimum in the former and the
maximum in the latter.
Finally, a tougher resistance and
firmer reliability on wet driving
conditions gained the P3000 Energy
the first position in the third and last
test, where it was matched against
11 competitors on a Volkswagen
Golf IV in size 175/80 R 14. In this
test too, the Pirelli tyre returned
balanced handling with "green" qualities
of an equally high level,
among them low rolling resistance.
«Whoever believes tyres are all
the same», said the harsh yet authoritative
ADAC at the end of the test,
«would be well-advised to gather all
necessary information, in spite of
technological progress.
Even in this 28th year of tyre
testing there are winners, but also
losers. Here, we are talking about
the ‘legs of your car’ as one tyre
manufacturer used to say».
by Daniele Pirola, Milan
18

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:09 Pagina 19
IMAGE
News from the set of the new Pirelli Calendar
2001: a Cal Odyssey
Just as Ulysses visited many shores during his Odyssey, in the same way after numerous locations
around the world, this year’s edition of the Cal has come ashore on the Italian coast, in Naples
E
xotic, sometimes unpredictable
places: beaches,
forests, even a kitchen
have hosted the models of the Cal
over the years, taking them on journeys
around the world in search of
just that right combination of light
and colour worthy of the world’s
most famous calendar. This year
for the first time the calendar location
has a name, an identity to
which it can be linked: it is one of
the most celebrated yet controversial
cities in the world, Naples.
Bewitching yet mocking, bathed in
its unique yellow and blue light
caressed by a sea which is generous
but impure, a city which seduces
and betrays, one that lives at a frenetic
rhythm: syncopated, irregular.
Difficult to describe, Naples, but
ideal to help recount other stories,
like that of the 2001 Pirelli
Calendar.
The complex task of giving the
Calendar a new look has been assigned
to South American photographer
Mario Testino, one of the
top names among the world’s
small, exclusive band of most celebrated
fashion photographers, and a
man who has always loved Naples.
Born in 1954 in Lima, Peru, he
moved to London in 1976 and
began selling portfolios (£25 each
including hair and make-up) to
would-be models. Today, he is best
known for his exquisitely styled
photographs of couture creations.
Though largely unknown outside
fashion circles, Testino is at the
pinnacle of his profession and has
The Capodimonte Royal Palace in Naples, where the 2001 Cal will make its debut this autunm.
19

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:09 Pagina 20
CONTRACTS
photographed Madonna for
Versace as well as the late Diana,
Princess of Wales for her famous
Vanity Fair shoot in 1997. His
recent work includes high profile
advertising campaigns for Donna
Karan, Yves Saint Laurent and
Gucci.
Among the 12 models who have
interpreted the calendar’s
Parthenopean beauty are the renowned
Brazilian top model Gisele
Bundchen, the internationally
famous Karen Elson and Angela
Lindvall. At the end of May they
were on sets provided by the city’s
most charming villas and inspired
by the environment of the Fifties
and Sixties: 12 Neapolitan boys also
took part in the shoot. Perhaps they
were the ones who held the veils
manipulated by Testino to obtain the
nude effect which has made him
famous throughout the world.
Perhaps not. As in every year, the
secrecy of “what” and “how” is
total. But the team has relented a
little this year. At least they have
told us a little about “where”: the
chosen locations were Villa Giulia,
a residence-monument of the
Golden Mile; Palazzo d’Avalos, the
most aristocratic house in Naples;
and Villa La Roccia, the most charming
villa on Capri.
In those extraordinarily buildings,
it was the job of Testino and his
group to balance sensitively the
beauty of the locations with that of
the models, blending the
Parthenopean glamour of noble
lineage of those beautiful villas with
the universal fascination of the top
models.
The Mediterranean style is in for
next year. So much so that, after
many years in London, the great
party at which the new Cal and its
coveted behind the scenes video
will make their debut will be at the
Capodimonte Royal Palace, in
Naples.
by Riccarda Zezza, Milan
Sergio Girotto, Project Manager,
reports from the Isle of Man, UK
Cables and Systems’ new record
The World’s
Longest
Undersea
AC Cable
Pirelli is laying a new alternating current link between
England and the Isle of Man
T
he 54th parallel, more or
less facing Belfast: the
Isle of Man is situated
right in the middle of the North
Channel, between the British
county of Cumbria and Northern
Ireland. Rich in history, the island
can look back on a series of events
ranging from the introduction of
farming in the fourth millennium
BC to the Manx Iron Age from 500
BC to 500 AD, the Celtic traditions
right the way through to
Christianity and Viking rule of the
ninth century. It is a small island
after all, but nonetheless very much
aware of the march of time and therefore
careful not to be left behind
by modern technologies.
That is why a powerful submarine
cable link is under construction
between the island and England, the
biggest project ever undertaken by
the island’s electricity authority.
And Pirelli has developed, provided
and is installing the entire system.
The contract, worth a total of £34
million, was signed in the winter of
1999, when the Manx Electricity
20

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:10 Pagina 21
Authority (the Isle of Man’s electricity
body) and the National Grid
Company decided to jointly finance
the link by creating a partnership,
the Manx Cable Company. John
McCallion, chairman of MEA,
explained at a reception held to
mark the start of the project that
plans for the National Grid link
were examined as far back as 1980
but the final go-ahead was not
given until much later, when the
authority could no longer generate
enough power to meet demand.
Once installed, the cable will not
only mean power will be supplied
at lower cost. It will also enable the
island to bring in extra electricity
from the mainland when needed,
and in turn export any surplus to the
UK.
At 105 km long the cable, which
will run between Douglas Head on
the Isle of Man and Bispham on the
English coast near Blackpool, will
be the longest alternating current
submarine cable ever laid and will
transmit 40 MW at 90 kV. In addition,
a fibre optic cable containing
24 fibres, each capable of carrying
in excess 100,000 telephone conversations
per second, will be placed
alongside the power link.
The whole project is being carried
out with an incredible speed:
after the signing of the contract at
the end of 1999, the cable had
been fully constructed by
April 2000 and the laying
operation had all but been
completed by the end of
June. The only sector
now left to be covered is a
10 km link near the English
coast, where the cable-laying
ship Giulio Verne could not operate
because of shallow water; that will
be completed with pontoons. But to
reach that point, the Giulio Verne
and a second ship, the Northern
Explorer, worked round the clock,
24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The cable is being laid 50 metres
under the sea, which is not particularly
deep, but as the North
Channel is such a busy commercial
fishing area, the power line has to
be protected from being fouled by
fishermen’s nets or anchors. So it is
being laid in a trench dug into the
105 km
at
90kV
sea bed - a process more difficult
than usual, due to the exceptional
hardness of the channel floor. But
Pirelli overcame the problem by
bring in a simultaneous trenching
machine, a device used for the first
time in Korea in 1996. Use of
the plough calls for two
ships deployed line
astern: the Giulio Verne
laid the cable and
behind it the Northern
Explorer pulled the 80
ton special “plough” to cut
a trench of between 1.5 and
1.8 metres into the seabed and bury
the cable. The plough was so big
and heavy that, even with a towing
capability of 250 tons, the Northern
Explorer had to be helped by a third
ship.
Cable was also laid on dry land
and integrated into existing grids at
its point of arrival, which meant the
construction of transformers, terminals
and arrival stations.
The link is expected to be completed
by October 2000: another
healthy slice of state-of-the-art
technology for the Isle of Man.
A diagram showing the workings of the simultaneous trenching device, a system employed for the first time by Pirelli in 1996.
The cable plough cuts a trench of between 1.5 and 1.8 metres into the seabed to bury the power cable.
Left: an image of the Giulio Verne at Port Skillion, Isle of Man, where the power cable comes ashore.
21

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:10 Pagina 22
The ‘other’ Pirelli
Our
International
Culture
Recent initiatives enrich the historical
relationship between Pirelli and the arts world
O
ver the last decade, two
important events have
taken place in Pirelli’s
cultural universe: the sponsorship of
the concert in Moscow conducted by
Riccardo Muti and the announcement
of support for the Pinacoteca di
Brera, both of which have again
brought Pirelli to the attention of the
world of the arts. An historic, traditional
relationship which bears witness
once again to the wide-ranging
commitment of the Group and its
awareness of the fact that a company’s
civic and social responsibilities,
reflect a role which goes
beyond economic objectives. Pirelli
has an international tradition of active
contribution to the development
of the countries in which it operates,
guided by a policy of close integration.
Music is foremost in the company’s
efforts, the Arcimboldi
Theatre its main endeavour. In the
old industrial area of the resurgent
Bicocca, Pirelli is building a new
state-of-the-art auditorium which
will be the largest in Milan, seating
almost 2,500 people. The theatre’s
first task will be to host all La Scala
productions for the two years it will
take to restore the old theatre, after
which the Arcimboldi will lead an
independent life as a much needed
addition to Milan’s musical panorama,
broadening the city’s role as one
of the music capitals of the world.
Pirelli’s relationship with music is
a tradition with a history spanning
more than a century: it all began in
1884, when the company installed
the cables which brought electric
light to the Teatro alla Scala for the
first time, with 3,000 bulbs taking
the place of candles. At the beginning
of the 20th century, Giovanni
Battista Pirelli was among the founders
of the La Scala museum,
together with other national figures -
among whom was King Vittorio
Emanuele III. The Group has been
an institutional sponsor of the
Museum ever since.
For decades, many other cultural
events have been celebrated under
the Pirelli aegis: some of the more
recent include the integral
Beethhoviana programme of 1988
organised by Claudio Abbado, then
conductor of the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra, and
Maurizio Pollini at the Salle Pleyel
in Paris, one of the world’s most prestigious
concert halls. On one of the
evenings, Pirelli was present to
22

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:10 Pagina 23
CULTURE
remind people that the role of a company
should not be limited solely to
business.
With that axiom in mind, Pirelli
developed a special relationship
with Riccardo Muti, built on a long
association during which many spectacular
projects were undertaken. In
1997, Pirelli invited Maestro Muti to
conduct a concert at La Scala to
commemorate the 125th anniversary
of the Group’s foundation: just a few
months earlier, he had taken part in
the Music Festival of Istanbul in
which one of the evenings was supported
by Pirelli. To these events
were added co-operation with the
1998 Ravenna Festival with its
theme ‘along the road to friendship’,
an annual event first held in the
Italian town and later in cities torn
by conflict such as Beirut and
Jerusalem and, this year, at
Moscow’s Bolshoi
Theatre.
Pirelli became an institutional
sponsor of Milan’s
Pinacoteca di Brera, one
of Italy’s foremost art galleries,
under which two
important XVI century
paintings by Moretto da
Brescia and Giovan
Battista Moroni were
restored.
In Rome, the Pinacoteca
Capitolina was recently reopened
to the public after its
first complete restoration,
modernisation and overhaul
in 90 years, an initiative
promoted and sponsored by
the Group. Paintings by
Tiziano, Caravaggio,
Guercino, Guido Reni,
Velazquez, Rubens and Van
Dyck can now be seen in a
stunning environment, their
conservation and safety
assured by modern air conditioning
and electronic surveillance
systems.
The “Pirelli Garden” at
Maestro Muti and Pirelli
in Moscow:
Virtual Concert, Real Success
July 24th, 8.30 pm: our site
www.pirelli.com registered over
42,000 contacts and more than 1,000
full audio/video streaming sessions.
These are the access statistics to the
page entirely dedicated to this year’s
“Concert for Peace” held at the
Bolshoi in Moscow by Maestro
Riccardo Muti in an overwhelming
interpretation of Beethoven’s Ninth
Simphony sponsored by Pirelli.
London’s Victoria and Albert
Museum, the first internal garden in
a British museum, is another of
Pirelli’s artistic undertakings.
Restored to Renaissance splendour
by architect Douglas Child, it boasts
An internal view of the Bolshoi Theatre,
where this year’s “Concert for Peace” was held.
Left: a moment during restoration work on
“The Burial of St. Petronilla” by Guercino.
a central fountain where a vertical
water column rises into the air, surrounded
by two rings of parabolic
cascades. In another of the Group’s
enterprises, the Louvre Museum has
been able to open three new halls in
which are displayed some pieces of
its Etruscan art collection: treasures
originally bought by the museum
from Marquis Campana and until
the opening of the halls stored in a
basement, unseen by the public.
Art exhibitions are another constant
area of Pirelli commitment,
starting with the Salòn Pirelli de
Jovens Artistas in Caracas. There,
young artists can display their work
each year, the best exhibits being
awarded prizes and becoming part
of the museum’s collection.
Photography is also prominent
among the Group’s artistic interests.
The Museum de Arte de
Sao Paulo is the home of a
collection of the best pictures
taken by Brazilian
photographers and foreigners
working in Brazil.
The museum now has a
collection of almost 1,000
photographs taken by 109
artists. A curious Spanish
aside to Pirelli’s cultural
activities is a set of pictures
taken by the British
photographer Robert
Whitaker, who was
befriended by the artist
Salvador Dali and which
show the artist amid
posters featuring Pirelli
tyres; these were published
in collaboration with the
Dali Foundation. Now, a
book has been published
featuring Pirelli’s cultural
work, entitled “An
International Culture”: like
our business activities,
cultural initiatives undertaken
by the Group know
no limits.
by Giovanna Giusti, Milan
23

Pirelli World 2-08-2000 10:11 Pagina 24
World Brief
Chinese Connection
The China NetCom Corporation
has awarded Pirelli Cables and
Systems a contract for the supply of
security cables with Freelight
fibre: it is the first time that China
uses this kind of fibre in an OPGW
link. The project will use two cable
lots for a total of 150 kilometres.
This follows an earlier contract won
at the beginning of the year for the
supply of optical cables with
Freelight fibre. The total value of
the operations confirms Pirelli as the
leading supplier of optical technology
to China.
Pirelli Cables
in Singapore’s Railways
Pirelli Cables and Systems has
signed contracts worth over $10 million
to supply cable for Singapore’s
“Mass Rapid Transit” project. The
initiative is being promoted by the
local overland transport authority
(LTA) as part of a 30-year expansion
plan for the country’s railway system
and involved a strict tender system
in which local and foreign companies
in 16 countries participated.
Pirelli won the contract to supply
cable to the local and foreign contractors
involved in the project,
which is already under way,
including fire resistant and other
special cables.
Homogenising Cables Worldwide
A new Pirelli software called
Common Analisi, created to homogenise
the design and production of
Pirelli cables throughout the world,
has been launched in May. Thanks to
an elaboration engine which combines
all information, the software
generates data from technical information
to lists of material and provisional
cost of the products. As a
result, cost and manufacture criteria
will become homogenised in all
countries, with a comparable data
base for all subsidiaries. Magyar
Kable Muvek
(MKM) of
Budapest was the
first European
affiliate to use
the new system,
which will soon
be installed in all
the Sector’s companies.
A Special Kit for a Special Car
A new car has been presented in
Italy’s Misano Adriatico racing circuit:
it’s the Jaguar XK coupé series,
the first to use for the first time
Pirelli PZero tyres with 20’’ diameter
rims. The cars will be fitted with
a special kit, the Handling Pack,
which includes not only the 20’’ tyre,
but also other technological innovations,
such as the CATS computerised
system for suspensions control,
jointly developed by Pirelli and
Jaguar.
WORLD
The quarterly international newsmagazine
for Pirelli management
JULY 2000 - NO 24
www.pirelli.com
Published by Pirelli S.p.A.
Direzione Comunicazioni Esterne
Giancarlo Rocco di Torrepadula
Editor Andrea Kerbaker
Assistant Editors
Livia Armellini, Riccarda Zezza
Editorial Consultant Robert Newman
Artwork Young & Rubicam B.C., Milan
Photographs:
p. 9 and 19: Marka; p. 10: Granata Press;
p. 12 Image Bank; p. 14: ICP
Printed by Arti Grafiche Meroni, Milan
24