Assicurazioni Generali: a Journey that started in 1831.

1. T o narrate the history of a company means retracing the thread that links the corporate mis-
sion originally conceived by its founders to today’s reality. It means embarking on an ideal
voyage that is all the more exciting the further the distance between the departure and the
point of arrival. In this voyage of discovery, the original seed that was sown so long ago is
often difficult to recognise looking at today’s robust and vigorous plant.
The history of Assicurazioni Generali starts from the desire to unravel a thread stretched
across two centuries, during which serious crises have sometimes jeopardised the Com-
pany’s survival.
This book is not a mere analysis of corporate facts, but a comprehensive overview of the
unsettled, challenging and often hostile scenarios that have unfolded over the course of
the Company’s history.
As all real travellers well know, the lure of travel lies in the voyage itself rather than in the
destination. The same can be said for Generali: success has never been a point of arrival, but
rather a stage along the path of constant growth. This path, started in 1831, has since been
trodden with caution, yet with the steady pace of those who know the ground they’re walk-
ing upon and the dangers it hides, overcoming obstacles and maintaining their route.
Today, the Generali Group’s worldwide prestige owes a great deal to the longsighted vision
of the Company’s founders, who developed a highly modern project based on solid pillars:
a wide and diverse shareholding community, a sound capital base to achieve the ambitious
goals set, a diversified operating and geographical structure, in line with the insurance con-
cept of risk fragmentation.
Over the decades, the men who have been at the helm of the Company have focused
their efforts on enhancing professional skills, nurturing and passing on a strong corporate
culture and a heritage of shared values from generation to generation. This unique and
dynamic corporate culture is what allowed Generali to confront global changes and the
challenges they pose.
In a nutshell, the history of Assicurazioni Generali is but the result of the interaction be-
tween two forces: the value of tradition and the drive towards innovation.
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2. Index of chapters
1800-1830 Trieste: a fertile ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1831-1840 The foundation of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche . . 8
1841-1850 A new name for the Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1851-1860 Investing in land and agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
1861-1870 Difficult years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
1871-1880 At the top of the Italian market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
1881-1890 The establishment of the Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
1891-1900 The golden age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
1901-1910 New impulse for real estate investments . . . . . . . . . . 34
1911-1920 United to Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
1921-1930 Postwar problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
1931-1940 A century of success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
1941-1950 The losses of the Second World War . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
1951-1960 The recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
1961-1970 The years of the economic miracle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
1971-1980 Overcoming the crises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
1981-1990 Towards new horizons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
1991-2000 A leading player in the global market . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Scenarios for the third millennium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Index
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3. Focus sections
A tormented city . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Group’s homes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
From the eagle to the lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
The house organs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
The chairmen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
After work… commitment to sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
The farming strategy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
The Company’s share capital growth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Community and environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Generali and the web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Analytical indexes
Persons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
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