Laurea Honoris Causa awarded to Ing. Percassi

University - 30 March 2022

On 29 March, IULM University conferred a Laurea Honoris Causa in Marketing, Consumption and Communication on the entrepreneur.

Consegna Laurea Honoris Causa all'Ing. Percassi

Consegna Laurea Honoris Causa all'Ing. Percassi

IULM Sport per l'Ing. Percassi

IULM Sport per l'Ing. Percassi

Il Rettore introduce la cerimonia

Il Rettore introduce la cerimonia

Ing. Antonio Percassi sul palco

Ing. Antonio Percassi sul palco

L'Ing. Percassi riceve la Laura Honoris Causa

L'Ing. Percassi riceve la Laura Honoris Causa

L'allenatore dell'Atalanta Gasperini e l'Ing. Percassi

L'allenatore dell'Atalanta Gasperini e l'Ing. Percassi

La cerimonia in Auditorium

La cerimonia in Auditorium

La consegna del sigillo IULM

La consegna del sigillo IULM

On Tuesday 29th March, IULM University conferred an honorary Master's Degree in Marketing, Consumption and Communication on Antonio Percassi, an eclectic and successful entrepreneur in many commercial and business sectors (retail, real estate, sports), who stood out in particular for his ability to interpret and support social phenomena and for the attention he paid to the environmental impact of his activities.

"An enthusiast and visionary, an entrepreneurial figure of international standing", was how the University Rector, Professor Gianni Canova, described Antonio Percassi in his introduction to the honorary degree awarding ceremony. He then quoted Luca Ricolfi's La società signorile di massa (The stately society of the masses), in which the sociologist and academic argues that in Italy the number of people living on income is greater than those living on work. "It is then the duty of a University to share the story of those who take risks, of those who have made their own way, of those who have implemented the so-called 'social lift', showing their talent and desire to change things".

In the Laudatio entitled "Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurial Orientation and Portfolio Entrepreneurship", Professor Pietro Mazzola highlighted the fact that Mr Percassi's entrepreneurship is characterised by a number of distinctive and peculiar features: "It is exercised in a multiplicity of activities, developed in sequence and also in parallel; it is exercised within a group and in various forms, both by launching new entrepreneurial initiatives and by renewing the business models of existing companies. It involves other stakeholders and is characterised by a long-term orientation, which lays the foundations for a so-called transgenerational development". Continuing the Laudatio, Professor Mazzola defined Antonio Percassi as a "serial entrepreneur" because of his development of a series of initiatives developed in sequence or in parallel and always maintaining an involvement in the projects already underway. Initiatives and projects," said the IULM professor, "that could be taken for granted today, but which are characterised by the fact that they have seized market opportunities, the valorisation of spaces, and the combination of resources and skills in a new way that not everyone saw or knew if and how to transform into a working formula.

"Three things have stayed with me since my first work experience, when I was eight or nine years old and I was going back and forth from the construction site of my older brothers building a little house to bring me breakfast. First: work. Second: be serious. Third: a given word is worth more than a signed contract. This has made it easier for me to carry out complicated operations.

This is how Antonio Percassi described himself in the lecture entitled "Be curious, open your eyes" in front of the IULM Auditorium, telling the story of himself and his family. From his father's work as a miner in Switzerland and the first lire he earned with the Milanese on holiday in Val Seriana, carrying their suitcases, to his career as a professional footballer with Atalanta and the opening of his first shop in Bergamo with Benetton, which marked the beginning of his life as an entrepreneur: in a few months he opened shops all over the world, from Boston to Germany, from Switzerland to Mexico. And in the years of the Soviet Union, it was the first Western brand to land on Red Square. "The agreement with Zara transformed our Group into one of the most important retail players in Italy and Europe. Today they say we are the kings of retail. Great brands have approached us to enter Italy or other countries and this is a great pride for me. Every time they told me: it's crazy, you're crazy. But if there's one quality I have, it's that I never lose heart. I see a glimmer of hope and I say: we can do it," added Percassi, who closed his lecture with a piece of advice to the students of IULM University: "Be curious, open your eyes, listen to intelligent people, always choose the best collaborators. The world should be looked at with the eyes, not only through a screen. Always keep your feet on the ground. And then hope to save ourselves".