History / Partner / Team

Are you interested in the history of Leonardo 3.4.5, the partners as well as the team that have been working on the programme? Click on the links to see the respective information.

History

Leonardo came into being at esig+, a technical university specialising in training engineers for the graphic and packaging industries. The impetus was given by its director and founder, Antonio Abbondio, a man always ahead of his time in going beyond the narrow thought processes of professional categories. If there is one industry in which the paradigms have changed completely under the impact of new technologies it is the graphic industry. It goes without saying that staying in control during such incisive changes requires a fundamental change in management techniques. Bearing this in mind, esig+ was the first among technical colleges and universities to set up a quality system and to be awarded ISO 9001 certification. In order to support this process, Antonio Abbondio has launched two Eureka projects (European research projects) to explore ways of revolutionising management. He is seeking contributions from human sciences, biology and systems analysis. A pragmatic man, he is encouraging his researchers to become developers at the end of the process he hopes to see a product which will help to respond to the demand for management changes. Thus Leonardo 3.4.5 is based on an epistemological framework supplied by the life sciences which offers the following advantages:

the research is not subject to criticisms of empiricism common to
management sciences, which often have the connotation of pure
functionality - not to mention the subservience of individuals to the
short term economic interests of the company.
it ensures a fuller consideration of the complexities of the phenomena
under research and their interactions at different levels of reality.
it puts at the disposal of management a whole range of useful
techniques for managing organisations, which go beyond any
fashionable methodology.

The eight key functions used to define the dynamics of organisations (companies, teams) take account of research into organisations and numerous other empirical studies (notably BELBIN, KAHLER, MARGERISON-McCANN, ATKINS, De BONO). These are integrated with C.G. Jung's psychological typology, developed by Myers and Briggs and by the authors who have followed in their wake (see bibliography).