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For a company, the past is never just the past. It is an opportunity for growth, driving it to explore new directions. Ducati, one of the most famous motorbike manufacturers in the world, has opened a museum at its premises in Borgo Panigale (BO), to utilise its own “home made” resources. Motorbikes, engines, photographs, and drawings tell a typically Italian story of people, experiences and innovations, some of which are still used as the basis for new designs. Marco Montemaggi, who created and set up the Ducati museum, tells us about the project.
Where did the idea for the Ducati museum come from?
In 1996, I was 26. The managing director of Ducati at the time, Federico Minoli, invited me to a race in which Ducati bikes were competing, and told me: «I’ll give you everything you need, but you’ve got six months to design a Ducati museum. Six months, not a day longer». I didn’t know where to start or who to ask, but thanks to a team which included Livio Lodi, now the museum’s director, the Ducati museum was ready six months later.
Why build a company museum?
Before the work started, Minoli explained to me that Ducati didn’t just want a museum in order to preserve its history. The Ducati museum was supposed to be a communications tool (for commercial benefits, marketing and image promotion), a trademark for the company, a way of preserving and using its own heritage and a way to form partnerships with other local businesses. With the bikes and the history of their racing successes, it was to convey the passion of an Italian company that often managed to keep its bikes and riders ahead of the rest, although its resources and means were far inferior to those of its rivals.
How can a company museum provide creative ideas that can solve the complex problems of the modern business world? In other words, how can the past teach us about the present?
As we collected material for the museum, scattered all over the world, we came across all kinds of records and artefacts: forgotten motorbikes and period photographs. We transferred them all to digital format and archived everything, and now the company can draw on well-organised materials that can be used for any application, such as the “Seventies” merchandising.
Not only that, but designers from all over the world visit the museum to study the old bikes and find inspiration. For example, the “Mike Hailwood Evolution”, a bike which evoked the unique model produced for the famous British rider, was designed by Pierre Terblanche based on the designs kept in the museum.
It is also a “living” museum, used for meetings, gatherings and public presentations, thanks to its helmet-shaped hall which seats up to 45 people.
How much do the company’s employees take an interest in the museum? Does it build team spirit?
The museum has merely reinforced the team spirit that has always distinguished people who work for Ducati. Even now, many visitors are former employees who bring their children and grandchildren to see motorbikes they spent their lives building. Many employees even visit the museum during their lunch breaks, or take their friends and family at the weekend.
This sense of belonging to a community has always been part of this company’s success, in racing and on the market. This is why Ducati wanted to thank its staff, past and present, by dedicating the “memory wall” to them – a huge photograph at the museum entrance dating from the 1930s, showing the entire workforce all together.
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