Key Ideas

Discussing B+B and Cassina Franco makes reference to their age and the fact that their age and size has led them to rest upon the brand, and the achievements of their past, which he sees as a risky choice.

Between these two time stamps is reference to the fact that many of the older companies are not making efforts on the technological side in order to update and improve their manufacturing, and are not exploring new options in terms of materials, methods, and tools. To their credit though, they have an enormous amount of experience and knowledge, and as a result they are very good at the things they currently do, and the methods that they currently use, as we ourselves saw when we toured their factories, but this skill may not be enough if they will not take the risks required in order to become skilled and experienced in things that are new, or to develop the new themselves.

Another point that may tie to this is Isao Hosoe's description of Cassina's reaction to his irregularly triangular table design and the comment from them that in their history they had never made a triangular table, let alone one that is also an irregular triangle. Although in this case, though Cassina seemed reluctant, they did indeed take the risk and make the table.