Adriano Olivetti (April 11, 1901 – February 27, 1960) was an Italian engineer, business leader, politician, and industrialist. He was famous around the world during his lifetime for creating typewriters, calculators, and computers under the Olivetti brand. He was the son of Camillo Olivetti, the founder of the Olivetti company, and Luisa Revel, the daughter of a well-known Waldensian pastor and scholar. The Olivetti company was started by his father.

The Olivetti factory began with 30 workers and focused on making devices to measure electricity. By 1908, the company began producing typewriters.

Adriano Olivetti changed small, shop-like operations into a modern factory. He created an idealistic system called the Community Movement. In his company, he employed not only managers and technicians but also many artists, such as writers and architects. This was because he was interested in design and planning for cities and buildings, which connected to his personal vision for the future. His company’s model, which encouraged participation and informed decision-making, was different from the boss-like management style used by Vittorio Valletta of Fiat S.p.A.

Biography

Olivetti’s father, Camillo Olivetti, who was Jewish, believed that his children could receive better education at home. Olivetti’s early years were shaped by his mother, who was the daughter of a local Waldensian pastor. She was an educated and serious woman. Camillo Olivetti, a socialist, taught his children that manual and intellectual work should not be considered different. When not studying, Olivetti and his siblings worked under the same conditions as the company’s workers. The strict and serious rules set by Camillo Olivetti led to rebellion in Olivetti’s teenage years. He disliked his father’s workplace and chose to study subjects other than mechanical engineering at a polytechnic school.

After graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from the Polytechnic University of Turin in 1924, Olivetti briefly worked for his father’s company. When he became a threat to Benito Mussolini’s Italian fascist regime, his father sent him to the United States to learn about American industrial practices. For the same reason, Olivetti later traveled to England. After returning, he married Paola Levi, the daughter of Giuseppe Levi and the sister of his friend Natalia Ginzburg. The marriage had three children but ended quickly.

Olivetti’s visit to American factories, especially Remington, showed him that productivity depends on how a company is organized. With his father’s approval, he redesigned Olivetti’s production system using a model inspired by Taylor. He transformed the workshop into a factory with departments and divisions. As a result, productivity doubled within five years. In 1933, Olivetti sold half of the typewriters used in Italy. He shared the gains with workers by raising wages, benefits, and services.

In 1931, Olivetti visited the Soviet Union and created an Advertising Department at Olivetti that worked with artists and designers. The next year, he became general manager and started the project for the first portable typewriter. His business success did not stop him from holding idealistic views. In the 1930s, he became interested in architecture and urban planning. He designed a housing plan for workers in Ivrea, a city near Turin, and proposed a zoning plan for the Aosta Valley. In Fascist Italy, supporting workers at work and home aligned with the regime’s goals. Although Olivetti disliked the regime, he joined the National Fascist Party and became a Catholic. During World War II, he participated in anti-fascist and resistance movements, was imprisoned, and later fled to Switzerland. There, he connected with intellectual exiles and developed his ideas about community life. He also worked with British officials to avoid an Allied invasion of Italy and to negotiate an Italian exit from the war.

After World War II, Olivetti’s company grew rapidly but faced financial trouble in the late 1950s after buying the Underwood Typewriter Company. During this time, calculators and computers replaced typewriters as the main products. Olivetti balanced business with efforts to promote his vision of community life. He believed that mutual respect and care for the environment could prevent war and poverty. His ideas were similar to those of 19th-century socialists like Charles Fourier and Robert Owen.

In 1919, Olivetti helped his father edit a newspaper called "L'Azione Riformista," though his contributions were not always clearly identified. When his father stopped publishing the newspaper in 1920, Olivetti convinced him to let him and his friends take over, but the publication ended by 1920.

Olivetti also worked with "Tempi Nuovi," a political newspaper in Turin supported by his father and others. As the newspaper became more critical of fascism, Olivetti’s political views shifted, influenced by his education and friendship with the Levi family.

In 1924, Olivetti earned a chemical engineering degree from the Polytechnic of Turin. After a trip to the United States with Domenico Burzio, he joined his father’s factory in 1926. At his father’s request, he worked as a laborer first. He became director of Olivetti in 1932, when he launched the first portable typewriters called MP1, and president in 1938.

Olivetti opposed the fascist regime, especially after the discovery of Giacomo Matteotti’s body in 1924. He participated in the rescue of Filippo Turati, a political leader, with others. He was close to the Giustizia e Libertà movement. He helped Turati escape from Italy with the help of the Levi family and others. It is unclear how Olivetti avoided being investigated by the regime after Turati’s escape.

From 1931, the Aosta police labeled Olivetti as subversive because of his father’s Jewish heritage. He later became general manager and moved his residence to Milan with his wife, Paola Levi, who disliked life in Ivrea. In Milan, he met intellectuals who influenced his interests in architecture, urban planning, and social sciences. He faced challenges with the regime when his brother-in-law, Mario Levi, was caught with political materials at the Swiss border.