Château du Clos Lucé

The Leonardo da Vinci Prize was created in 2011 on the initiative of the Henokiens Association of family businesses in existence for more than two hundred years and the Château du Clos Lucé - Parc Leonardo da Vinci, a cultural business and the last residence of Leonardo da Vinci.

The mission of the Château du Clos Lucé is to pass on the legacy, universal memory and knowledge of Leonardo da Vinci and to promote the value of highly skilled know-how.

The Henokiens Association, founded in 1981, devotes itself to standing up for and promoting the passing on of the intangible and living heritage of two-hundred-year-old family businesses all over the world.

The missions of the Château du Clos Lucé and Henokiens Association meet and converge in the tradition and passing on of an intangible, living heritage in the name of the figure who was the greatest possessor of universal talents.

The new Prix Léonard de Vinci is part of the process of passing on our heritage in the sameway that Leonardo da Vinci passed on his skills to his pupils in the spirit ofthe Renaissance.

The Prix Léonard de Vinci is awarded to a family business for its outstanding ability to pass onto future generations a set of cultural values and know-how and particular techniques that together make up an intangible and living heritage which are an essential guarantee of its continuity.

This heritage is expressed in the fidelity of these businesses to their traditions, theirindustry, a product or cause, a region or local area, and above all their family history.

The Prix Léonard de Vinci was awarded for the first time in Paris at the Club de la Maison de la Chasse et de la Nature on 23 September 2011.

Five fundamental values are necessary for the success of a heritage business and to enable it to be long-lasting.

• History and tradition 
• Business and family
• Fidelity and commitment
• Memory and passing on of heritage
• Innovationand modernity

On Friday, October 5, 2012 the second “Leonardo da Vinci Prize” has been awarded in Berlin by Mr Daniel Bahr, Minister of Health of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Pr Hans Georg Näder, chairman of the firm Otto Bock HealthCare.

This German industrial group is specialized into medical technology to improve the mobility of disabled people and is an official partner of the 2012 Paralympics Games in London. 2^nd exclusive sponsor of the Paralympic Games, inventor of the famous C-Leg, Otto Bock HealthCare supports the Games both as a manufacturer and a supplier.

The Prize will be given during a ceremony in the presence of Mr Klaus Wowereit, Governor-mayor of Berlin,  Christophe Viellard, president of the Henokiens association, and François Saint Bris, president of Château du Clos Lucé and all the members of the Henokiens association.

In its first year, 2011, in recognition of Leonardo da Vinci’s motherland the Leonardo da Vinci Prize was awarded to an Italian company in the fashion and luxury goods industry.

Salvatore Ferragamo

The first Leonardo da Vinci Prize was awarded to the Salvatore Ferragamo company, embodied and represented by three generations: Mrs Wanda Ferragamo, Honorary President of the Ferragamo group, her daughter Giovanna Ferragamo, Vice President, and her grandson James Ferragamo, Director of the Women’s Leather Goods Department.

Today the Ferragamo company is 83 years old, has a turnover of 782 million euros, employs 670 staff and has 580 prestigious boutiques all over the world.

In 1917 Salvatore Ferragamo settled in the United States. With his talent and genius, combined with his imagination and incredible creativity, he charmed the Hollywood stars such as Greta Garbo, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, Ava Gardner and Judy Garland.

In 1928,Salvatore Ferragamo returned to his native country and set up a company in Florence, reaffirming his attachment to Italy and Tuscany, his preferred region, and his commitment to the leather goods industry by creating jobs, a factory and a skills base there.

Purchased in 1938 by Salvatore Ferragamo, the Palazzo Spini Feroni in via Tornabuoni is one of the oldest palazzi in Florence. This magnificent 13th century medieval noble’s residence became the company headquarters, with a showroom, a boutique and a splendid museum opened in 1995 to tell the story of the brand, the corporate culture and the company’s products.

During the 1930s and 40s, the endlessly curious Salvatore Ferragamo, obsessed with innovation, came up with a new style and designed unique footwear, experimenting during the wartime leather shortage with modest materials such as cork, cellophane and nylon fishing line to make invisible sandals.

In 1960, following the death of Salvatore Ferragamo, with courage and determination his wife Mrs Wanda Ferragamo took over running the family business to continue and pass on the legacy of her husband, his work and the brand expertise.

Thanks to her passion and energy, her strength of character and her iron determination, the company went from strength to strength in the footwear and leather goods industry, diversifying into ready-to-wear fashion, accessories, scarves and perfumes, and even entering the luxury hotel industry.

Wanda Ferragamohas written several accounts in memory of her husband and for her children and grandchildren about their life and their amazing adventure in industry guided by their laudable virtues and the family values they inherited from their parents in southern Italy. She has been remarkably successful in passing on to the second and third generations of the family the precious legacy of her message instilling values.

Her children and grandchildren have now taken up the torch from her to run Ferragamo, which has become a top luxury brand, and to take the company onwards to new heights.

Through its history and that of the people who run the company, Ferragamo is a perfect embodiment and illustration of vision and commitment in the service of a tradition, a profession and a region, and of the ability to pass on its own culture and technology, while demonstrating innovation and modernity and successfully forging a worldwide reputation.

Quantitative criteria

 Target : family businesses of which the owner-directors are the main shareholders, either on their own or with members of their family.

• Business longevity criterion: more than two generations
• Turnover criterion: more than three million euros.

Qualitative criteria

Five fundamental values are necessary for the success of a heritage business and to enable it to be long-lasting.

• History and tradition: tradition is at the heart of the mission of the heads of family businesses.
•  Business and family: founding a family and founding a business involve similar commitments, which involve an ethical approach to business common to the whole family.
•  Fidelity and commitment: the family business undertakes to ensure the continuation of a set of cultural and humanist values, skills and particular technologies that make up an "intangible and living heritage" that is an essential guarantee of continuity.
•   Memory and passing on of heritage: the director of a family business does not simply leave a business to his or her successor but passes on a personal and original vision of his or her profession in a relationship with time that is considered to be a "raw material".
•  Innovation and modernity: Preparing for the future is about anticipating. Like Leonardo da Vinci, family businesses must strive resolutely to innovate to remain competitive.