From property to TV, Silvio Berlusconi was an 'incredible salesman' - The Straits Times

PARIS – Mr Silvio Berlusconi’s career may have been dogged by scandal, but he showed genuine innovation in building his real estate and media empires – even if the late billionaire missed out on the digital revolution.

Before reaching high office, the flamboyant Italian tycoon shook up the television market with private channels filled with scantily dressed young women, game shows and American TV series.

“Silvio Berlusconi invented commercial television in Europe, at the same time as the British, while the rest of the continent was still living under national public television monopolies,” said Mr Carlo Alberto Carnevale Maffe, associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Milan’s Bocconi School of Management.

He created a style that was “very popular, on the same model as English tabloids, bringing daily life onto the small screen”, Professor Carnevale Maffe said.

In the 1970s, national private TV channels were banned in Italy, but Mr Berlusconi got round this rule by buying up local channels, on which he broadcast the same programmes simultaneously.

The result was the appearance of a national channel, “which allowed him to attract many more advertisers”, said Mr Umberto Bertele, professor emeritus at Milan Polytechnic’s School of Management.

This sleight of hand was only made possible thanks to serious political support, however, notably from the Italian Socialist Party and its leader, Mr Bettino Craxi, as well as the banks.

Visionary urban planner

Their support also smoothed the path of Mr Berlusconi’s real estate career, notably his large residential developments on the outskirts of Milan in northern Italy.

Mr Berlusconi, who died on Monday at age 86 just weeks after doctors revealed he had leukaemia, started out as a cruise-ship entertainer and door-to-door salesman.

But it was the property industry that brought “Il Cavaliere” his first successes in the early 1960s.

The “Milano 2“ project was one of the highlights, a 700,000 sq m residential district built during the 1970s.

It broke new ground by including green spaces, routes not just for cars but also pedestrians and bikes, with essential services such as banks, shops and schools close to houses.

“He had great intuition, he made a smart city 50 years before everyone else,” said Prof Carnevale Maffe.

“Berlusconi was genuinely innovative. He gave the best of himself as an urban planner. He had an extraordinary concept of public space. It’s an aspect of him that people have slightly forgotten.”

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