Small to Big: Moleskine Notebooks’ Digital Dimension

Moleskine’s hardbound, black journals have become iconic since they were introduced in 1995. Yet the Italian company aspires to be something more than a maker of notebooks, says Chief Executive Officer Arrigo Berni. “We define the business,” he says, “as offering people a platform to express themselves and their creativity.” To that end, Moleskine joined forces with Evernote to introduce its first smart journal in 2012, which allows users to capture their notes and upload them to computers, tablets, and smartphones. A second-generation version, developed in conjunction with Adobe Systems and Livescribe, made its debut last year.

Arrigo Berni: People were online talking about their passions and their obsessions with Moleskine when I joined in 2006—that was before social media and social networks, and way before we had any meaningful institutional presence online.