In the year 1897, Sabbatini was presented to Ferdinando Bocconi, a publisher who founded and owned a chain of big magazines, "Alle città d'Italia". He wanted to pay homage to his son Luigi, who had been killed at the Battle of Adua, during the Italian-Ethiopian War in 1896, by establishing a school of commerce with his name. Bocconi's brother was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and introduced him to Sabbatini. Bocconi wanted a radical departure from the traditional Italian universities, which were too much theoretical and very little pragmatic in business education. Sabbatini took the bait and presented to Bocconi a school where economic sciences would be the key discipline, which would permeate the entire cycle of studies, in order to provide the future business leaders the tools to understand and to practice in the real world.