Development of Territories
Development of Territories
Development of Territories
Innovation & Development
More Innovation, more competitiveness
We think that today’s challenges are complex, affect a broad range of interconnected sectors, and require a holistic and systemic approach. We provide the necessary systemic and interdisciplinary approach to tackle new issues and to cover and inter-relate the relevant levels and actors. In tackling problems, our approach is often unconventional and unusual.
Rethinking the way we innovate
Certainly, new technologies such as biotech, nanotech, micro and nanoelectronics, photonics, new materials, new energy sources, IoT, big data, robotics, AI, etc. represent today a great opportunity to make production more competitive.
All the more reason, therefore, to innovate today means to promote the convergence of different knowledge in new products and processes. That is, it means creating and managing organizational models that enable the development of interdisciplinarity.
These are difficult challenges that cut across a wide range of industries. For the success of the new IoT, for example, secure communications and high-integrity messaging are absolutely necessary.
What was already clear before the covid emergence has been made more apparent by the critical issues posed by the new global environment. Covid has shown that it takes more than just technology.
The environment becomes less readable than before, and the problems to be solved are increasingly new and complicated. Under these conditions, speed of learning becomes the critical success factor for all organizations.
Businesses need more culture and new leadership styles. A deeper culture to interpret change and point quickly in the new direction. Leaders who can foster rapid learning and adaptation processes.
The covid 19 emergency has highlighted the weakness of supply chains. Precise make-or-buy choices are needed at the country and company level to reduce the risk of excessively long supply chains and to make production systems more resilient.
We think there's more risk in not innovating than innovating today.
Our Innovation Principles
1. Innovation is no longer an option today, but more and more a necessity. In such terms we think there's more risk in not innovating than innovating. For this reason, a given territory should continuously support the company's ability to innovate.
2. Innovation is a unique process that requires originality and inter-discipline. Innovation is not a linear process. It is iterative, often elusive and unpredictable. But it is completely manageable.
3. Innovation is not an end in itself but must be a source of development. In these terms, our projects often include innovation and development phases simultaneously. This approach also reduces the time to market.
4. “Operations” and “Innovation” are different processes. They require different logics, different metrics, and different management systems.
5. Knowledge is at the heart of innovation. The knowledge you use to make innovation, the knowledge you produce for short and medium-term competitiveness. We use all the methods and tools to accelerate learning processes.
6. In today’s globalized economy, complementarity is increasingly an element of competitiveness. We help companies find the best partners that enable business model innovation.
7. As problems become more complex, more specialization is required. In the meantime, the risk of competence dilution increases. The improvement of the scientific knowledge base and the ability to cooperate and govern multidisciplinary teams become crucial for competitiveness.
Innovation is not an end in itself but is always a source of development.
The New Innovative Company
The model of a future-oriented company is summarized as follows:
Products, processes, and business-models go digital
Digital manufacturing, web marketing, and web services are the new directions for innovation. Products become smart, sustainable and capable of communicating among themselves. Manufacturing processes integrate traditional and digital technologies or they go completely digital. The web is the infrastructure in which business concentrates its investments in communication and sales. Digital and traditional distribution get integrated into a multi-channel architecture.
Products become systems and services
Products integrate different technologies and are customized in relation to the client's needs. New hi-tech services are developed as the key to increasing profits and market share.
The organization is "open"
The company systematically co-operates with third parties in innovation and business projects. Managers have a high level of culture to read the specificity of markets and lead the market innovation. Clients and Suppliers get involved in co-creating and co-design initiatives. Investments in R&D and Education increase.
Bio-economy and Circular-economy push innovation
Bio and Circular-economy become two pillars of competitive strategy. The company uses renewable biological resources from land and sea to produce new materials and energy. Reuse of raw materials becomes a key element of product design and is widespread throughout the production cycle.
Dependency on banks decreases
It should be noted that in Italy 40% of liabilities are covered by debts to banks compared to an average of 23% in Europe. The new company uses various channels to finance its development (bonds, private equity, listing). In addition, it carefully seeks out opportunities offered by European Institutions in terms of funds for innovation (grants, subsidized financing, etc.).
Businesses, Innovation & Territory
Many indicators underline that nearby regions, even border areas, have different economic performances.
Such differences depend on different physical infrastructures, on the quality of public services to businesses and citizens, and the role played by Universities and Institutions.
Institutions are crucial for innovation & development
Innovation comes from enterprises as an essential condition of competitiveness.
Competitiveness and innovation are the results of the internal resources and talent and the way they are managed. Nevertheless, innovation depends also on the territorial, cultural and relational context in which businesses operate.
The context directly influences the quality of human resources and stimulates and supports the creative process of companies. The availability of human resources capable of activating and managing innovative processes depends essentially on the quality of the local Institutions.
In this phase of economic development, the effects of a more innovative and efficient local context on companies’ profitability are similar to those stemming from the effectiveness of business management.
Therefore, a key direction of intervention concerns the methods to increase local efficiency and the actions that Institutions have to undertake to modify local conditions and attract talents and investments.
Re-think and re-use. New opportunities come from the past
The decline of industrial activities that have in the past pushed the economy of entire regions is now causing economic and social blight, high local unemployment, deindustrialization and the exclusion of whole segments of the population.
Contemporarily the abandonment of many productive areas offers new opportunities for developing new R&D and hi-tech manufacturing facilities.
In many cases, a "general rethinking" of the area is necessary in order to develop an industrial renewal based on the re-use of brown-field sites.