Innovation & Development
More Innovation, more competitiveness
We believe today’s challenges are complex, span interconnected sectors, and require a holistic and systemic perspective.
We bring the systemic and interdisciplinary approach needed to address new issues, connect the relevant layers, and integrate the actors involved. Our way of tackling problems is often unconventional, allowing us to explore solutions that traditional methods overlook.
Rethinking the way we innovate: “System Thinking and Rapid Learning”
We are living through a period of profound transformation. New technologies — from micro‑ and nanoelectronics to photonics, IoT, biotechnology, and nanotechnology — offer extraordinary opportunities to enhance competitiveness. At the same time, their rapid development increases the systemic complexity of products and processes, forcing companies to integrate highly diverse disciplines and knowledge domains.
These challenges become even more pronounced in the development of robots, drones, autonomous vehicles, and other advanced systems, where mechanical engineering, electronics, AI, sensing, cybersecurity, and real‑time decision‑making must be integrated seamlessly.
The rise of Artificial Intelligence and quantum computing is accelerating this transformation. AI provides unprecedented capabilities to analyze complex systems, generate insights, automate knowledge‑intensive tasks, and support strategic decision‑making. Quantum computers — far more powerful than classical machines — are particularly effective for problems of exponential complexity, such as molecular simulation, logistics optimization, and cryptography.
In this context, innovation becomes the ability to manage knowledge. Companies must extract insights from multiple sources and technological fields and integrate them into new products, services, and processes.
In other words, innovation becomes the ability to govern interdisciplinarity.
This requires organizational models that foster systemic intelligence — and, at the same time, the development of stronger human capabilities.
AI does not replace human intelligence; it amplifies it. To fully leverage its potential, organizations need people capable of deeper interpretation, critical thinking, and informed decision‑making. AI becomes a true multiplier only when human capabilities evolve accordingly.
As demonstrated by the setbacks of many Industry 4.0 initiatives, technology alone is not enough. Digital innovation is fundamentally about the use and transformation of knowledge. Digital technologies generate data and knowledge — and the latter remains the real key to success.
Meanwhile, the external environment is becoming less predictable and harder to interpret. The challenges companies face are increasingly new and complex.
Under these conditions, the "speed of learning" becomes the critical success factor for every organization.
Companies need a deeper culture to interpret change and quickly understand emerging directions. At the same time, they need leaders capable of promoting system thinking and guiding integration across disciplines.
Today, the risk of not innovating is greater than the risk of innovating.
Innovation Culture: The Strategic Framework of High‑Performance Companies
In today’s global markets, high‑performing companies regard innovation as a fundamental organizational capability. Their competitive strength lies in integrating people, research, intellectual property, ecosystems, and governance into a coherent and scalable framework.
Below is the corporate framework that characterizes organizations truly oriented toward innovation.
Human Capital Excellence: Activating Internal Potential
High‑performance companies recognize human capital as their primary driver of value. They implement structured systems to:
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activate intrapreneurship initiatives
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reward high‑impact innovative contributions
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accelerate internal prototyping
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foster autonomy, ownership, and accountability
The goal is to transform teams into generators of high‑impact solutions, fully integrated into core processes.
Strategic Research Partnerships: Integrating Advanced Research
The most mature corporate organizations build a stable portfolio of partnerships with:
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universities
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research centers
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technological laboratories
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scientific institutes
These collaborations enable companies to:
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access frontier knowledge
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accelerate technological development
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reduce the risk of complex projects
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integrate advanced methodologies into business processes
Research becomes a strategic lever of competitiveness.
Intellectual Property Strategy: IP as a Competitive Asset
Leading companies build an intellectual property portfolio designed to:
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protect critical technologies
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create defensible competitive barriers
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sustain the innovation pipeline
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generate long‑term intangible value
Intellectual property is treated as a strategic asset, not as an administrative output.
Innovation Ecosystems: Co-design & Co-development
The most dynamic corporate organizations operate within extended ecosystems built through:
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partnerships with deep‑tech startups
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collaborations with innovative suppliers
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investments in emerging ventures
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international networks of specialized competencies.
This model enables companies to:
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rapidly access emerging technologies
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integrate know‑how not available internally
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accelerate experimentation
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reduce time‑to‑market
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build new value chains
Adaptive Governance: Evolutionary Decision‑Making Models
High‑performance companies adopt governance models capable of:
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simplifying decision‑making processes
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distributing responsibility at regional and functional levels
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scaling agile methodologies across the enterprise
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digitalizing workflows and core processes
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implementing AI and cloud initiatives at scale.
Innovation governance becomes a systemic enabler, supporting transformation, speed, and resilience.
Strategic Priorities for Companies Seeking to Consolidate Leadership
To compete in the coming years, companies must:
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develop a scalable internal innovation capability
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build long‑term scientific and technological partnerships
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treat intellectual property as a strategic asset
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operate within open and global ecosystems
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adopt agile, data‑driven governance
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integrate AI and digitalization into core processes
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foster a culture oriented toward experimentation and continuous learning.
In summary:
Innovation is an organizational competence, not a project.
Companies that build this competence will lead markets and generate sustainable long‑term value.
Our Innovation Principles
1. Innovation is essential. It is the foundation of competitiveness and resilience.
2. Innovation is not linear. It requires iteration, interdisciplinarity, and the ability to manage uncertainty.
3. Innovation creates value. It generates growth, opportunities, and long‑term competitiveness.
4. Innovation and operations are different worlds. They demand distinct processes, metrics, and governance.
5. Knowledge drives innovation. We accelerate learning to strengthen capabilities and competitiveness.
6. No one innovates alone. Partnerships and complementarity are strategic assets.
7. Complexity requires integration. Specialization must be governed through strong knowledge and multidisciplinarity.
The Future-ready Company
The model of a future-oriented company is summarized as follows:
Products, processes, and business models become digital
Digital manufacturing, data‑driven marketing, and online services define the new directions for innovation. Products become smart, sustainable, and interconnected. Manufacturing integrates traditional and digital technologies, or evolves into fully digital workflows. Sales and communication shift toward multi‑channel architectures, where digital and physical distribution reinforce each other.
Artificial intelligence plays a significant role in business management — both as a source of new knowledge that enables strategic insights, forecasting, and the resolution of complex problems, and as a powerful tool for process automation.
Products evolve into systems and services are powered by satellite data
Products integrate multiple technologies and are customized around client needs. High‑tech services become essential to increasing profitability, differentiation, and market share. Satellite data enables the creation of new value‑added services and high‑impact applications
The organization becomes “open”
Companies collaborate routinely with external partners on innovation and business initiatives. Customers and suppliers participate in co‑creation and co‑design. Investments in R&D, skills, and continuous learning increase significantly.
A new leadership style is gaining ground: systems thinking and rapid learning
Leaders of future‑ready companies combine strong systems‑thinking capabilities—essential for interpreting the new complexities of products, markets, and technology—with the cultural depth needed to foster innovation, accelerate learning, and build effective collaboration with partners.
Bio‑economy and Circular Economy drive innovation
Bio‑based and circular models become pillars of competitive strategy. Renewable biological resources from land and sea are used to create new materials and energy. The reuse and regeneration of raw materials become central to product design and permeate the entire production cycle.
Dependency on banks decreases
In Italy, around 40% of corporate liabilities are financed through bank debt, compared to a European average of roughly 23% (sources: ECB – Structural Financial Indicators, Eurostat, Banca d’Italia). This reflects a structural dependence on bank credit and a limited use of market‑based financing instruments.
By contrast, Germany and the Netherlands show significantly lower levels of bank dependence (around 18–22%), while France combines bank lending with a much stronger use of corporate bonds and private equity. The Nordic countries (Sweden, Denmark, Finland) rely even more heavily on capital markets, with bank debt often below 20% of corporate liabilities.
Future‑oriented companies diversify their financing through bonds, private equity, venture capital, and stock listings, while actively leveraging European innovation instruments — including grants, subsidized loans, and dedicated EU programs — to support growth and reduce financial concentration risk.
Innovation is not an end in itself. It generates competitiveness, new opportunities, and employment.
Businesses, Innovation & Territory
Many indicators show that neighboring regions — even those sharing borders — often display very different economic performances.
These differences stem from variations in physical infrastructure, the quality of public services for businesses and citizens, and the role played by universities and institutions.
Institutions are crucial to innovation and development
Innovation originates within companies and is a fundamental condition for competitiveness. Competitiveness and innovation depend on internal resources, talent, and management practices. However, they are also strongly influenced by the territorial, cultural, and relational context in which companies operate.
The local context directly shapes the quality of human capital and supports the creative and innovative capacity of firms. The availability of people capable of initiating and managing innovation processes depends largely on the quality and effectiveness of local institutions.
At this stage of economic development, the impact of a more innovative and efficient local ecosystem on business profitability is comparable to the impact of effective corporate management.
Therefore, a key direction for development policies is to increase local efficiency and to strengthen the actions institutions must take to attract talent and investment.
Rethink and reuse. New opportunities come from the past
The decline of industrial activities that once sustained entire regions has generated economic and social degradation, high unemployment, deindustrialization, and the exclusion of large segments of the population.
At the same time, the abandonment of many industrial areas creates new opportunities for the development of R&D centers and high‑tech production facilities.
In many cases, a comprehensive rethinking of the territory is required to initiate industrial renewal based on the reuse and transformation of abandoned areas.
