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: "Knowledge First"
Certainly, new technologies such as micro and nanoelectronics, photonics, IoT, AI, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc. offer great opportunities to make production more competitive. However, the increase in the number of technologies enhances the 'systemic complexity of products and processes' and forces companies to deal with very different disciplines simultaneously.
These challenges affect an increasing number of industrial fields today. For example, secure communications and high integrity messaging are absolutely necessary for the success of the new IIoT.
In this new context, innovation becomes the ability to manage knowledge. Companies have to extract knowledge from different technological fields and incorporate it into new products and processes. In other words, innovation becomes the ability to govern interdisciplinarity. Many companies today fail to innovate because they are unable to govern interdisciplinarity.
Organisational models that foster the integration of knowledge are therefore needed.
The numerous failures of Industry 4.0 prove that technology alone is not enough. Digital innovation is fundamentally about the use and transformation of knowledge. Digital technologies produce data and knowledge. And the latter still remains the real key to success.
On the other hand, the external environment is becoming less legible and predictable and - as the Covid emergency has shown - the problems that companies have to face are increasingly new and complicated.
Under these conditions, the speed of learning becomes the critical success factor for all organisations.
Companies need more culture and a new leadership style:
- a deeper culture to interpret change and quickly understand the new direction;
- "new" leaders able to foster rapid learning and adaptation processes within their companies.
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. 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 a source of development. For this reason, our projects often include innovation and development phases simultaneously. This approach also reduces 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 the most efficient 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. Meanwhile, the risk of skills mismatch increases. Improving the scientific knowledge base and the ability to govern multidisciplinarity becomes crucial to increase competitiveness.
Innovation is not an end in itself.
It creates competitiveness and employment.
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 are integrated into a multi-channel architecture. Increasing use of AI techniques as a source of new knowledge.
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 routinely collaborates with third parties on innovation and business projects. Managers have a high level of culture to read the specificity of markets and drive market innovation. Customers and suppliers are involved in co-creation and co-design initiatives. Investments in R&D and training increase.
Bio-economy and Circular-economy push innovation
Bio and Circular-economy become two pillars of competitive strategy. Renewable biological resources from the land and sea are used to produce new materials and energy. The reuse of raw materials becomes a key element of product design and is spread 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 point out that neighboring regions, even border regions, have different economic performance.
These differences depend on different physical infrastructures, the quality of public services to businesses and citizens, and the role played by universities and institutions.
Institutions are crucial to innovation and development
Innovation comes from businesses as an essential condition of competitiveness.
Competitiveness and innovation are the result of internal resources and talents and the way they are managed. However, innovation also depends 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, therefore, essentially on the quality of local institutions.
At this stage of economic development, the effects of a more innovative and efficient local context on the profitability of businesses are similar to those resulting from the effectiveness of business management.
Therefore, a key direction for development intervention concerns methods to increase local efficiency and actions that institutions must take to attract talent and investment.
Rethink and reuse. New opportunities come from the past
The decline of industrial activities that in the past drove the economy of entire regions is now causing a situation of economic and social degradation, high local unemployment, deindustrialization and the exclusion of entire segments of the population.
At the same time, the abandonment of many productive areas offers new opportunities for the development of new R&D and hi-tech production facilities.
In many cases, a "general rethinking" of the area is necessary to initiate an industrial renewal based on the reuse of abandoned areas.