Category: Educations Series

Milano, the startup capital

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An innovative city. The numbers show it: in an increasingly dynamic Italian landscape, Milan confirms its position as the favourite place for young entrepreneurs. In the shadow of the Madonnina, the symbol of the city known throughout the world, are concentrated 15% of Italy’s new, innovative SMEs. Among 9,742 entrepreneurial firms, between startups and small companies, set up in Italy in the last year, 1,505 are in Milan. But, beyond this number, what’s perhaps more important is the extremely high survival rate (98%) of these new companies, evidence of a very favourable environment for the development of new businesses.

The figures were presented recently by Cristina Tajani, councillor for Labour Policies for the City of Milan, who also pointed out that the city invested some 11.5 million euros in new companies from 2012 to 2018. In the same period, the revenue generated by new businesses exceeded one billion euros.

In Italy, Milan can thus boast a leadership position that dates back decades and an ecosystem of services, institutions and infrastructure that offer entrepreneurs all the necessary instruments to allow their business to best function, including easier access to credit. Moreover, the entrepreneurial attractiveness of the Lombard capital is now well established and recognized at an international level. In 2016, Financial Times elected Milan as the Italian capital of startups. Then in the last three years, the city has been able to capitalize on the experience of Expo 2015, which successfully repositioned it on the world scene.
And, as the United Kingdom finds itself struggling to deal with Brexit, several institutions and large companies are considering abandoning London and looking to Milan for their next headquarters. Prestigious multinationals long ago chose it for their Italian offices: Microsoft, IBM, Google, Deloitte, Adecco, Gartner and many others.

The Lombardy Region also does its part in providing loans and other financing to innovative startups: a concrete example of this is the “Intraprendo” tender, which offers up to 65,000 euros in funding and is part of a broader three-year Strategic Program for research and innovation with total resources of about 750 million euros.

Empirically supporting this widespread awareness of the leading role played by Lombardy and, in particular, by Milan, for Italian startups are also the figures of the Hi-tech Startup Observatory of the Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management, which quantifies investments made by formal investors, such as venture capital funds and informal ones, like business angels and crowdfunding platforms, in startups with a high innovative content in the Digital, Cleantech & Energy and Life Science sectors.

Since 2012, the year in which both the Observatory was established and the Innovative Startup Decree was issued by the Ministry of Innovation and Economic Development, Lombard hi-tech startups raised a total of more than 600 million euros, while those headquartered in the province of Milan raised more than 550 million euros. In 2018 alone, the capital raised by the 43 startups receiving financing amounted to almost 250 million euros, about half of Italy’s total.

In addition to the strong presence of high-quality startups and growth potential, the city boasts a well-developed support system made up both of investors, whose capital enables startups to achieve their growth potential, and accelerators and incubators, which instead concentrate on companies in their embryonic phase, providing support and expertise to help fine-tune the business model.

These actors are sometimes tied to local universities, like the Poli360 investment fund – a partnership between Politecnico di Milano and the VC fund 360 Capital Partners for the financing of technological ideas – and PoliHub, a Politecnico di Milano incubator and accelerator, the third best incubator in the world according to Ubi Index, an international research firm specialized in the sector.

So there is fertile ground for all aspiring startuppers who want to become part of Milan’s vibrant economic fabric and a dense network of business relations that is destined to grow. Just ask Palermo native Giovanni De Lisi, who in Milan found the opportunity to set up Greenrail, a project involving eco-sustainable railway sleepers made from recycled material that can already boast a contract in the US worth 75 million euros. Or the Calabrian Osvaldo De Falco, who chose Milan for his Biofarm, a bonafide “digital agricultural” company that attracted the attention of Italian financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore thanks to its record crowdfunding: it asked for 80,000 euros, it got 300,000. And it’s now looking to expand abroad.

Milan’s appeal, however, isn’t strictly limited to business: fashion, food, the artistic patrimony, the cultural offering, even the climate, which in recent years has become milder, make it a city in which life is pleasant and stimulating. A winning mix.

But are you born a startupper or do you become one? Undoubtedly, talent and insight are fundamental to launch a business. Yet an entrepreneur, today, also needs economic and technological skills.

So while PoliHub offers a perfect environment to incubate and develop new entrepreneurial ideas, it is also within the Politecnico di Milano, in its School of Management, that aspiring startuppers can gain the necessary expertise for the development of new business ideas.

MBA and Executive MBA programmes, for example, encompass Startup & Strategy courses, but there are also specific Master’s degrees like the Advanced Master in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, offered in collaboration with the Solvay Brussels School.

In addition, the MIP Management Academy offers an extensive catalog of courses for the public executive who wants to explore the theme of Entrepreneurship & Strategy.

First of all, together!

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Becoming an MBA student is a wonderful adventure, but also a hard choice!

You can’t predict how much your life is going to change, in terms of the resources you are going to invest and the time you are going to dedicate.

But if you are crazy enough to accept this challenge, then, once you kick off, you will discover an incredible and exciting world (assuming you are able to stick to every mandatory deadline…!)

Two months into the journey, thinking back to the first lesson makes me smile… it felt like my first day at elementary school. All around there were new faces, new professors, and of course, tons of information I had never heard before!

But at the same time, I cannot think about all these challenging moments without the face of someone close to me feeling the same way and motivating me with a smile or a joke.

Barcelona was exactly the consolidation of this first feeling: more than 60 people transforming  from unknown classmates into people sharing experiences, helping each other and slowly becoming friends.

I have so many concrete examples in mind, from the first moment we landed in Barcelona and none of us was able to recognize the face of another until the last day, when we were all enjoying free time together. And most of all, I bring back home the amazing experience that has been working with my team on our group assignment, so great experience!

Of course, the timetable was tight (otherwise it wouldn’t be an MBA), with the week’s schedule basically divided into two main parts: the first part on EADA’s Collbatò campus, with courses on leadership and ice-breaking outdoor training; the second part of the week in Barcelona at the EADA building, with lessons on Company behaviours and Macroeconomics.

And of course, group assignments every evening till dinner time (well, honestly, sometimes also after dinner time…) but, on top of all that, a lot of fun!

This experience made me think that the choice to apply for this MBA was the right one! MIP is really an incredible life experience! I am now eager to start the next topic and share a new challenge with a new team!

I am sure the bond that we created in Barcelona has represented only the fuse to the great network we are building as MIP students and, one day, as MIP Alumni   ̶  60 people feeling the same emotions and facing the same challenges, starting from the same point with the opportunity of discovering the power of our team!

 

 

About the author
 Pietro Cavallo

My name is Pietro and I grew up in Milan, where I am currently living. I work in Switzerland, in the Supply Chain division of a clothing multinational. I am the husband of an incredible wife and father of 1 crazy kid and ½…  I’ll keep you posted when the second ½ arrives…

 

The future of advanced learning will be FLEXAble with the help of AI

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Another digital revolution is under way at Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business (MIP) with the arrival of the first release of FLEXA, an innovative, personalized continuous-learning platform and a digital mentor for students. MIP is using Microsoft AI services to power this platform that delivers personalized education recommendations to the next generation of executives and business decision makers.
Imagine a world in which learning was invented, for the first time, within today’s digital media environment. There would be no history of print influencing how courses were planned or textbooks were sold, no centuries of structure shaping how universities were designed. In such a thought experiment, we might reimagine how classes look, how long they last, and how they structure the information and interactions shared by professor and students. Instead, we might see the standard quarter or semester structure replaced by longer, more adaptive learning strategies that happen daily, weekly, or monthly, as determined by the needs of the student and the requirements of their chosen career.

A new learning model would also need to leverage a powerful content engine and artificial intelligence (AI) capable of adapting and assisting each individual student. Such is the dream of FLEXA, an approach to learning being pioneered at Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business (MIP) in Milan, Italy.

Customized and personal

Planning for FLEXA began in 2016 when Federico Frattini, professor at MIP and director of the MBA and Executive MBA programs, began thinking about the next wave of digital technologies that could advance executive learning. In doing so, he realized that some unanswered questions remained about how to most effectively use digital technology in education. First, Frattini notes, there is an “opportunity to personalize the journey for our students undergoing long programs like an MBA, Executive MBA, or a specialist Master’s degree. Beyond in-program personalization, digital technology also offers the possibility for providing continuous learning over time for our alumni community, and that’s something shared by many other schools.” FLEXA offers students many features, including networking opportunities and exposure to companies registered on the platform that can promote talent acquisition initiatives. “FLEXA is a great tool for becoming more cognizant with the needs of our students,” says Frattini.

The crux of FLEXA begins, Frattini explains, with “a diagnostic tool that evaluates the student’s hard, soft, and digital skills, then uses Microsoft AI services to create personalized learning pathways that can be very short one-day paths or longer six-month paths. It can suggest physical and digital content customized to the experiences of each student, alumnus, or prospective students, designed to close their skills gaps.”

It works like this: Students sign in to the system using their MIP accounts, whereupon they take the assessment of their various skills—hard, soft, and digital. “The hard skills section,” Frattini says, “is a self-assessment based on the experience they have gained in their career or studies, covering a number of dimensions of competencies that are relevant for tomorrow’s jobs. Then they will take tests for the soft skills and digital skills. They will be asked to indicate where they expect to be in their career in three years’ time. So, in terms of financial expectations, they will be working on the kind of role they would like to take on.”

From there, students can access their dashboard where they can find their skills profile and see their strengths and their gaps, all depending on the career aspirations they have previously identified. Students determine how much time they’d like to spend to deepen their knowledge surrounding those areas, and FLEXA leads them along the path to filling their skills gap efficiently. Frattini explains, “Imagine having a personal mentor supporting you day-by-day along your career path. Imagine that this mentor were to recommend the right content in order for you to keep up-to-date and be able to close the gap between your current skills and those needed to achieve your career goals. This is FLEXA.”

Working with Microsoft

This is where Microsoft AI comes in. For any given combination of hard, soft, and digital skills, and for the specific aspirations of any individual student, there is a wealth of content that could be useful. Some of these items can be read in 10 minutes, some in 20, and some require more time. The AI can recognize and categorize the content appropriately and make recommendations accordingly. FLEXA might recommend attending an advanced marketing course at MIP, then follow with recommendations for three specific book chapters because they touch on a particular skills gap. These recommendations evolve over time. Frattini notes that, “FLEXA takes into account the feedback of other users on the platform that are using the same content. It also considers how relevant the content is to a student based on other profiles similar to that student’s in terms of overall career aspirations.”

For such an ambitious goal, the cooperation and technology of Microsoft were critical. Frattini is clear that, “there was no other partner with whom we could have done a project like this. The vision, the passion, the support of Microsoft Italy—the relationship was very positive, and fun.”

The possibilities with such a system are incredibly exciting. It can be integrated into curriculum goals. Frattini offers an example: “Say I’m a professor interested in the applications of blockchain. I can launch a challenge on FLEXA, whereby I ask three teams of five people to prepare a video sharing their experience and knowledge about how to use blockchain in the food sector. The three teams are created on FLEXA. They take part in the game and the team producing the best video will be selected by the faculty. We have the video included in FLEXA’s datalink and it can be sent to other users.”

At the same time, given the assessment tool, FLEXA provides a granularity of information regarding the actual needs of students, and those needs can be communicated to faculty in order for them to optimize course and lesson plans to best benefit their students.

Into the future

The FLEXA pilot launched in the last quarter of 2018, and already the team at MIP has ideas about how to evolve its operations and develop future iterations of the platform. Reimagining how to serve students in a digital age takes time, after all, and a willingness to innovate and take risks, and to use new technology to rethink old methods. The ingenuity on display by the MIP team and the power of Microsoft AI makes FLEXA a project to watch, as these sorts of experiments may very well define the next decade of curriculum planning and educational excellence.

International Trade, New Technologies and International Organization of Production

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Milan, May 16-17, 2019

Call for Papers

The next meeting of the ITSG – Italian Trade Study Group will be organised by the Department of Management Engineering, Economics, and Industrial Production, Politecnico di Milano, and Fondazione Manlio Masi.

Submissions are invited on all topics in international trade. Papers on international trade and digital technologies, and impact of ICT on trade and the internationalization of firms are particularly welcome.

Topics of special interest include:

  • Globalization, GVCs and new technologies
  • International e-commerce and digital exports
  • Trade policies for digital trade

Complete papers (or advanced drafts) should be submitted to the Segreteria Fondazione Masi – segreteria.fondazionemasi@ice.it – by April 5, 2019. The acceptance of the papers will be notified no later than April 18, 2019.

The keynote lecture of the Workshop will be delivered by Alan Deardorff, University of Michigan.

The Scientific Committee of this meeting includes: Davide Castellani (University of Reading), Luca De Benedictis (Università di Macerata), Stefano Elia (Politecnico di Milano), Anna Falzoni (Università di Bergamo), Giulia Felice (Politecnico di Milano), Giorgia Giovannetti (Università di Firenze), Enrico Marvasi (Università di Firenze), Lucia Piscitello (Politecnico di Milano), Lucia Tajoli (Politecnico di Milano).

Logistic information about the meeting will be posted in due time on the following website: www.fondazionemasi.it

Francesco De Lorenzis

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Francesco De Lorenzis, EMBA candidate, is now CEO at Financière Fideuram SA in Paris. We jumped on the opportunity to collect and share his success story!

 

Why did you decide to do an MBA?

More than 10 years after graduating in “Economics of Institutions and Financial Markets”, I began to notice that the business world was undergoing a profound change. Here I felt the need to undertake an Executive MBA that would allow me a better understanding and a vision of the main challenges and decisions that a company has to face nowadays. Furthermore, the MBA could guarantee me, at the same time, a suitable language to interact with heterogeneous profiles.

 

How did your current position at Financière Fideuram come about?

My experience in Financière Fideuram has led me to develop a path of professional and human growth that has always been guided by the motto “you do your duty and then let others judge you“.
Always following my life motto, over the years, I have been asked to hold the role of Financial Controller and then of the Company’s Investment Manager.
During all these years, I have earned the trust and respect from my colleagues and Top Management and now I have been appointed to lead Financière Fideuram.
I thank Fideuram again for the opportunity and trust given to me: all my efforts will be aimed at satisfying the interests of the stakeholders.

 

What’s the most important lesson that you learned during your experience at MIP?

There is not a specific lesson but the continuous learning of a cross language of innovation and transformation. The ability to face, analyse and solve complex problems in a short time, looking for non-traditional solutions and developing lateral thinking. The constant training of skills development techniques for multicultural management of teams and contexts in which the company operates.

How are you applying your MBA learnings in your current role?

First of all, I’m working on myself, to be perceived by my colleagues not as a Boss but as a Leader.
Therefore, my personal challenges are: to set a strategic direction that is clear to all members of the Company; to encourage innovative ideas; to agree with colleagues on times and methods of working; to support and develop the skills of colleagues; to build a cohesive team able to face conflicts without being overwhelmed by them; delegating as much as possible to create a climate of trust and to empower; praise employees for the quality of their work by releasing feedback and then providing real career opportunities.

 

What advice do you have for others MBA candidates looking forward to climbing the ladder?

My advice is that if  you’re interested in an Executive MBA just to get a certificate to quote in your CV, you are wasting time and money.
The competition on the labor market is not only on the certificates but on the ability to manage ideas, innovate by talking as Leader with colleagues and top management.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artificial Intelligence Brings Personalized Learning Experiences For MBA Students

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is perhaps the biggest game-changer of recent times. Its influence and impact are far-reaching; rapidly spreading into a varied array of industries.

Business schools are no different. Last year, Italy’s MIP Politecnico di Milano released FLEXA in partnership with Microsoft, an AI-powered platform which provides a personalized learning experience for MBA students.

Speaking to BusinessBecause in October 2018, Raffaello Balocco, director of the Full-Time MBA at MIP said FLEXA will dominate learning experiences at MIP this year.

FLEXA helps to identify courses, tutorials and digital materials to help bridge skills gaps for students and save them time sifting through material to find relevant resources. FLEXA also increases exposure to recruiters who can identify possible employees through the evidence-based learning visible on the platform.

New ways of learning

Luca Polzot is an MBA student who graduated from MIP in 2014, immediately jumping into a job at Microsoft working as an account executive in education.

Originally an engineer, he pursued an MBA to switch from an operations role into a front office position at a leading technology company. The MIP MBA was pivotal in helping him gain his job at the IT giant.

“I got the chance to meet Microsoft at the end of my MBA as part of a company visit and was scouted for their talent acquisition program,” he says.

Luca wanted to work in IT and tech because he recognized early on that this was the sector that was going to infiltrate and revolutionize every aspect of business. He wanted to be at the forefront. Working with FLEXA ensures exactly that.

Although he’s now moved on to focus on financial services, Luca worked for four years as an account executive for education at Microsoft, responsible for the company’s relationships with universities and business schools like MIP.

“Technology’s presence in education adds value to the content and an additional layer of interaction to be capitalized upon,” Luca explains.

FLEXA

Current main features of FLEXA include:

  • An initial assessment of the user’s skillset to determine their strengths and weaknesses, and thus how to tailor their learning.
  • A personalized learning pathway which takes into account this assessment, the amount of time at a student’s disposal, and their interests, to provide the most useful resources.
  • Personalized daily workouts and topical exercises which aim to bolster the main learning content.
  • Personalized content searches which allow students to pinpoint relevant material simply and quickly.

FLEXA also supports networking online, helping students maintain connections with both faculty and alumni, meaning the business school’s digital community is a true reflection of the school’s cohort, past, present and future. “It provides lifelong learning and is valuable no matter your connection to MIP,” Luca says.

Taking the lead

Luca was initially drawn to MIP because of the school’s core focus on digital innovation—the MBA program itself was created in partnership with companies like Microsoft and IBM. As part of the Full-Time MBA, a core module Basics in Digital is taught entirely online.

Luca believes that the whole education sector needs to keep up with advances in AI and similar tech in order to provide the best for their students. This is particularly key for business schools.

“Businesses are using and integrating the latest tech and so business education has to in order to be a valuable resource,” he says. “I expect new ideas from MBAs no matter their role, when they join Microsoft,” he continues.

“Graduating from a school that prioritizes exposure to new technology provides MBAs with a head-start to this way of thinking.”

 

Originally published on 

Celebrating global stories in continuous transformation

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The International MBA program at MIP has a very magical element. It is made up of different stories and points of view from opposite sides of the planet, that coincide for the duration of a year in Milan. As promised, this time I will be introducing two of my MBA colleagues and friends: Renata Cabral Sturani from Brazil and Rohit Vigg from India, who share here their life-changing experiences.

 

Why did you decide to pursue an MBA program?

Renata: Ever since I started my career in investment banking ten years ago in São Paulo, I have known that I wanted to enroll in an MBA program. However, I postponed my decision several times, because luckily my job was so vibrant and full of opportunities. As I grew in my career, it became clear to me that I needed to broaden my horizons. I graduated with a degree in economics and had a strong background in finance, but I had the desire to understand businesses beyond financial models and have a more holistic view about industries across the globe.

Rohit: Before September 2018, my life had a monotonous feeling; being in the IT industry in India takes a lot out of you and the struggle of competing with billions makes us more susceptible to change. There is a point in your career where you are stuck with the same kind of work with no learning opportunities or future growth. This can be because of outdated skills or depends on how comfortable you are with the current state of the work environment. For me personally, I wanted a boost, a push to my career and MIP was the answer, exposing me to a whole new world of people, organization and culture.

 

What was your previous life like, back in your hometown?

Renata: While I was preparing for the MBA application process I got pregnant, which was wonderful news. In that moment, I wasn’t at all intimidated by the challenge of pursuing an MBA and simultaneously taking care of my child. In Brazil, my routine as an investment banker included long workdays. I used to work 12 to 14 hours a day, and sometimes on weekends; however, even with this schedule, I enjoyed my job. I had no doubt in my mind that my proven track record of excellent time management skills would help me in this journey, but I certainly underestimated how challenging it would be. After my daughter was born, a regular day in Brazil included getting up early, around 5 a.m., with little to no sleep during the nights.

Rohit: A regular day in Delhi included me getting out of bed in the morning and getting ready for work, a job which was challenging both mentally and physically and had no further scope for the future.

 

What is your normal day like, living in Milan?

Rohit: Compared to Milan and life at MIP, my old life seems pretty easy. The routine here is tougher, you have to get up earlier and run to the class, but with the satisfaction of structuring your career. MIP has given us a platform where each of us can re-engineer our life and give it a path of our own. Even though we miss our friends and family back home, MIP has opened up a whole new set of multicultural friends and a new family from all around the word. Cooking has always been a passion of mine ̶ as I am an amazing home chef, I usually used to cook for my family during the weekends. But now I get the opportunity to cook every day. No-one can replace a meal which was home-cooked by your mother, but sometimes I feel inspired when someone praises my food. I guess I have increased the spice threshold for some Europeans back in my apartment!

Renata: Looking at my life in Italy now that I am at MIP, I feel that my old life in Brazil as an investment banker and then as a new mother prepared me for the demanding routine of the MBA. My daily routine in Milan includes getting up at around 6.30 a.m., taking my now 14-month-old daughter, Diana, to daycare, and then running to catch the train for class. Usually, I get home after 20.00 and my daughter is already sleeping. Once I am back home, I continue to study and I go to bed around midnight every day. I do feel overwhelmed at times; however, the feeling of accomplishment outweighs this. I am very fortunate to have the unconditional support of my husband (who is Italian) and his family along this journey. I miss my family a lot but try to Skype with my loved ones as much as possible. It is also great way to expose my daughter to the Portuguese language!

 

What makes this MBA journey special?

Renata: At MIP, I have learned that diversity takes on a whole new meaning. Among the students in our class I’ve found 20 different home countries that are represented, as well as an array of different professional backgrounds. That alone is an incredible experience, as it helps one develop sensitivities to different backgrounds. Such a level of sensitivity and respect for your colleagues is necessary when working in a global environment.

Rohit: The feeling of Freedom, which is accelerating and sometimes gives us a sense of maturity. Missing home is a part of my routine now, but sometimes I replace this with an aperitivo, exploring the city with friends, new Italian cuisines and campus beer. Up until now it has been a roller-coaster ride, and I think it’s not going to end soon. With excitement in my heart, I could not have asked for a better opportunity than MIP.

 

Stay tuned for the next chapter, where I will give you my personal tips and advice for applying to the International MBA program at MIP…

 

About the author

Roberto Niño Betancourt

Roberto is a student of the International full time MBA. He is a Colombian filmmaker and new media artist based in Milan. He has collaborated as a post producer for MTV Latin America, as well as many European production companies. He is very passionate about international cross-cultural collaborations, craftsmanship and the sustainable conservation of natural resources.

 

How AI empowers new generations of business minds with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed

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Every week I interview entrepreneurs and experts from around the world to share their big idea about new forms of value creation and the potential we can unlock when technology augments the unique strengths of people to deliver remarkable impact.

Transforming from Graduation to Employability
I got inspired by the big idea behind FLEXA: hence I invited Professor of Strategic Management and Innovation,  Federico Frattini to my podcast. We explore the changes in the market place, and how this is putting more and more pressure on the education system and the students they serve. The goal should not be just to successfully graduate, but to actually be employable after you graduate. This changes the requirement 180 degrees on how students, employers and university’s communicate and collaborate together.

The thing that triggered me most from my interview with Federico
“The basic idea is to give our students exactly the knowledge they need to achieve their career goals faster and to make them more employable.”

Why did this trigger me? What’s the bigger value here?
It’s again a very strong example what happens when we start innovation with outcome in mind, rather than output. It might seem obvious, but it’s a 180 degree turn in how ‘the business’ of Education works. By applying intelligent technologies to the learning process any university can make the shift from delivering graduated students to students that can actually directly start to make an impact and be self-sustainable in society.

Beyond that linking effort to tangible results will, from my perspective, add more meaning, and as such lower the number of drop outs, and help students to accelerate their education process, which is a win-win for everybody.

The concept is more widely applicable though. It reminds me of my podcast with Tom Pennings, CEO of Onsophic, who’s solution ties corporate learning to business outcomes and performance management. FLEXA however, addresses the challenges at the very start of the process – the student – and with that creates a positive ripple effect that impacts everyone.

What’s the more significant question/opportunity that raises?
The example above is just the first step in accelerating a large-scale transformation in Education. Matching curriculum with aspirations is one side of the coin. Imagine what happens when employers start to engage in the process? That way you have the perfect platform to match demand and supply – and as such critical information to perfectly tune curriculum development. It’s turning curriculum process from top-down (education system led) to bottom-up (market led).

If you know what employers really search for, and what knowledge students need to achieve career targets, it means that for the first time the education system can start to anticipate and follow the shifting demands in the real business world, resulting in new ways to close the rapidly growing skills gap as well s the gap between students and placement.

Taking that one step further – as Federico rightly quoted: “potentially this service can be offered without any degree, to strengthen the digital heart and soft skills of any person in the planet, whether they are students or not of our school, I think that this gives you an idea of potential societal impact.”

To help accelerate this development, just think about how your companies’ HR, recruiters, headhunters or other players in the HR industry could benefit from this platform. Share your views here.

 

Listen to the big idea behind FLEXA,  and why it has the potential to transform the way Education works and creates impact.

 

 

POLITECNICO DI MILANO IS AN ART PATRON OF THE XXI CENTURY

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At a ceremony held at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Brussels, the Politecnico di Milano received the “Art Patrons of the XXI Century” award, “for transforming the campus in an open-air museum with permanent and temporary exhibitions”.
Vice Rector, Prof. Emilio Faroldi, collected the award. The “Art Patrons of the XXI Century” award aims to strengthen the visibility, recognition and reputation of institutions, companies and private investors who actively contribute to the development of the arts and society.

Now in its third year, the award has attracted entries from over 300 companies and institutions from 32 countries across 5 continents. Amongst this year’s winners in the Institutions category, besides our University, there are the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, FAO, the World Bank, Banca d’Italia and the European Joint Research Centre. Created in 2016 by pptArt, in collaboration with the LUISS Business School, the programme developed from the realisation that companies that are actively involved in the arts world tend to have greater financial success and seem to be more able to tackle many ethical, environmental and social challenges.

The artistic project that won this prestigious prize is The external dimension of sculpture, a permanent exhibition by Gio’ Pomodoro at the Bovisa Campus. 22 works by the great Italian sculptor chase each other through a post-industrial landscape, inserting themselves among the austere geometries of our university buildings. The result is a joyful unity of marble, bronze and architectural elements.

From the end of the 60s, Giò Pomodoro believed in the external dimension of sculpture, its relationship with the environment and the people who use it, and he made it a place for people to meet and relax. He thought that the specific language of sculpture was extremely close to that of architecture and science, and that it was imperative to reinstate their original unity.

Therefore, his work is characterised by involving the environment through an interaction that moves from the sculpture and activates the external space.
We believe that Giò Pomodoro effectively represents polytechnic culture. A sculptor and a graduate in surveying, he studied poetry and science, and considered architecture a sister discipline. He made jewellery and medals, ceramics and furniture; he designed and painted; he worked with iron and polyester, bronze and plaster, stone and marble. We do not want it to be like this. Thanks to the essential collaboration with the Giò Pomodoro Archive, we are proud to host this open-air museum to promote his works as much as possible and make them available to our students and the city of Milan

Startups: the “lean” route to success!

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Do you have a brilliant business idea? Are you thinking of launching your own startup? If so, then keep reading and enjoy the tips Antonio Ghezzi, Professor of Strategy & Startups, has shared with us!

Startups and entrepreneurship are hot topics. Thus, when we heard of the latest article by Prof. Ghezzi – “Agile Business Model Innovation in Digital Entrepreneurship: Lean Startup Approaches” – we jumped at the opportunity to ask him for an interview.

Expressions like “agile business model” or “lean startup” may intimidate you, but Prof. Ghezzi’s explanation will make everything clearer.

 

What is the “lean startup approach”?

In the aftermath of WWII, companies needed to make the production process leaner and to cut waste. The answer was the “Toyota System”, the prelude to modern lean manufacturing.

Later, authors like Steve Blank and Eric Ries introduced the same “waste-reducing” idea to startups. They theorised that startups – traditionally short of money – could not afford to spend resources on something clients did not require.

 

Does this mean that innovation should originate only from customers’ demands?

Henry Ford used to say, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”

Actually, the lean approach does not totally transfer the innovation process to customers: it is still up to the entrepreneur to conceive brilliant ideas.

Yet, entrepreneurs often make a mistake. They see customers – those the product is made for – as “enemies”, since they are the final judges of the product’s success, and they may even reject it. Thus, in the attempt to make the product “perfect”, they invest a large amount of money upfront and delay the launch on the market. But there is an inner fallacy in this notion of perfection: through heavy investments, the product or service will become perfect only from the entrepreneur’s perspective, but not necessarily from the customer’s.

The lean approach tries to reverse the situation, inviting entrepreneurs to ask for customers’ opinions as soon as possible, in order not to waste resources on something the public may dislike.

The lean approach suggests that the business model – i.e. how the company creates value, delivers it and captures it – is validated by the market at each step. Traditionally, startups are very good at creating value, but they have problems in monetising it. The lean startup approach helps entrepreneurs to overcome this difficulty.

 

How does the validation process work?

Entrepreneurs have to translate their business idea into a series of falsifiable assumptions, about the services they want to sell, to whom, about marketing decisions, partnerships, etc.
Then they have to test them. How? By designing a Minimum Viable Product. Through the MVP – a basic sample of the product – entrepreneurs can collect customers’ feedback without investing too much money.

Dropbox’s MVP, for example, was a video. There was no code at all! It simply showed how to create folders and how to share them… It was played hundreds of thousands of times and it made the beta waiting list jump from a few thousands of “tech nerds”  to over 75,000 people overnight.

This is the difference between the lean startup approach and marketing research: the first is about what people do, the latter about what people say.

Another great example is Zappos, the online retailer. A few years ago, Nick Swinmurn – Zappos’ founder – thought of selling shoes online. However, would people buy them? At that time, the answer to this question was not all that predictable and testing was needed.

He therefore tried to replicate customers’ natural behaviour through a “fake” e-commerce website. It showed pictures and prices of shoes, inviting customers to buy them online. When people hit the “buy” button, nothing happened.
Nonetheless, this helped Zappos’ founder to collect important data: out of all the traffic generated on site, a given percentage of customers tried to buy shoes on his website. He got a metric – the conversion rate – that he could use to make real-world forecasts.

Testing is very important because it helps entrepreneurs to understand whether they have found the Product/Market Fit – a product meeting the needs of the market. Otherwise, it would be better to make the idea perish as a whole or slightly change it in order to meet customers’ feedback. This shift – called “Pivoting “– happens all the time.

Thanks to the lean startup approach, entrepreneurs can reduce the amount of time and money spent in validating a business model and speed up the achievement of the Product/Market Fit.

 

Thank you Prof. Ghezzi for this exciting lesson. Before saying goodbye, we have one more question. Can we apply the “lean startup approach” to any sector and company size?

This process works well in the digital context as it’s easier to create MVPs for digital products. Still, it can also be applied in others sectors, provided that minimum is not that minimum and you’re eager to raise the bar. In the end, it can be considered a cross-industry approach that even large companies or institutions are adopting within a strategic renewal and corporate entrepreneurship framework. Just consider that, in the US, it is even applied to the Defence Sector!