Category: Events

London’s sovereignty in Venture Capital

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on London’s sovereignty in Venture Capital
What is the geographical distribution of Venture Capital (VC) in Europe? Is VC activity agglomerated around a few preferred locations? Or, conversely, are we observing an increased dispersion of VC outside large metropolitan areas?

 

VC is an important source of finance for the growth of innovative startups, which contribute significantly to a country’s international competitiveness, as essential driver of innovation, job creation, and economic development.

Knowing how VC investments are geographically distributed is useful to understand the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems in Europe and, consequently, is a precious tool to approach innovation policies.

Using the VICO-DATASET of Risis (European Research Infrastructure for Science, technology and Innovation policy Studies) it is possible to describe the agglomeration patterns of VC activity at the regional, metropolitan, and industry level.

The study, led by Massimiliano Guerini, Massimo Colombo and Francesca Enrica Tenca of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano, illustrates some crucial evidence.
The UK and France are the most relevant VC markets in terms of the number of VC deals, while Eastern European countries and Israel show the highest incidence rates (VC deals / GDP). Moreover, VC activity is mostly concentrated in large metropolitan areas, with increased concentration levels from 2010 to 2018. However, there is a non-negligible share of VC activity in more peripheral areas. In details, London, which represents by far the top VC hub, experienced a +50% in VC activity growth from 2010 to 2018, compared to a modest +6% of Paris (the 2nd VC hub) and Tel Aviv (+23%), ranked 3rd in terms of VC activity.  Some smaller areas in terms of VC activities registered remarkable growth rates from 2010 to 2018, such as Budapest (+167%), Milan (+62%), and Tallinn (+124%).

Last but not least, important differences emerge across sectors. The life science sector exhibits higher dispersion of VC deals outside the main VC hubs, mainly in areas with relevant knowledge creation activity. Conversely, VC activity in the Software, Internet & TLC, and R&D & engineering sectors is concentrating in large metropolitan areas.

The findings have important policy implications for democratizing access to VC in more peripheral areas and for the development of entrepreneurial ecosystems, and they open a debate on the framing of research and innovation policies.

 

For further information:
Policy Brief
https://www.risis2.eu/

Presentation of the study (online event):
30th April 2021
2:00 pm – 4:00 pm
7th RISIS Policymakers Session “Democratising access to smart money in EU, evidence form the VICO-DATASET”

 

 

QS ONLINE MBA RANKING 2021: MIP POLITECNICO DI MILANO 6TH IN THE WORLD WITH ITS INTERNATIONAL FLEX MBA

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on QS ONLINE MBA RANKING 2021: MIP POLITECNICO DI MILANO 6TH IN THE WORLD WITH ITS INTERNATIONAL FLEX MBA

The School of Management of Politecnico di Milano retains its top 10 position for the third year running

MIP Politecnico di Milano, the Graduate School of Business belonging to the School of Management at the Milan-based university, takes 6th place globally for online MBAs, and is the top-ranked business school, with its International Flex MBA, the School’s Master in Business Administration taught through distance learning. In Europe, MIP is up to 5th place.

MIP’s position has been recognised in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Online MBA Rankings 2021, the annual classification of distance learning courses consulted across the world.

MIP Politecnico di Milano remains the only Italian business school listed in the ranking. It was first included in 2018, at 20th place; the next year, it joined the top 10 and has never left. Additionally, the QS ranking for 2021 lists more business schools than ever before, 57 of them in total, meaning that MIP’s achievement this year is its best ever since it entered the ranking.

MIP’s International Flex MBA, taught in English, was launched in 2016, and is taught via an innovative platform developed in partnership with Microsoft. It is the English version of our Flex MBA, the first MBA in Italy to have embraced smart learning at its debut in 2014 when it was included in MIP’s programme portfolio. More than 550 students have studied for one or other of the two MBAs over the past eight years, and enrolments were up by 35% in 2020 alone.

In the words of Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, President and Dean of MIP Politecnico di Milano, respectively: “We are proud and honoured to be once again included at the top end of the prestigious QS Online MBA Ranking. This is a superb result and confirms the importance of investing in digital innovation. MIP Politecnico di Milano utilises the most advanced technologies in its online teaching platform developed by Microsoft. It offers the professionals, managers and entrepreneurs who take its courses both the flexibility they need to balance study and professional commitments and a varied selection of high-level courses that dovetail with a wide set of experiential learning opportunities. As part of our courses, we offer lectures given by our partner companies and bootcamps where participants can test out their newly learnt skills, underscoring the value of our MBAs”.

If we analyse the parameters used in the ranking, we can see where MIP Politecnico di Milano performed particularly well. In Class Experience (including percentage of physical meetups, regular synchronous classes, access to a learning app on a mobile and/or tablet, and 24/7 tech support), our International Flex MBA is rated third in the world. We are in fourth place for Faculty and Teaching and in sixth for Employability.

In the QS top 10, MIP is ahead of Indiana University (USA) and on the heels of Alliance Manchester Business School, separated by just one percentage point (0.10). IE Business School (Spain) is still in the lead for the fourth consecutive year, followed by Imperial College Business School (UK) and Warwick Business School (UK).

MIP’s International Flex MBA is inserted within an educational portfolio of excellence, joining about 40 Masters, including 7 MBAs and Executive MBAs, 200 open executive programmes and a series of training programmes customised for companies.

Click here for the QS Online MBA 2021 Ranking.

New life for electronic waste thanks to the circular economy

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on New life for electronic waste thanks to the circular economy

This virtuous example of circular economy is the result of the Horizon2020 FENIX project in which the Politecnico di Milano is a partner.

 

Like a phoenix rising out of its own ashes, the FENIX project has achieved its aim of giving new life to electronic waste, turning it into raw materials for eco-compatible products such as new metal filament for 3D printing, eco-friendly metal powders for additive manufacturing and sustainable 3D-printed jewellery.

The Horizon 2020 FENIX Project, in which the Politecnico di Milano is a partner, has drawn to a close after 40 months of work and achievement of its objective to develop new business models and industrial strategies with a view to a circular economy.

The Industry 4.0 Laboratory of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano has in fact implemented an automated station for the disassembly of mobile phone circuit boards by collaborative-robots (cobots), one of the most advanced automation solutions in robotics technology, as they guarantee operational flexibility while permitting interaction with their surroundings and with the operators who share their tasks.

Thanks to a semiautomatic process, the cobot manages to unsolder the electronic components of the circuit board while preserving their chemical characteristics: it uses a jet of hot air to melt the solder holding together the components so that these can then be detached and processed separately from the board.

Thanks to the circular supply chain set up by the consortium participating in the project, the circuit boards disassembled by the Politecnico di Milano are processed by the University of Aquila, which recovers pure materials (such as copper, tin, gold, silver and platinum) from the boards and their electronic components. Copper and tin are then transformed into metal powders (by MBN Nanomaterialia SpA in Treviso) and filaments suitable for 3D printing (jointly by MBN Nanomaterialia SpA and I3DU and 3DHUB in Athens, Greece), both then tested at the Fundació CIM in Barcelona, Spain. Whereas the precious metals are used by I3DU and 3DHUB in Athens, Greece to create eco-compatible jewellery. Produced and sold through the consortium, these jewels can also be personalised with a 3D scanner service and given the shape of objects or people’s faces.

The hope is that when the project ends, the business models conceived and tested by FENIX will be replicable by other external parties, with a view to promoting the setting up of new circular supply chains.

Also worthy of note is that two of the results developed by the Politecnico di Milano team involved in the FENIX project have been cited by the EU Innovation radar and that an article written by the team received recognition from the publishers Taylor & Francis and appears on the website of the International Journal of Production Research as top cited article. Click here to read the article.

Source: https://www.polimi.it/pressroom/comunicatistampa/

For more info about the project: http://www.fenix-project.eu/
Link to the Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEg3DZSWyo62lSaMg7xxZrg

Leave Your Mark: MIP and non-profit organizations join forces to build a better future for all

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on Leave Your Mark: MIP and non-profit organizations join forces to build a better future for all

An initiative conceived to allow managers, professionals and talented young people who study or have studied at MIP to make available their expertise – pro bono – to non-profit institutions that play a key role in building a more inclusive society and a better future for everyone. An important opportunity for personal and professional growth, but also to give back to the community a part of what was received during one’s education

Commit your resources and energy to build a better and more inclusive society, by participating in a volunteer programme to help non-profit organizations. It is the purpose of the Leave Your Mark initiative, promoted by MIP Politecnico di Milano in partnership with the Gianluca Spina Association. «I believe that business schools must increasingly promote a profound process of change and train managers who are aware how their decisions can – and must – contribute to improving the world in which we live and in which our children will live, and how this is not incompatible with the pursuit of maximizing profits for shareholders», explains Dean Federico Frattini. «This initiative represents the ideal opportunity to test the abilities and skills acquired by our students in the “real world”, while offering important help to the non-profit organizations involved».

 

An important opportunity for growth

This year we chose four non-profit organizations: UNICEF Italia, Cidiesse (Social Solidarity Cooperative) the Daniele Crespi High School and Open Ethics. The project aims to help these four non-profit organizations to improve their processes to increase their efficiency, effectiveness and impact in the environment in which they operate. «Issues that have always been close to the heart of our association, created with the goal of promoting and supporting training and scientific research initiatives involving management, with particular attention to social impact», explains Raffaella Cagliano, president of the Gianluca Spina Association. «We have always favoured educational and professional aspects, and we believe it is important to contribute to managerial education. Leave Your Mark is a project that instantly convinced us, and so we decided to support it. Volunteering is an important opportunity for personal and professional growth, and fully represents the aspiration that every manager contributes to creating a better world for all».

 

Four challenges, four skill sets

An enthusiasm also found among students and alumni, who signed up in large numbers. With over 100 candidates, about twenty were chosen, which were then divided into four teams based on individual skills. Indeed, the goal was to create working groups with complementary skills, able to truly make the difference for institutions that were part of the project.

Professors at the school will coordinate the teams.  For example, Sergio Terzi, Associate Dean for Students Engagement and Supporting Services, will follow the team working with l’UNICEF Italia: the goal is to support UNICEF in developing an engagement and cooperation strategy with Italian companies involved with B2B. The team must be able to identify the most important stakeholders, to analyse and segment the B2B market and to draft cooperation models.

Those who will offer their contribution to Crespi High School, under the supervision of Tommaso Agasisti, Associate Dean for Internationalization Quality and Services, must develop a digitalization model that manages the flow of documentation, while also adopting an ecologically sustainable approach.  An ideal challenge for those who know how to analyse organizational processes, especially in a school setting, and how to manage a digitalization process.

Davide Chiaroni, Associate Dean for Executive Education, instead, will be the tutor for the third project.  Cidiesse has already drawn up an ambitious marketing plan to expand its activity of giving disadvantaged youth access to the labour market, but needs careful budget planning, and the creation of a specific tool. In this case, the required skills range from experience in manufacturing to management, accounting and ERP (enterprise resource planning).

Lastly, Daniel Trabucchi, Assistant Professor for Innovation Management, will lead the team that will help Open Ethics create a culture of transparency in Italy for the digital products that we use every day. A perfect project for those who want to test their knowledge, including that of privacy and personal data management, behavioural economics, Artificial Intelligence, marketing and community management.

 

Volunteering that allows you to grow  

Putting their time, experience, creativity and skills to the service of Leave Your Mark, students and alumni can contribute to building a better future and to concretely help the selected organizations. But not only. This experience will allow them to acquire new skills, to expand their network and adopt a different perspective, compared to that of a traditional work environment.

A big opportunity for growth that has generated a lot of enthusiasm in the community.  For this reason, and for the importance the school places on these issues, as is also shown in the mission of MIP– Leave Your Mark is a project destined to last over time. The 2021 edition was just launched, but we are already thinking about next year!

FINANCIAL TIMES: MIP POLITECNICO DI MILANO’S INTERNATIONAL FLEX MBA AMONG THE BEST 10 ONLINE MASTERS GLOBALLY

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on FINANCIAL TIMES: MIP POLITECNICO DI MILANO’S INTERNATIONAL FLEX MBA AMONG THE BEST 10 ONLINE MASTERS GLOBALLY

Flex MBA the only Italian programme in the ranking: up one place on last year, now 8th in the world and in Europe’s top 5

MIP Politecnico di Milano reconfirms its place among the best business schools in the world for online MBAs. MIP is the Graduate School of Business belonging to the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano. According to the Financial Times Online MBA Ranking 2021, published today, MIP’s International Flex MBA is 8th in world for distance learning Masters in Business Administration, one place better than last year. In the ranking for European business schools, MIP is in 5th place and is still the only Italian school in the ranking compiled every year by the British newspaper.

“Our higher education offer holds its place among the most competitive in the world”, said Vittorio Chiesa, President of MIP. “Every manager, business person and professional knows that is it vitally important to continue developing their capabilities and expertise, and strengthen leadership skills that are essential to guide companies, from SMEs to large multinationals, in a dynamic and rapidly changing world. MIP is now an international reference point for its role in supporting leaders in this challenge”.

MIP’s International Flex MBA was launched in 2016, and is taught via an innovative platform developed in partnership with Microsoft. It is the English version of our Flex MBA, the first MBA in Italy to have embraced smart learning when it debuted in 2014 within MIP’s programme portfolio. In eight years, over 550 students have taken one of these two MBAs, with enrolments up by 35% in 2020 alone.

Looking at the FT ranking and the parameters used, the International Flex MBA scored well in all “career progress” indices (progression in the alumni’s level of seniority and the size of company they now work for versus three years ago on graduation), in gender balance on the School’s Board and for the number of international students and faculty.

“We are very proud to have received this acknowledgement from the Financial Times, as the only business school in Italy included in the ranking”, added Federico Frattini, MIP Dean. “This improvement in our global position confirms the quality of our distance learning offer. The health emergency inevitably also had an impact on the way we ‘do’ higher education, and accelerated a process of innovation that we were already expecting as the natural progression in executive education. The rise in number of people studying for one of these MBAs in such an unusual year as 2020 indicates that our decision to introduce smart learning as the first in Italy and one of the earliest in Europe was a key move that allowed us to intercept the growing demand for flexibility, something that our business community has been expressing for some time”.

In the Financial Times’ top ten ranking, MIP is ahead of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland (USA) and the Australian Graduate School of Management at UNSW Business School in Sydney. Warwick Business School (UK) retain the lead, followed by IE Business School (Spain) and Imperial College Business School (UK), a new entrant to the ranking.

MIP’s International Flex MBA is inserted within an educational portfolio of excellence, joining about 40 Masters, including 7 MBAs and Executive MBAs, 200 open executive programmes and a series of training programmes customised for companies.

 

View the full ranking

From the family business to MIP, and back: «This is how we innovate the transfusion sector»

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on From the family business to MIP, and back: «This is how we innovate the transfusion sector»

Barbara Sala, CEO at Delcon, talks about her educational and professional career, that led her to head the company founded by her father. «Our goal is to make the supply chain more efficient: using design and listening to those who work in the sector»

Innovating sometimes means changing your perspective. As did Delcon, the Italian company that produces medical equipment led by CEO Barbara Sala. A leap forward that might have been riskier, or that perhaps might not ever have happened, if the company did not have a purpose to guide its choices: «Above all by considering the sector in which we operate, which has a strong ethical value», explains Sala. «Having a noble objective allows us to risk something more to achieve it, adopting a long-term perspective».

Diversifying experiences: an added value  

Before coming to the helm of the company founded by her father, however, Barbara Sala travelled down different paths: after a degree in public relations, she explored marketing and technology, working with companies like Microsoft, Fujitsu-Siemens, Banca Intesa. And also by attempting the startup route, giving life to the AllUCanItaly tourism portal, which aimed to present Italy to tourists in its most authentic and genuine form. «Until, in 2011, I realized that the time had come to bring the value of all these experiences to Delcon. Over time, the diversity of my experiences after graduation proved to be an added value», says Sala. «Joining Delcon was an important professional and life choice, as well as an incentive to continue to train myself and thus to be able to meet the needs that my roles required».

An MIP education

Indeed, in 2014, Sala completed her EMBA at MIP Politecnico di Milano. «An experience that I would recommend to everyone.  I chose MIP for its engineering background and its attention to the issue of innovation», explains Sala. «But beyond the crucial educational aspect, I was also struck by the great networking opportunities. It was an experience that opened my mind, guaranteeing me empowerment and an important professional boost. Investing in education is the best choice that each of us can make, because the return is immense».

Design that is born out of use

Armed with new professional skills, and eager to innovate, Sala studied a diversification strategy for Delcon: «It wasn’t easy.  We operate in a highly regulated sector. All the machinery and technology used in blood collection must meet a series of stringent criteria. Until now, therefore, the production of these technologies always started from regulations». Delcon, at a certain point, decided to try a different strategy: «Together with Cefriel, a consortium company founded by the Politecnico that follows innovative companies, and with the New York Blood Center, we created the Milano scale. Instead of starting from regulations, we decided to interview those who personally use these tools.  What were their needs? Based on answers, we started to think about the design of the scale, so that it was not only perfectly compliant with regulations but also functional». The efficiency of the instrument and its ease of use, however, weren’t the only criteria that led to the creation of Milano: «We also worked to create an instrument with a less aseptic design compared to typical hospital products. We like to think that these products make the spaces dedicated to transfusions more welcoming».

Believing in a purpose

Delcon’s new approach also led to a small internal revolution, especially when it comes to hiring: «Our mission was to bring innovation to an industry that has always had difficulties in this area and to make the supply chain more efficient. And we understood that what makes the difference are those people who join our project with enthusiasm, with conviction. For this reason, we often hire candidates more for their attitude than for their CV. We look for courageous people, who like us care about the future of this sector, which is so delicate and important for everyone», concludes Sala.

From North to South. MIP’s distributed campus comes to life

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on From North to South. MIP’s distributed campus comes to life

Starting from the Bovisa campus, the nerve centre of the School, MIP expands nationally, giving life to local hubs in the Veneto, Lazio and Puglia regions. The goal is to enhance our vocation for innovation and offer students and professionals places for training, study and meeting up. And in the autumn a new branch will open in Milan’s Navigli district

Digital, distributed, innovative: these are the three adjectives that describe the year 2021 of MIP Politecnico di Milano. If on one hand, the business school will continue to focus on digital learning, a strength that is now recognised internationally and certified in different rankings, on the other hand it aims to strengthen its physical presence throughout Italy, from north to south: «In recent years we have realized that digital learning, even with all its advantages, has not eliminated the need for physical spaces, to the contrary», explains Dean Federico Frattini. «For this reason, starting from our nerve centre, represented by the Bovisa campus, we came up with the idea of creating spaces to allow our students to attend dedicated training events, to work in groups or to take part in a series of experiential activities that complete our educational offering. In recent months, a series of local hubs have come to life in the Veneto, Lazio and Puglia regions, in addition to a new Milanese space located in the Navigli district».

 

The concreteness of hubs, digital innovation

lt’s the idea of a distributed campus that is taking shape: MIP as an innovative business school, based in Milan but also present in other places. «The Bovisa campus in Milan will remain the nerve centre of the business school. Indeed, the Bovisa-Goccia project, will further reinforce the vocation for innovation of the campus and allow our school to benefit from enormous synergies and exchange opportunities», says Frattini, «but within a few months we will be able to count on additional branches, real contact points spread throughout Italy». Each of the hubs will respond to the different needs that arise within their geographical location. «We’re thinking of the needs of students, of course, but also those of companies, a very important stakeholder for MIP. Physical spaces make these experiences tangible. Furthermore, these hubs will be connected to each other digitally».

This strategy of strengthening our presence aims to reach an increasing number of students, professionals and companies, and has the goal of sharing with them the knowledge, skills and educational, relationship and cooperation models that already distinguish the Bovisa hub.

 

To each hub its identity

The goal is ambitious, to reach it we will focus on partnerships with local groups known for excellence.  In Puglia, for example, a new high-level training centre will be set up, in cooperation with UniVersus, the Politenico di Bari consortium: «Already between October and November, the first executive courses will be launched, using a mixed faculty, while starting in 2022 master’s programmes for those in more junior positions will begin». In the Veneto region, instead, Istituti Filippin La Salle will be involved, while in Rome a collaboration will be activated with John Cabot University and a series of other partners. Each of these partnerships will be characterised by a specific identity, modelled on the needs of the territory and of local companies. «Being present in different places will allow us to focus on issues relevant to that area. This shows that our expansion doesn’t add up to a watering down of our educational offering but, instead, a strong amplification of it», stresses Frattini.

 

MIP comes to the Navigli district

No less interesting is the genesis of the new project in Milan, that is born out of the desire to bring educational opportunities closer to the city centre. «In the five years following Expo», explains Frattini, «Milan has become one of the most popular destinations for international students. The inauguration of a space in Ripa di Porta Ticinese means being able to offer our students, especially those from other countries, the possibility to experience Milan in a way that is complementary to that done so far.  But the goal is also to make modular and flexible spaces available to companies, in line with their requests for classroom training». The inauguration is expected by the end of the year.

Leadership and purpose: the human aspect returns to the centre of business

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on Leadership and purpose: the human aspect returns to the centre of business

From awareness to sustainability. Why is it so important that managers leading companies put the human element at the centre? Arrigo Berni and Josip Kotlar explain, presenting the Executive Programme in Leading with Purpose

Facing the challenges of the present supported by a conscious intention, a reason that pushes us to pursue an objective. In a word, purpose. It’s the test that awaits the leaders of today and tomorrow, called on to deal with increasingly interconnected scenarios and challenges and with consumers who evaluate brands based on their contribution to society: «In the last decades, material living conditions have improved enormously at the global level. And human nature is such that from the satisfaction of a class of needs, in this case material ones, new ones are born, in this case immaterial, of meaning», explains Arrigo Berni, founding partner of The Mind at Work Italy and Adjunct Professor at MIP. But not only. The progressive worsening of environmental conditions imposes a rethinking of the reasons at the basis of economic activities: «Defining the purpose of an activity is essential to bringing the human aspect to the centre of business in a coherent fashion», explains Josip Kotlar, director of the Executive Programme in Leading with Purpose offered by MIP Politecnico di Milano with the collaboration of The Mind at Work. «Until now we have seen a sort of division between economic and corporate social responsibility activities. Our intention is to use purpose to promote a more integrated vision of these two aspects which are not separate but must go together to be sustainable».

Awareness, the key for complexity

A sea change, that requires enlightened leaders: «Intentional leadership», explains Berni, «is characterized by great self-awareness and by the ability to give a meaning to reality, rather than reacting to it. In addition to this, a purpose-driven leader has the ability to develop collaborative relationships with others and to correctly interpret the situation in which they operate».

An approach that can be read as an evolution of the methods by which people have always tried to come up with effective strategies.  As Kotlar explains, «it’s important that decisions are guided by what we can define as “conscientiousness”. Today, however, the traditional tools with which decisions are made are commodities available to every company. They no longer represent a competitive advantage. New approaches are needed that lead to conscientious decisions. Purpose is important because it provides a new set of tools with which to manage complexity, without restricting oneself to a technical, and therefore limited, vision of the world».

Sustainable change involves purpose

The advantages of leadership inspired by purpose are due above all to abandoning a vision superficially focused on “what” and “how”. «An approach », stresses Berni, «that sacrifices awareness of the intentions underlying a decision and that leads to results that not only are not very sustainable over time, but also fall short of their potential, because it doesn’t’ transmit energy to the entire organization». If you let yourself be guided by purpose, instead, «results are based on structural changes and therefore are sustainable over time, because they are children of a systemic vision of the company. Results are also better, because they are the fruit of more energy, both at an individual and collective level».

A course to develop your strengths

Motivated by the desire to encourage positive change in the world, MIP Politecnico di Milano decided to launch the Executive Programme in Leading with Purpose: «It is based on the innovative digital learning model FLEX», explains Kotlar. «It combines impact learning with maximum flexibility. The programme is composed of eight thematic modules, each consisting of a combination of brief clips, a live question-and-answer session and four interactive lessons. It concludes with project work that allows participants to put themselves to the test with real projects; it also offers a coaching session that supports participants in working on themselves, to discover and develop their inner strengths, to improve the ability to innovate, develop entrepreneurship and other characteristics of leadership. It’s a programme that allows for broad flexibility in one’s personal path».

“From know HOW to know WHERE”.

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on “From know HOW to know WHERE”.

With these brief words, Federico Frattini, Dean of the MIP Business School of the Politecnico di Milano, described the FLEXA project, a personalised and continuous learning platform based on Artificial Intelligence mechanisms developed over the last 4 years by a team of over 20 people. The project is rightly considered to be one of the most innovative and successful experiments in making training a virtuous habit to which we devote time every day.

Federico spoke about it with emotion and pride in a recent interview with Sole24Ore, in which MIP announced the decision to open FLEXA free of charge to private users who want to embark on a personal reskilling journey.

But where did this project come from, and what role does OfCourseMe play in FLEXA?

It all goes back to the spring of 2018, when OfCourseMe and the FLEXA Team first met to share their vision of how it was necessary to build lifelong learning journeys by leveraging the wealth of open access training content on the web.

“In the last 15 years, we have seen an exponential growth in the number of sources and formats for personalised and continuous learning,” recalled Frattini, “but no one had yet tackled the problem of organising this abundance and making it usable in a guided way for people, starting from an analysis of their own skills. We saw an opportunity to bridge this gap with FLEXA and we met with OfCourseMe at the right time.”

In fact, FLEXA was created with the aim of helping users to gain an overview of any gaps in their knowledge and to construct learning itineraries, translating the academic experience of MIP into a product. However, one of the challenges it faces is organising the content. It’s just like a teacher who has to steer a student through a very well-stocked yet very diverse and extensive library.

This is where OfCourseMe comes in: developed as a search engine that organises and standardises tens of thousands of items of online training content, OfCourseMe immediately proved to be a valuable partner for the FLEXA team. Using OfCourseMe’s API, FLEXA was able to outsource a powerful search engine that aggregates and classifies over 500,000 titles, in over 20 languages and a variety of formats.

“OfCourseMe has provided us with features that we would have struggled to develop and maintain independently. In addition, OfCourseMe continues to add new sources every month, and we can always leverage the freshest content from the Web to offer personalised recommendations to users of our product, all on a fully automated basis,” says Frattini.

So what are the next steps?

To date, FLEXA has welcomed more than 3,000 users: mainly Alumni or students of the MIP Masters courses. The idea is that, soon, FLEXA will be extended beyond the perimeter in which the initiative was established.

“From the very first exchange of ideas on this matter, the strategic alignment between the FLEXA team and us was clear,” concluded Davide Conforti, CEO of OfCourseMe. “The ambition now is to work together to make personalised and continuous learning in the company a virtuous routine, in a context where upskilling and reskilling have become categorical imperatives.”

FLEXA and OfCourseMe boast an absolutely excellent solution ranging from assessments to training content recommendations, on-demand curation and indexing of proprietary content… Basically everything you need to be ready for the future.

Would you prefer to live longer or healthier? Easy! I want to live a longer and healthier life! The societal challenge of Healthy Ageing

Posted on | by Beatrice Grillo | Leave a Comment on Would you prefer to live longer or healthier? Easy! I want to live a longer and healthier life! The societal challenge of Healthy Ageing

The quest for living longer at any cost – the dream to live for 150+ years – has been replaced by the search of how to improve life quality for better ageing, in order not to lose self-suffiency as well as physical and cognitive capabilities. 

 

Emanuele Lettieri
Full Professor of Health Care Management at the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano
Scientific Director of the Permanent Observatory of Digital Innovation in Healthcare at Politecnico di Milano

Population ageing is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, this is definitively good news. We live longer and life expectancy at birth is increasing generation after generation. This is the result of paramount discoveries in medicine and ground-breaking innovations in medical technology. On the other hand, this is very bad news. Disabilities and chronic diseases will probably characterize the last years of our lives, limiting our possibility to live a full life. Moreover, a significant portion of healthcare expenditure – that is expected to increase year after year – is currently allocated to the management of elderly fragility and chronic diseases. This obliges to reduce the financial resources that could have been allocated to the younger citizens.

But how to jump out of this vicious circle?
A straightforward solution comes from what has already happened in other industries – e.g., in the automotive industry. The healthcare system must treat citizens when they are still healthy, helping them postpone as long as possible the moment when they will need specialized treatment for either fragility or chronic diseases. This vision requires healthcare professionals to turn upside down their current approach to health care delivery. Prevention, lifestyle improvement, empowerment and co-responsibility are the “silver bullets” to help citizens live longer and be healthier.

This is the challenge of Healthy Ageing. This challenge is of paramount relevance for the sustainability over time of our society and it is fully coherent with the Societal Development Goal number 3 – ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for everyone at all ages.
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) introduced the concept of Healthy Ageing, intended as the process through which an individual can maintain or enhance her/his well-being within the ageing process. The WHO launched the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) that is intended as a decade of concerted global actions on Healthy Ageing. The motivation is that populations around the world are ageing at a faster pace than in the past and this demographic transition will have an impact on almost all aspects of society.
In this view, finding previously unexplored pathways for enhancing the ability of citizens aged 50+ to live a longer and healthier life is top of the agenda for policymakers, professionals, entrepreneurs and management scholars. The initiatives on the table are numerous and they are contributing to the growth of the so-called Silver Economy. This term was coined to describe the economy linked to products and services targeted at citizens aged 50+. Its extent has been estimated in Europe at €5.7 trillion in 2025.

The ageing population can be divided into active, fragile and dependant. For a sustainable society, it is important to support active and healthy ageing among the 50+ citizens so that they can be part of the active workforce for as long as possible. In this view, healthcare must keep pace with their needs. Care delivery must become personalized, participative, preventive and predictive. This is at hand nowadays! Digital solutions might offer the extraordinary opportunity to respond successfully to the challenges of the Silver Economy. Digital technologies might contribute to the development of next-generation techniques for fragility and disease prevention, as well as new treatments to ensure a healthy, active and productive life to the population aged 50+.

The School of Management of Politecnico di Milano stands up for Healthy Ageing and is contributing through different research and educational initiatives.

First, the permanent Observatory of Digital Innovation of Healthcare is collecting data from the field about the transition toward a new paradigm of health care delivery that has been defined as Connected Care. Ageing citizens are searching for an ecosystem of healthcare services and tools that are consistent and interoperable. Considering four main phases – namely, (1) information seeking & primary prevention, (2) access to care; (3) diagnosis & therapy; and (4) follow-up & engagement into new lifestyles – the present Covid-19 pandemics has accelerated the adoption of digitally-enabled behaviours for all phases.
Four citizens out of five searched for information on the internet about healthier behaviours and disease prevention. Two citizens out of five tried smartwatches or Apps to monitor their physical activity, improve their nutritional behaviour or test their cognitive capabilities. One citizen out of three is interested in interacting with their doctor through tele-visits. These and other data are published every year by the research team from this Observatory.

Second, the School of Management (SOM) of Politecnico di Milano is contributing to an H2020 pan-European research project – named NESTORE – aimed at developing an artificial intelligence-enabled virtual coach to help European citizens aged 65+ in their healthy ageing. The virtual coach can provide users with personalized pathways to healthy ageing that cover physical activity, nutrition, cognitive capabilities and social interaction. At present, the coach is under validation (phase 2) in three pilot countries – Italy, Spain and the Netherlands – with promising results in terms of engagement and acceptability. The SOM is chairing the development of the exploitation strategy of the solutions developed within the research project – such as a virtual coach, an App, a smartwatch to collect data, a tangible interface, a chatbot, and a series of games. At the beginning, NESTORE will adopt a direct-to-consumer business model, but with the ambition of becoming a digital therapy within two years – after a phase 3 validation study – and being approved and reimbursed by the national healthcare systems. Our data show that one citizen aged 65+ out of three is interested in virtual coaches because they are searching for 24/7 support for their healthy ageing.

Finally, the MIP Politecnico Graduate School of Business has launched in September 2020 the first edition of the Executive Master in Innovation Management in Healthcare. Multi-disciplinary professionals from hospitals and vendors from the MedTech industry are learning how to disrupt the current paradigms of health care delivery and accelerate the transition toward innovative socio-technical configurations of Connect Care.

There is an ancient Chinese curse which says “May we live in interesting times.” In this light, the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano is fully committed to making available its distinctive competencies to sustain the healthy ageing of citizens 65+, to allow them to live longer and healthier lives in interesting times.