Category: Events

Exploring Innovation and Design as Leadership: the IDeaLs project

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Exploring Innovation and Design as Leadership: the IDeaLs project

The world of Innovation Management is being disrupted, as companies all over the world explore new ways to develop new products and services. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence and other digital technologies, the role of people in innovation processes is increasingly uncertain.

IDeaLs was born to explore how companies can achieve Innovation through collective Design activities and shared forms of Leadership.

Founded by the Politecnico di Milano and the Centre for Creative Leadership, IDeaLs is a research platform that unites Academics and Managers to discover new ways of engaging people in activities of collaborative design to Make Innovation Happen.

Over the past two years, IDeaLs has collaborated with nine international organisations operating in diverse sectors, ranging from utilities to logistic providers, healthcare organisations, and sportswear.
For each organisation joining the platform, a core team of 2-3 managers would bring an innovation challenge to the research team. Over a time period of 4-6 months, each challenge was analysed, and multiple workshops performed with the partner organisation. At the end of the time frame, the results of the research, and the impact in the organization, were shared among all partners in a collective final event.

In line with the requests made by managers, IDeaLs aims to develop new tools and methodologies to support organisations during their transformation processes. Over the past years, IDeaLs has developed a “Story-telling” experience: upon briefing by managers, through a series of workshops, participants designed their own transformation story, a roadmap for both individual and collective change. This experience had a positive effect on all partner organisations: firstly, every participant committed to three concrete actions to perform, resulting in an average of 120 small, autonomous steps towards the destination outlined by the managers; and secondly, the workshops increased the levels of engagement towards innovation, which was constantly monitored by the research team.

Ultimately, IDeaLs represents a community of “innovation leaders”, who discuss relevant topics on leadership and innovation, besides learning about the case-studies of the other companies. Three yearly events are organised in which members discuss their insights, share success stories, and examine their organisations’ approaches to innovation.

As a founder of the platform, the School of Management is contributing both to consulting the companies and to the research.

First of all, the activities are related to the design of new methods and tools to foster collaboration among individuals in an innovation setting. Second, the platform aims to give a methodological contribution, developing a measurement instrument which makes it possible to assess the strategic readiness of an organisation to pursue an innovative direction.

From a research perspective, the team is involved in the design of research directions for each year and is currently developing three separate Ph.D. programs related to the platform. The School of Management is further responsible for the dissemination of the knowledge acquired, through a yearly booklet which describes the partners’ projects, as well as presenting the theorical insights in international conferences and publishing the same in academic journals.

“When it comes to us as individuals, we are often overwhelmed by innovations and know very well that the problem goes far beyond the process we apply to make them happen. The world of innovation was so focused on finding the perfect innovation process, but it forgot the people who run it.” [1] IDeaLs aims to bring the person back to the centre, as a driver of organisational innovation.


The Research Team – http://www.ideals.polimi.it/
Scientific Directors: prof. Roberto Verganti; Prof. Tommaso Buganza; Joseph Press, Ph.D.
Research Team: Paola Bellis; Silvia Magnanini; Daniel Trabucchi, Ph.D.; Federico P. Zasa

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[1] Source: IDeaLs Booklet 2019

A new era for academic partnerships: the (successful) ‘recipe’ of Politecnico di Milano in China

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on A new era for academic partnerships: the (successful) ‘recipe’ of Politecnico di Milano in China

Conversation with Giuliano Noci
Professor of Strategy and Marketing and Vice Rector of the Chinese Campus of Politecnico di Milano

The Joint School of Design and Innovation Centre in Xi’an, inaugurated in 2019 in collaboration with Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), is the first physical campus of the Politecnico di Milano outside Italy. It is an unconventional choice for an Italian university. How did you manage to finalize this project?

Our relationship with XJTU began 12 years ago thanks to a Chinese student who had the opportunity to see the quality of our doctoral programmes, in particular the doctorate in electrical engineering under Professor Sergio Pignari. It was he who, working hard for many years and taking many trips, began to build this bridge between us and China, until he developed this strategic partnership.
We first initiated various exchanges and combined Laurea courses. The idea of having a physical presence on the new XJTU campus then arose and was realized with the construction of a building designed by architects at the Politecnico di Milano (Remo Dorigati and Pierluigi Salvadeo with studio wok, Chiara Dorigati, Francesco Fuoco), which we will fill with people very soon thanks to the numerous projects we have incubating.

What effects did the pandemic have on this project and how did you reorganize yourselves?

The pandemic did not stop the projects; it just led to a partial review of the objectives we had set.
The idea was to start in September of this year with a joint Laurea (Bachelor of Science) course in architecture with our instructors physically present in China. Since this is not possible, we have temporarily moved educational activities online, drawing on the expertise that the Politecnico has gained in recent years.
Secondly, we moved forward an important agreement regarding MBAs made between the MIP — our Graduate School of Business — and the XJTU School of Management, which is one of the most prestigious in the country.
Finally, on the new campus we would like to create a new Joint School accredited by the Chinese Ministry of Education.
This would therefore result in going beyond the goal of having a physical presence: building a true joint university venture abroad. In recent weeks we have been developing the concept of a new Bachelor of Engineering in Industrial Product Design involving various Schools at the Politecnico di Milano (Design, Management, Mechanical Engineering, Information and Communication Technology). If the project wins the call from the Chinese Ministry of Education, it would, in fact, be the first pilot course at the new school, with unique distinctive features, above all interdisciplinarity.
Interdisciplinarity is essential in processes of innovation, about which Italy has certainly much to say. And China is strongly dedicated to this front, as shown in the Made in China 2025 plan that was launched recently.

So, education, but not only that: a university partnership that aims to be relevant for the country system?

Certainly. Our goal is also to support strategies for the international and technological development of our businesses. In this sense, Xi’an is one of the most important industrial districts in China, for the automotive and electrical industries in particular, and it is also a very important cluster in the ICT sector (Alibaba and Huawei have very important research centres there).
This is why we plan to have laboratories where we intend to carry out research together with Italian and Chinese companies. The Chinese market is complex but extremely attractive for our companies, and we can support them in their entrance into the market.

Let’s talk about students. The added value of international exchange during a course of university studies is indisputable, but how do students respond to the opportunity for a combined Laurea of this type?

The ambition of the Joint School is to go global. We intend to attract international students from around the world. But we also want to support growth and experience for our researchers and instructors, given that this is an opportunity for them to develop under multiple points of view.
Students’ reactions up to now have been enthusiastic. Faced with legitimate initial scepticism in studying on a continent that is so different from ours, Italian students have always had extraordinary appreciation for this cultural exchange. They are won over by the energy and dynamics characteristic of any Chinese university.
They realize the importance of interacting in an area with one of the highest rates of economic growth in the world, characterized by great encouragement and strong investments in digital technologies and artificial intelligence.

A partnership developed, as you said, based on continual work of visits to the host country. Now this specific historical situation imposes new forms of interconnection around the world.
What scenarios do you foresee in view of this? How do the distances bring us together or modify some means of interaction between us and China?

The topic of Hybrid Learning will further accelerate relations between the Politecnico di Milano and China. In recent months, when the number of trips has reduced to zero, we have actually interacted more frequently than before and have increased the level of objectives and results obtained. In this direction, with regard to both research and university/postgraduate teaching, previously little-explored perspectives are opening.
In China, during the period of quarantine due to COVID, a good 180 million students studied entirely online. For us, it is now natural to expand our educational programme beyond the physical presence of Chinese students, when students do not want to move. Applying the reasoning of Hybrid Learning (with in-person and remote lectures) also opens participation in new courses of study to Italian students who do not want to move to China, for example.
Paradoxically, at a time when physical connection was not possible, cognitive and relational interconnection was more frequent because on both sides we discovered the possibility of working with a never-before-imagined frequency of interaction precluded only by our sensory system.
For example, with Tsinghua University in Beijing — the most important university in China, which has a joint campus in Milan at our Politecnico — we are now launching three large educational projects involving the MIP Graduate School of Business (in addition to other university departments) which were developed in just six months. To obtain similar results in the past, four/five years of continuous trips would have been necessary.
This naturally does not mean diminishing the importance of physical contact and campus life.
It just implies new roads that are worth travelling.

One last question about the educational approach in Chinese management schools. Is the material taught evolving in a way more inclined to collaboration with the West, or are the two models radicalizing into different positions?

The perception I have always had about China is that there was curiosity about Western managerial models. What was interesting, however, were especially topics tied to managing innovation.
The approaches move in opposite directions. China is aware of the power of its economic system and is therefore self-referential, even in its means of management.
This, however, does not preclude different opportunities for us — as the Politecnico and as Italians — particularly for two reasons.
The first is the very high number of Chinese students that want to study abroad and who will move to Europe in significant numbers (and also to Italy, we hope).
The second is that Italy is very attractive for our capacity to both develop a system of small and medium-sized companies, and create luxury brands. This is a great reputation, on the level not only of design, but also of marketing.
As a result, our country and our management schools are decidedly interesting.

If you had to briefly give 3 keywords for the future of the Xi’an project in the short term, what would they be?

Consolidating the Joint School to favour paths of growth for young talent at the Politecnico.
Opening a couple of laboratories with companies: one in the automotive industry and the other might be exporting the Polifactory format to Xi’an.
Creation of a start-up incubator with the related establishment of a venture capital fund.

«Data science and business analytics: today companies can’t do without them»

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on «Data science and business analytics: today companies can’t do without them»

Professor Carlo Vercellis, director of the executive programme in data science and business analytics, tells about the latest trends in the market of big data and makes an appeal: «External consultants are no longer enough. Organizations now need to integrate these positions internally»

 

Growth which for the last five years has been constantly in double digits, around 20%, investments that in Italy reached the value of 1.7 billion euros. The market of analytics, in other words the analysis of data, has come to a turning point. «But now it’s time to grow», says Professor Carlo Vercellis, professor of machine learning at Politecnico di Milano, director of its executive programme in data science and business analytics and scientific head of the Big Data & Business Analytics Observatory. «Large companies have gained familiarity with these tools, although up to now they have mainly relied on external consultants. It’s time to incorporate these figures within companies, even in SMEs. There are many challenges to be faced, just as many professional figures required and therefore job opportunities for those who want to work in this field».

 

Organization, management, process automation: the latest trends

There are two particular trends identified by Vercellis. «The first challenges are of an organizational and managerial nature, and involve the governance of the supply chain of data driven projects, that is those based on data: moving from experiments, which have become increasingly numerous and complex, to the pilot project, and then to the start of production and to deployment. The second challenge concerns business processes, that must be changed in a data driven perspective. We’re thinking about process automation, that is an automation of processes that substitute human activities with little value added through algorithms that allow software and robots to carry out a series of repetitive tasks. This allows to free up resources, human and material».

 

Lots of data, lots of algorithms: the need for functional awareness

However, data alone is not enough. You need to know how to question, read and interpret it, and for this there’s a need for specific skills: «We are submerged with data. The two main sources are social activities, that provide unstructured data, which cannot be reduced to tables of numbers; and the Internet of Things, or that network of objects, household appliances included, with smart features, which collect large amounts of more structured data», explains Vercellis. «To read them you need to know which analytical tools to use: we’re talking about algorithms, obviously, which while sharing basic settings are not all the same. According to the task to be carried out, one can be more suitable than another. For this reason, there’s the need for a professional with “functional awareness: experts capable of using data and business analytics tools, without having to be technicians. These are the professional roles that companies are starting to look for today, because little by little they are realizing that external consultants are not enough».

 

The job opportunities in the world of analytics

The professional profiles that fit this requirement are varied. «They go from business users, able to understand the logic and limits of these tools, to the translator, a bridge figure who knows the language of data science and business, and is able to facilitate communication between these two worlds. Professional roles today are increasingly technical: the data scientist, data engineer, business analytics data scientist solution architect».

 

The executive programme in data science and business analytics of MIP Politecnico di Milano aims to train professionals in the different areas needed: «It’s a course that begins in October, requires a commitment of two days a month and touches on all the issues tied to this subject», explains Vercellis. «It involves hands-on sessions and final project work in which students must apply notions learned to a problem, proposed by themselves or professors of the MIP faculty. The course is for individuals, who perhaps are looking to reskill, but I expect that above all it will be companies that take advantage of this opportunity: a great opportunity to train an internal resource able to manage the company’s needs, a task that an external consultant would never be able to carry out».

MIP Politecnico di Milano, the only Business School in Europe to gain B Corp Certification

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on MIP Politecnico di Milano, the only Business School in Europe to gain B Corp Certification

The Business School joins the international community of companies that stand out for their commitment to combining profit with the well-being of society and care for the environment.

 

MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business is delighted to announce that it has achieved B Corp Certification. This prestigious recognition is awarded to companies that emerge for their commitment to sustainable development and building a more inclusive society. MIP Politecnico di Milano is the first Italian and only European business school to have been accredited, and is just one of a few worldwide.

 

During the accreditation process, MIP was helped by Nativa, designer of sustainable and regenerative evolution models, the first B Corp in Europe and B Lab’s Italian partner.

 

B Corp companies form an international community of companies with the common goal of combining profit with a search for the collective well-being, and care for the environment and society as a whole. Around 3,400 companies have been awarded this certification, one hundred or so being in Italy. The required certification process involves a rigorous assessment to examine the organisation’s model of governance, its care for human capital, its relationship with its partners and social context, and respect for the environment. The procedure, therefore, analyses and measures the results achieved by the company in question in this area.

 

This recognition certifies MIP’s consolidated commitment and, more generally, that of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano to which MIP belongs, for years actively involved in research, training and joint projects with companies on topics concerning social responsibility. MIP’s status as a B Corp certified company will direct its actions in the field of sustainability over the upcoming years. Its plans include expanding initiatives that can produce an impact in the areas of accessibility, inclusion, the well-being of people and environmental sustainability.

 

One of the essential elements that led MIP to undergo this certification is its full understanding of the role that every company will play in building a better tomorrow for everyone. The purpose and raison d’être of every business will increasingly be re-thought, to give centrality to the role that it wishes to hold in society. As well as encouraging growing interest in its training programmes on the topics of purpose, sustainability and inclusivity, MIP intends to use its status as a Certified B Corporation to accelerate the virtuous process by which it will become itself a sustainable organisation.

 

Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, President and Dean of MIP Politecnico di Milano, respectively: “All of us at MIP are intensely proud to have received this significant certification”. We are, above all, delighted to say that we are the only European business school to be a Certified B Corporation. Furthermore, in the current unprecedented health emergency, when we are querying the development models that allowed it to happen, seeing our contribution for a more sustainable future being recognised in this way takes on an even deeper meaning. Business schools are increasingly underlining their strong role as agents for change committed to building a better and more inclusive society”.

 

Raffaella Cagliano, Deputy Director of the School of Management of Politecnico di Milano: “This acknowledgement is a major milestone and rewards the hard work carried out with passion and commitment in recent years. B Corp Certification fits into a strategy of sustainable growth that the School of Management has been carrying forward for a long time, and we are convinced that this is the principle responsibility for an institute like us that operates in research and trains young professionals and managers”.

 

Eric Ezechieli, co-founder of Nativa: “Our collaboration with MIP Politecnico di Milano has been highly beneficial and we are happy to have helped MIP, as a representative of Italian excellence, in accelerating its progress towards B Corp Certification. MIP’s commitment towards people, society and the environment is a clear signal to all business schools: parameters linked to sustainability must be included in the organisation’s mission, as a core competence for tomorrows’ decision-makers”.

What is innovation and how can it be achieved in daily life?

Posted on | by Chiara Vasta | Leave a Comment on What is innovation and how can it be achieved in daily life?

Today “Innovation” is a keyword used in a huge variety of contexts. In the business world, it has become almost synonymous with fame, fortune and money, and it is a tool that can make your business much more competitive. But what is innovation really?

If we Google it, we get the following result:

“Innovation – Every novelty, change, transformation that radically modifies or in any case causes an effective rejuvenation in a political or social order, in a production method, in a technique.”

Trying to translate it into simple words, innovation is nothing more than a change that positively transforms a situation or status quo. The concept of innovation is closely linked to one of the main dogmas of Lean Manufacturing: continuous improvement. If, within a company, it can be carried out through investments in R&D, Industry 4.0 technologies, innovation can also be carried out at an individual level. Each of us can achieve continuous improvement and be an innovator.

According to research published in the Harvard Business Review, there are 5 characteristics that distinguish the most innovative people:

  1. Ability to associate ideas, problems and situations: as Steve Jobs once said, “Creativity is connecting things”. Innovative people are able to generate ideas from old solutions, also taken from other areas, recombining them in a different way.
  2. Ability to ask questions: innovative people ask “Why?” and “What if?”, and they try to understand how existing processes (i.e. the status quo) can be modified to provide better results and are able to change their assumptions, going beyond the boundaries dictated by their own thinking and imagining opposite alternatives.
  3. Observation: innovators must be able to observe common phenomena in detail and without preconceptions.
  4. Experimentation: an innovator must be able to effectively translate new ideas into prototypes and pilot projects.
  5. Relationship: with this term, we intend to highlight that some of the innovator’s time and energy must be dedicated to the relationship with individuals capable of providing him with a radically different perspective on the same problem.

So, the question now is “how do you innovate?” Here are two pieces of advice I’d like to share:

CHANGE YOUR MENTALITY AND TRY TO GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

Our brain often tends to rest in routine, in already known thought patterns and, for this reason, finding the mental space to innovate is difficult. Innovating means allowing your mind to accept risky ideas, stepping outside the comfort zone and questioning your own little world. The price of freedom is uncertainty! If you can handle the emotional fear of not knowing what will happen, then you can absolutely be free and, without preset patterns, thinking out-of-the-box becomes simpler.

WORK AND INTERACT WITH PEOPLE DIFFERENT FROM YOURSELF

In our private and working lives, we tend to always relate to people who have the same mentality and worldview as ourselves, because they will always be ready to support our theories when necessary. Of course, It’s helpful to work with people who understand you and think like you, but not always. So, when you can, it’s always best to surround yourself with people who have a different mentality than your own. It is impossible to grow up without understanding the point of view of people with ideas distant from yours.

Ok, now what? How to put these tips into practice?

The options are many. You can start small, in daily life, traveling, meeting people with different lifestyles, attending multidisciplinary conferences, reading, etc. Otherwise you can make some slightly more “drastic” choices. Mine was to apply for an International MBA at MIP. What prompted me to limit my social life, choose to go back to school and devote time to classes and exams? Was it madness? Masochism? Maybe in part, yes, but the main motivation is the continuous search for personal innovation, which nowadays is becoming more and more a necessity rather than an option. And what better environment to reach it than in an international context full of ideas like an MBA?

 

About the author
 Marco Di Salvio

Student of the International Part Time MBA at MIP Politecnico di Milano.
Industrial Engineer currently working @ Gucci as WW Supply & Demand Planner, based in Florence.
Tech passionate, Cinema-lover, Sports addicted.
Solving the world’s problems one spreadsheet at a time.

 

QS 2021 Business Masters Rankings: Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management among the best Business Schools in the world

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on QS 2021 Business Masters Rankings: Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management among the best Business Schools in the world

The courses held by MIP, the Graduate School of Business belonging to the School of Management, ranked highly in the international classification for the best MBAs and specialist masters, in 7th place for its Master in Supply Chain Management. A further recognition in the Financial Times’ Masters in Management Ranking 2020: the School of Management 3rd placed Business School in Europe among technical universities.

 

MIP Politecnico di Milano Graduate School of Business is one of the best Business Schools in the world, according to QS 2021 Business Masters Rankings, the classification reserved for the world’s best MBAs and specialist business master’s degrees, being placed 7th for its Master in Supply Chain Management. Among the elements that have contributed to this position in the upper section of the rankings are its focus on diversity, the employability of its students and the return on investment.

 

In 2021, the QS Business Masters Rankings evaluated the quality of teaching for 258 course at 158 academic institutions in 40 countries across the world. As well as class and faculty diversity, employability and return on investment, the other indicators examined are thought leadership and entrepreneurship and alumni outcomes. MIP Politecnico di Milano confirms its place in the upper echelons of the rankings, as it did in 2020.

 

Looking at the QS international classification of the individual courses offered by the various business schools, the School of Management is listed for its Master in Management (at 36th place) and Master in Finance (at 68th place).

 

In the words of Vittorio Chiesa and Federico Frattini, President and Dean of MIP Politecnico di Milano, respectively: “We are proud to receive these superb acknowledgements only days after reopening our campus. We will continue in our efforts of further improving the quality of our teaching, which will always retain its defining elements, such as our care for and focus on diversity”.

 

The School of Management received another prestigious accolade from the Financial Times, confirming its place in the FT Masters in Management 2020 Ranking. The School is placed 3rd in Europe among technical universities with a Business Schools or a Business Management Department. Its place is reconfirmed once again this year, with a smaller field of 90 outstanding management schools being included in the FT’s 2020 MiM Ranking, instead of last years’ 100.

 

Alessandro Perego, the School of Management’s Director, and Stefano Ronchi, President of the degree course in Management Engineering at Politecnico di Milano: “With this recognition, we confirm our place as only one of a few Masters in Management in the world that can combine management, economics and technical-engineering skills into a single MiM. This has allowed us to train managers capable of guiding innovation, increasingly driven by technology, with a mindset geared towards problem-solving”.

 

Click here to see the full QS 2021 Business Masters Rankings

Click here to see the full FT Masters in Management 2020 Ranking

MIP, EY, SACE: the trident to address the challenges of internationalization

Posted on | by Angela Leone | Leave a Comment on MIP, EY, SACE: the trident to address the challenges of internationalization

From Brexit to the pandemic, trade wars and the climate emergency: there are many elements that have revolutionized the chain of global values on which many companies based their organization. However, change can open new spaces for Italian companies that, with the right strategy, can take advantage of new and important growth opportunities

 

Until just a few months ago, the business model of many companies was based on a global scale value chain. Production activities were in different countries, according to a principle of convenience. Brexit, trade wars, the climate emergency and, since 2020, the pandemic, could change this paradigm. «The mechanism has gone into crisis», explains Professor Stefano Elia, associate professor of International Business and director of the short courses in the Management of Business Internationalization programme at MIP Politecnico di Milano. «There are two possible answers to this setback: on one hand we could see the resilience of the current model, on the other its reconfiguration».

 

Between resilience and change: an opportunity for Italian companies

«In the first case», explains Elia, «we would see growing flexibility in the production model, accompanied by increased digitalization In addition, companies on one hand could focus on areas that have suddenly become strategic, like chemical and medical ones; on the other, they could focus on incentive-driven sectors. The second scenario has shorter production chains. It abandons global scale, to re-adapt to a macroregional horizon. Within the European Union itself there is a heterogeneity that allows to redistribute certain activities, without moving them outside of the continent and, also in this case, digitalization could play an important role in facilitating an increase both in the quality of products and production processes. This scenario has at least three advantages: trade wars are avoided, nationalist-sovereign winds are kept at bay and the climate emergency is addressed, as the supply chain is shortened». And it is here that Italian companies could come into play: «There is room for them to assert themselves in a competition in which quality becomes fundamental, not only in B2B but also in B2C. It is thought that the United States will recover quickly, as well as Germany, China, South Korea and Vietnam. These are some of the countries to look at, because between 2021 and 2022 the market rebound is estimated at between 5 and 11%».

 

Towards internationalizations: the need for a good strategy

An opportunity for which you need to be prepared. «Companies have two alternatives: either they diversify, or they go outside of their borders, facing greater competition, but also greater growth opportunities. The important thing is that this step is guided by the criteria of quality». And a good strategy: «First you need to understand the attractiveness of your product and based on this understand the countries that could be most interested. Then you need to understand how to present yourself in those countries, adapting your offering to their cultural and institutional characteristics, but also determining whether it makes sense to enter the market on your own or with partners. Lastly, it is important to understand what the most suitable financing means are. Grants, guarantees and credit insurance, legal and tax aspects: nothing should be left to chance».

 

MIP, EY and SACE: together to provide skills

MIP’s short courses in Management of Business Internationalization aims to provide the tools to address all these areas. «Teams that handle internationalization must have a strong capacity for strategic planning, analysis, process management, but also the capability for adaptation and flexibility, to correct errors in judgement or to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities. From this point of view, explains Elia, «MIP courses guarantee an education that covers the areas of business planning management and digital technologies that are functional to internationalization. The winning formula, however, can be found in the MIP, EY, SACE trident: EY, our partner and among the four most important advisory and auditing firms, completes MIP’s managerial offering with technical and professional expertise, sharing its legal, tax and risk management know-how, as well as giving access to its network of consultants and companies. SACE, the Italian agency for the promotion of international investments, provides an institutional perspective, making available a series of powerful tools supporting companies in the phase of internationalization that it intends to make as widely known as possible so that companies will use them to seize the opportunities inherent in the current scenario».

 

JSCM’s Best Paper Award to Claudia Colicchia

Posted on | by Mirja Calgaro | Leave a Comment on JSCM’s Best Paper Award to Claudia Colicchia

Journal of Supply Chain Management awards our Professor’s study amongst all publications of 2019.

 

The paper “The Impact of Supplier Sustainability Risk on Shareholder Value“, authored by Claudia Colicchia, School of Management Politecnico di Milano, Seongtae Kim, Aalto University School of Business, Stephan M. Wagner ETH Zurich, received the Best Paper Award of the Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) during the annual Conference of the Academy of Management. The paper was chosen by JSCM among all those published in the year 2019.

Claudia Colicchia is Associate Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests include Supply Chain Sustainability, Supply Chain Risk Management, Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0, and Citation Network Analysis.

The paper examines the magnitude of the consequences of what are termed as supplier sustainability risks (SSRs). Business scandals like sweatshop labour have received growing attention in the field of supply management. Yet little is known about how detrimental such scandals are to buying firms. To this end, an event study analysis was conducted, followed by regression modelling based on a sample of 196 U.S. publicly traded firms’ SSRs.

The results reveal that SSRs are associated with a 1.00 percent reduction in shareholder wealth. The market reacts negatively but not differently to the two types of SSR: process-related risks and product-related risks. Finally, a firm’s moral capital does play a mitigating role for SSRs and process-related risks; however, it does not provide insurance-like protection for product-related risks.

The Journal of Supply Chain Management is in its 55th year of publication. The Journal has made rapid advances in recent years, as evidenced by a quadrupling of submissions since 2007, and an ever-increasing number of high quality, unsolicited submissions. More tangibly, JSCM has been ranked either first or second for the past seven years among supply chain and operations management journals, based on its Thomson-Reuters ISI Impact Factor and received multiple Emerald Citations of Excellence Awards, which are given to the 50 most outstanding and highest impact articles out of the 15,000 articles published in the top 300 management journals.

For more information:
Kim, S., Wagner, S.M. and Colicchia, C.
The Impact of Supplier Sustainability Risk on Shareholder Value
J Supply Chain Manag, 55: 71-87 (2020)
The study online

International Workshop on Collaborative Practices and Technologies for Critical Infrastructure Resilience

Posted on | by Mirja Calgaro | Leave a Comment on International Workshop on Collaborative Practices and Technologies for Critical Infrastructure Resilience

The SICt project aims to strengthen the joint risk management capacities linked to events that may partially or totally disrupt the continuity of critical transport infrastructures service with cross-border relevance. It will be achieved by advancing the sharing of knowledge and information on cross-border Critical Infrastructures through the implementation of joint monitoring systems and communication procedures between Lombardy (Italy) and Ticino (Switzerland).

The Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of the School of Management is scientific partner of the project.

The action strategy of the project is to improve the effectiveness of a shared prevention system built to reduce the impact of potential disruptive events.
On Friday, October 2, selected international projects will share their experiences on collaborative response planning and building Critical Infrastructure Resilience.
The Conference is funded by the Interreg V-A Italy-Switzerland 2014-2020 cooperation program, which aims to create significant economic and social improvements, by pooling the resources available in border areas.

The conference is organised and coordinated by the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Italian Switzerland (Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana) – SUPSI, Istitute of Earth Sciences, in collaboration with the Critical Infrastructure Resilience International Network (CIRINT.NET).

Operation co-financed by the European Union, the European Regional Development Fund, the Italian State, the Swiss Confederation and the Cantons as part of the Interreg V-A Italy-Switzerland Cooperation Program.

 

Is Made in Italy forever?

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Is Made in Italy forever?

As more Countries promote the quality of their products and destinations, some essential sectors of the Italian industry are facing with a hard question: is the “Made in Italy” brand still competitive? And how can it guarantee a competitive advantage for our country in the long term?

 

Filippo Renga, Junior Assistant Professor of Production Plants and Business Organization
School of Management Politecnico di Milano

 

“Is Made in Italy forever?”: that’s the question that emerged during the 2018 Research of our Smart Agrifood and Digital Innovation in Tourism Observatories.

Beyond the slogan, an important doubt emerged about the competitiveness of some essential sectors of the country’s industry: can the “Paese Italia” brand – identified with the “Made in Italy” and frequently used in many sectors (food, tourism, clothing, music, design, art, etc.) to underline the Italian identity of a product or a service to increase its value on the market – survive intact in the long term and guarantee a competitive advantage for our country?
This is a question we will try to answer through the upcoming research, but which has already found confirmation in some phenomena we are recording.

 

Food quality is not only Made in Italy

Starting from food, we all know that any product with the “Made in Italy” mark receives special attention by a large part of the international consumers. This gives origin to frauds linked to the “Italian Sounding” (that is the use of images, brands and denominations recalling Italy to market products that are not related to our country in any way. Just think to the well-known “Parmesan”).

However, through our experience we realized that more and more countries promote the quality of their food products, thereby dispelling the myth of the “quality food” as a prerogative of Italy. For example, it is interesting to notice that in extremely attended international events dedicated to quality food – such as in London or Berlin – there isn’t a significant presence of Italian companies. Furthermore, food trends often originate outside our country (e.g. organic food). Even though a Google search it is possible to see that, if you insert the words “quality food” in the local language of many countries, no Italian product emerges. Finally, many TV formats about the restaurant industry were born abroad and are therefore imported by us.

This also happens because the concept of quality is anything but unequivocal, as shown by the model of the Food Quality Heptagon (see the Slide Booklet “Quality and sustainability with the digital traceability”) we developed. Many recent successful innovations in the food industry weren’t born in Italy, although they relate to products that have always been considered our “feuds”, as was the case of the coffee with Nespresso and Starbucks; or in the case of tomatoes, of which Holland is one of the first exporters in the world thanks to high-tech indoor farming systems, that made it possible not only to increase the production but also to improve the taste compared to the past.

 

What happens in tourism

On the other hand, in Tourism the weaknesses of the “Italia Brand” are clearly shown by an analysis of the international tourist flows coming to our country: if in 1970 Italy was in the first place in terms of attraction, in 2017 – according to the UNWTO data – Italy is fifth behind France, Spain, USA and China. You may think that the focus was more on the quality and less on the quantity (and therefore the expense) of the tourists, but numbers say that this did not happen in a significant way more than in other destinations.

The reasons are instead related to different fields, but fundamentally there is a strategic weakness about Tourism and the industries linked to it. If you take for example the Chinese market, among the most interesting both for the number and for the average receipt, Italy is behind the main European competitors for attractiveness. As underlined by Giuliano Noci (Vice Rector of the Chinese campus of the Politecnico di Milano) on the occasion of the Conference of the Digital Innovation in Tourism Observatory of 24 January (download the documents and videos of the Conference “The Italian Digital Way for the future of Tourism”), there was and there still is a lack of a medium/long-term strategy linked to different factors, among which:

  • the inability to give value to our brands (there is no evidence that one of our museums has been able to promote its brand like, for example, the Louvre in Paris did);
  • a structural deficit on connections (especially the aerial ones: Chinese people comes to Italy through other European cities)
  • the storytelling that promotes the territory through the audio-visual industry (mainly the cinema industry) primary vehicle of knowledge and learning for the Chinese (Swiss tourist resorts are the sets of some TV series distributed in China).

If there is a risk that Italy may lose its competitiveness, it could also happen that, due to the extraordinary assets available in our country, the Chinese will start to considerably invest to offer experiences and products to the millions of tourists and consumers looking for Italian contents. Nevertheless, this is already happening in other fields with the clothing or the sports industry.

And then we should add another question to the opening one (“Is Made in Italy forever?”), an equally concerning question: “Made in Italy… by whom?”