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MSc Marketing Programs Get a Digital Reboot

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on MSc Marketing Programs Get a Digital Reboot
Neuroscience, artificial intelligence and data analytics are reshaping the work of marketeers (and marketing degrees)

Creativity and innovation have always been at the core of marketing. The function used to depend on one’s talent to dazzle the audience, like Mad Men’s Don Draper. Creativity and innovation are still very important, but are being enhanced by data and technology. Marketing is one of the fastest-changing professions of the 21st century, with neuroscience, artificial intelligence and data analytics reshaping the work.
“Marketers are increasingly expected to make evidence-based and accountable decisions leveraging on vast data generated in the inter-connected world,” says Shan Chen, Director of the International Master in Marketing Management, Omnichannel and Consumer Analytics course at MIP in Milan. The program is one of many that are being given a digital reboot as technology transforms every facet of marketing.
“We continuously innovate and update the program with technological progress,” says Chen. For example, the applications of neuroscience in consumer research have been recently introduced — essentially using brain science to appeal to customers on an emotional level. […]

Career prospects for MSc Marketing grads

Those who have this magic mixture of technological prowess, creativity and ability to innovate, are in high demand among a wide array of employers.[…] MIP’s graduates find career opportunities in three main areas. The first is the in-house marketing department, usually in larger corporations, with responsibilities such as product management, communication and promotion, PR, marketing intelligence, CRM or strategy.

The second is consultancy, which helps clients to analyze the marketing condition, to define strategy, to develop marketing tools, and to make project execution plans. The third is various specialized marketing agencies, such as advertising, digital marketing, design and content production. They execute the respective marketing activities on a daily basis for their clients.

The wide array of career opportunities is reflected in the diversity of the cohorts. At MIP, candidates can come from any discipline, provided they have a proven passion for all aspects of marketing. Cass says participants learn from students from chemistry, physics, fashion design, architecture, engineering, sociology, philosophy and other backgrounds.
Given such impressive career opportunities, it may be competitive to secure a place on a top marketing master’s program. Entry requirements at MIP include a motivation letter, reference letters, university transcripts and a motivational interview, which is all done in English. […]

Smart parking as an efficient customer value proposition for smart drivers

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on Smart parking as an efficient customer value proposition for smart drivers

Time goes by so fast! I can’t believe it was 2 years ago when I decided to start this distance learning program at MIP Politecnico di Milano, and today we are nearing the end. Behind the difficulties and challenges faced when working and studying simultaneously, needless to say, I will miss this great experience when it’s over. As Henry Ford said in one of his statements, “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. The greatest thing in life is to keep the mind young.”

Now it’s time to connect the dots. The ultimate goal of this study program is to inspire and empower students to think big, even when facing minor customer needs. The final project work is organized as teamwork, requiring us to prepare a genuine business plan for a new business concept or start-up. We were asked to create individual project ideas to be presented at a sales pitch event, in front of all our classmates, with the scope to “sell” the most attractive ideas and thereafter to form working groups, based on individual preferences and backgrounds suitable for each project proposal. I was in doubt as to whether to choose a topic in banking and finance, which is my area of expertise or to get out of my comfort zone. I decided on the second option. I had this opportunity to enlarge my knowledge about the ‘smart city’. Despite being a buzzword, the topic has attracted me a lot recently, because of the wide variety of new opportunities it represents for individuals and businesses.

Increasingly, cities are acting on smart digital information and communication technologies to meet many urban challenges such as the environment, good governance, mobility, prosperity and growing population, by several means of collaborating, innovating, saving, integrating, participating and simplifying. Within this huge field of study, I chose to focus my project work on the smart parking platform, part of the city’s smart mobility. Two other classmates volunteered to join the project and together we are still working on the technicalities to define the most appropriate customer value proposition.

Fast emerging technologies such as GPS, IoT, cloud software, wireless sensor networks, radio frequency identification and digital cameras, combined with the wide use of Smartphones, allow for the development of easy wayfinding applications by generating real-time data on the occupancy of parking places. This data can be used by drivers through a mobile application to easily navigate to the nearest available space. On the other hand, this information might be used by the municipality to further optimize the city’s traffic and parking pricing policies. Designing the right value proposition and generating a new business model that fits with the ecosystem are key success factors for entrepreneurs around the world.
When studying the industry and existing technologies, we came across plenty of innovative projects, systems and applications developed to address this topic, but unfortunately, it seems that most of them have not yet been successfully implemented. It seems that very few drivers can really benefit from smart parking around the world. The reason behind this is the fact that each city is different and develops its own smart city vision to meet specific needs and challenges. San Francisco (SFpark) and Los Angeles (LA Express Park) are reported as being two of the most famous successful stories (Lin, Rivano, Le Mouël 2017).

To make a concrete business proposal, we are studying the city of Tirana, the capital of Albania. Although the reported number of vehicles per inhabitant is the lowest in the region, Tirana has the highest population density per square kilometre or five times the average of the country. As there are no or few direct profits linked to the service of smart parking in available parking spaces, our main focus is to reduce capital investments in the choice of smart parking technologies. The main objective of this project work will be to improve and facilitate the driver’s experience when parking in public spaces by using information gathered by users, with the scope to reduce investment cost. Among other technologies, we are assessing some emerging parking information dissemination systems, such as crowdsensing, peer-to-peer communication, multi-agent systems, parking meter networks, etc.

The new term ‘crowdsensing’ has emerged to present those smart parking applications, which are using crowdsourcing as a tool to gather parking information from Smartphone users. The accuracy of the information will rely on the drivers’ participation. Further, some algorithms like fuzzy logic and time series might be used to predict parking occupancy information based on historical or sample data, to improve the accuracy of information provided to participating users. The capital investment, in this case, is very minimal as there is no need for hardware installations or maintenance. But the challenge is how to motivate drivers and persuade them to participate, to update occupancy details of parking spaces every time they park their vehicle, by designing and proposing the most valuable and efficient value proposition to the city’s smart drivers.

 

About the author
 Elivar Golemi

Elivar Golemi is an Albanian candidate at MIP International Flex EMBA. She is working as an Executive Director in the dairy industry, after a long experience in the banking system. Skilled in Financial Analyses, Risk Management and Internal Audit. Nature lover, passionate photographer and mountain climber.

 

 

The leader put to the test with soft skills

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on The leader put to the test with soft skills

In the life of a company, a merger represents one of the most delicate phases. It’s the moment in which two entities with different cultures, histories and leadership styles join forces. It’s a process that must be carefully planned and managed, with the aim of creating a new, shared corporate culture. Only in this way can an integration be truly considered successful. Sergio Gonella, Culture and People Development & Recruiting Director at Wind Tre, a company created at the end of 2016 from the biggest European merger in Telecommunications to date, that between Wind Telecommunication and H3G, followed this process first-hand and talked about it with the students of the Executive MBA programme of Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management as part of the series “A point of view on Leadership”: «We worked two years to best carry out this merger and, from the very beginning, it was clear that the biggest challenges we would face wouldn’t only be at a technological or business level. It was fundamental to concentrate on people. So we decided to involve them, through a wide range of initiatives in which soft skills played a preponderant role».

The three pillars of leadership

These initiatives included «listening activities like engagement surveys, involvement activities through communities, initiatives dedicated to welfare, to development, to learning and to performance management». A strategy that immediately earned Wind Tre the Top Employer certification and that took inspiration from a new leadership model, also in this case defined by the people chosen to lead the new company. «Thanks to interviews and focus groups that involved managers», explains Gonella, «we identified the three pillars that make up the leadership model of Wind Tre: self, people and business».
As far as the context regarding self, «the leader must demonstrate qualities of stability, entrepreneurship and exemplarity». Internal characteristics which, however, must then be translated to the outside, that is brought to the team. «Our leaders must motivate their employees and give them confidence, allow them to express themselves freely and in a constructive manner and stimulate the growth of a network of relations both within and outside the company», continues Gonella. All elements where the mastery of soft skills is central.
The constructive approach of leadership also reflects on the business: «On this front, our priorities are value creation, a strong customer orientation and an aptitude for exploration and continuous innovation».

Observe, learn, innovate

The centrality attributed to soft skills is consistent with transformations underway globally, which will profoundly change the hierarchy of required job skills. Gonella himself explains this, citing the Future of Jobs Report prepared by the World Economic Forum in 2018: «If we compare the most requested skills in 2018 with those that will be most needed in 2022, we can see not only the latter ones will be all soft skills, but that the ability to learn, creativity, and originality will take on a preponderant role». This is because we forecast that in 2022 the pace of innovation and changes in scenarios will be even more rapid than they are now. «The ability to learn, but also that of knowing how to learn, putting into practice set strategies, will become even more important than omnipresent problem-solving. The leader of the future must be able to analyse critical issues while also thinking of innovative solutions. And, to do so, he will need to draw on all his learning skills», concludes Gonella.

What makes us different? The importance of working on our Soft Skills

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Around a couple of years ago, on several occasions, I found myself having to justify to friends, family and co-workers the reasons that were leading me to soon start my International Part-Time MBA at MIP. I believe this is something MBA students often face prior to, during and after completing their course. Why are you spending this amount of time, effort and money on an MBA program?

To be honest, at that time the answer was quite simple ̶ I wanted to increase my knowledge and complement my curriculum. As an engineer who had been working in the same industry since the beginning of my career, I felt that I could benefit from gaining certain competencies in fields such as finance, marketing and business law. What I would find out during my MBA journey was that those reasons, even if important, were not the main value that I would acquire during my time at MIP. In this set of articles, I will reveal the way that I would answer that question today, “Which are the greatest tools with which the International Part-Time MBA at MIP provided me for my personal and professional life?”

Learning theory is important, but most likely it will not make you any different from your peers. With this statement, I do not intend to underrate the importance of the main theoretical courses, but in today’s highly competitive ecosystem of work, it has become more important than ever to explore those skills that will take you to a level above pure theoretical knowledge.

Let’s start from the beginning! Since most of the students work full time, the journey of the International Part-Time MBA is a tricky path on which the amount of time that one can dedicate to a certain task varies over the course of the two years that the program lasts. So in a certain way, it is “easy” to fall into an automaton mode. As unpopular as it might sound, it is a defence mechanism to continue with work and lessons in parallel during certain periods of the program. This is unless you cross paths with Prof. Passerini.

It took me one minute to understand that the course that I would receive over the following two days would be everything except orthodox. I was arriving directly from a business trip to China, so I must admit that I had not reviewed Prof. Passerini’s profile in detail prior to the “Soft Skills” course. During the first break, most of the class members were on their computers reviewing his outstanding curriculum, which will tell you the impact that he had on the audience.

Prof. Passerini is, in my personal view, all that you could wish an MBA professor to be; first, he has an extensive and successful career record, holding several executive roles in firms such as P&G, including CIO and President of the company’s Global Business Services division. Second and even more important, is his great sense of communication and the care he takes over the different topics which are handled during his course. No questions are avoided, deviations are taken as opportunities to explore new learning scenarios and make an audience eager to go further down the learning path.

When an executive with his record explains to you concepts such as Leadership, Contextual Intelligence, Listening and Communication Skills, you know that this is not contained in any book. All this knowledge comes from a lifetime of experience and the willingness to share it and communicate it with others. Coming back to my initial statement, theory can be learned but the skills that you can acquire on a course like this will be what will make you different.

In a personal dimension, Prof. Passerini has coached me for several public speeches that I have faced over recent months. He provided me with feedback in great detail that positively impacted my performance, which, knowing his position, makes me feel extremely lucky and grateful. These are tools that I will need to exercise and which will help me differentiate myself from others. Without my MBA at MIP, this would not have been possible.

The MBA program includes a deep learning phase but I am convinced that it is the experiences such as the one provided by Prof. Passerini, which are those that will impact your professional and personal future in the greatest way.

Following this path of reasoning, my next article will be focused on how the MIP Silicon Valley Experience provided me with a set of insights that will be extremely helpful in my professional future. This is another topic that you will not learn in any book! Hope you enjoy it!

 

About the author
 Pedro López Estepa

I am Pedro López Estepa, an International Part-Time MBA student at MIP Politecnico di Milano. I received a Master in Telecommunication Engineering from Granada University in 2010, spending the last year, including the Master Thesis, at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne.

My career has been focused on high-tech corporations, initially as part of their R&D departments and during the last few years, the focus has been on developing long-term strategic partnerships in different sectors, including IoT, Automotive, Robotics and Medical.

Being part of u-blox strategy team allows me to working with international cross-functional teams inside and outside the organization, key partners, investors and at the same time that contributing to worldwide projects as business opportunities arise.

 

 

How studying an MBA abroad can change your career

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Ernesto Ibarra moved thousands of miles, from Mexico to Milan, to pursue an MBA and he hasn’t looked back since

From international trade to business development, Ernesto Ibarra’s career was thriving in his Northern Mexican hometown of Monterrey.
He worked in Mexico for almost four years, doing market data analysis for brands and promoting his region’s manufacturing industry. His earnings were good. With a business and marketing degree under his belt, he was focused on his country’s development and comfortable with his career growth.
However, he soon realized that he wanted more.
In 2009, after turning down an offer to study an MBA in France, he began a 6,000-mile journey across the Atlantic to Italy and MIP Politecnico di Milano School of Management (MIP), the same year it joined the rankings of the Financial Times’ best European Business Schools. It’s now ranked 42nd in Europe.
Ernesto says his MBA experience helped him develop into a global business leader.

Settling into a new lifestyle

The most challenging part of Ernesto’s MBA journey was being so far from his family.
While his peers were able to easily catch a train to Rome or Naples for the Christmas holiday, Ernesto initially found it difficult detaching himself from his life in Mexico—there simply wasn’t a budget available for him to travel back and forth.
However, he recounts how attentive MIP Politecnico di Milano School of Management was to the international students struggling to settle in, both socially and professionally.
“They know very well, from their experience, what people have more trouble in,” he says. “They really build a very safe and comfortable path for new students to cope.
“They [also] know the landscape in terms of business, companies and connections, to be able to give project work opportunities to the students in the different areas of expertise, or new areas students were trying to move into.”
During the MIP MBA, students are given the chance to work on a full-time project for three months inside one of the official partner companies of the school. Companies include Amazon, Gucci, Ernst & Young, Microsoft, Ferrero Group, and Vodafone.
Ernesto worked as a business consultant at IT firm EnginSoft on a project that used prediction model software to forecast financial KPIs.
He says he developed soft skills during this experience—networking, interaction, and learning about working cultures—which have helped him in his career since graduating.
“In Mexico, most of the business is done between Mexico and the US,” he explains. “It’s a very different way of doing business, so I think this international exposure helped me a lot to interact and work together with people from all over South America, Asia and Europe.”
International students can also attend courses abroad due to MIP’s International Exchange Program. Partner schools include EMLYON Business School in France, MIT Sloan in Boston, USA, IPADE Business School in Mexico, and Beijing University School of Economics and Management in China.

“I wanted to do something that was more drastic”

Ernesto started his MBA during the financial crisis. Finding a post-MBA job was tricky. After his MBA, Ernesto took a bold step, relocating to a city he knew absolutely nothing about: Bangalore, India.
“I wanted to do something that was more drastic,” he recalls. “In that moment, I was very hungry to know more about other places—that was the main motivation.”
Although Ernesto says he now loves India, his year as a marketing and economics lecturer working in Bangalore was the most difficult part of his career journey so far. He recalls having a hard time blending into Indian culture for the first six months, but his experiences at MIP Politecnico di Milano School of Management stood him in good stead.
He says his initial move from Mexico to MIP prepared him for working abroad, not only by allowing him to open his mind to professional possibilities he hadn’t previously thought of, but also by teaching him to make assured decisions and remove areas of uncertainty from his life.
“Moving abroad is a huge bet in many ways, especially financially,” he says. “This experience helped me over the years to be more exhaustive in foreseeing anything that can go differently as planned, to have a Plan B and to respond to changes.”
After India, Ernesto moved back to Italy, this time to Rome to work in the mobile entertainment industry. He was then promoted and transferred to Madrid for a few years, before leaving and finally settling in Madrid in 2018 to help launch an influencer marketing agency.
Over the 10 years Ernesto has been away from Monterrey, the main lesson he has taken away is to always have a good understanding of your objectives when studying abroad.
“When you’re best prepared for the outcome, you’re going to have fewer surprises,” he says.

Originally published on

Welcome to our Chinese website!

Posted on | by albe@mip.polimi.it | Leave a Comment on Welcome to our Chinese website!

We are delighted to inform you that from today, the Chinese version of the  School of Management website will be online.

The aim of this website is both to present the School  and to give center stage to the programs especially designed for China.

We think that this represents a further step forward in the international scene for the School of Management, and it improves our visibility in China

Three inspiring films that reflect my MBA journey

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on Three inspiring films that reflect my MBA journey

It is time for my listicle article. As I’m a filmmaker, I am going to share with you 3 films that expose different views of the world: just like in the International MBA program at MIP, and also related to some of the courses I have experienced throughout the year. These movies are probably not the best known, but their stories contain valuable business lessons that could come in useful for developing our professional careers.

Margin Call (2011) – Directed by J.C. Chandor – USA
Understanding the implications that led to the 2008 financial crisis can be complex. I discovered this film prior to starting my MBA journey, thanks to my father’s recommendation. The story is set in New York City in 2008. The fictional head of a Wall Street investment bank, John Tuld, is told that the firm is drowning in toxic mortgage-backed securities. Tuld orders his traders to rid the firm’s balance sheet of the junk by dumping it on unsuspecting counterparties and customers in less than 24 hours. Even though he knows his decision will have a negative impact on how his bank will be perceived, he chooses this path to defend his interests and avoid major damage on the firm. Most of the film is about discussing solutions for preventing major damage during an imminent economic crisis at a global scale, due to negligence on behalf of the bank employees at some point in time. Now that the chaos is unfolding, extreme measures are meticulously taken, for the bomb to produce fewer casualties when it explodes. This is a masterclass in human behavior for detecting and preventing risks before it is too late, that is in line with the valuable lessons from the Organizational Behavior and Leadership course.

Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) – Directed by Hayao Miyazaki – Japan
This one is for all the family. The mastermind of Japanese anime films takes us to the magical universe of Kiki, a 13-year-old apprentice witch who starts her own business. This film highlights the innovation of flying as a means of improving a service, as well as the creation of a lean-startup venture. Even though Kiki has magical powers, she struggles to find her true calling to be useful to society and differentiate herself from other witches. Her willingness to help others is her secret weapon and she eventually discovers she can cause disruption, by creating a swift delivery service for a bakery, cruising on her broomstick across the skies. Business seems to be going great until Kiki’s magical powers start to fade and she is unable to fly. She will be forced to find the way to restore her powers using her wit and social charm, to save her witch status and her delivery business. During the process, Kiki learns how to price her services and be patient and resourceful when weather conditions disturb her operations. The film is also a metaphor for the continuous transformation of the world as technologies evolve and how we should be prepared to adapt to these changes.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019) – Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor – UK/Malawi
This is a Netflix hit, closely related to the Innovation and Sustainability courses. It is based on the true story of William Kamkwamba, a curious teenager from Malawi who is expelled from school because his parents cannot afford to pay the tuition fees. He is forced to work with his father in the fields preparing the crops but a storm floods the country, causing a drought and social unrest. William is fascinated by science and sneaks into his school’s library to read books and try to come up with a solution to end the famine. By using old batteries and materials from the junkyard, he tests his ideas for producing electricity by building a windmill. When he finally completes a working prototype, the adults in his village help him build the first windmill to generate electricity and pump water from the ground. The main take from this film: a lack of economic resources is no excuse for not creating solutions that could positively impact a whole nation or even the world. Creative reasoning and perseverance are the keys for success and sustainable energy resources should be our primal concern for securing the future of our planet.

Stay tuned for my next chapter, where I will interview a manager in the art world.

 

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.

 

 

Quantitative finance. Relying on mathematics and statistics to manage complexity

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on Quantitative finance. Relying on mathematics and statistics to manage complexity

Once upon a time, there were bankers. There were, and there still are, but in the last twenty years, their work has become more complex. The exponential increase in derivatives (complex financial instruments) starting from 2000 and up to the 2008 financial crisis, joined with a new regulatory approach that led to a more open market, revolutionized the world of finance, giving life to a scenario for which the rules and the models, more than a decade later, still aren’t completely clear.

Data at the centre

It’s in this context that the tools of quantitative finance were imposed: «Risk management and fintech are the response we have developed to face the legacy of the crisis», explained Professor Emilio Barucci introducing the tenth edition of the executive programme in quantitative finance, of which he is director, which will get underway in November 2019 at the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano.
According to Aldo Nassigh, vice president of Unicredit, «the crack of Lehman Brothers is comparable to the French Revolution. It put an end to a paradigm, but we haven’t yet entered the new one. Certainly, however, we can see a trend towards plain vanilla products (standard, simple and linear trades): portfolio volumes are growing, encompassing tens of thousands of derivatives that are individually simple, but put together generate enormous complexity». Nassigh then goes on to specify that the modus operandi of banks is very different from that of fintech companies, and it’s important not to confuse the two strategies: «Banks aren’t data driven, but their activity starts from models of portfolio enhancement, of risk evaluation, of pricing. Only later do they calibrate these models on the data».

Quantitative finance: professionals wanted

It’s clear, then, as Barucci says, that «the use of the quantitative tool, or rather mathematics and statistics applied to the financial sector, has become crucial». And this has translated into new work opportunities, that cover a wider range of positions than normally thought. As Barucci illustrates, the main areas are four: «portfolio management, evaluation of financial products, trading and risk management».
Although these areas are growing strongly, today we still see a lack of adequately trained personnel: «We need numerous quantitative professionals in the financial sector, but we have a hard time finding them», admits Luigi Terzi, head of market risk management at Banco BPM. «If the trader was once someone who tried to interpret market sentiment, today he can’t do without using algorithmic tools that mitigate the risk of certain transactions. But quantitative finance also is used at the sales desk, in financial engineering, in IT, in audit compliances: all areas where quantitative training is fundamental».

Consulting opportunities

Further confirmation of this trend comes from Gianni Pola, Senior portfolio manager at ANIMA Sgr: «The offices that handle discretional portfolio management, once “reserved” for economics graduates, today also hire people with a quantitative background».
The interest in professions of this sort doesn’t come only from banks, whether they be big or small, or groups dealing with asset management. «We are witnessing a gradual outsourcing of expertise on the part of large groups, a process that has greatly favoured the consulting market» explained Barucci. Antonio Castagna, managing partner of advisory firm Iason, is a direct witness of this: «Personally I’m convinced that the pricing model developed in recent years has become mature. The positions we are looking to fill today I would describe as “functional”, that is able to make what already exists work. But, to be able to do this, the quantitative substratum remains essential».

Financial Times Executive Education Rankings 2019

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Executive Education Courses for individuals and companies: Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management among the top 80 business schools in the world and one of the best in Europe with strong ties to a technical university.

The School of Management of Politecnico di Milano offers a wide range of programmes of the highest standard to its executive customers.

This is underlined, again this year, by the Executive Education Rankings for 2019 published today in the Financial Times, listing the School among the top 80 business schools in the world. The Schools is also ranked among the best schools in Europe that belong to a “technical” university, where this focus on engineering and technology brings together a propensity for innovation with management skills.

The Financial Times lists up two different rankings for executive programmes. One is for “customised” programmes, which address the specific needs of corporate customers and designed for their managers and high potential staff. Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management is appearing for the ninth consecutive year and has improved its position in a list that has been shortened by ten places.

The other is for “open” programmes for all managers and professionals wishing to select the training for their professional and personal development independently within the courses offered at MIP’s Management Academy. SoM first entered the ranking two years ago, and now is placed among the “top ten” European technical universities.

Many parameters come into play to determine each position in the ranking (they include the role of companies in designing and evaluating the courses and the School’s international outlook) and they take into account the participants’ rating of the courses, alongside the assessment of the CEOs and HR Directors at the companies benefitting from the courses. This year, the School of Management, stood out in particular for its close partnership with other business schools.

In the words of Andrea Sianesi, Dean of MIP Politecnico di Milano and Alessandro Perego, Director of the Department of Management Engineering: “Our executive programmes are in line with the market expectations, in a climate eagerly anticipating new training methods that open minds to the sweeping opportunities offered through advances in technology and business models.  The market recognises that we have the competence and methodology, which are such distinctive features of Politecnico, to identify the latest trends and prepare managers to take on the process of digital transformation in their companies, redefining corporate processes and roles”.

They continued by saying: “By operating so closely with the corporate world and focusing on business and entrepreneurial topics, we have earned our stripes in the minds of companies and managers”. Another winning factor was venturing into digital learning. In the smart learning model, people can access courses and material at a distance, a great plus point for those with busy lives and difficulties linked to time management”.

Diversity as a business opportunity

Posted on | by Veronica Rafaniello | Leave a Comment on Diversity as a business opportunity

Respect for diversity as an important ethical issue, but also the inclusion of differences as a business lever. Cristina Rossi Lamastra, Professor of Business and Industrial Economics at the Politecnico di Milano Department of Management Engineering, has made diversity management one of her research subjects. Flanked by Mara Tanelli and Silvia Strada, professors with the Department of Electronics and Information at the Politecnico di Milano, and with the support of the linguist Cristina Mariotti, she is investigating the use of data analytic tools to reveal unconscious bias, gender stereotypes in corporate communications.

«Thanks to the Me Too movement, diversity management is an issue that has recently drawn the interest of the general public, but the theme has long been present in scientific literature, in business and academic contexts – the professor explains –. Recently we can say that there has also been an awareness of damages companies can incur from a lack of respect for diversity». The Me Too movement, born in the United States, has focused attention on a delicate issue on which our country, however, is lagging. «We are seeing different speeds in this movement – continues Rossi Lamastra –. The issue of male/female equality is deeply influenced by the culture and goes hand in hand with income, it’s accompanied by greater economic development and a more egalitarian culture based on the entry of women into the workforce».

In addition to gender, diversity management policies also involve other forms of diversity, an increasingly clear sign of our social changes. Or rather, we can say that gender equality isn’t related only to the man/woman relationship but can also touch on other dimensions. Think of LGBTs, for which inclusion policies have in turn become a subject, albeit more recently, of scientific literature. And then there’s the theme of the sum of diversity. Reporting the results of a recruiting test carried out in the United States, Cristina Rossi Lamastra highlights the penalization of women compared to men, but also coloured people compared to whites, leading to coloured women arriving last in rankings of inclusion.

«The problem of diversity management appears to be decidedly complex, as there is no scientific and universally accepted taxonomy for these policies – indicates the Politecnico professor –. But we can say that if you ignore a part of the population, in the case of women half, the relative slice of potential is neglected and the multiplicity of points of view is lost. You lose all the cognitive richness associated with diversity and some studies indicate that this can also lead to an economic loss. By now the scarce presence of women in company management is seen by everyone as a limit, but the problem of discrimination is more serious and urgent in those sectors in which we see it at all levels and not only in management, such as oil & gas, for example, where there’s a clear predominance of men».

But how can a company sensitive to this issue put into practice diversity management policies, which certainly can also benefit its public image? «First, the recruiting process can be improved, focusing on neutral communications and using blind auditions that don’t reveal the gender of candidates, especially in male dominated sectors – concludes Cristina Rossi Lamastra –. New technologies can be useful in this sense».

The issue also impacts Politecnico di Milano and its School of Management, which like most Italian universities, adheres to gender parity principles for university careers and the student population. The most acute problems are seen in areas like mathematics, science and technology, where the presence of women is far below that of men, and forums for discussion and debate have been created to develop mitigating actions.