About us

The School of Management was established formally in 2003 and groups together MIP (the Graduate School of Business founded in 1979) and DIG (the Department of Management Engineering – Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale), established in 1990, bringing together all research and education operations in the field of management.
The School of Management today includes a broad range of research initiatives and teaching activities, with over 4,900 students enrolled in degree programmes.

AT A GLANCE

The School of Management delivers an end-to-end portfolio of services in research, education and high level consultancy within the field of management, economics, and industrial engineering.

The School deliberately offers an end-to end portfolio of programmes, addressing, on the one hand, the needs of Politecnico di Milano, whose mission, as a state-owned university, is to offer academic and research education including BSc and MSc, mostly pre-experience, and the PhD Programme; and, on the other hand, to respond to the requests of the corporate world, with its demand for specialised, post-graduate and post-experience education including MBAs, Specialised Masters, Executive and Corporate Education.
We aim to be a reference point for companies and the community at large for a wide range of management educational services.
We articulate our portfolio according the type of programme (to reflect the target market and focus of the programme), and whether the course awards a degree or not.

Being part of the Politecnico di Milano influences our work on four levels:

  1. We focus strongly on innovation, change and the strategic advantage of technologies used in business
  2. We transfer the attention for scientific rationality and quantitative methods typical of the engineering mindset to the area of management
  3. We constantly pursue interdisciplinarity in both research and education, by making use of the wide array of technical expertise within the sixteen different schools belonging to Politecnico di Milano;
  4. We leverage being part of one of the regional engines of the economy in Europe: Milan and the Northern-Italy ecosystem.

IN WHAT WE BELIEVE

The School is well-aware of the fundamental role that universities play in the education of young people and in the way they approach the labour market, and of the role of business schools in shaping the new generations who will be the managers of the future. The aim of Politecnico di Milano is to be an international university while remaining strongly rooted in Italian culture, and to promote a more attractive eco-system through:

  • our training approach that gives all graduates the best opportunity when applying for a job;
  • our research potential that helps companies to innovate and enhance their level of quality;
  • our focus on entrepreneurship, where students, graduates and researchers are motivated to become entrepreneurs within new business ventures;
  • our continuous collaboration with institutions and society to create a “culturally open”, creative, innovation oriented and responsible environment.

The School of Management has always endorsed these principles, which are set out in its mission, vision and values.

Our approach to sustainability is based on three elements, which are academic excellence, leading research and service to the community, and it is based on the values of integrity, respect and expertise.

Since 2013, the School of Management has taken some important steps forward:

  • In 2013, after a thorough analysis and discussion within the Executive Board, the School decided to integrate the PoliMI Code of Ethics within its “Code and rules of conduct for integrity in research and good scientific practice”, which focuses on scientific research.
  • In 2014, the School decided to join the PRME (Principles for Responsible Management Education) project. As a consequence, we activated all the processes needed to achieve PRME goals (in terms of continuous improvement in research and teaching)
  • In 2015, we established the Gianluca Spina Association, inspired by the friends and colleagues of Gianluca, former MIP President, who died prematurely on the 21st February, 2015. The goal of the Association is to raise funds (from companies, public and private institutions and private individuals) to support initiatives that promote research and education on management, particularly in the areas that Gianluca was most passionate about;
  • Lastly, in 2015 we launched the “Sustainable Project”, where our aim is to organise and build a consistent and integrated strategy for all initiatives dealing with social responsibility, sustainability and ethical issues.

Making Innovation a common good

 

SoM’s mission is to contribute to the common good and individual well-being through a critical understanding of the opportunities and challenges posed by technology to business and society.

School of Management pursues its mission with an international reach by creating and sharing knowledge through high-quality education, the quest for scientific excellence, and active community engagement.

We aim at:

  • Educating responsible individuals who will shape the future of relevant corporations and institutions to serve society.
  • Promoting original, rigorous, and relevant research at the intersection of engineering, management, and economics, focusing on a deep understanding of technology and its ecosystem.
  • Contributing to a sustainable and inclusive society by inspiring virtuous business practices and transformational policy measures.

We share with our University the core values of Integrity, Respect and Expertise.

  • Integrity: Faculty members, staff, students and our partners act in the full respect of the law, rules and practices. Illegal and unethical behaviour must be rejected under all circumstances.
  • Respect: We expect Faculty members, staff, students and our partners to show full respect for other people’s needs, the environment and society.
    Respect is a prerequisite for valuing and supporting an international environment in which diversities of gender, culture, beliefs, personalities, political ideas and backgrounds positively influence one another.
  • Expertise: Research and education must both relate strongly to the economy and the corporate world in order to support an effective transfer of knowledge to the community.

In addition, our activity is inspired by a problem solving mind-set, a passion for technology and innovation and the predilection for engaging and collaborative approaches.

  • Problem-solving mind-set: We adopt a problem-solving perspective typical of engineering to conduct creative and innovative research and to address the complex management, technological and social challenges of the world today.
    While we draw from a wide range of backgrounds and practice in different scholarly fields, engineering has a special role in our research and is a distinctive feature of our School, especially when compared to other schools of management and engineering.
  • Passion for technology, innovation and change: We consider technology, innovation and change as key components for creating value, in both public and private sectors.
  • Engaging and collaborative approach: We are committed towards helping to improve the quality of society, particularly with respect to sustainability and innovation. We seek corporate connections and institutional partnerships, as they are the means by which we can transfer knowledge effectively to the communities of practitioners, policy-makers and society at large.

We envision a world where people lead and manage innovation and technology to pursue the sustainable development of society and respect for the individual.

At School of Management, passionate and engaged scholars and professionals work together in a stimulating environment and continue to develop their best capacities to contribute to international excellence in research and teaching.

In synergy with the Politecnico community, they are committed to create positive impact for the organisations, the community, and society.

SOM STRATEGIC PLAN 2023-2025

In line with POLIMI Strategic Plan, the results of the context analysis, the positioning and the SWOT analysis of the School, SoM defines the following strategic priorities and objectives for 2023-2025.

 

Fostering the growth, involvement and well-being of SoM people

We aim to create an environment in which everyone can express their talents and receive adequate support to find their own balance between academic and impact research, teaching, and service to the institution. This should happen consistently and in agreement with the needs of the research groups, without compromising individual well-being. We take care, in particular, of the growth and development of Junior Faculty. We strive to involve SoM people in decisionmaking and taking on responsibility in SoM activities. Our goal is to cultivate a sense of pride and belonging to SoM.

 

Grow as an international School, committed to advancing responsible management competencies and practices

We aim to increase our effort to achieve the standards of an international School by consolidating our achievements thus far and improving in still weak areas, especially the internationalisation of the Faculty. We are committed to advancing and transferring key management engineering competencies needed to tackle grand societal challenges through a critical understanding of the role of technology. We want to orient our path of teaching innovation and excellence towards this goal. We aim to increase our teaching offer’s focus on responsible and sustainable management practices.

 

Consolidating research excellence by leveraging the Department of Excellence and PNRR projects and by institutionalising collaborations and interdisciplinary research

We are committed to consolidating the research achievements of recent years and strategically guiding further growth and improvement towards a clearly stated positioning of excellence that is coherent with the aims expressed in the HumanTech project. We aim to exploit the opportunities offered by HumanTech and the PNRR projects we are involved in to establish, expand, and institutionalise an increasing number of research collaborations with other POLIMI Departments and other Italian and international research institutions. We strive to recruit talented individuals who will enrich our disciplinary and methodological perspectives.

 

Contribute to the sustainable development of the local community and the business Ecosystem

We strive to increase our engagement with all the relevant stakeholders (companies, government, institutions and civil society) in the joint effort to tackle the grand societal challenges hindering the sustainable development of the local community, especially the “Milan System”. We aim to contribute to business ecosystems’ competitiveness and growth by reinforcing our leading role in supporting companies and institutions through distinctive competencies to tackle complex challenges at the intersection between management and technology.

 

Here the complete Strategic Plan 2023-2025:

WHO WE ARE

Based on the need to integrate knowledge and experience available on the market, the School has entrusted its research and training programme to a faculty of full, associate and assistant professors at Politecnico di Milano, visiting professors from other universities, professionals from leading consultancy firms and managers from the industrial world.

The School of Management’s faculty is a key resource, giving the School a competitive edge over other business schools both in Italy and abroad. GSOM has been engaging an increasing number of foreign faculty members since 2002, when it introduced its first international MBA course.

The School of Management has a Core Faculty of more than 163 professors and attracts visiting professors from leading international universities. Their collaboration consists not only in teaching and lecturing, but also in designing and organising joint training programmes.

In the last years, the School set up an Advisory Board, composed of 16 members from different countries.

This Board is effectively a laboratory of ideas to identify new trends and challenges and encourage constructive dialogue, capitalising on the managerial experience of its members who hold or have held positions of responsibility in large companies or academic institutions from across the world.

Meetings are held annually to promote valuable and continuous exchange of knowledge, experience and knowhow, allowing the school to anticipate changes in the global competitive environment and address companies’ demand for increasingly multi-disciplinary skills.

It includes exponents of high scientific and professional profile from the academic and business world:

  • Brettel Malte, Vice-Rector of Industry and Business Relations RWTH Aachen University and head the Start-up Centre
  • Debruyne Marion, Dean of Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
  • Fatarella Daniela, CEO Save the Children
  • Ferretti Peretti Melissa, CEO, Google
  • Firpo Stefano, Direttore Generale ASSONIME
  • Giménez Thomsen Cristina, Director of Identity and Mission Professor, Dpt. of Operations, Innovation & Data Science ESADE BS, President EurOMA
  • Gionfriddo Anna, CEO Manpower Italia
  • Guerra Leila, Associate Dean Imperial College Business School
  • Guidara Francesco, Managing Director BCG BrightHouse
  • Joachim Henkel, Vice Dean of Research TUM School of Management
  • Kaplan Sarah, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy (GATE)
  • Newman Lee, Dean IE Business School
  • Pasini Cristiano, Division for Capacity Development, Industrial Policy Advises and Statistics, UNIDO
  • Pignataro Andrea, Founder & CEO, ION Group
  • Shenglin Ben, Dean and Professor of Zhejiang University International Business School (ZIBS) ed ex Ceo di JP Morgan Chase China
  • Simioni Anna, BCG, Advisor People & Organization, Consigliere Amministrazione AIRC, Fondazione SNAM e Clessidra Factoring
  • Van der Vaart Taco, Department Chair, Department of Operations, University of Groningen, Past President EurOMA