Opinions & Interviews
The Great Europe We Want
We will come out of this crisis more Italian. My hope, though, is that Covid-19 will also make us more European. While we have rediscovered a sense of community and national solidarity, it is also true that at an economic level, this is the time when the great European project envisioned by the founding fathers – De Gasperi, Adenauer, and Schuman – must find its concrete expression. On a human level, we are understandably clinging to solidarity. But the reality is that we are facing a challenge we had never foreseen, a completely different situation even than the great global crisis of 2008; ...
Italy stands tall
On March 7, there were 31,506 cases of Coronavirus (COVID-19) recorded in Italy, following an exponential growth curve. The number of dead is 2,503, with a lethality rate of 7.9 percent. The epidemic is principally affecting Lombardy and the rest of Northern Italy, but there are hotspots present in all regions of the country. This is the worst health catastrophe ever recorded in the history of Italy and of advanced countries since World War II, with dramatic consequences for the social and economic situation as well. In this phase, the fight against the epidemic is playing out on two fundamental ...
Italian Businesses Exposed to Contagion
The Covid-19 coronavirus will have a negative impact on Italian businesses. The question is not “if,” but how many will be affected and how strong the impact will be. Just as predictions regarding the evolution of the situation among people are uncertain, the same is true for businesses. Yet there are some differences between the two populations, that of the human race and that of businesses. In the first case (which includes people with clear symptoms, hospitalized, in intensive care, and dead) the contagion fortunately represents a small percentage, while in the second the “contagion” ...
Managerial Excellence: A Value Beyond the Confines of Performance
Founded in 2017 to reward Italian entrepreneurial excellence from both an economic-financial standpoint and regarding respect for the values of sustainability (environmental, social and governance - ESG), the SDA Bocconi School of Management’s Best Performance Award (BPA) has now reached its third edition.* The Award is divided into five categories, each of which brings together companies that have demonstrated pro-active attitudes in ESG initiatives in their sector. In particular, the hot topic this year is that of managerial excellence, promoting companies that stand out in terms of cutting-edge ...
How Business Culture Changes with Technology
We are living in times of great, rapid transformation. In every area we see that people live, work, seek entertainment and consume goods and services with methods and tools that are increasingly different from those of the past. We see the world changing at an unprecedented speed. The digitization of many sectors, the use of artificial intelligence, robotization, and the frequent birth of startups are phenomena that have now become normal, and naturally lead to accelerations and changes in all fields, even in the most consolidated and traditional sectors. This is a process that we cannot stop ...
The European Banking Union: a Proposal for Discussion
A few weeks ago, the German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz published an article in the Financial Times in which, starting from a non-paper prepared by his Ministry, he summarized his thinking regarding the European Banking Union (EBU). The article was, and still is, the subject of great interest. It is well-known that the EBU was decided on a number of years ago with the aim of creating a single European banking market based on three fundamental pillars: common oversight of banks; uniform regulations on the resolution of bank crises; and homogenization and integration of regulations on bank deposit ...
Digital Transformation for Human Resources
Digital Transformation is increasingly discussed these days in regard to Human Resources. While the words themselves indicate the simplification of almost all HR processes and the need to redesign and improve current practices, making use of digital tools, it goes without saying that the Human Resources sector cannot be left behind; in particular because it deals with the most important capital of all, people (human capital), who can be resistant, or particularly inclined, to change. The HR manager must therefore evolve and guide that process, not only to "ride the wave" or follow it, but to give ...
Italian Excellence in food & beverage: How to Build Wonder
Andrea Illy writes: "I immediately recognized that providing the best coffee nature can offer us is not a profession like others, but an idea that includes many professions. An entire conception of the world that contains the marvelous places where the plants grow and the beans are harvested, the elegant cafes and sophisticated conversations between intellectuals; movies, art, designer coffee-cups and production without defects. This idea would change my life." In this description, we perceive the essence of Italian excellence, know-how without abandoning beauty, the good that is married to the ...
How to Exploit Data in the Post-Digital Era?
The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently estimated that by the end of 2020, the amount of stored data will reach the volume of 44 zettabytes, which means a quantity of bytes forty times greater than the number of stars in the universe. In the world of big data and digitalization, imaginative references such as that of the WEF on the trend in data growth have now become the norm. Research centers, vendors, and the publishing world compete in using analogies and exponential metrics to present the issue of data explosion. Since we now recognize the fact that we are facing an unstoppable trend of ...
The CFO: A Technical Figure, or not?
In the preparation of this article, thanks are due to Dott. Francesco Masironi for his patient work collecting information during the initial phases of the research. In response to the question “What counts more, perception or facts?” the marketing world has a rather precise and clear answer, that aims in a single direction, with almost no ambiguity: while facts are important, the ability to make them perceptible in a "correct" and convenient manner is probably even more important. An example? Some years ago, one of the most famous violinists in the world repeated a superb musical execution ...