“Embrace the change”. This is the leitmotif of an entire day dedicated to the themes of innovation organized by believe, among the leading national banking institutions with over 1,2 million customers throughout Italy today October 25 in Reggio Emilia. In a fascinating contrast, the ancient Roman walls present in the bank's auditorium will host the most current topics of the digital revolution, thanks to the testimonies of speakers from important innovative realities from all over Europe, not only in the banking sector. The first part of the day will be reserved for the people of the Group. With important international guests, we will talk about innovative trends in banking and corporate innovation in the broadest sense. In the evening, Credem will open its doors to the public, for a journey through the ecosystems in which some of the most interesting start-ups on the national scene operate.
This initiative is part of a series of activities which, thanks also to the recent establishment of the Innovation Unit led by Piergiorgio Grossi, will allow Credem to deal with highly evolved market realities and thus encourage the ever-increasing diffusion of a culture of innovation in all corporate areas.
The objective of this event is twofold: on the one hand offer moments of dialogue and comparison and thus grasping different perspectives and points of view to guide projects and concrete actions to enhance the strategic vision of the Group and to favor the understanding of macro trends and business evolutions. In particular, over 250 people who cover managerial roles and with high process responsibility in the Group will take part in the event, further demonstrating the attention that the institution places on people, on the importance of developing professional skills and, consequently, on investment necessary to maintain high quality customer relations. On the other hand, the event aims to offer local stakeholders (institutions, entrepreneurs, customers and the public) a moment of debate to stimulate the development of new ideas and thus encourage the evolution of the entire community. The event was organized in collaboration with Efma (European Financial Management & Marketing Association), an international banking association of which Credem is also a member.
In the first part of the day, in particular, after a greeting from the president of Credem Lucio Igino Zanon of Valgiurata and the introduction of the general director of the institute Nazzareno Gregori, they intervene Mauro Macchi, senior managing director of Accenture, one of the leading multinational management and strategic consultancy and technological services, which will talk about the main trends in the evolution of the banking sector. Subsequently Max Schertel head of business operations of N26, among the first fully digital banks, will talk about the state of the art and the evolution of digital banking. Francisco Perez, director of innovation strategy of the Spanish bank Santander, one of the largest in Europe, will tackle the issues of omnichannel banking from a digital point of view. Maciej Wieczorek e Maciej Kubalski, enterprises department of MBank, among the main Polish banks will address the issue of new relationship paradigms with small and medium-sized enterprises. Girts Berzins, head of group digital banking strategy of Swedbank, an important Scandinavian banking group, will explain what the open banking challenges of the future will be and how banks can become ecosystems open to external partners.
Speeches by Hans van der Horst, global tribe leader of ING, an international bank with headquarters in the Netherlands, on the new paradigms of business organizations from an agile perspective, by Ivan Alimov, chief operating officer of Sberbank, one of the largest Russian banks, on the use of data to improve the service model and customer relations. Lara Licari, creative director of Frog Design, a global design company active for over 30 years, will explain how to increasingly place the customer at the center of processes and procedures. Vlad Sterngold, director of people analytics & research at Booking , a popular travel and accommodation booking website, will address the topic of big data and machine learning. Carlo Giugovaz di EFMA extension, the European association that brings together financial services companies, will talk about how to deal with the relationship with startups. The co-managing director of Credem closes the first part of the day Angelo Campani.
The second part of the day, starting at 20pm, is instead open to the public, customers and the authorities and will be an opportunity to learn about some successful cases of start-ups active in various sectors. The evening is opened by the intervention of Carlo Torniai, director of strategy, planning & digital ventures house of Fifa, the international federation that governs the sport of soccer, on data at the heart of the business model. Below is the presentation of the stories of three successful start-ups: Paschal Faithful di Brain Control who developed a mental joystick to restore mobility to patients with severe disabilities, Luigi Galimberti di Agricultural sphere who built an irrigation system that uses only 10% of the water to irrigate a field, e Andrea Tinti di long, which has set up purchasing processes and integrated supplier management through a collaborative supply chain.
Credem is investing heavily to energetically address the issues of innovation in a rapidly accelerating and changing market context”, declared Piergiorgio Grossi, chief innovation officer of Credem. “Innovation crosses areas, sectors and businesses that are very different from each other, tracing a common direction towards which to converge. We have organized this day", continued Grossi, "to give the people who work in the group, but also the area with which we work on a daily basis, an opportunity to meet, share, compare and inspire on the theme of innovation, also seen through the experience of those who work every day to transform this word into concrete projects. We want to increase the probability and create the conditions for everyone to develop and intercept non-traditional ideas, technologies, methodologies, projects, processes and skills, to then be transformed into value for the community”, concluded Grossi.
The training of Group people on innovation issues is a best practice in which a great deal has been invested over time and is also envisaged by the principles of corporate sustainability. This event will be a further opportunity to offer people opportunities for growth, discussion and in-depth analysis of highly topical topics, essential for guaranteeing customers a distinctive and always avant-garde experience.
Credem has always preferred the dissemination of an innovation-oriented corporate culture not only technological but also in terms of approach and work management. In 2019 in particular, the spread of smart working continued, a working method based on mobile technologies such as tablets, laptops and smartphones, which facilitates the balance between private and professional life by allowing people to manage their time more flexibly. The project, born in 2015, saw further significant diffusion with, at the end of June 2019, over 1.600 people involved. The strategy of investing in people proved to be successful and continued in the first six months of 2019 with 149 hires, of which over 77% were new high school graduates and graduates.
In 2018, the excellence in the working conditions offered to employees, in the training and development policies spread at all company levels and in the people management strategies were the elements that allowed the Credem Group to obtain for the third consecutive year the "Top Employer" certification and for the first time “Great Place to work”. The awards are assigned by two authoritative international agencies specialized in assessing the quality of the workplace, after a complete analysis of the policies and all company processes related to people management. These certifications, recognized to companies participating in the certification initiative that achieve the highest standards in the working conditions of their employees, confirm the centrality of people and their well-being in the Group's business plan.
