“The 2008 crisis led to considering finance as an ephemeral medium and therefore to advocate a return to the real economy. But growth, in the third industrial revolution, is achieved above all through innovation and startups”. As Valerio De Molli, CEO of The European House-Ambrosetti, on the day of the Technology Forum in Castelbrando, in Veneto, which brings together all those Italian and international realities which, erroneously, are considered far from the "back to reality" prophesied by many. “Innovation and technology serve to form a competitive entrepreneurial attitude, which then why not can also be used to open a pizzeria”. This year's novelty is the Ambrosetti Innosystem Index, which unfortunately sees Italy in the very last positions: “But in the last year the Government has set up important initiatives”. The model is confirmed by South Korea.
FIRST LINE: The technological appointment of The European House – Ambrosetti has now reached its third edition. What is the budget in participation and in contributions to the debate?
VALERIO DE MOLLI: “We are about to crown the third edition, it is true, but the Technology Forum is above all a permanent laboratory, which since 2011 has brought together over 300 CEOs from the major organizations involved in the innovation chain in Italy, and who belong to the four pillars of technology transfer: research, finance, business and institutions. The work of this Ambrosetti Club Community, exclusively dedicated to Technology, Innovation and Technology Transfer (TITT), generates an important final document every year, the Report “The ecosystem for innovation. Which ways for the growth of companies and the country”, which contains some fundamental metrics, to measure the innovation ecosystem in our country and above all to indicate to decision makers the strategies to strengthen it, through concrete proposals. If I had to draw a balance in terms of quality of participation and contribution to growth made available by the Technology Forum, I would say that it is fully expressed in the strength and vision of the Final Report".
FIRSTONLINE – Also this year several foreign guests, with the update of the Ambrosetti Index which sees South Korea taking off in terms of innovation. For what substantial reason? What do you think are the international models to follow?
VDM: “The Final Report contains a substantial chapter dedicated to measuring the current situation, with sentiment data – which we obtained from a specific survey among the Community company leaders – and with absolute data, which is expressed in the Ambrosetti Innosystem Index . It is sad to observe that in the final ranking – this year extended to 13 countries – Italy still occupies the most backward positions, albeit with a slight improvement. While the strength of successful ecosystems is affirmed, first of all South Korea. In the last 10 years – in a context of heightened competition and scarcity of resources – the emergence of manufacturing centers in Asia, Africa and Latin America has revolutionized the competitive horizon for low and medium technology products and has strongly increased the competitive premium the market introduction of advanced products. In the next 10-20 years the change will intensify: the "knowledge economy" and the so-called "third industrial revolution" will reshuffle the cards, creating new horizons of opportunities and constraints for companies and country-systems worldwide.?
FIRSTONLINE – What is the "Third Industrial Revolution"?
VDM: “Today the challenge of innovation no longer lies in the implementation of linear innovation models that conceive innovative output as a result defined starting from predetermined quantitative inputs (investments, human capital, structures), but takes place starting from innovation ecosystems integrated systems in which the results of innovation are determined according to the interactions between key players (academic, institutional and business) and in which maximizing the speed of the networks and optimizing effectiveness are critical success factors. In this context, the performance of the various countries is increasingly linked to the ability of each innovation ecosystem to maximize the innovative efficiency of all territorial levels: technological clusters/innovation hubs – in turn local innovation ecosystems – are becoming increasingly strategic and decisive nodes in the national innovative results”. These clusters, conceived as "geographical concentrations of enterprises, suppliers of inputs and services, intermediaries (including financial ones) and research institutions", have a growing role as catalysts of innovation and driving forces of growth and competitiveness, both in relation to the of belonging, and with respect to global production chains as world class knowledge producers".
FIRSTONLINE – So Italy still marks time. What are still the biggest critical issues? In your opinion, is the new government taking the right path on the issues of the Digital Agenda and technology in general?
VDM: “Once again this year the final report of the Technology Forum opens with a balance sheet of government actions in the field of technological innovation: it is a point-by-point balance sheet, which measures the initiatives implemented and those in progress on the basis of the proposals presented by the TITT Community in previous years, in five fundamental 'sites': National Innovation Strategy, Investment in Innovation, Research-Industry Cooperation, Development of Innovative Enterprises and Culture of Innovation. It should be emphasized that in the last twelve months the Government has set up important initiatives in the field of technological innovation, some of which have already translated into actions. However, a certain fragility remains in the Italian systemic innovative capacity, which is expressed essentially in three ways: investments in innovation below the European average, low propensity to resort to patents and poor development of the equity market”.
FIRSTONLINE – A small provocation: Briatore recently said, speaking to Bocconi students: "Far from startups, open pizzerias". What do you feel like answering? Why, in your opinion, should young people insist on startups instead?
VDM: “I think Briatore's was also a provocation – connected to a very widespread mantra today, which is that of 'back to reality'. This is partly a reaction to the excessive role that until 2008 the world economies assigned to finance, summarily identified with an idea of the ephemeral, precisely the unreal. But that's not the point. Our goal must be to foster entrepreneurial aptitude, starting from primary school, by teaching that special set of skills and attitudes that can make each of us a self-employee. It is an attitude that in any case favors growth through innovation, regardless of whether one decides to found a start-up or put it at the service of a big company. Or even to open a pizzeria”.
