The recovery plan Next Generation Eu represents the ideal stimulus for Italian SMEs, with a view to facilitating growth and promoting competitive positioning on international markets. Looking at the European context, the recovery plan projects Europe and Italy towards a better future digital, sustainable and inclusive, the priority direction especially for Italian companies. This is what emerged from the latest report “The new generation of Private Companies - The path towards resilience and the opportunities of the Next Generation Eu" by Deloitte Private: the solution of the global advisory network aimed at listed and unlisted SMEs, entrepreneurs, family offices, private investors and private equity firms.
According to the Deloitte Private report, 90% of companies recognize the NGEU as a fundamental means of supporting Italy's post-pandemic recovery. “Strengthening and protecting these realities means protecting the excellence of our country, where often the fragmentation and small size of the players have led in the long term to problems of competitiveness and capital tension, especially in those sectors where economies of scale and investment capacity,” he said Ernesto Lanzillo, head of Deloitte Private.
In this delicate historical moment, SMEs are called to implement a radical change, assuming a dynamic attitude that embraces the new market needs, so as to reverse the trend of the toughest and most uncertain year where turnover has contract by an average of 10,6% and their gross operating margins recorded an estimated contraction of -22,8%, risking jeopardizing its resilience.
From the perspective of Deloitte Private, the organizational needs of SMEs can be grouped into 7 categories: strategy, capital, growth, operations, technology, work and society. Looking at the Italian context, the impact of the pandemic has accelerated the priorities of small and medium-sized companies that are on a transformational journey. In building more resilient organizations, able to better withstand future crises, there is awareness on the part of companies with respect to these 7 organizational priorities, which can be considered as fundamental assets for the success of a resilient strategy.
And from the latest survey by Deloitte Private, analyzing the level of resilience of Italian companies on the basis of the seven priorities mentioned above, it clearly emerges that organizations high resilience are the 31%, medium resilience il 59% and only one remaining 10% turns out to be a low resilience.
For the Italian companies interviewed, the fundamental element that determines resilience is technology and as a strategic priority digital transformation (68%) in the revival of the economy. The latter was driven precisely by the pandemic crisis with a 23% increase in investments in this area. By next year, more than 8 out of 10 companies will invest in digitization and innovation in order to improve their profitability.
“The issues of sustainability need reduction of emissions, albeit at different levels: from those who are still in the initial implementation phase (41%), to those who are in the middle of the process (35%) or are even mature on these issues (6%). More than half of the Italian companies that participated in the research consider environmental sustainability a fundamental driver for the relaunch towards the New Normal. Specifically, in addition to improving social responsibility (37%) and providing a concrete contribution to the creation of a circular economy (31%), companies also see the development of environmental sustainability projects as a way to combine environmental benefits with a clear improvement of company performance”
The PNRR can help facilitate the achievement of high resilience levels even for those companies currently categorized as medium or low. "To overcome the obstacle to digitalisation, represented by a lack of funds or high costs or uncertainties in the return on investment, the Deloitte report "Connect for Europe: Next Generation Eu" shows that around 50% of companies are waiting for lines definitive guide of the PNRR to seize the opportunities of the NGEU while 1 out of 3 companies has already taken steps to do so, thanks to the support of external partners.
“Facing uncertainty on a daily basis – he added Eugenio Puddu, Consumer Products Leader – continues to encourage SMEs to become even more flexible, thus demonstrating a concrete increase in the level of resilience of the entire Italian entrepreneurial fabric”.
