THEarticle on FIRSTonline by Riccardo Varaldo of last September 9 ("Technological start-ups: here is the lever of the new industrial policy") asks us to give an answer to the question whether technological startups and spin-offs are the future of Italy with an operation that implicitly has a horizon timescale of 4-7 years. The informed, the finance experts, the citizens of the world (a well-known and identifiable fauna) respond negatively arguing impatiently that such a dilated horizon does not help to solve the problems of Italian companies because the world moves fast, driven by technology continuously evolution.
The optimist he comments that precisely this rapid evolution requires a rethinking of the mentality and behavior of Italian entrepreneurship and therefore the solution lies in the reduction of times and in the continuous flow of innovations that young entrepreneurs can guarantee. The pessimist shakes his head (the pessimist never exposes himself clearly because he knows that he has a large consensus base) because he knows the public administration with its limitations, the banks interested in games on the financial markets, the financiers who want a conspicuous short-term profit , the market that does not like novelties and even less competition, competitors who will try to prevent the consolidation of initiatives, etc. The recent innovations are the commitments and constraints dictated by international organizations which once focused on anti-cyclical policy and now suggest reforms without explaining the reason and also with a horizon of 4-7 years.
Varaldo to this list of difficulties adds the lack of managerial skills and knowledge of the market in the new entrepreneurs and I would add that many spin offs and startups are not spin offs but are an attempt to modify the rating of universities and research centers to obtain public resources and allow researchers to continue their research without any real interest in industrial development. Perhaps it should be remembered that the new rules on research funding encourage spin-offs but there are not always evaluators able to judge the innovation and life expectancy of the initiative.
There is talk of the absence of demand for spin-offs but it is a risky market by definition and therefore only large companies and/or medium-sized companies in the sector could interact with the supply. The former have the bad habit of favoring the consolidated financial statements and therefore the uniformity of the rules which certainly a small newborn company is not able to bear and collapses under the weight of corporate bureaucracy. Medium-sized enterprises have a boss who hardly accepts the presence of a young climber, connoisseur of technologies but not of the market and banks. The small business owner is even more impatient than the competition en casa and thinks it survives because it is flexible and handcrafted. Result: the demand for these new innovative technological companies comes from large and medium-sized foreign companies which appropriate, rightly, the investments made by Italy to train young researchers and entrepreneurs. There is a delay in Italian entrepreneurship which prefers to move towards more peaceful and protected shores such as the tertiary sector despite the changes underway which show that manufacturing and services are classifications to be integrated because their companies must interact to exploit knowledge and encourage exchange relational. The goal is always the creation of value and its distribution to the factors of production if we want to fuel the circular process of development through accumulation.
These elements are clearly expressed in Varaldo's article and the reference to innovative companies and the need to create a link between companies, universities and research centers is certainly appropriate. Unfortunately, this rarely happens because large companies have closed their research centers and medium and small companies do not have sufficient resources to invest in research but without a common language and mutual agreement on the subject to be explored, the exchange of knowledge and continuity of dialogue is almost impossible .
I'll end with another question: if the reasoning on startups and spin offs is correct and widely shared, what are they? the limits of this innovation-focused strategy? In order to survive, new businesses require developed business intelligence and constant research, adequate human and financial resources, efficient public and private services. These are limits that all companies that intend to develop encounter and therefore the market cannot be local but must have at least a national dimension. Another limitation is the shortage of capital that banks do not lend because they are unable to evaluate the economic effects of an innovation and therefore ask for real guarantees. If debates at conferences are excluded, the availability of trained human resources is not a limit because, in fact, few companies ask for personnel highly skilled, who is usually not employed in jobs suited to his preparation and in any case receives a salary that is not very related to his professionalism. The barrier of market size can be overcome by creating business networks export oriented but a national solution would already suffice import substitution. In the case of loans, it is perceived that the children of the wealthy can access credit with the real guarantee of their parents but the optimal conditions do not always add up in this young potential entrepreneur, on the contrary, sometimes one gets the feeling that the fathers do not want them in the their company and direct them towards active politics and representation roles. With exceptions, it would seem that aging Italian entrepreneurs do not feel the obligation to leave the country with adequate production structures perhaps because they are aware of the difficulties and limitations that have tormented them in their corporate life, but only existing companies can facilitate the take-off of technological startups .
In conclusion, if I had to indicate a way to go I would recommend the strategy suggested by Varaldo based on collaboration between universities, research centers and companies but the goal must be entrepreneurial renewal (I realize it's trendy in other fields) e I wouldn't limit myself to startups/spin offs. I would urge banks to assess the risks by referring not only to the past and to productive capital but also to the average age of the management and the present and prospective degree of innovation that characterizes the entrusted company. If the banks do not feel that they have sufficient professionalism in this field, they participate in venture capital financing knowing that the expected losses are minimal when compared with the losses that many large companies inflict on banks and sometimes even investments in government bonds. I would not trust public administrations who get by in the confusion of roles and in the certainty that there is no money, but I would ask for legislation to help the growth (not the birth) of technological startups and spin-offs. In their creation, universities and research centers must collaborate since from these initiatives those institutions will derive concrete advantages, at least it is hoped.
