The ninth edition of “Festival Città Impresa” has recently ended. Vicenza became from Friday 1st to Sunday 3rd of April a meeting point and a place for discussing key matters regarding contemporary economy and society, the development of companies and territories.
The event was promoted by VeneziePost and the Municipality of Vicenza’s Department of Growth, together with the partnership of two banks – Intesa Sanpaolo and Cassa di Risparmio del Veneto -, the support of the Fondazione Corriere della Sera, and the main partners, Adacta and the Port Authority of Trieste.
More than a hundred speakers took part in the vast schedule: the ministers Pier Carlo Padoan, Maurizio Martina, Marianna Madia and Giuliano Poletti; together with numerous businesspeople, columnists, mayors of some of the main industrial cities; the Editor in Chief of The Corriere della Sera, Lucio Fontana; and the Editor in Chief of the TV Channel La7, Enrico Mentana.
Calpeda had a leading role in the event “The business model innovation”, organised by Studio Adacta.
Andrea Beretta Zanoni, the Director of Adacta and Professor of Corporate Strategy at the University of Verona, moderated the meeting during which Elio Marioni, the founder of Askoll, and Carlotta Lorenzi, Calpeda’s Planning and Control Manager, presented their corporate experiences.
“The reasons that pushed us to reflect on innovation,” explained Carlotta Lorenzi, “come above all from the awareness of changes that are taking place. Once, quality products were sold easily, but nowadays, in today’s context where everything moves rapidly, greater skills are required at every level. This is why it would be reductive to consider innovation just from a technical point of view. Instead, it must also include processes and organisation.”
So how do we construct an innovative business model?
“In our experience there are two incentives that integrate and work together for achieving this goal. The first one is building a strategic plan; the second one is the application of the “Gemba Kaizen” method. A concept that focuses on achieving continuous improvement through activities on the work floor.”
Why is it important to define a strategic plan?
“Every entrepreneur has his own specific strategy, but it can be shared only if it’s defined and specified. This is a fundamental condition to be able to achieve goals. The main difficulty is the resistance to change, which certainly cannot be dictated by others if we want to speak about effective results. Innovation is activated by cultural change and directly involves the human resources of the company.”
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