Managers capable of “thinking” in a digital, sustainable, inclusive way. This is the managerial profile of the future, according to the results of the tender in support of Made-in promoted by Fondirigenti. The training courses chosen by the companies in fact return a clear picture of the corporate strategies implemented in the post-pandemic era: in this sense, the call provides us with a very faithful representation of the orientation of four major key sectors of the national panorama, severely affected by the economic crisis in recent years: wood and furniture, fashion and accessories, automotive and tourism.
The resources made available with the Fondirigenti call (the largest interprofessional fund for the training of managers promoted by Confindustria and Federmanager, with 14 thousand member companies and 80 thousand executives), closed on 4 February last, are aimed at supporting the development of managerial skills and the increase in the competitiveness of these four supply chains. There are five training areas: from transition 4.0, which encourages digitalisation processes, to environmental sustainability, with an eye to the circular economy; from agile work to the management of the return to post-pandemic “normality”, up to the reorganization of the supply chain, between innovative finance and access to public funding: areas which, also in light of the implementation of the PNRR, place companies in the position of having to respond to the offer with adequate and competitive management skills.
From the analysis of the data, it emerges a wider participation of large companies than SMEs. Furthermore, if large companies are concentrated in particular in the Automotive sector, SMEs mainly characterize the fashion sector. As for the territorial distribution of the Plans, in the first places there are Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto. The South, on the other hand, sees most of the plans presented coming from Campania. Compared to the four sectors involved, fashion and automotive have collected the highest subscriptions, representing 83% of the plans received. Tourism, on the other hand, owes only the seven Plans proposed to the reduced presence of managers in the sector and to the severe crisis that the sector is going through.
The fashion sector collects greater adhesions in Lombardy (where there is an important fashion and high fashion district), while Piedmont, in line with its industrial fabric, focuses on the Automotive sector. Sustainability is the most chosen area of intervention and overcomes, for the first time, the theme of the digital transition: ample space is dedicated by training plans to the theme of agile work and to the reorganization of the supply chain, themes that the pandemic itself has matured in all their urgency, while only a few floors are dedicated to innovative finance. “The results of the notice – according to Massimo Sabatini, General Manager of the Fund – confirm that Italian companies, and in particular the more structured and managerialized ones, are fully engaged in the challenge of the sustainable and digital double transition, but with an extremely innovative element significant: many of them face this challenge together, in long supply chains that go beyond territorial borders. Managerial training is increasingly affirming itself as the main enabling factor of this transformation ”.
Furthermore, the Notice, in addition to allowing the usual financing of individual business plans, provided – for the first time – for the possibility of presenting aggregate business plans (thematic or ‘supply chain’) with the involvement of a minimum of three up to a maximum of 10 companies in the same sector. And if “unity is strength”, the Notice confirms itself as a virtuous way to strengthen the supply chains: thanks to the Notice, 15 aggregate plans have been activated: three in the wood supply chain, four in the fashion and seven for the Automotive. Only one (in Lazio) for tourism. Eight Plans involve companies from different regions: in total, 62 companies are part of aggregate plans (40% of the Plans presented).
With this notice – comments the President Carlo Poledrini – Fondirigenti takes a further step forward to provide companies, and especially companies in the “Made in” sectors most affected by the pandemic, with the fundamental skills for restarting. The great transitions that will characterize our production fabric will need managers with new and flexible skills, capable of transforming the very way of being of the company: managers capable of “thinking” in a digital, sustainable, inclusive way, and of feeding the supply chain of which they are part. Fondirigenti will be alongside companies and their managers in this decisive challenge. “
154 managerial training plans have been presented, for a total of loans requested of over € 2.1 million (against € 1.5 million allocated). The average loan request was equal to € 13,873, approximately € 1,000 lower than the threshold of € 15,000 set out in the Notice. The total training hours will be 22,424 for 401 executives, with an average participation of 2 executives per Plan.