The Research Department investigated the age of entrepreneurs on business performance, in order to analyse the effects in the medium/long term on the competitiveness of the Italian economy.

Conducted on a large number of manufacturing companies, the survey highlighted the considerable prevalence of young people in smaller businesses. These types of companies stand out for their performance (a far higher growth in turnover with fewer sacrifices in terms of margins), and the energy of younger company managers seems to have generated benefits in the recent past. However, the survey also showed that these companies do not have sufficient “key competitive factors” in the current competitive scenario, such as adequate protection of their innovative output through patents or significant recognition through brand policies at an international level.

The development of the “AdottUp” project, which also continued in 2016, meets the need to actively promote a new, quality entrepreneurship.
Intesa Sanpaolo is a strategic partner of this Piccola Industria Confindustria programme for the adoption of start-ups. “AdottUp” turns the best entrepreneurial ideas into sustainable businesses thanks to training provided by established companies which become their “tutors” and guide them in their development.
Intesa Sanpaolo gathers business idea applications, submits them to a joint Committee (Intesa Sanpaolo and Confindustria) which evaluates them, selects them and provides high level training and work areas, and creates the “Vetrina delle migliori idee” (Showcase of the best ideas).
In 2016, loans for a total of 87.6 million euro were granted for 235 start-ups (of which 46.5 million to 48 companies receiving the Nova+ innovation loan).

In 2016, the Intesa Sanpaolo Group business school continued to provide business expertise for customers working on start-ups or ready to launch on the market. “Officine Formative” delivers educational courses through the online acceleration and mentoring platform to support more mature start-ups.

The Skills4Business project continued, with three training programmes in partnership with Confindustria, to assist businesses in developing digital skills.

An important training project “Digital4Export” was organised in partnership with ICE, the Italian Trade Industry, and Confindustria, for companies that want to use digitalisation as a way of transforming and developing their business on international markets.