THE SHARING ECONOMY FOR INTESA SANPAOLO PEOPLE

In partnership with the Intesa Sanpaolo's Workers Association (ALI), a trial was run for colleagues and members, with a dedicated group on the “TimeRepublik, sharing economy platform” that can connect a community of people willing to share their time, passions and personal skills. After a pilot stage with around 300 colleagues, the community is now online on ALI and extended to all members.

The TimeRepublik project is a trial of the sharing economy within the Group and can help increase and improve the number and quality of personal relations.

NEW RECRUITMENT MODELS

Innovation at Intesa Sanpaolo also encompasses new recruitment procedures for younger employees.

“Make It Real” is the brand that has enabled Intesa Sanpaolo to use professional social media platforms that have launched new formats such as “recruiting games”, whereby the Bank approached over 200 millennials1, offering them the chance to get involved in business games on leading-edge issues (Big Data – Blockchain; User Experience – Cognitive Computing etc.), assisted by internal tutors in two consecutive days that ended with the best talent being recruited.

Three editions of “Make It Real” were held in association with Turin Polytechnic and Turin University at Intesa Sanpaolo's Turin headquarters. Students, graduates and final-year university students went head to head in a team competition where they put their knowledge and individual and team skills to the test.

Technical umpires, assessors, tutors and managers of Intesa Sanpaolo accompanied the teams during the two days of challenges, followed by the final classification and announcement of the winners who were offered a permanent employment contract and work placements.

1 Millennials: young people who came of age in the new millennium and who are the first generation in history that have full knowledge of digital technologies as adults.

THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY: A NEW MODEL OF DEVELOPMENT

The Circular Economy is a new economic and development model with an entirely new take on design, production and the distribution of products and services, which separates business development from the use of natural resources that run out, particularly considering demographic growth (+2.5 billion by the year 2030) and the relative increase in demand for resources (see the section “Natural capital” @).

As part of the transition to the circular economy model, banks have a fundamental role in supporting the economic fabric, entrepreneurs, emerging innovators and public organisations, also through the co-design of business models and innovative relations.

To promote innovation in this context, over 30 public events were held for colleagues from different units (nearly 300 were involved in 2016) and for a wide-ranging, diverse public audience.

NEW AREAS OF INNOVATION

The Chief Innovation Officer Governance Area of Intesa Sanpaolo has selected further areas of activity, which are currently being developed:

  • Insurance and Health: the possibility to offer complementary and high added-value insurance, medical and personal products and services, that can also be used through digital channels and integrate leading wearable devices.
  • Industry 4.0: the process that will make industrial production fully automated and interconnected, thanks to new digital technologies, improving production site productivity and production quality. The Intesa Sanpaolo Group supports companies and ongoing change, promoting the competitiveness of businesses, developing services to support the transformation of the manufacturing system and adopting innovative, sustainable models.
  • Blockchain: this technology can record and store all types of digital transactions in a distributed way, without the need for an intermediary to ensure their validity. Blockchain is an innovation with considerable potential in terms of transparency, reliability and security; its application to financial services in compliance with applicable regulatory and functional requirements is currently being assessed. In this context, several round tables with consortiums and banks have been held (BankIt, DLG R3, PTDL - Post-Trade Distributed Ledger Group). To assess the application of the technology to the conventional financial community, trials are being held by the consortium Digital Ledger Group, with Intesa Sanpaolo taking part with other leading international banks.
  • Artificial and robotic intelligence: the rapid evolution of these technologies and possible new applications for the banking industry are being assessed.
  • Corporate Venture Capital: this concerns investments at an international level in innovative companies, with the acquisition of share capital and indirectly with the acquisition of units in venture capital funds. In April 2016, Neva Finventures S.p.A., the Corporate Venture Capital vehicle of the Group was established, with initial funds of 30 million euro, for direct (start ups) and indirect (venture capital funds) Fintech investments with a focus on Europe, the USA and Israel.