Alberto Di Minin on the Web

I am an Assistant Professor
 @ Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa - Italy

My research work deals with the concept of
Appropriability of Innovation

• R&D and Intellectual Property Management
• International Management
• Business Model Innovation

..One of the best business plan competitions worldwide, worldclass mentorship, expert advice, the chance to enter Silicon Valley from the front door.

Applications
(only an abstract needed for the first round)
 Deadline May 7th

Check the website of the challenge

get in touch with me for more information

Alberto & Simone Corsi are the co-organizers of:
Chinese Market as a Source of Innovation

As growing interdependence of global innovation is rising (and China is increasingly at the center), this workshop brings together people from academia to discuss and share their experience.

Simone's Doctoral research is focused on Reverse Innovation dynamics, he spent quite some time in China, hosted by the GLORAD center of Max VonZedtwitz. Check out Simone's blog on China (in Italian) "All'ombra del cavatappi"

Our Exploration of China will continue during a business trip we are organizing together with our friends at MIB of Trieste September 6th-18th

see the brochure for more information

on Intellectual Property Management
In Search of New Practices, Strategies, and Business Models
 

The purpose of this special issue is to generate a collection of papers on how companies plan and execute new practices to manage IP assets, implement IP strategies, and carry out IP-enabled business models. This special issue, supported by the European Patent Office, should foster additional conversation on this important subject among academics and practitioners alike. Moreover, it should provide material for in-class discussion, as well as catalyze further cross-disciplinary study.

If you are interested, we request that you submit an extended abstract no later than February 15th , 2012. Please refer to the call for papers for more details.

Also... take a look at the guidelines for CMR papers

Italian Companies are
Open for Innovation

Check out our lastest article on Giglio.com:
a retailer growing online

From the columns of La Repubblica Affari & Finanza,
Andrea Piccaluga and Alberto, explore the cases of companies that
indeed are open for business and for innovation.

• 	Giglio.com: a famous retailer in Palermo expands its activities online, obtaining fantastic results, translating its competitive advantage and experience through a very well designed website. (published April 1st)
  	Trentino: we focus this week not on a a company but on a regional innovation system. The province of Trento is investing in its future creating the conditions for private and public R&D activities to be located in the area. Results are starting to arrive. (published Mar 12th)
  	Melinda: a great story which shows the success of aggregation and partnership, in an industry where you have to be careful about quality and quality is difficult to be transferred on the market. This article discusses the patience perseverance and evolution of the Consorzio Melinda. (published Feb 27th)
  	Vibram: a traditional company sticks to its core, finds a new idea strongly belives into its commercial value, and decides to go alone, with spectacular results. This is the story behind Fivefingers by Vibram. (published Feb 13th)
  	Esaote: can a company learn from the Chinese market? Innovations for the bottom of the pyramid. This is the case of Esaote, and its success with Chinese regional hospitals. (published Jan 30th)
  	TRE is the first spin off company of the Politecnico di Milano. A great story of technology transfer from the university to the market.
  	M31 is a private high-tech incubator, located in Padova. The founders of M31 were able to create a unique environment which is nurturing new ideas turning them into real companies. (published Nov.14th)
  	Gelesis offers our readers an interesting story. For two reasons. First of all it presents the case of a start-up company that survived the death valley of innovation. Going through this valley with success often requires rethinking our business model. Also, Gelesis is based on research developed in Neaples and in Lecce, and the personal story of Gelesis' founder is indeed quite telling . (published Nov.14th)
  	Udinese Calcio combines a careful approach to finance with good football. It is difficult for most companies to balance different objectives and to remain competitive. (published Oct.31st)
  	EDRA is a company based in Perignano, not far from Pisa. We looked at the interesting practices this "open design" company  uses to attract designers from all over the world. (published Oct.17th)
  	On Oct. 3rd we wrote about Eurotech, from Amaro, north of Udine This super-high-tech company faced the classic "Innovator's Dilemma" when entering the world of cloud computing.
  	We inaugurated the series with Loccioni, a company from Marche Our piece is focused on the special relation between the firm, its customers & the territory.  (published Sept.19th).

Send us a note
to point our attention to Italian cases of success
that we can cover next!

Alberto and Andrea interview
two Italian Innovators

Giancarlo Michellone and Roberto Siagri  bring their own professional experience of managers and entrepreneurs, and discuss with Andrea and Alberto.

Two different views of high tech entrepreneurship and technology transfer, will share their thoughts in the course of an interactive class with the engineers of Skills and Tools for HT Entrepreneurship.

Valentine Day 2012
A date with a VC

Seeking Research-Based Innovation

For the last lecture of
"Skills and Tools for High Tech Entrepreneurs"

9 groups of studentspresent their elevator's pitch in front of
Nicola Redi (TT-Venture, Fondamenta SGR)
 

Students worked very hard, it was a beautiful class and I am a bit sad it is over.

Seeing their passion for their research and their interest to create new value was inspiring for Andrea and me.

It makes me think that good research is so important for the future of this country! These people that have devoted their lives to develop new technology and science will be among the main contributors for our health, wealth, and happiness.

Alberto & Andrea's Course
Skills and Tools for
High-Tech
entrepreneurs wannabe

November 2011 - January 2012
Skills and tools for entrepreneurship and technology management

Alberto and Andrea Piccaluga offered a new course designed to introduce PhD students to the fundamental skills and tools regarding technology management in general and high-tech entrepreneurship in particular.

Both management and S&T students were invited to participate, and the classes have taken place in Sant'Anna Engineering labs in Pontedera. This facility is located in a former factory of Piaggio, that was donated by the famous scooter manufacturing company to the Scuola, and transformed into an hotbed of science and innovation.

What a better environment to stimulate a truly multidisciplinary approach? Management students benefitted from knowing the scientific literature and from interaction with their S&T colleagues who will bring real experiences.
The goal of the course was to help S&T students to enhance their skills and learn new tools that will be useful for their research and/or managerial and/or entrepreneurial careers.
The course included some “traditional” one-way teaching but was mostly based on students’ presentations and case study analysis.

External speakers (in order of appearance) were:
- Riccardo Pietrabissa: Director of one of the CNR Research Centers on ICT
- Riccardo Fontanelli: Founder and CEO of Synapsis, a spin-off company of Sant'Anna
- Roberto Siagri: Founder and CEO of Eurotech
- Giancarlo Michellone: former CEO of Fiat Research Center (CRF) and Area Science Park
- Nicolar Redi: VC, Senior Partner of Fondamenta SGR.

Take a look here at the syllabus of the course and let us know your comments.

In a world where sources of innovation are increasingly dispersed, companies need to renew their competitive advantage by getting access to competences and ideas that are generated outside their offices and R&D centers!

Toscana Open starts from this idea, the pivotal concept for any Open Innovation strategy. Together with our friends of Confindustria Toscana & Giovani Imprenditori, Andrea Piccaluga and I have developed a series of talks to go beyond a buzzword that rages through management practices.

On January 30th in the beautiful setting of Palazzo Incontri, kindly made available by Banca CR Firenze, we discussed about open innovation with  Leonardo Bassilichi (DG Bassilichi), Fabrizio Bernini (Founder of Zucchetti), Luca Granata (DG Melinda), Claudio Loccioni (VP Loccioni Humancare), Marco Mantovani (CEO of Locman), Maurizio Rossi (Co-Founder of H-Farm)
... and my friend GG Gellini, President of Confindustria Toscana Giovani Imprenditori as well as part of the senior management of Gellini.

Take a big breath and think:
What does it take to be an industry leader?

Innovate products, services, business models: of course!
But leading companies also think about
how R&D and innovation management can improve.

Sometimes, companies should take a big breath, and think!

Oct 21st: - R&D Management at ABB

Alberto @ ABB Creativity Lab

I got to know an interesting company and I had the opportunity to animate a discussion with R&D and project managers at ABB - SACE, in the course of a very special day in Carobbio degli Angeli, outside Bergamo, dedicated to think over some of the fundamentals of R&D Management and Strategy.

It is great to understand and brainstorm with people such as those that I met in ABB about what it takes to be a leader of industrial R&D. While I brought my tools and theories to animate discussion I have to say that listening to what experienced managers have to say about their activities and issues has been indeed fascinating.

October 14th and 15th - Bologna

CNA Next -
Collective Intelligence Experiences

Do you have a top ten list of books for the last decade?
I have never though about one, but if I did probably The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki (2004)  would make it there.

A few years after being exposed to these ideas, I have tried to apply some of the theories of this book with my friends of CNA Next, in Bologna, during their annual gathering (titled Organismi: il festival dell'intelligenza collettiva), for an unusual experiment of collective intelligence applied & tested on an audience of young and brave entrepreneurs.

The result was "A letter for Italy", written together with the 200 people in the audience.

Alberto is Back in Twente

During the month of September, I will be visiting The OOHR Dept. of the University of Twente, in The Netherlands.

I am teaching a class on Technology Management
with my colleagues  Erwin Hofman and Matthias de Visser
 

On August 15th (Ferragosto in Italy).. and to be precise at 8am in a hot morning in Texas.. Alberto organized a very well attended symposium on Open Innovation at the Academy of Management.

Many thanks to my friend and co-organizer Dries Faems
(Univ of Groningen), as well as the other presenters and participants.

On this website,
you will find all the presentations of the symposium

Watch the interview on CareerTV (Ita only)

Innovation in Necessary.. at least in Piemonte. But Why so?

On July the 8th, Alberto addressed the Giovani di Confindustria Piemonte,
during their annual meeting in Stresa.

What were  the results of a full day of discussions?
If we claim that "innovation is necessary", then we should also be clear on "why do we innovate?". This simple statement was the thought brought forward by the new President of Giovani Confindustria: Jacopo Morelli.
The answer to this question is quintessential. Motives guiding investment in innovation should not be taken for granted. Answering this question requires an understanding of the role innovation plays in society and in firms worldwide.
On the contrary, innovation is now a buzzword, quite often used for political rhetoric.
Please.. handle with care!!

 Why should we innovate? Not an easy one, and quite central for Alberto's research.
Here is a Research Hypothesis for you...
Should companies invest in innovation in order to produce new wealth?
Should all innovation be aimed at producing new wealth?

Barbara Gallo, former President of Giovani Confindustria Piemonte illustrated some of the elements of "Modello Piemonte", and in particular two aspects that contribute to it: aggregation and accessibility.
Now: that is interesting! Economies of scale and economies of scope need to happen in order for innovative business models to work, and since we might want to bring to market the results of new science and technology, aggregation & accessibility might well be two ingredients to consider when coming up with new business models.

In June, Alberto attended an interesting meeting in Prague, organized by the European IP Teachers Network (EIPTN). Alberto has been teaching for the last five years about IP management, using the EPO patent teachin kit produced by the European Patent Academy, and integrating this material with case studies, business games etc etc...

Now a new collaboration between Alberto and the
Academy of the European Patent Office should result into new research and teaching material to better guide scholars and practitioners through the nuances of IP Language.

stay tuned...

The Istituto di Management - Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna
has contributed to two books  presented in the course of the morning event of the International Open Innovation Tour 2011, organized by the Start-Up Initiative of Intesa Sanpaolo.

• Nuovi modelli di business e creazione di valore:
  la Scienza dei Servizi
  (edited by L. Cinquini, A. Di Minin and R. Varaldo),

• Open Services Innovation: competere in una nuova era
  (by Henry Chesbrough)

In the Italian Edition of Open Services Innovation, look for the 13 new cases of innovative business models commented by Alberto with the help of Francesca Lazzeri.

If you want to order copies of Open Services Innovation or la Scienza dei Servizi, please refer to the marketing office of Springer Italia

FULL PROGRAM HERE

Top left: Dr. Henry Chesbrough,
Bottom, from left to right: Gaetano Micciché, Riccardo Varaldo and Alberto Di Minin
in the background a view of the audience a the Fondazione Cariplo

Safe Nests in Global Nets landed on JIBS!

Alberto and Mattia Bianchi on the Journal of International Business Studies: the completion of a 4.5 years long journey.
JIBS is among the top 10 most cited business journals, and 15 years have gone by since the last time an "all Italian team" had published there.
Access to the full paper here

J Int Bus Stud 42: 910-934; advance online publication, April 28, 2011; doi:10.1057/jibs.2011.16

Take a look at the recording and check out also the other sessions!

On May 12th, I have taken part to the Digital Economy Forum in Venice

I moderated a panel on e-commerce, starting from questions I was receiving live through twitter..

1. Creating an e-commerce platform
Giuseppe Giglio, CEO, Giglio

2. Mobile commerce
Diego Piacentini, Senior Vice President, Amazon

3. Changing the operating logic of a company
Filippo Berto, CEO, Berto Salotti

A full day and a half exercise on Business Model Innovation:
Aula Magna Storica Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, on May the 7th

The event was organized by CNA, and we worked on real business cases
suggested by entrepreneurs and managers
to identify new business models!

This event is organized by TeCNA, Camera di Commercio di Pisa
& Istituto di Management @ Scuola Sant'Anna

How "Open" is Innovation in The Netherlands?

March 10th, 2011: I am one of the keynote speakers
at the workshop

"Open Innovation for Global Enterprises" organized by the University of Twente, in The Netherlands.

In 2011 we are celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unified country in a bizarre and tense atmosphere. 

It has been argued that Italy is facing a deep transition. A transition of its society, its culture, its ethics and its economy. We are moving through uncharted territories. 

On March the 3rd at Scuola Sant’Anna in Pisa, I have introduced a debate on Italy’s road ahead with Bill Emmott, the former director of The Economist, and author of a thoughtful book on the present and the future of this country. 

..An intriguing country, stimulating conversations on Open Innovation and the transition from isolated research to technology hubs.

I have visited Pier 38, one of the tech incubators in San Francisco, this is the piece that I wrote (ITA only..) for Innov'Azione
on this exciting and unique place.

"The deadliest machine on Serie A fields" La Repubblica

"Tonight against Juventus, Udinese just overflew" La Stampa

"The team strikes down like a grapeshot (..) Udinese is the team of the day!" Il Corriere della Sera

Milan - Udinese 4 - 4

Udinese - Inter 3 - 1

Juventus - Udinese 1 - 2

Take a look at the case study on Udinese Calcio that I wrote for the Italian edition of OPEN "Modelli di Business per l'innovazione" by Henry Chesbrough.

The case was written in 2007, the fact that I am suggesting to read this case now, it shows that it was not only wishful thinking of a crazy fan. Zebrette's Business Model is the best!

Not only sound results on the field but profits! It stars with an aggressive global talent scouting which offers the opportunity to play in Serie A to young players discovered around the world. The team changes every year, and from one week to the next a new young unknown player might reconfigure the strategy and the coach offers no reference points to the opposing teams.

Money flows in when talents continue their career in other big teams.

It is good for the players, it is good for us: not only we defeat the Big Ones on the field..
we take their money & continue to do so. Read on (in Italian)

I presented a paper which tries to explore the relationship between technology acquisition and new product develoment

Florence, Jan 24th: Internet Better Business

I introduced and tried to apply the concept of
Absorptive Capacity
in front of a quite diverse audience of entrepreneurs
in Florence.

A little trip
 around the World..

Coverage of the trip:

San Francisco - Nov. 1st:
Presentation of the
Fondazione Ricerca & Imprenditorialità
"From Made in Italy to Research in Italy"

Article on "L'Italo-Americano"

Article on the monthly magazine
of the Chongqing University

Berkeley - Nov. 2nd:
Talk at Hank's
Open Innovation Speaker Series

"Behind the scenes of Open Innovation"

Take a look at the recording of the presentation

Barbaric Ideas

Innovation Management met Good Literature
On October 2nd I interviewed two of my favorite authors:

Alessandro Baricco
Edoardo Nesi
 

Baricco and Nesi are the authors of two books that do not talk about management but are (in my opinion) fundamental for management studies. In the course of an hour interview in front of young entrepreneurs, at the CNA-Next in Torino, we discuss their ideas and how they can contribute to understand innovation, the impact of emerging technologies, globalization.

Take a look at the recording (in Italian) of the event

A look at R&D investment strategies of
Chinese companies in Europe

My first paper with Dr. Jieyin Zhang
explores a relatively new phenomenon on
Review of Policy Research
 

We present various discussion points on the research and development (R&D) foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies of Chinese multinational corporations in Europe.
This paper appears in the 2010 4th issue of the Review of Policy Research,
the journal of the American Policy Studies Organization (PSO).

Does Open Innovation Work in a Downturn?

Our study of Open Innovation in the Centro Ricerche FIAT
has appeared on the Spring Issue of the
California Management Review

In a recent contribution on Harvard Business Review, Henry Chesbrough argues that the ideas behind Open Innovation are "recession-proof". We support Hank's ideas, bringing back from the 1990s the application of Open Innovation in the Centro Ricerche FIAT.

Our article titled "FIAT Open Innovation in a Downturn" features a review of the reforms that started to take place in Orbassano in 1992. Ideas that can be easily traced back to Hank's Open Innovation paradigm were applied by CRF's management with great success.

We decided to work on this paper almost one year ago, as many started to write and comment on the latest success of FIAT and the superiority of its technology.. starting with well.. President Obama:

"Fiat has demonstrated that it can build the clean, fuel-efficient cars that are the future of the industry"  President Barack Obama: Washington DC, April 30th 2009

CRF's technologies featured also on the cover of the Italian edition of the Magazine Wired, which emphasized the role of:

"The knights that were able to save FIAT and to buy America with three patents, while dreaming an engine with (almost) zero emissions"
Riccardo Luna, Wired Magazine, January 2010

Our contribution offers scholars a documented analysis on how Open Innovation was applied and worked out during a deep downturn: we studied and commented for our readers very interesting details of CRF's strategy during the 90s.  Also, we think that our work can offer a contribution to explain the success of a turnaround orchestrated by CEO Marchionne in more recent times, whose philosophy was summarized in another article on HBR:

"Being a leader at FIAT is a lifestyle decision. It's not the Buena Vista Social Club! Most of the management meetings are held on weekends.."
Sergio Marchionne, "Fiat's extreme makeover" Harvard Business Review ,
December 2008

Andrea, Federico and I are in debt to Gian Carlo Michellone, Paolo Dondo, Sergio Imperiale, Massimo Casali and Nevio Di Giusto for their priceless help and patience in walking us behind the scenes of CRF. Special thanks go to Henry Chesbrough, Vittorio Chiesa, Fabrizio Cesaroni, Stephen Cohen, and Alexander Stern for their comments on earlier versions of the article. And obviously.. the authors are grateful to two anonymous CMR reviewers for their insightful suggestions.

Through the generous support of various partners, and after the success of the event organize last year in Florence...

 
on November 16th 2009 we inaugurated the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Italy.

The event took place at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.

Take a look at the program of a very special day

My Book came out!!

It is in Italian, and you will find many of the ideas
I discuss in my dissertation.

Take a look at it, buy it, own it..

On November the 20th 2008, entrepreneurs managers, banks and universities discussed together with enthusiasm about the power of entrepreneurship to create value for our economy.

This workshop, organized by Andrea Piccaluga and me, was the Florence event of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Alberto in the News

take a look...

Presented to the public in Washington D.C. the book
edited by Jeffrey Macher and David Mowery.

Alberto co-authored Chapter 3 on the Semiconductor Industry

READ IT ONLINE

Recently the Public Forum Institute of the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation listed it for the
best entrepreneurial publications of 2008. 

The review calls the collected studies “an excellent guide to industry trends”.

OPEN: (Italian) Business Models for Innovation  

On March the 18th 2008
Henry Chesbrough,
Prof Riccardo Varaldo and Alberto
have presented to the public
the Italian edition of
"Open Business Models".

We applied Henry's models to
23 great cases of
Italian innovation

Get your copy!

From left  to right:
Prof Riccardo Varaldo, Dr. Henry Chesbrough and Alberto

Alberto is the winner of the second prize
in the 2007 Sloan Industry Studies
Dissertation Award Competition

Get in touch with me for more info.

I am investigating how Research and Development Labs are changing the organization and management of their Human Resources, as new practices of Open Innovation become the dominant paradigm.

Get in touch with me if your company would like to take part to this initiative.
 

More info just published here: