WORKSHOP SUMMARY REPORT OF ITALY March 3 rd, 2010 This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use, which may be made of the information contained therein.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Description of the workshop participants entities 3. Workshop summary 4. Conclusions 5. Suggestions for Helsinki Conference 6. Feedback of participants
1. Introduction The seminar was organized on the basis of the results of the Italian sociological study. The research conducted by in the first workpackage of the Smetrainet project has identified the state of the art of the micro, small and medium italian enterprises. Besides to examine the SMEs situation, its aim was to identify focus sectors and best practice examples supporting young enterprises. According to the research findings identified the tourist sector, the entities of no profit world and of the third sector engaged with economical implications and more generally all micro enterprises. The objective of the workshop was to discuss about the topic and to carry out some more best practice examples of young enterprises support like vocational training opportunities or funding programs. The workshop was organised to involve many entities and experts related to the field of young SMEs. The seminar was held in Kirner Association, a quite central place in Rome on March 3 rd, 2010.
The program of the seminar: Workshop agenda 10.00 Presentation of the Smetrainet project 10.30 Presentation of the Italian research 11.00 Presentation of best practices 13.00 Lunch time 14.00 Discussion on the presented best practices 16.00 Suggestions for the final conference of the project in Helsinki
2. Description of the workshop participants entities FITeL FITeL (Italian Federation for leisure activities) was formed in 1993 to enhance the experiences of associative Leisure Company and other entities having as their purpose the promotion of leisure activities. In particular, the Association promotes the development of artistic, cultural, sporting and social tourism. In 2001 FITeL was recognized as a national organization with the Decree of the Ministry of Interior. It s divided into regional and provincial recreational clubs. It is promoted and controlled by the national 3 biggest Italian Unions. www.fitel.it FIAVET (Invited) FIAVET (Italian Federation of Associations of Travel and Tourism Enterprises) is the professional association of travel agencies. It was founded in February 1961 and is divided in 16 regional associations. It associates approximately 2500 travel agencies and tour operators. www.fiavet.it Federalberghi
Federalberghi is a tourism association representing the interests of the hotels in Italy. The number of hotels within the nation, divided into 5 categories from 1 to 5 stars, is over 33,000, for a total of about 1 million hotel rooms and 2 million beds. Federalberghi offers assistance and consultancy to hotel owners in many different areas. Federalberghi is member of Hotrec. www.federalberghi.it FIPE Fipe is the leader association of restaurants and catering firms. (over 230,000 businesses including bars, restaurants, discotheques and summer spas, employing over 750,000 people). At national level, FIPE is a member of CONFCOMMERCIO: the main organization in the tertiary sector (more than one million members) in which it represents the tourism sector, together with Federalberghi (hotels), Fiavet (travel agents), Faita (campings) and Rescasa (residences and lodging houses). At international level, it is a member of the Federation International des Organisations des Hoteliers Restauraters ed Cafetiers (HO.RE.CA.). In the European context it is member of HOTREC. www.fipe.it Unione Industriali Roma (Invited) The Rome Industry Association, an organization representing local enterprises, member of CONFINDUSTRIA (The National Association of Italian Industry), is the territorial association representing enterprises based in Rome and its province. Currently, about 1500 enterprises are members of the Association. www.unioneindustriali.roma.it
FAITA (Invited) FAITA represents campings and villages. The Federation operates from more than 50 years involving the majority of the 2350 Italian companies through 18 regional associations. www.faita.it Consulenza e Formazione s.r.l. Consulenza e Formazione s.r.l. is a company operating in the field of consulting and training to enterprises. It organizes vocational training courses for Fipe-Confcommercio firms. This type of vocational training is mainly practical in order to give knowledge and skills to be used immediately in the labour market. During his 10 years of experience Consulenza e Formazione s.r.l. has designed and implemented interventions targeted to the needs of enterprises, and especially small and new ones. Confapi Confapi (Italian Confederation of small and medium-sized private industry) was established at the end of the 1940s and it has been one of the protagonists of the Italian industrial and economic life. Confapi s mission is to promote and protect the real interests of small and medium enterprises at all levels. At the moment it represents more than 120 thousand companies with approximately 2.3 million employees.
www.confapi.org BIC Lazio (Invited) BIC Lazio was originally the Region-owned Business Innovation Centre but now is also delivering several consulting and financial services (also to young firms) on behalf of Lazio Region. Experts Carlo Michele Cortellessa Carlo Michele Cortellessa is a free lance consultant of marketing, communication, sales, business management and new technologies (Internet, Web 2.0, Geomarketing and franchising). He worked for public and private companies. He founded and directed for three years MondoGIS, the first Italian magazine on Geographic Information Systems. Marco Fabbri Marco Fabbri has a long and solid experience in ICT, training and consulting. He participated and managed to several EU projects. Matteo Allegretti Matteo Allegretti a sound expert in QMS and quality certification. He assisted several SMEs in obtaining ISO 9000:2000 certification
3 Workshop summary The workshop started with the presentation of the Smetrainet project. Afterwards was showed to the workshop participants the Italian research prepared in the project and the main results of it. Three best practice were presented, the first one was from Fitel. It consists in training and consulting services targeted to local no profit associations. Fitel Type of product or service Target group(s) addressed Title short description (max two sentences) USPs (Key elements of the service that are unique selling propositions) (max. 3) Methodology Training Consulting Other Local no profit associations Fitel: training for no profit associations FITeL and associationism: new needs and new answers. (La FITeL e l associazionismo: nuovi bisogni e nuove risposte.) The project aims to improve all the no profit associations directors functions. The purpose is carried out through two courses : associationism and ICT training. Generative learning method intensive exchange of know-how peer to peer lessons. Training sessions and group coachings through flexible and peer to peer methodologies. The aim is to train no profit
Content Contribution to skills Quantitative aspects (duration, number of participants respectively SMEs involved) associations directors and other directive staff to be able to manage all associations duties: legislation, paperwork, fiscal task and ICT tools. Improvement of association quality and development of better networking among FITeL centers. Two courses of two days each for about 200 learners, all NGOs, mainly young NGOs. responsible institution/ contact person direct link Aldo Albano c/o Fitel Via Salaria, 80 00198 Rome Italy www.fitel.it The second best practice was presented by Federalberghi. It is a training service targeted to directors and vice directors of hotels. Federalberghi Type of product or service Target group(s) addressed Title short description (max two sentences) USPs (Key elements of the service that are unique selling propositions) (max. 3) Training Consulting Other Directors and vice directors of hotels Format Format plan is composed by two different training pathways: Benchmarking and Customer Care. Were involved new and old firms. Mix of seminars and project working Collaborative learning
Methodology Content Contribution to skills Quantitative aspects (duration, number of participants respectively SMEs involved) Training sessions and project working. The aim is to train hotel directors and vice directors to be able to manage some hotels competitive aspects: Benchmarking and Customer Care. Improvement of hotel directors and vice directors skills and development of better networking among local hotel association members. The plan was based on a two years model involving about 100 people and about 40 hotels. responsible institution/ contact person direct link Angelo Candido c/o Federalberghi Via Toscana 00187 Rome Italy www.federalberghi.it The last best practice presented has been that of Consulenza e Formazione S.r.l.. The aim of the training service is to train bartenders and owners of bar and restaurants. Consulenza e Formazione S.r.l Type of product or service Target group(s) addressed Title short description (max two sentences) Training Consulting Other Bartenders and owners of pubs and restaurants Bartenders courses The training offer is composed by different training pathways: bartenders
skills, acrobatic bartender, cocktails, twining of food and wine etc. Were involved new and old firms. USPs (Key elements of the service that are unique selling propositions) (max. 3) Methodology Content Contribution to skills Quantitative aspects (duration, number of participants respectively SMEs involved) responsible institution/ contact person direct link Mix of seminars and practical training Collaboration with local associations Training sessions and practical training. The aim is to train Bartenders and owners of pubs and restaurants to be able to attract more customers and be different from the local competitors. Bartenders and owners of pubs and restaurants improve their professional and communication skills and develop better networking with the local pubs and restaurants association. the courses are composed by 5 to 10 seminars of half a day. In the last 10 years were involved more than 1000 bartenders and owners of pubs and restaurants, representing about 1000 SMEs. Emanuele Garavello c/o Consulenza e Formazione S.r.l. Via Ronchi, 20 20134 Milano www.consulenzaeformazione.com The participants, after a short discussion, decided to focus on: 1. SMEs network and competitiveness The right answer against growing crisis is not to be isolated, to network, to rely on associationism. We need to improve vocational training and to facilitate the
entrying to foreign markets. Confapi and Simest (Italian company for enterprises abroad) have recently signed an agreement in order to support SMEs internationalization, also through the enhancement of high quality Italian production. It s seems interesting to analyse the importance of cooperation and collaboration among enterprises in order to improve the competitiveness of economy. For some entrepreneurs it s very important to establish relationships with other firms to improve their competitiveness. These benefits are retained really significant for SMEs operating in information technology and for related activities. In hotel and catering industry it s less developed the interest of networking especially for small hotels owners. However young entrepreneurs participate in associative activities especially to know, to deal with other colleagues and to attend training activities. 2. Access to finance All participants gave a determinant importance to the access to finance as crucial in the micro enterprises development. For example: It s up to institutions to support new businesses, maximizing their chances of success. Do not forget that SMEs mortality rate it s concentrate in the first two years of activity. In this regard, one of the issues that deserve attention as a priority is the access to finance. It s necessary a financial system having the possibility to connect entrepreneurs resources with third resources in order to facilitate investments for the enterprise s growth. The financial, associative and institutional system have to face the problem of preparing financial products targeted on the needs of new businesses.
3. Training The issue of training is crucial. One of the tragedies of this country comes from the fact that we are not longer able to teach: it s true for the university and for also for the apprenticeship. Current instruments are totally ineffective. It s vital to work at not waste the great wealth of knowledge in the businesses more than in traditional training places and to transfer it into new businesses. Many existing paper tools are, unfortunately, ineffective. Improve training tool and internet based tools would allow us to greatly increase the chances of success of young SMEs. Hotel owners consider training as a vital investment for their professional growth and it s also essential for success in businesses. Our young members are deserving attention to communication, business management, quality and web tools. There is an important activity developed by BIC (Business Innovation Centre) Lazio. It s called Formazione per i neoimprenditori (Training for new entrepreneurs) and offers free training to new entrepreneurs in order to help them in their administrative, financial and commercial choices. It aims to improve knowledge about specific issues: marketing, corporate organization, economy, finance and human resource management. 4. Services to SMEs Young SMEs feel more than other enterprises the lack of capital and the difficult in access to finance; moreover both in terms of logistic, of transports and in term of recycling and of waste disposal, many young SMEs are not satisfied of the existing services.
BIC Lazio is very active also in offering services. The project Consulenza per i fabbisogni gestionali (Consulting for management needs) is a consulting service to overcome specific difficulties of the period just after the start up such as the effective control of management and of financial resources to make the business grow up. 4 Conclusions The participants involved in the seminar carried out some conclusions: Young SMEs need to network as more as possible in order to overcome difficulties. Training is vital for young SMEs and young entrepreneurs but very often it doesn t match with specific needs. Participate in associative activities it s very important but sometimes it s not considered so relevant by employers. Many times financial difficulties, especially for micro enterprises, make impossible save money for training activities. Too often it s difficult to have bank credit for micro enterprises. This problem is even more common for young ones. SMEs have often problems in establishing contacts with governmental institutions. No profit entities are important for Italian economy but are not supported by consulting public institutions. 5. Suggestions for Helsinki conference Young enterprises need a mix of consulting and training more than financial support. Web based services could be very useful. Courses for employers had to be funded such as courses for staff. No profit entities need a specific support.
7. Feedback of participants At the end of the workshop was distributed a short costumer satisfaction questionnaire. The most part of participants replied that: The organization of the seminar was well structured The topic has been interesting and presented in a clear way There have been different speakers who brought up different points of view There has been an active participation of the audience The seminar has been important also for new networks and contacts The partecipants was: Matteo Allegretti Carlo Michele Cortellessa Marco Fabbri Armando Occhipinti Angelo Candido Aldo Albano Antonio Palaferri Emanuele Garavello Nicola Franceschi Tito Livio Mongelli Giambenedetto Vassallo Pierangelo Verbicaro Elisabetta Focaracci Alessandru Adrian Raffaele Silvia Berardi Consulting Consulting Consulting Confapi Federalberghi Fitel Fitel Consulenza e formazione Consulting Consulting Consulting Consulting