This Aspen Seminar for Leaders session focused on the prevailing industrial scenario, characterized as one in which all stages of production are increasingly being swept up in the move towards digitalization and the advent of manufacturing 4.0, raising crucial questions regarding how to seize the opportunities afforded by the revolution underway. While it was seen as essential – in this brave new world of atoms and bits – to develop the building blocks for this latest industrial revolution, the participants also stressed the need of being able to build on them so as to create ever faster and unstoppable innovations. Given this, it was suggested that the ability to piggyback takes on new significance, and the Italian production system, though marked by gaping size disparities and geographical divides, is capable – today more than ever – of leveraging its strengths to meet the challenges posed by change.
If the premise that firms cannot be innovative without innovative people is to be accepted, then human capital and staff training become pivotally important. Here too, another of Italy’s strengths comes into play, namely: the high standard of its human resources. The observations made during this part of the discussion were not confined to the role of universities, but also touched on schools in general and lifelong learning. In particular, the participants identified a number of unresolved issues, including the mismatch between the skills being taught and those required, the shortcomings of the vocational secondary education system, the need to better train leaders, and the continued subordination of scientific culture to the humanities. It was felt also that the A in the acronym STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) has the potential to serve as a strength of Italy’s training system and that the country should aim to capitalize on this unique asset.
Much emphasis was placed on the fact that the main agents of change are young people. It was argued that promoting the innovative capacity of young Italians does not only involve shaping their knowledge or molding their skills, but also means cultivating a culture of entrepreneurship and risk-taking. Research was also held up as an essential ingredient of innovation processes, though not the only one. In this respect, alongside the role played by universities, the participants pointed to the contribution made by other public research institutions, public-private partnerships, technology transfer schemes, and virtuous interactions between research institutes and industry. Further noted during the course of the discussions was the important role of local networks, metropolitan cities, and meta-districts. Lastly, a number of background issues also surfaced during the debate, including funding of the production system, the construction of connective infrastructure, and the role of the country’s public administration and regulatory system, which are failing to keep pace with a too-rapidly changing world.
Even so, the positivity which emerged during the course of the seminar suggests that the time has finally come to permit room for hope again. Indeed, the novelty of the 2016 Focus on Industry seminar lay in the increasingly widespread awareness that the Italian industrial system is now more than ever ready to meet the challenges of the march ahead of innovation.