This is how innovation transforms companies

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«At the end of the year we will double the number of customers to 500», explains Marco Ogliengo. «After the investment round we are closing we will have at least two more people», adds Edoardo Zorzetto.

Not uncommon stories, those told by the young founders of Jet Hr and IIO, two of the many start-ups that find a home in Milan and which contribute to creating development and employment. 160 have been born in the Lombardy capital since the beginning of the year, more than one a day, rounding the regional number to 3,500. Stories and experiences that are the basis of the sixth edition of Innovation Days, a path started by Sole 24 Ore in 2019 which, like every year, started from the Lombardy capital, the spearhead of national innovation.

THE INSTITUTIONS

«These are not random numbers – explains the mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala, who spoke following the director of Il Sole 24 Ore, Fabio Tamburini – but which come from afar, from a path and a method made of openness, exchange and comparison which brings together skills and different knowledge.” «In a Region – adds the governor Attilio Fontana – where innovation is fueled by collaboration between public and private, a scheme that has created an ecosystem that works».

THE ECOSYSTEM OF INNOVATION

Innovation paths that have increasingly visible repercussions in the world of services that revolve around businesses, as happens for example at Mipu. «Companies today invest in an increasingly convinced way in predictive maintenance, energy saving or process automation – explains the founder, Giulia Baccarin –. «I believe that a misconception regarding artificial intelligence and, more generally, regarding advanced tech survives – explains the president of Made in Italy Circolare e Sostenibile, Marco Taisch –; they are conceived as dry technologies, when instead they can be combined with creativity, which remains the flagship of Made in Italy. In the last ten years, many technologies have come to maturity: AI is certainly among them. For businesses, it is first and foremost a question of using them in the most efficient way.”

An innovative push that also comes from structured companies, which have transformed over time to intercept this new demand. «Our team includes over 60 people – explains Simonetta Sada, Head of IoT Engineering and Innovation for Tim Enterprise – and the goal is to develop new applications together with partners and our centers of excellence. Solutions that include generative AI, or monitoring platforms for smart cities, or even augmented reality to satisfy new needs, for example in tourism.” Digital paths that are coupled with those oriented towards sustainability: this is the case of Epta, the global giant in industrial refrigeration, which concretely puts the digital-green combination to the ground.