The concept of open innovation, closely linked to the American-style network culture and to the Silicon Valley that has shaped technologies and talents, was born in Emilia. It was CRIT that theorised and put it into practice, which today has twenty professionals 100% dedicated to the Italian market, 70 client companies and more than 2 million euros in turnover. A private consultancy firm founded on the initiative of 14 prestigious companies from the Emilia-Romagna region. Giampaolo Colletti interviews Marco Baracchi, General Manager at CRIT for FARE INSIEME
by Giampaolo Colletti
@gpcolletti
Photocredit: Giacomo Maestri e Francesca Aufiero
Looking far ahead, in time and space. A
sort of superpower. More than that, actually. A need to make a difference in an
increasingly competitive and unstable world. The story we are about to tell is
about those who saw things far ahead, ahead of their time. Pioneers, you could call them. Because the protagonists anticipated
a phenomenon that over time became very relevant. The one linked to open
innovation, that is, an open, inclusive, systemic, visionary innovation. But
let's take a step back, or rather sideways. Because you can decide to continue
working in the same way and hope that everything goes well. Or you can rethink
work, anticipating new trends, expanding the team, opening up to the market,
riding the revolutions that knock forcefully on the door but that are often not
welcomed, understood, nor anticipated. In the latter case, you perform open
innovation. It is a relatively new concept, that of open innovation. In fact,
it is a paradigm that states that companies can and must make use of external ideas,
as well as internal ones, and access markets with internal and external paths,
if they want to progress in their technological skills: this is what the father
of this revolutionary thought, the American economist Henry Chesbrough,
theorised in 2003. Focusing on open innovation is worthwhile: new network
districts are born and grow thanks to a way of rethinking products, services,
and solutions.
Profile of the network. From
America to Italy, specifically to Emilia. And let's go back to those pioneers
that we anticipated above in our story. Because at the dawn of the new
millennium, in that 2000 that was starting to shape companies with increasingly
pervasive technologies, in the heart of Emilia a project came to life that
represented a sort of pioneering example of that Open Innovation theorised
three years later by Henry Chesbrough in Berkeley. Ultimately, the CRIT
collaborative innovation talks about this and much more. It consists of an
alliance between companies from different sectors, without prevailing mutual
commercial interests, in which companies can exchange information on projects
of excellence and on issues related to innovation and new emerging
technologies. This allows companies to learn from the experiences of friendly
companies, shortening the times related to technological innovation, while
being available to share their experiences in a truly open perspective. It all
started with fourteen visionaries led by the engineer Rossi, former
administrator of Tetra Pak. Fourteen entrepreneurs had entrusted him with the
task of creating this company based on an extremely innovative idea that might
not have worked. Today CRIT has a staff of twenty professionals 100% dedicated
to the Italian market, 70 client companies, with more than 2 million euros in
turnover. Aim: to create a technological broker capable of finding the best
solutions to specific problems, ideas and innovation needs in the international
context and of having a network available to share solutions and technological
excellence. After all, unity is strength. «First of all, having a team of
experts who work full time for several companies (i.e. in universities,
research centres and companies around the world) in different sectors but with
common technological interests to analyse new technologies, with professional
databases and artificial intelligence tools, creating a network that has been
built in over 25 years, allows our members and customers to have reliable
answers in a shorter time frame than what an internal technician who does not
deal with it full time on a daily basis could do. We continue to do so after
twenty-five years because companies have experienced the usefulness and
convenience of this collaborative innovation.» This is what Marco Baracchi,
general manager of CRIT, says.
The evolution of the project. From the beginning to the present day. Over the
years, this network of companies has expanded more and more until reaching the
current 30 members. «The specificity of our members is that they are companies
that have technological innovation as one of the key factors of their success.
They are not commercial companies, but companies that have a product or service
based on technology and continuous innovation. They are often leading companies
in their sectors, even if they are perhaps niche sectors. In the market, they
focus on quality and innovation rather than on reduction of costs to be
competitive. And obviously they have an open mind and believe that this
openness in a protected environment brings advantages compared to the closure
of those who do not want to share information on enabling technologies because
they are convinced that they have nothing to learn from others but only to
teach», says Baracchi. This reality specialises in the research and analysis of
technical-scientific information and in research project development
activities. «There is so much useful knowledge available in the world today
that it is good practice, before starting an innovation project, to check and
see what has already been done externally and that you might be able to exploit
in your own project», Baracchi specifies. Today CRIT is a model: companies from
other regions have also joined, finding here an environment rich in
cutting-edge industries and with a spirit open to sharing information. Always
oriented towards improving people's lives, towards environmental sustainability
and social responsibility. For organisations of excellence, the future is built
together..
https://podcast.confindustriaemilia.it/
Read the other interviews