Series of meetings and discussions at the university
SIT believes that the diffusion of knowledge and raising awareness of issues related to social innovation are crucial; therefore, we are committed to promoting and organizing training projects.
Social entrepreneurship and its challenges were protagonists of one of them.
Social Innovation Teams, in collaboration with Fondazione Politecnico di Milano and Tiresia, organized and managed the 4-meeting training course “Startups for Social Innovation and Sustainable Development” in October 2019. The project was open to the free participation of 28 university students selected according to CV and motivation letter.
The training project involved various industry professionals, who, through interactive lessons and workshops, addressed issues related to social entrepreneurship, the goals of environmental sustainability and social development that it aims to achieve, the role that innovation takes in achieving them, as well as the meaning of social impact, and the measures to be put in place to achieve it.
During the first meeting, Dr. Veronica Chiodo of Tiresia spoke about social innovation and the new technological opportunities it brings to be able to address the urgent challenges to which the world community is demanding solutions. What is needed today is a paradigm shift in public, economic and social policies, as well as new models of entrepreneurship, because only then will we be able to promote inclusive prosperity.
“Sustainability Oriented Innovation” was the theme discussed by Professor Raffaella Cagliano of the Milano Polytechnic University in the second meeting. The concept behind this designation refers to the creation of entrepreneurial projects devoted to pursuing environmentally sustainable development goals. In this sense, innovation, through a rethinking of the concept of value and ways of creating it, acts on processes, products made, relationships and collaboration among the different actors involved.
Dr. Marco Matrisciano of ABIS (The Academy of Business in Society) made the participants protagonists of the workshop “Building Leadership for Sustainability,” during which they had the opportunity to identify themselves in the leadership figures needed to achieve sustainable development, to test their problem solving skills and creativity, in an atmosphere of collaboration and confrontation full of incitement and new inputs for the future.
Professor Daniele Tabucchi of the Milano Politecnico delivered a highly interactive and engaging third meeting, during which he presented the “Business Model Canvas,” one of the most widely used tools in the world to represent a business model, which prompts companies to question the needs and requirements of customers and to orient their actions with a view to “value creation.”
Social impact assessment and the tools deployed to achieve it were the topics covered by Dr. Federico Bartolomucci and Dr. Gabriele Guzzetti of the Milano Politecnico and Tiresia, during the fourth and final meeting of the training project. When business action is oriented by an explicit desire to bring about effects on the community and the surrounding environment, with a particular focus on those spaces of exclusion where the market fails or partially functions, it is necessary that the impact itself be evaluated and measured in qualitative and quantitative terms.
We hope that projects such as this one will provide the tools to understand complex but highly relevant dynamics, encourage dialogue, collaboration and put new ideas into circulation.
We believe this, and we work every day to make it all possible.
The Social Innovation Teams
PROJECT LEADER: Argia Galliano
SIT COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP: SIT Milano
PROJECT TYPE: Training Project.
MAIN BENEFICIARIES: Students
AREAS: Innovation, Environmental Sustainability, Social Enterprise, Economics & Management, Training, Communication, Youth Entrepreneurship, Startups
COUNTRY: Italy
PARTNER&SPONSOR: Milan Polytechnic Foundation
