The Venetian "meaningful" firms: a quanti-qualitative analysis

Abstract

What is the future for the organizations in the Veneto Region? Will they be able to react to the crisis and to the new Eastern competitors? What are the guidelines to follow in order to create virtuous business ecosystems that drive the Venetian renaissance? Those are the main questions this paper tries to give an answer through the results of a strategic project in which collaborated the Veneto Region, Ca' Foscari University of Venice and Confindustria Veneto: Innovarea. The project analyses the competitiveness of the small and medium sized firms in the Venetian context, but this kind of analysis can be extended at a national level and represents a concrete plan for the economic recovery of our Country. This is an actual problem of our economy because despite the fact we live in a Country with an enormous potential, we are not able to exploit our resources and our creativity, because something is missing. The attitude of most of our firms is too closed and self-interested and this is the biggest limit to overcome in order to hope in a renewed competitiveness. This paper presents the Innovarea project, its mission and its strategic themes and then provides some data about the strategic guidelines of 100 "meaningful" firms, collected through an on-line questionnaire and four detailed case studies about the history, strategy and mission of four "antifragile" firms that have been able to successfully react to the economic crisis after the year 2008. The results of this paper want to encourage all the other small/medium sized firms that faced some problems after the economic crisis, to take the antifragile firms' attitude as an example to follow in order to grow and to create a connected network of collaborations between organizations. I think that no other statements better fit the situation more than in this case: unity is strength.