Bridges to Italy
A USA-Italy non-profit business associationTomorrow’s Innovation Starts Yesterday
Italy has been in a crisis for a few years, for various reasons mostly related to stagnant growth resulting from political paralysis and investor fears over the mountain of debt it has piled up over the years. However, its creative human capital continues to resist and thrive even in the worst of times.
In this environment, Giuseppe de Nicola, from Confindustria Salerno, believing in Italy’s potential for recovery and growth through innovation, 7 years ago has created the Premio Best Practices of which Bridges to Italy is one of the US partners, and it facilitates US Market Entry of some of its participants through the UCLA Global Access Program.
This Premio (award) Best Practices was born with the objective of connecting traditional industry with young innovators in order to create new business opportunities and alternative business models, increase competitiveness and widen companies networks to spur partnerships between established companies and Italian innovative startups.
The blog GROUNDBREAKINGWINDS has recently interviewed the award’s founder, Giuseppe De Nicola, to learn more about his ambitious initiative which, right now, is touring Italy to gather, by its deadline on April 22nd, a wide array of companies from North to South, and have them compete for the final prize in June. Read HERE this interesting interview to understand why tomorrow’s innovation, in Italy, starts yesterday…
La Presidente di Bridges to Italy nella task force per area di libero scambio UE-USA
Task force area di libero scambio UE-USA
Bianca Dellepiane, Presidente di Bridges to Italy
E’ operativa la nuova task force intersettoriale dedicata alla nascente area di libero scambio UE-USA. Alla task force è affidato il compito di valutare l’impatto commerciale dell’accordo T.T.I.P (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) e di far emergere tutte le opportunità di business per le imprese italiane. Il team è costituito da esperti di diversi settori, selezionati da H2biz tra i migliori professionisti sul mercato, tra essi e’ stata selezionata la Presidente di Bridges to Italy, Bianca Dellepiane:
Luca Bolognini - Presidente Istituto Italiano per la Privacy (Diritto)
Jacopo Avogrado di Casalvolone - S.L. Finmeccanica (Aerospazio e difesa)
Gianluca Caputi - Architetto e Yacht Designer (Nautica e shipping)
Marco Cavalli - Avvocato d’affari (Contrattualistica internazionale)
Giuseppe Coletti - Fondatore Forward Consulting (Marketing)
Pierangelo Cozzani - Fondatore Italian Commercial Agency (Elettronica)
Giuseppe D’Antonio - Amm. Delegato Circle.me (Social Media)
Bianca Dellepiane - Presidente Bridges to Italy (Affari internazionali)
Luigi De Falco – Presidente H2biz (Coordinatore task force)
Andrea Giannetto - Presidente IDA International (Affari internazionali)
Leonardo Lasala - Fondatore NDBC (Credito e finanza)
Fabrice Liautaud - Energy Manager SI.MA.V. SpA (Energia)
Giovanni Mappa - Fondatore ANOVA (Industria)
Felice Manganiello - Amm. Unico Sistema Italia Finance (Credito e finanza)
Paolo Pugni - Amm. Delegato Adwice (Consulenza Export)
Marco Raspati - Amm. Delegato Nexo Corporation (Internazionalizzazione)
Giovannella Russo - Amm. Delegato Alfalyrae (Nautica e shipping)
Michelangelo Serra - Presidente Air System (Aviazione e aerospazio)
Elena Veschi - Presidente Giovani Imp. Confindustria Perugia (Ambiente)
Luca Vitale - Amm. Delegato Immobili & Finanza (Edilizia)
Robero Zarriello - Giornalista (Editoria e media) Ufficio Stampa H2biz
Do Women Make Better Business Leaders?
According to a recent Harvard study, women bring tremendous positive impact and returns to the companies where they hold high leadership positions.
“There’s no question that women are making large strides in U.S. business and technology fields. Today’s generation of women professionals are more likely than any other to found, lead or advise a major U.S. firm. But while women continue to secure increasingly high-level leadership positions, there are still some glaring imbalances. For one, only twelve Fortune 500 companies are now headed by women. And numbers on the proportion of female tech startup founders are not any more encouraging; many high-profile incubators report that women founders receive less than 5% of their annual grant awards.
But recent research from the Harvard Business Review and others suggests something that most of us already know–firms without women in high-level leadership positions are missing out on some meaningful growth opportunities. According to the research, women that excel in business often prove to have more highly developed communication skills than their male colleagues. Women are also often more likely to take initiative and make changes to the status quo. In fact, the study showed that firms with women on their boards saw 42% higher sales returns, a 66% higher return on invested capital and a 53% higher return on equity over firms that did not.” ONLINE MBA
Is There a Secret Formula to Transform an Idea into a Startup?
Marco Iusi
Marco Iusi, Business Development Coordinator at Bridges to Italy, was recently interviewed for the article “FROM IDEA TO STARTUP: THE SECRET” by the Groundbreaking Winds blog. His point of view reveals some interesting factors that can make or break the birth of a startup.
In fact, while many people theorize about what it takes to transform an idea into an actual company, Marco, by working with italian innovators who have that exact goal in mind, has found some commonalities across the board.
So, is there a secret formula to take a brilliant idea and turning it into a viable business?
Marco, in this article, illustrates the main elements which seem to help a wannabe entrepreneur in taking an idea to market. Of course, depending on the nature of the idea, the sector, the state of the economy and the entrepreneur’s personality, there can be additional variables involved, but maybe there is a not-so-secret, but often ignored, way of moving forward. READ ON…
Bridges to Italy’s Co-founder, First M&A Professional to Hold the CM&AA Certification in Italy
Piero Stillitano, MA MBA CM&AA, co-founder Bridges to Italy-Italia
Chicago, December 13, 2012. — The Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors® (AM&AA) has awarded the “Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor®”(CM&AA) designation upon Piero Stillitano, CFO and co-‐founder of Bridges to Italy-Italia. Individuals possessing the CM&AA designation are part of an elite group of over 400 experienced corporate advisors worldwide to have earned the CM&AA certification.
The CM&AA designation serves to distinguish those individuals who have mastered a comprehensive body of essential knowledge and also have committed to staying abreast of continuing new developments in the M&A profession. With this designation, Piero Stillitano becomes the first M&A professional to hold the CM&AA certification in Italy.
AM&AA’s Certified Merger & Acquisition Advisor (CM&AA®) certification is the premiere advanced professional credential available to today’s business advisory professionals, including CPAs, CFAs, attorneys, and many others. Designed and launched by a consortium of successful CPA and corporate financial advisory firms, the CM&AA® training program is designed to: 1) Help M&A professionals take their professional and leadership competencies to a new ’gold standard’ level of excellence and 2) Help business clients select a financial advisor of the highest caliber.
The Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors® initiated the CM&AA program to develop an essential standard of excellence for middle market corporate financial advisory. ”To achieve our goals,” noted Michael Nall, Executive Director of AM&AA, “we’ve created a practical, relevant, and comprehensive professional development program that builds on the previously existing skills. This advanced credential provides an important ’gold standard’ to assist the client in selecting the best advisor. Moreover, we’ve established extremely high professional and ethical requirements to insure the integrity of the CM&AA designation. For the 1st time ever, owners of privately held companies now have a key benchmark of competency for help with critical ’once in a lifetime’ kinds of decisions.”
New Partnership with “Premio Best Practices” Presents New Cross-Border Investments and Business Opportunities for Participating Companies
Bridges to Italy and the “Premio Best Practices per l’Innovazione” organized by Confindustria Salerno, have forged a new partnership aiming at granting new U.S. business and investment opportunities to Italian startups and SME’s participating to this Award.
The “Premio Best Practices”, this year in its 7th Edition, through its curator Giuseppe De Nicola, has started a multi-annual collaboration with Bridges to Italy as the first step to raise international awareness about the vibrant innovative network of small and larger Italian companies showcasing their new technologies through this competition. This synergetic cooperation will help Premio participants explore cross-border investments, partnerships, and business opportunities in the United States.
Presentation UCLA-GAP at Premio Best Practices
As a first step in developing interactions and relationships between the Premio Best Practices participating companies and the U.S. market, the Premio welcomed, on its inauguration day, Bridges to Italy together with Paul Brandano, Executive Director of the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s Global Access Program (UCLA-GAP). The UCLA-GAP pairs, each year, 54 companies around the world with teams of Fully-Employed MBA students from the UCLA Anderson School of Management – each in their final year of study, to create a strategic study for entering the US market. Over the last 14 years, 431 companies from 17 different countries have reaped the benefits of these studies connecting with new US customers, investors and partners. Bridges to Italy is the official partner of the UCLA-GAP program for Southern Italy. During the two-day Premio Best Practices kick-off event in Salerno and Catanzaro, companies took part in presentations, panel discussions and a series of GAP screening interviews. Some key concepts were captured and reviewed during this time: companies need to innovate and evolve very rapidly to stay alive, let alone stay competitive. Bringing together the power of large, more traditional companies with the innovations of smaller, more agile and specialized startups while helping them globalize, are among the main goals of the Premio Best Practices’ supported by its international partners Bridges to Italy/UCLA-GAP and the Lee Iacocca Foundation.
New Partnership with PortTechLA
Jeff Milanette (right) along with Bianca Dellepiane and Alessandro Senato
PortTech Los Angeles and Bridges to Italy announced an exciting new partnership expected to spark economic opportunities for U.S. and Italian IT and clean technology companies and entrepreneurs. By working together, the two organizations will advance their common goal of establishing technology businesses in U.S. and Italian markets.
“Partnering with Bridges to Italy is a perfect match for PortTechLA. We will be able to increase our clients’ visibility abroad and provide soft-landing opportunities for Italian technology businesses attempting to establish a presence in Los Angeles,” said Jeff Milanette, Executive Director of PortTechLA. “Bringing international clean technology companies to Southern California ultimately creates jobs here and generates economic growth.”
As part of this new collaboration, PortTechLA will connect Italian IT and clean technology entrepreneurs and companies with local business opportunities by providing office space and consulting services. Bridges to Italy will provide the same services for U.S. technology businesses working to establish a presence in Italy. The strategy is to build a partnership that supports entrepreneurship, trade between the U.S. and Italy and cooperation between the two organizations.
“Working with PortTechLA is going to create many funding and new business opportunities for Italian technology entrepreneurs in the Los Angeles area,” said Bianca Dellepiane, President of Bridges to Italy. “At the same time, we’ll work with Los Angeles-based entrepreneurs and help them gain access to Italian technology markets. This partnership is a win-win for innovation in both countries.”
Upcoming joint projects include identifying and selecting Italian startups to attend the 2013 PortTechEXPO hosted by PortTechLA, working with the Italian Consulate to organize a Demonstration Day for Italian companies looking to establish a presence in the U.S. and hosting two video conferences per year featuring experts from both countries on how to access U.S. and Italian markets.
About PortTechLA: PortTech Los Angeles, a commercialization center and incubation program, promotes and develops companies with technologies that enable enterprises and consumers to meet their immediate and future environmental, energy, security and logistics goals. PortTechLA is an integral component in the Clean Tech Los Angeles Initiative, a founding member of the Business Incubation Network of Southern California and is a member of the National Business Incubation Association. The incubator is located adjacent to the Port of Los Angeles in the heart of the San Pedro Business Improvement and Arts, Culture and Entertainment Districts.
About Bridges to Italy: Bridges to Italy is a Los Angeles-based non-profit dedicated to helping Italian startups acquire managerial skills, expand their presence abroad and meet potential investors, clients and partners in the U.S. The organization also has a chapter in Rende, Calabria by the University of Calabria, which is the largest U.S. style campus in Italy.
