MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION & COMPETITIVE SUCCESS

What is the secret to successfully managing innovation? If we look at business literature, we can easily fill a newspaper for at least 5 years. After all, the biggest modern business challenge is how to ride the innovative wave without losing the company’s balance. We can find plenty of theoretical recipes, but it is interesting to understand how it works in real enterprise life. The Italian digital market group DOING fits perfectly for this purpose since it is greatly exploiting all the in-house competencies. It represents a perfect example of effective management of innovation. In particular, the tech heart of the company is represented by Digital Mill, the firm who operates in the web development and enterprise applications industry. Here, the results – 15% on EBITDA respect to the 10% industry average and a negative 2016 – are supported by a total approach to innovation. This approach pushes the company to raise the offerings level above market standard, going deeply in understanding the needs of the client with innovative solutions. As a matter of fact, Digital Mill has moved its technological frontier by kicking off AR and VR project. This ability to exploit different value trajectories was strongly supported by the strategic advisor of MPD partners, which wanted the company to look forward and not only at the present. The market, under this viewpoint, is living in an exponential growth phase but the tech hype behind it needs to be balanced by the real challenge of this industry. Is it enough to make people with HoloLens stare in order to tell that there is a market and different needs to satisfy? Overcoming the market of the wonder is surely not easy but the R&D efforts are also fostered by the stimulating Italian law which gives companies who innovate great incentives. The way to overcome the new upcoming limits might not be linear but DOING does not lose the opportunities to find new collaborations and insights. Not by chance, during May, the Milan headquarter hosted the iStarter equity partners meeting, one of the coolest incubators in Europe. Growing the relationship with the most influential executives in Italy is very beneficial for boosting the innovation in the group. In the meanwhile daily activities are not set apart. After all, the success recipe is this one: with one hand drive the car of the current activities while with the other build the engine for future great performances