Tax credit and videogames: in Italy you can

Tax credit decree on video games has been issued.

The latest among the measures granted by the Ministry of Franceschini in favor of operators in the performing art and entertainment sector, the decree of May 14, 2021 recognizes to companies subject to taxation in Italy and which have a minimum share capital of ten thousand euros, if the design and develop videogames, a tax credit equal to 25% of the eligible costs incurred in the realization of each project, up to a limit of one million euros per year, provided that, using the words of the Minister, the final products are recognized “as works of particular value cultural”.

This is a particularly important benefit, both because it finally recognizes value to a sector that for some time, worldwide, has achieved volumes of business such as to compete directly with cinema and audiovisuals, and because almost all companies that dealing with developing video games is made up of start-ups created by very young people, who will therefore find even greater vigor in transforming a passion into a real high-profit job, as is already the case with their peers in other parts of the world.

If you want to know more, you are interested in this type of subsidy, if you already have a project that you dream of seeing realized send an email to info@ralianconsultancy.com and ask for a free feasibility study.

Audiovisual Selective Contributions for Screenplays. Open Sessions. Let’s Start!

The call for 2021 screenplays selective contributions has been published. Italian Ministry has allocated 32,400,000
to deal with the harmful consequences that the pandemic is affecting the cinema and audiovisual sector.
Three, as usual, the categories that will be able to participate in the call and, specifically, scriptwriting, development and pre-production and production.
Also this year there are three sessions scheduled for the presentation of – questions. Respectively:
For the 1st session, applications can be submitted from March 31st to April 19th 2021;
For the second session, applications can be submitted from June 4th to June 25th 2021;
For the third session, applications can be submitted from 8 September to 29 September 2021.
Applications, as previously, can only be presented to by means of the DGCOL platform.

For support, advice and assistance, you can send an email to info@ralianconsultancy.com

LINK

After the tax credit for the production of cinematographic and audiovisual works, of which we have illustrated the main innovations in a recent article (LINK) the call for selective contributions 2021 is also soon to be published by MIBAC. This is one of the benefits most anticipated and important among those foreseen in favor of a sector, that of cinema and audiovisual, still severely affected, together with the entire entertainment sector, by the recent pandemic, which has in fact blocked or moved towards platforms of linear and on demand the release of all the productions made starting from March 2020. The effort of the Franceschini Ministry also in this beginning of 2021 therefore manifests a clear desire to favor the recovery of the entire cultural sector in every way. According to the first advances, the outgoing call will provide for a total allocation of € 32,400,000, divided as follows between the following lines of intervention:

scriptwriting of film, television and web works: euro 1,200,000;
development and pre-production of cinematographic, television and web works: euro 3,000,000;
production of cinematographic, animation, documentary and short films: euro 28,200,000.

On the other hand, the dates scheduled for the opening and closing of the three sessions for the presentation of the grant applications have not yet been set, although it is expected that, as every year, the same should fall within a time frame months of July and October. Applications, as previously, can only be submitted via the DGCOL platform.

To apply for selective grants, according to the procedures established by MIBAC, for information and assistance you can send an e-mail to info@ralianconsultancy.com

Cinema and audiovisual tax credit 2021. All the news of the MIBAC call

With the tax credit decree for film and audiovisual production companies 2021, Mibac adapts
the benefit to the Covid emergency, allowing for video clips and works disseminated on digital platforms.

The ministerial decree that will govern access to the measures for the current year is forthcoming
incentives for the film, audiovisual, television and web sectors, currently under consideration by the Court
of the Accounts. Once again, admission to the benefit will be allowed to companies having their registered office in
European economic area, subject to taxation in Italy and with a share capital and net assets
not less than forty thousand euros, as long as they comply with the social security and social security obligations
insurance and not established in the form of cultural associations and non-profit foundations, as well as in
possession of the Ateco J code 59.1.

The granting of the tax credit, provided for in varying degrees from 15 to 40 percent of the cost
total production of the audiovisual work for which it is requested, takes into account for the first time
also of audiovisual works intended for the public through a provider of linear audiovisual services
and on request. This prediction, which is added to the traditional ones regarding cinematographic works
properly so-called and the audiovisual ones destined for diffusion through television or the web, it has surrendered
indispensable to cope with the crisis in the cinema sector which coincided with the closures of the cinemas and
consequent impossibility of releasing new works through traditional channels, with the consequent
need to resort to a large extent to on-demand and streaming platforms to ensure that the new
works nevertheless reach the public.

Similarly, admission to the benefit is also envisaged for research and training works, provided that
meet the joint requirement of having been disseminated to the public both in reviews and competitions
international primary level through providers of linear audiovisual media services or a
request.

For the first time, video clips were included in the use of the tax credit, also as long as they were disseminated to
public through linear or on-demand audiovisual media service providers.
Another novelty, also needed by the epidemiological emergency, consists in having foreseen that the
expenses incurred during the construction of the work to deal with the health emergency give the right to
a tax credit equal to 100% of their amount, at least up to an amount of four hundred thousand euros
per work, while the applicable rates are applied to any surpluses over this amount
for other eligible costs referring to the production of the same work.

Lastly, in derogation from the criterion of the completion of the work as a necessary requirement for approval
definitive tax credit, it was ordered that the irreversible interruption of the work due to the emergency
epidemiological does not result in the forfeiture of credit recognition, even if within the limit
of the amount of eligible costs actually incurred and paid up to the moment of the forced interruption.

As in previous years, the request for tax credit presupposes the request of Italian nationality
provisional and possession of the cultural eligibility requirements. The application must be submitted
through the DGCinema portal, through the appropriate forms that the Ministry will prepare
within thirty days of the publication of the D.M. tax credit.

Once the annual limit of resources set forth in reference to each of the types of tax credit provided has been reached, access to the system will be deactivated, resulting in the impossibility of submitting subsequent applications.

For more information, for assistance and advice regarding the tax credit request, you can send an email to info@ralianconsultancy.com

RALIAN tax credit field. Tototravel project and italian selective audiovisual contributions.

20 Italian regions in 20 days. An unconventional journey to an extraordinary place. The year is the right one: 2020, one of the years that we have massively perceived as ominous, but the right year to carry out resilient projects. To the year in which the pandemic left its trail of deaths and privations that accompanied us, shaken, frightened, forced to change our lifestyle, TOTOTRAVEL was able to respond with a resilient, eco-sustainable, extreme project to live on the wings (or rather on the wheels) of freedom, bringing hope, the desire to live and succeed in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, one of the first to suffer the serious consequences of COVID – 19.

A project that immediately found our consent and our interest in the idea, subject and script of the documentary that would summarize this epic in a modern and eco-sustainable key, capable of perfectly combining culture and environment, tourism and hope, resilience and creativity.

Protagonists of the company are Eng. Salvatore Magliozzi, charismatic and eclectic General Manager of TOTOTRAVEL (https://www.tototravel.it/) traveler and author of successful books, the caterpillars Qui Quo and Fausto who at the end of the journey have become wonderful butterflies, the symbol of hope and of life and rebirth, an electric scooter and the 20 Italian Regions, exalted and experienced in their typical landscape and natural beauties, food and wine, cultural and historical as well as receptive.

The message is clear and fully shareable, centered on the fundamental drivers that must give impetus to the recovery made in Italy taking into account the European objectives in terms of Green Deal and zero impact. All conveyed by a documentary that is making the rounds of the web and for the realization of which RALIAN has sided in the front line, providing the necessary assistance to the presentation of the application for participation in the call for selective contributions for screenplays of the first window that MIBACT opened in 2020 to encourage the development of audiovisual works conceived by young Italian authors.

Today we are pleased to provide you with a video of the 20 Regions enterprise in 20 days, a small excerpt from the documentary presented at the selections, which kindly Eng Magliozzi and the TOTOTRAVEL staff wanted to prepare for us, a video for which we thank them.

Creativity and resilience are at the heart of the challenge posed by the pandemic. We will start to travel again and do it in an eco-sustainable way, we will return to conviviality and Italian hospitality, we will reopen the doors of our cities, we will dust off our works, we will offer them back to the world, we will protect our landscape beauties, our villages, we will tell you our story again in front of a glass of wine from our lands, without ever giving in to discouragement. We must be like the caterpillars that do not know that they will soon become butterflies, but live the moment of waiting with trust and hope. One day they will soar in the sky and cheer the planet with their multicolored wings.

 

We must be like the caterpillars who do not know that they will soon become butterflies but live the moment of waiting with trust and hope. One day they will soar in the sky and cheer the planet with their multicolored wings.

At the moment the MIBACT windows  for audiovisual tax credit applications and selective contributions for screenplays are closed. The last window ended in November. In these months, the Ministry will form the rankings for the acceptance of applications for funding of the works and we sincerely wish TOTOTRAVEL to be financed this extraordinary project.

While waiting for the reopening of the MIBACT 2021 calls, we invite film production companies that are interested in Tax credit and all scriptwriters to contact us to explore with us the set of possibilities offered in this sector and understand methodologies and useful documentation for the insertion of the practice, as soon as the ministry gives it a chance through the announcement.

Each of us indulges in a TV series at the end of the evening on the various platforms that today are replacing cinemas that have remained closed due to the pandemic. Behind those series, those films, there are people, stories, work, ideas. And those ideas deserve the opportunity to participate in the contributions made available to the MIBACT for the audiovisual because the cinema, the audiovisual spread culture, unite people, tell our story or the story we would like to live, give us dreams and smiles,  tears and strong emotions, hope and desire to succeed.

The audiovisual industry is a cluster of strategic importance. Each film, each documentary or TV series creates income for families and workers, generates induced activities, multiplies the economic effects, stimulates tourism and builds awareness. Never before has selective contributions and tax credit been oxygen for many production companies. and for many directors / authors / screenwriters.

We look forward to seeing you at the next window. Please watch the video of 20 Regions in 20 days. We thank TOTOTRAVEL for the trust placed in our advisory and for the continuous and fruitful collaboration.

MIBACT call audiovisual tax credit and selective contributions: categories, assigned, questions, subjects

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities (MIBACT) has just published the tender for the granting of selective grants for writing, development and the pre-production, the production of cinematographic and audiovisual works for the year 2020.

The categories of works admitted to participate in the granting of this form of benefits for this year are:

to. the writing of original scripts or taken from other non-audiovisual works protected under the law on copyright, and from which it is possible to create cinematographic, television and web works;
b. the development and pre-production of cinematographic, television and web works;
c. the production of cinematographic, animation, documentary and short films.

The amounts made available to the Ministry for this type of intervention for 2020 amount to € 1,000,000 respectively for the works referred to in letter a); € 2,700,000 for the works referred to in letter b) and € 24,600,000 for those referred to in letter c).

Applications for the first of the three sessions scheduled for this year must be submitted from 15 to 31 July 2020 through the appropriate DGCOL platform.

Requests for contributions in order with the requested documentation will be evaluated by the experts in charge of evaluating the individual projects on the basis of the criteria and parameters provided in the tables attached to the call. The experts will also assign the relative scores, draw up the rankings for each line of intervention and indicate the extent of the assigned contribution.

The subjects who can apply for contributions are:

– for the writing of original scripts, with fictional or documentary narrative content, Italian citizens of legal age or of another country of the European Economic Area and fiscally resident in Italy, who are not owners, members, administrators or legal representatives of audiovisual production companies or audiovisual distribution or companies providing audiovisual media services;
– for the development and pre-production of cinematographic, television and web works, with fictional or documentary narrative content, Italian film and audiovisual companies, also in associated form, or operating within an international co-production relationship, partnership international or international production, as well as the networks of film and audiovisual companies, as long as they have their registered office in the European Economic Area and are subject to taxation in Italy as a result of their tax residence, or for the presence of a permanent establishment in Italy, to which it is attributable the audiovisual work to which the benefit is linked and qualifying as independent producers;
– for the production of cinematographic works and audiovisual works of animation, documentary and short film, the Italian cinematographic and audiovisual enterprises, also in associated form, or the Italian cinematographic and audiovisual enterprises in the context of an international co-production relationship, of sharing international or international production, as well as the networks of film and audiovisual companies having their registered office in the European Economic Area and subject to taxation in Italy due to their tax residence, or for the presence of a permanent organization in Italy, to which the work is attributable audiovisual to which the benefit is related, that they have creative processing rights on the script, the subject, the treatment or other artistic material aimed at the realization of the cinematographic or audiovisual work.

RALIAN, by its exprertise on tax credit and contributions in support of subjects operating in the culture sector, offers its advice to those who believe they have the requirements for obtaining this important benefit. With this in mind, our company can offer complete and continuous assistance, which begins with the verification – free of charge – of the existence of the requirements for the presentation of the single applications and which is then articulated, in the case of the existence of the requirements for the presentation. of the application, in the registration and management of the database of the DGCA portal, up to the presentation, in case of admission to the contribution, of the requests for advance and balance. Each phase will be preceded by an assignment of assignment, with the presentation of cost estimates to be borne clear and tailored according to the needs of the individual customer and, above all, anchored in their amount to the positive result of each individual phase of intervention.

For any question, please contact us at +39 348 19 40 700 or +39 338 65 40 088 or send us an e-mail to:

info@ralianconsultancy.com

Ciak! Action! Call for selective audiovisual contributions for 2020.

We are ready to help the audiovisual and cinematographic sector to obtain the selective contributions and the tax credit provided by MIBACT in the ministerial announcement just issued.

Do you have a script to be transformed into a short or feature film? Are you going to make a documentary? Are you going to create a promotional spot for your area? Are you going to convey original multimedia content on the web? Are you working on a first film, are you a new director? Are you an Italian, European or non-European film production company, or an independent producer? Are you a distribution channel or hosting provider? Are you producing an animation series?

We can help you get contributions for your scripts and tax relief for your work. However, we ask you not to hesitate to contact us because applications can be submitted no later than the next on the 31st of July.

Our consulting firm offers a complete service in this sector, with great competence and professionalism that allows our client to be followed in every phase of the project.

Visit our “Services” section. Contact us and we will be at your complete disposal.

A virtual coffee with Riccardo Fuochi, an illustrious protagonist of national and international luxury logistics.

We stopped in Milan, this time to talk about another fundamental theme for recovery, always drinking a virtual coffee to consume while we talk with another illustrious guest. We wanted to reserve a space of conversation on one of the fundamental clusters of Italian economic life: culture and art, undisputed symbols of a Country, ours, which boasts an absolute primacy for history, for historical artifacts, for illustrious undisputed artists and geniuses that the whole world envies us. Let’s not exaggerate if we say that more than half of the artworks exhibited in museums around the world are attributed to Italian artists.

Culture, in our country system, accounts for about 6% of GDP. The sector is certainly not a discovery, it is an extraordinary driving force for the other production sectors connected to it and above all it is one of the key factors in attracting tourists from all corners of the world.

Internationally, Italy is recognized as a leader and the movement of foreign tourists who choose to enjoy our artistic assets every year, to visit our cities of art, our places of culture, is the incontrovertible proof of this. Our added value doesn’t stop there. We are a real open-air museum, a natural scenario capable of catapulting the visitor into every historical era. We could define Italy as a “Special Cultural Zone” which lacks an official recognition that takes into account the enormous potential of the system capable of “boosting” the economic system, combining tax exemption efficiency and the artistic heritage supplied. Where, if not in our beautiful Italy, we reiterate in all respects definable as a special cultural area, it is possible to draw from the culture, from the history of the inherited artistic heritage, from the breathtaking landscapes, from the food and wine culture of the UNESCO heritage, direct and induced economic advantages with efficient taxation and deburocratization policies? We launch a provocation that we hope will be caught by those who work in the cultural system. In addition, to stimulate the interest of potential investors … Montecarlo, Luxembourg, Geneva, Singapore, Dubai. What do these cities have in common? All have free zones for works of art that allow the artistic heritage of collectors and investors from all over the world to be guarded, transferred, protected and preserved in a protected atmosphere. Not only. Within these free zones it is possible to buy works of art and valuable goods without the application of customs duties and indirect taxes. Of course, it is necessary that these “special areas” operate in the transparency of the operations guaranteeing all parties and, above all, legality. It would also allow to further increase the professionalism of the artistic evaluation services, the recovery of artistic assets located in numerous caveau (usually managed by banks) and concentrate them in a single place that guarantees not only confidentiality but also a set of logistic services that are essential for the conservation over time and space of the works kept. Moreover, the 2018/843 directive on anti-money laundering requires strict checks on the actual beneficiaries of the asset in order to avoid twisted maneuvers that, through fictitious attribution systems, conceal sinister illegal operations. The combination of free zones, including Special Economic Zones, and logistics in this case becomes the efficient solution capable of protecting and protecting artistic and valuable goods without risk to the owner and without the value of the asset itself being reduced due to damage or transport trauma, but there are also enormous advantages for the entire museum circuit. We welcome our virtual coffee to another exceptional guest known all over the world. Today Riccardo Fuochi is with us, who is an important point of reference in the logistics supply chain sector, positioned on the luxury brand segment, which is essential in the evaluation of artistic works, in their storage and in their handling.

RALIAN: Dr. Fuochi, you are an institution in the logistics sector, in particular among many things, you are president of OLG international sarl based in Chiasso and president of the International Propeller Club of Milan. What does your business do and what does the activity of the Propeller Club consist of?

Dott. Fuochi: OLG International is an international company born after having acquired a long experience in the fashion logistics sector for the main luxury brands. Its main office is in Chiasso, where there is a logistics center for works of art, fine wines and precious objects with a development also overseas in Hong Kong. We have developed niche know-how for lifestyle logistics. We continue to offer our services to numerous fashion brands, so we take care of following interior design, visual merchandising and events projects, and we have developed a structure capable of offering a series of services related to the world of artworks and precious objects . We follow galleries, collectors, artists and auction houses trying not only to offer purely logistic transport and storage services, but following them in all their packaging needs, customs and ministerial issues, art handling, condition reports, we offer the possibility to restore the works at our facility, photograph them, show them to experts, exhibit them and archive them in blockchain. The Propeller is a cultural association that promotes the meeting and relationships between people who gravitate to the world of shipping, transport and logistics. It favors training and technical and cultural updating among all those belonging to the economic and professional categories that gravitate to the world of shipping, transport and logistics, organizing meetings, conferences, events, missions also at an international level. Among the most important events I would like to mention the Shipping Weeks in Genoa and Naples and the Shipping Meets Industry in Milan.

Ralian: Culture is the cradle of innovation. Through culture we stimulate creativity and thanks to it we give life to innovation. In your opinion, is culture perceived in our country as a real cluster or do we still have an obsolete vision of its multiplicative potential on the economic system?
Dr. Fuochi: The current emergency has certainly been positive in this respect, it has accelerated innovative and digital development in all sectors, including the cultural one. Certainly culture is perceived as a cluster in its own right, but an evolution is also necessary in this sector to allow the dissemination and creation of international projects. Museums are creating beautiful innovative and digital projects, as well as private galleries. The range of action is decidedly wide, but somewhere you have to start.

Ralian: Creativity and art have always been the highest form of beauty, of human expression. Very often immortal masterpieces have been inspired by human and social hardships, by situations of suffering in the body and spirit, sometimes they have been the denunciation of an injustice, the awareness of a necessary turnaround that has inspired whole epochs of our humanity. It is therefore the highest expression of resilience. In this complicated period in which an unprecedented economic depression is feared, how can art help us and how can it be made accessible to everyone, so as to spread its beneficial and resilient message?
Dr. Fuochi: By educating people to appreciate art in all its expressions, visual arts, performing arts, theater, cinema, music, dance by combining various forms within paths, events, manifestations and combining them with local traditions, thus involving the whole population . All this also aimed at improving living conditions, respecting the environment and culture of the individual territories.

Ralian: What does Italy need to ensure that the art sector, of which our country is the natural cradle for authors, finds, history, landscape beauty, find a leading role in the economic system?
Dr. Fuochi: “culture is the only good of humanity which, divided among all, instead of decreasing becomes greater.” [Cit. Hans Georg Gadamer]
Enhancement. Italy is the country with the largest concentration of artistic and cultural heritage in the world, but not only the historical and past one that attracts tourists from all over the world every year, but also the contemporary one. There are many young people who train every year in our academies to improve their artistic expression and break the canonical schemes and be appreciated by those who observe their works. There are certainly many interesting initiatives, but the enhancement and importance of our territory rich in villages, monuments and historic centers could be further improved and redeveloped and recovered. There is no corner of our country from which beauty, history and culture do not emerge. This immense heritage must be recovered with economic and fiscal measures aimed at attracting investments, including from private individuals, to encourage cultural, artistic and commercial activities, creating areas that we could define as real “special cultural zones”, paraphrasing the concept of SEZs.

Ralian: What do you think are 5 artworks that can help us to understanding that the greatest beauty can come from the ugliest and most complicated things to deal with?
Dr. Fuochi: There are many artworks that can express these feelings. It is inherent in the soul of the artist to be inspired by moments of difficulty to express values ​​of hope and beauty. I could represent some great masterpieces such as:
1. the flagellation of Christ by Piero della Francesca, describes the Christian ignavia in the face of the Turkish advance preceding the fall of Constantinople. The realization will lead to the union of papacy and empire and to the battle of Lepanto.
2. the deposition of Christ by Raffaello, Atalanta rejected his son Grifonetto, who through insane jealousy had participated in the massacre of the red wedding of the Baglioni of Perugia. The repression led him to death and his mother mourned him and made Raphael commemorate him representing him as a divine young man, who bears the feet of the dead Christ … maternal love …
3. massacre of the innocent, by Rubens, the reference to the wars of religions that tormented Antwerp and Flanders, with thousands of innocent civilians killed, is expressed as a beastly madness in Rubens’ masterpiece, whose commitment to peace has always been very vivid
4. Giuditta and Holoferne of Caravaggio The Jewish widow Giuditta beheads the Babylonian general Holoferne: there are many interpretations, but it is certain that reluctant Giuditta performs the will of God for the liberation of her people, which can also be read as a victory of purity, represented by the young and beautiful heroine, on brute force.
5. Guernica of Picasso 1937 German bombing of the Spanish city that upsets French public opinion and leads Picasso to express his disdain in the masterpiece exhibited immediately in Paris at the universal exhibition, helping to awaken free souls and support the indomitable spirit that resisted the subsequent defeat and occupation

Ralian: You deal with logistics. How do you combine this sector with that of culture, art and what do you think are the best practices to consider for an optimization of the entire reference cluster?
Dr. Fuochi: Have you ever wondered how works arrive in museums, how do loans between countries take place for exhibitions? Rather, what happens from the moment a collector buys a work in a gallery and ends up in our house? Here is the link between the logistics sector and the art sector. We take care of this. First of all to create a relationship of trust with the interlocutor – gallery / collector / personal assistant / banks / art advisor / artists – and to be able to assist him in all operations, without leaving him any worries, but rather reassuring him and working in the utmost confidentiality. We take care of training people in the best possible way so that they are able to handle the works of art and assist customers: we start with a documentary check to verify that everything is in order or to request what is necessary, we create the suitable packaging for transport, we draw up a condition report when we collect and when we deliver the work, we take out insurance, we evaluate the means to be used and the number of people necessary for transport, we employ a team of art handlers who can take care of the installation. In short, we follow all the aspects that allow us to transfer the works with the utmost attention from one place to another.

 


We thank Dr. Fuochi for sharing his expertise with us and for allowing us to draw many ideas for a relaunch of the culture sector, as expressed at the beginning of the article.
We are preparing for another virtual coffee and we will see you soon.

 

RALIAN Research & Consultancy srl

© Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved

 

A virtual coffee with Mr. Oscar di Montigny. Grateful. The possible Revolution.

This morning, returning from France, we virtually stop in the dynamic and powerful Milan where an exceptional guest is waiting for us, whom we thank from now for having accepted to answer our questions.
What was our existence based on, not only biological but also economic, social, before our system was stopped? Most likely on a very simple concept, linked to our animal roots: mors tua vita mea. And although we have not intentionally put it into practice, held back by a higher conscience, we have accepted compromises that undermine a system balance that has necessarily damaged the mother earth that hosts us and many people who live together on our planet, allocating them to the margins of a society based on an individualism that left no space for inclusion. Was that normal? The lockdown imposed in this pandemic has allowed us to reflect on a personal, economic and social life based on an wrong development model. We need to revolutionize the system through a new way of approaching to the economy and life of each of us and this model is based on Gratitude. It is a profound topic that manages to become a glue for all the countless activities that we carry out within the economic system and beyond. It is the extraordinary possible revolution that each of us can implement to reformulate the functional parameters of a system able to transform it from inefficient and divisive in efficient and inclusive. Through the concept of gratitude we can create benefits for ourselves and for companies. All inextricably linked to sustainability, cooperation (which as we will read, is not simply the absence of competition) and a paradigm composed of 7 P capable of bringing extraordinarily positive effects to ourselves and to the economic and social system.
We will tackle this engaging and special topic with a guest of extraordinary rank: Oscar di Montigny. Top manager of Banca Mediolanum, successful Keynote, communicator and expecially author of best sellers that have shaken the foundations of our thinking.
His latest book entitled “Gratitude. The necessary revolution “(subtitle The person at the center, for a new model of society) is in all italian bookstores since 12nd of May and is already an extraordinary success.

RALIAN – Dott. Di Montigny, you are an important exponent of the contemporary literary panorama besides being Chief Innovation, Sustainability & Value Strategy Officer of Banca Mediolanum, Your latest book entitled Gratitude was recently presented and, as the literary phenomenon of Il tempo dei nuovi eroi (New Heroes’ time – e.n.), is already a bestseller. What is the message that your book wants to give to humanity in this difficult moment, when, to be honest, it seems really paradoxical to be grateful for all that we have lived and for all that awaits us from here to a few years ?

Di Montigny – It may seem paradoxical only if we limit the observation of reality to its surface and contingency. In this case, it may seem normal and right to feel resentment and anger for the damage in terms of human lives and the slowdown in the economy that this invisible enemy has unpredictably caused us. As much as it may seem entirely legitimate to wish to return as soon as possible to that normalcy that we had before the health emergency. However, if we move our observation point slightly and consequently widen the view, we have the opportunity to ask ourselves the only question that today can really mark the turning point. But is this normality that we miss so much, really the best we want to aim for? If we went back a few months ago just to remember what the situation was, we can remember that we were not exactly in what is called an idyll: climate change was looming and it is still looming, democratic systems and the very concept of democracy were shaking because questioned by rampant populism phenomena, collective life showed all its shortcomings and rigidity dictated by that relentless tendency towards individualism of western societies, the market changed at a speed greater than our adaptability, and everything was crushed under the accelerator of technological innovation that kept us subjugated to keep up with the speed making us lose sight of the orientation towards a shared goal for-the-Good of the whole. So, I rephrase the question: are we sure that this is the normality to which we want to return, after having tested the experience directly on our skin, that other social and thought models are possible? Is this not a new, if not the last, opportunity that history has before us to make us change? History has put us in front of the need to adopt some unthinkable behaviors only a few weeks ago, we learned to work from home, to respect the queue and the distance, to protect others by protecting ourselves, to observe the most fragile neighbors to offer support. It seems easy but it is not easy. It is a total paradigm reversal. It is in itself the biggest revolution in very rapid times and without bloodshed we could wish for. Just think of smart working, a model that has been discussed for years and years and that probably, in the absence of real need, would have required as many before going into evaluation, let alone to be adopted in a collegial way as has just happened. Twitter, just to give an example, has already announced that its employees, if they wish, will be able to adopt this method forever in the future. Or think about the protective devices, the thought and attitude behind a simple mask, there is attention to the other, there is the choice to save the other to save ourselves. There is, as my mentor Patrizio Paoletti would say, the choice to decide that ” vita tua vita mea” (your life is my life – e.n.) at the expense of that “mors tua, vita mea” (your death, my life e.n.) that regulated life in the previous normalcy of which we speak. So my answer is yes, we have many reasons to be grateful, the next step to take the evolutionary leap will be to recognize gratitude as a compass that guides our actions and our thoughts, and to generate it in others by starting a beneficial three-dimensional flow that I call Spherical Economy.

Ralian- You have just said that we should move from personal and professional selfishness to a logic of collaboration, of inclusion, a sort of “win to win approach” applied to life in all its facets. In this time in which, especially at the European Union level, a my Country first attitude has prevailed, how is it possible to reverse the trend for widespread and lasting well-being?

di Montigny- Also in this dimension the historical event that involved us is an occasion to be grateful for because it is showing us, right for some countries, what in my opinion was the way already quite clear even before the emergency health, that is that of the coopetition. By analyzing the facts beyond the statements of pure political propaganda, the countries that first had to go through the test, modeled those where the wave came later. This process is called efficiency and essentially shows us two things: first is that all those walls that we were scrambling to build again last year and that held attention in the media and in the public debate, are of no use, on the contrary. The second is that this is the time to put the human being at the center of all systems because in the end there is only one system: life on our Mother Earth. The essence of coopetition, which is the integration between competition and cooperation, is precisely the gratitude that allows you to always keep in focus both the interest of the individual and that of the whole. Feeling gratitude and arousing it in others will be the way to build new and revolutionary social, cultural and business models centered on the human being and therefore capable of achieving harmonious, balanced and inclusive growth.

Ralian – You speak of sustainability, of recovering our responsibility for the destiny of our humanity. In fact, this experience of the coronavirus has shown the human being how much nature can even benefit from our inactivity (I would say absence). What should we change about our way of life in a logic inspired by production and profit to return to being aware and responsible guests of our Planet?

di Montigny. – That’s right, since the stopping of mobility and productivity has involved a few billion people globally, it has happened that pollution levels have dropped and are rapidly falling in the world. In the European Union, daily emissions have fallen by 58% compared to before the crisis. In the US, the government estimates that they will drop 7.5% by 2020. Metropolises such as Beijing, Los Angeles or New Delhi have never looked so clean in recent history. Some of the most immediate changes in Italy have been visible in our daily lives. One example above all was the water of the canals in Venice which came back clear due to the boats that do not move the mud from the bottom when stationary. The theme now will be not to settle for these beneficial side effects produced by a trauma that has had and will have such a high social and economic cost, but neither will let the political and social debate remain focused on minimizing these costs through exclusively oriented measures to the productive recovery tout court. It would be a serious mistake to set the debate on future policies, losing one of the fundamental aspects. It would mean losing that epochal occasion for the paradigm shift we mentioned earlier and that can lead us to define a new possible economy model. If all companies have accepted unprecedented measures such as social distancing, it is desirable to think that the time is right to develop evolutionary systems of the current competitive sustainability model. Productivity, stability, equity and the environment are the four pillars on which to base any human behavior, whether individual, social or productive. So, more than just sustainability, I would speak of Innovability which is the crasis between the concepts of innovation and sustainability.

Ralian. – You also have an apical role within an important banking institution. From economic literature, the concept of business, company, profit is inextricably linked to a hedonistic principle in which the maximization of the result to be achieved is to be placed at the center of the activity put in place. How is it possible to combine profit, financial activity, maximization of economic and financial objectives with a purpose approach as you define it in your book?

di Montigny. – I think one of the great challenges of our future is to find the balance between being and having. Or find a new form of happiness. On the one hand we must find the balance between being and having and, on the other, each of us, individually, must find the balance between what is important and what makes us happy and what is not needed and that does not deserve our anxiety, because it is no longer possible to rely only on generic indicators imposed from above: what applies to you may not apply to me. Nobody can tell you what will make you happy: you have to find out for yourself. The economy should be a discipline that investigates what is right and therefore as such, it should guide our society. Every act we make, every purchase, even banal, and every choice is an economic act. Knowing how to ask the right questions, knowing how to investigate the truth of things and knowing how to do everything in the best way, every day, is the only thing that will save us. It is necessary to stimulate man’s ability to acquire new tools to live better and pursue the collective good.

Ralian. – You speak of Spherical Economy and of possible Revolution. Could you briefly explain to us what these concepts consist of and how they can help us in this period in which businesses and people have to give way to all the courage, resilience and dynamism possible?

di Montigny – We must start from the circular economy, born above all as a contrast to the old “linear economy”, which is founded on three guiding objectives: to reduce, reuse and recycle. That is, to achieve the same good or service with a lower consumption of resources, favoring those with less impact on the environment; use the same asset several times, avoiding the consumption of raw materials and reducing waste and the need to dispose of them and finally, when a good has reached the end of its life, recover the contained material and transform it so that it can be reused, reducing disposal and consumption. In summary, the circular economy foresees that in all phases, from design, production, consumption, to the end of life destination, the inputs of material and energy and waste and losses are limited, paying attention to the prevention of negative environmental externalities and the realization of new social value in the territory. This however, is an emergency solution that moves in a flat and two-dimensional dimension that will no longer be enough tomorrow. In the longer term, I believe that the concept of circularity must develop an extra dimension, and move on to the spherical economy plan whose model starts from the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2013, the Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) which have been grouped into the five “P’s” of Planet, Peace, People, Partnership and Prosperity, each of which refers to a system of strategic choices divided into national objectives. In the Spherical Economy model, the Ps become seven. In fact, specific attention must be added to the dimension of profit (Profit), which should not be criminalized and should not be understood as synonymous with Prosperity since one contains the other but not vice-versa, and that of the individual, or better yet, of the person ( Person), without which no real change can ever be made. This leads to 7 P, where Person’s P gives a new dimension to everything, to make the model evolve from circularity to sphericity. A model that is configured as a non-linear or two-dimensional but three-dimensional growth and therefore solid, harmonious, balanced and contemporary, therefore spherical, of the 17 SDGs. And gratitude represents its vital energy.

Ralian – Can you leave us 3 Golden Words that can act as a mantra in our actions and, above all, in the recovery of a social and economic life that, in all respects, seems to have been stolen from us?

di Montigny – With pleasure, entrepreneurial mind, social heart and ecological soul will be needed.

This is the approach that we must use to reverse the course. In this re-start, no one must be left behind and through this extraordinary system in which man is at the center, we will be able to combine progress, economic development, sphericity, social inclusion and environmental sustainability. Revolution possible. The real one.

We wholeheartedly thank dr. of Montigny for his extraordinary availability and for the injection of positivity and for the depth of the topics he wanted to share with us.

Milan is the symbol of the dynamism of the Italian economy, the capital of the italian region that paid the highest tribute in this emergency. We will stay here and, in the next appointment, always in front of a virtual coffee, we will talk about economics, logistics, culture and art and we will do it with another extraordinary guest.

See you soon!

RALIAN Research & Consultancy srl

© Copyright 2020. All Rights reserved.

in the picture: from left Mr. Dom Einhorn and Mr. Jean Vignon, CEO and CFO of UNIQORN

A virtual coffee with Mr. Jean Vignon, CFO of Uniqorn, rural start up incubator and accelerator.

As anticipated in the previous article, today we move virtually to France to have a virtual coffee with a successful entrepreneur. The D.L. Rilancio (DL 19 / 05/2020, n.34) gave space to innovative start-ups, providing in art.38 the allocation of 10 million euros for the allocation of concessions aimed at the acquisition of services provided by incubators, accelerators, innovation hubs, business angels and other public or private entities operating for the development of innovative companies. In addition, further resources of € 200 million for the year 2020 are allocated to the venture capital support fund.

Innovative start-ups can be the real resource of a mature market, let us say, the breath of fresh air that can give new vitality to the environment in which the consolidated companies operate: they need to ride the wave of innovation within the market by using ever new products or services and meeting the needs of consumers and businesses. Furthermore, they constitute the indispensable link to connect the new technological development that works by a speed never recorded in the entire history of humanity, with all the companies that have increased their business through these innovations and allow the entire organization to progress with a view to inclusive and sustainable development. Finally, the biomedical sector and the sector’s advanced research need technologies capable of gathering energy and innovative solutions due to the strict need to give effective answers in a period of serious uncertainty.

Through Mr. Jean Vignon, co founder of UNIQORN, a rural start-up incubator, which operates internationally, we want to include a little more reality that we are experiencing and perhaps trying to seize unexpected opportunities in a scenario that today seems inhospitable.

RALIAN: Mr. Vignon. You are a Chief Financial Officer in a UNIQORN company. What does your company do and which are its objectives?

Mr. Vignon: Good morning, I am indeed co-founder and CFO at UNIQORN.
UNIQORN is the largest rural incubator-accelerator of its kind in the world. Located in southwestern France (Sarlat-la-Canéda), its mission is to give entrepreneurs and their families their lives back while helping them build game-changing technology startups. Startups with post proof of concept (POC) business ideas are provided with a complete ecosystem for success, with direct access to proven funding sources, top-notch legal and accounting representation, access to the world’s most generous business incentives and, most importantly, a dedicated sales and marketing accelerator that will put a startup’s product or service on the fast track to success.

R: Innovation is the very winner into a scenario like SARS COVID 19. Do you think innovation and creative sector will manage our future life more and more and how companies who have invest in innovation gained into this pandemic crise? Can you do us some examples?

V .: I would not say that innovation and creative sectors are the winners of this crisis.
Many entrepreneurs think that because they are innovating then they can become the next unicorn. And it is one of the main reason why “Many are called, but few are chosen”, and why most of start-ups fail to succeed.
With our Group CEO and founder, Dom Einhorn, we are firmly convinced that the most important for a start-up is not to innovate but that its products / services / solutions meet a recognized need.
This being said, there are indeed business areas which have a real chance of emerging; and some of them require some innovation of course.
We can mention as examples: home delivery services, remote work, legaltech, investment migration, epidemiological studies, activities related to prevention, transmission and control of infection, or any post-crisis global challenge.

R: What kind of companies do you think will survive after lockdown and, if you know it how many companies in France are in the severe risk of closing their activities?

V .: It is easier to speak about the companies which will suffer most.
The business travel industry, or tourism, for instance, will be severely disrupted and there is a risk that it might collapse entirely.
With regards to the business failures, they will increase by 25% at the global level. In france, the figure could be 15%.
One thing is for sure though and that is that companies which will survive will need excellent cash flow control.

R .: You invest in start ups. The risk of investing in start ups in this time is increasing. In this moment, what kind of companies may be more attractive and safe for returning of investment and for perspective of increasing gains?

V .: We have launched 4 projects since the COVID 19 crisis started.
Wait a little and you will know more.

R .: Which are 5 characteristics entrepeneurs must have for being reslilience in a post pandemic scenario.

V .: 1. Refuse to adopt a pessimistic and defeated attitude
2. Review its goals
3. Adapt to change
4. Secure the cash flow
5.  Learn humility

R:  You are an incubator and an accelerator of start ups. What do you think about a Special economic zone for permiting to companies to reduce their taxation, reducing burocracy and expand logistic infrastuctures to actract investors and safeguard the internal production boosting the exportations?

V.: It would be a very good thing if all parties involved, including the governements, play the game.

We thank Dr. Vignon for sharing his experience and observations with us. Certainly the pandemic we are experiencing will act a bit like a sickle for many start-ups in Italy and in the world but it can also be an extraordinary launching pad for those companies that will position themselves in those sectors capable of intercepting specific and new needs that require great preparation and dynamism. Without a doubt, training and investment in research and development are the success variables of an economic system so that, from now on, it will be necessary to modify strategic financial planning choices in an innovative – oriented perspective. A great challenge.

We’ll see you at the next virtual coffee back in Italy.

RALIAN Research & Consultancy srl.
©Copyright 2020. ALL rights reserved.