We welcome the contribution by Alessandro Barison, entrepreneur and designer, partner and managing director at Emme Italia, a Padua-based micro enterprise that celebrates this year the 25th anniversary.
Barison -unable to give us a Skype interview due to the bad internet connection from his home in the Veneto countryside- imagines a complex but proactive post-pandemic scenario and maintains that the keywords for the rebirth must be: Education (and culture widespread); Health (and quality of life); Environment (and sustainable capitalism).
The emergency corona virus situation we are experiencing in recent weeks is difficult and very complex. Without a doubt, the contingent priority is to ensure healthcare.
To face the next future, few rules and a lot of planning are needed.
We can try to imagine post-pandemic scenarios and focus our attention on some keywords that can help us give possible interpretations to the near future.
Tangible and intangible assets of the company.
Intangible assets will become increasingly important in the management of the recovery: for example the value of the Brand (Brand Heritage, first) and of the human resources (and Company Know-how).
We will also have to invest in production and management processes such as lean-production, supply-chain, market architecture.
From the processes related to the material good, it will be necessary to switch to innovation tools based mainly on systemic and process innovation.
We have often heard that the moments of crisis open up innumerable opportunities for growth and I hope that more and more importance will be given to the human and humanistic value of all the choices about our future.
To apply a new glocalization.
It is necessary to combine mass products with products with some niche characteristics, differentiating the proposals according to the geographical location and the particular needs of the target audience.
The small enterprises must be able to imagine it can quickly and flexibly put its skills into play in cross-cutting areas and give greater impetus to the web, e-commerce and home delivery sector.
The immaterial and empathic value of small companies will challenge large multinationals in a privileged field of action, which will outline a new, more sustainable approach to consumption.
A renewed attention to Workplace Design.
The lockdown weeks have shown that the concept of Workplace Design is not limited to offices only, but extends to all spaces of the company, even those of industrial production and de-materialized spaces.
There is no doubt, the answer lies in the design-oriented processes.
Imagining a complex but proactive post-pandemic scenario, the task of the entrepreneurs will be open to the designer’s holistic skills.
The task of the designers will instead exit from the product / service dynamic to embrace the process dynamic.
In short, a little less design for its own sake, and more Design Management.
Captions
Upper photo: Alessandro Barison at his home workstation.
In the picture some Emme Italia’s products
