Five Years and 564 Managers Trained: The SDA Bocconi and Prysmian Partnership

564 managers at all business levels from all over the world have attended in the past five years. More than anything, this number is the product of the close partnership created in 2012 between the SDA Bocconi School of Management and Prysmian, an international company in the sector of cables and TLC and energy systems. The Prysmian Group Academy for management training and development of the company's human capital was founded as part of this collaboration. Now in its fifth year, the Academy can boast 330 days of training in 25 different course sessions, and nearly 50 SDA Bocconi faculty members involved in 6 regional academies open in Prysmian's business hubs throughout the world, from North America to Asia.

"Through this collaboration with Prysmian," explains Markus Venzin, Head of the Claudio Dematté Research Division at SDA Bocconi and Director of the Prysmian Group Academy, "we have developed ways of increasing the impact of higher education on in-company learning. But the collaboration with Prysmian is very extensive, going beyond education. It is based on a desire for in-depth reciprocal knowledge."
At the school of management, SDA Bocconi also closely studied and researched company dynamics: 7 case studies on the group's major strategic challenges in the various branches around the world, teaching tools and simulations, an analysis of the business climate and various custom research projects on the issues of strategic innovation and M&A have been completed. In addition, starting last year, 5 senior managers who have finished the Academy's advanced leadership program may complete the track with preferential access to SDA Bocconi's Global Executive MBA (GEMBA).

"They say that value is produced by relations. Nothing could be more true about this partnership," adds Andrea Dossi, Head of the Executive Education Open Programs Division at SDA Bocconi. "Prysmian management's openness to debate, starting with HR management and frontline managers, allowed for in-depth discussion of the group's business challenges and strategic objectives. In turn, this enabled the faculty involved in the project to implement tight-fitting customization. In teaching material, cases, assessments, field projects, this made the various development programs that comprise the Prysmian Academy's school of management very influential on business."
Fabrizio Rutschmann, Prysmian Group Senior Vice President of HR & Organization echoes this: "During the past five years, SDA Bocconi has been Prysmian Group's education partner in an integration phase following a merger and acquisition with the leading competitor. For the present and the future, SDA Bocconi will continue to be a strategic partner, making Prysmian a different company."