02 December 2020

Banca Generali with SDA Bocconi for the governance of SMEs

Closer to Italian SMEs to support them in the adoption of international best practices at corporate governance level.

Last night, together with SDA Bocconi, Pwc TLS and Cerved, we presented the results of the first year of work of the Observatory on the Governance of SMEs, from which indications emerged on the state of health of Italian small and medium-sized enterprises, which despite representing the 80% of the productive fabric, show problems on the front of the opening of the shareholding structure, the insertion of external managers, on generational planning and on the adoption of a company organization designed to measure for the business.

Moreover, an unexpected picture of Italian SMEs emerges from the photograph taken by the research. To date 1 in 2 company managers is over the age of 60 and even 1 in 4 is over 70. Then there is the question of the lack of openness, with only 24% of companies under investigation that have an external manager on their board. All factors that limit growth on the market and, consequently, slow down the restart of our country after a very hard economic phase.

"Today more than ever it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach in the plan for the protection of family assets, considering not only the financial but also the non-financial aspects such as the company. Our commitment with this project therefore goes beyond simply supporting research, but aims to be a new asset to be made available to our customers-entrepreneurs to help them optimize the governance of their family business" commented Andrea Ragaini, Deputy General Manager of Banca Generali.

Alessandro Minichilli, Director of the Corporate Governance Lab SDA Professor and Associate Professor of Bocconi University, commented: "What emerges from the Observatory is the need for a cultural leap to bring to SMEs the awareness that a good governance improves the reputation and, consequently, the performance of the company. Many entrepreneurs are realizing that banks and potential investors / partners are looking at governance more than they did in the past ”.

The G factor

This factor is also due to the growth of ESG investments which are finding more and more space also in private savings, not only because of their greater resilience capacity. And among the 3 macro-trends of these investments (Environment, Social and Governance) it is precisely the G of Governance that interests investors the most, as confirmed by the Deputy General Manager of Banca Generali Andrea Ragaini: "In the field of sustainability, today the G The acronym Esg is perhaps the least publicized term. In reality, governance is a fundamental part for the healthy development of any company. On the other hand, good governance is the starting point for assessing the solidity of a company and we are therefore talking about an aspect that any investor takes into primary consideration".

The Observatory on Governance of SMEs

Established in 2019, the Observatory on the Governance of SMEs has analyzed the governance models of over 5700 Italian SMEs with a turnover of more than 50 million to investigate what are the common factors that facilitate business and which ones that slow it down.