Report on the “Lean and Intergenerational Transfer” Event of May the 10th 2010.

On Monday May 10th a meeting on “Lean intergenerational transfer” was held at the conference hall of Apindustria Vicenza. The event was jointly organised by GC&P, Studio Centro Veneto (SCV) and Apindustria and its basic message was that a successful lean transformation project can be a very effective way for a young person to whom the responsibility to manage a company is handed over by his parents to assert his leadership.

The meeting has been a good opportunity to launch a new project called “Laboratories for a lean intergenerational transfer”. The idea is to form a group of 3-6 companies and to hold 7 sessions, including training, working and evaluation moments, with two main purposes:

– Help companies to make intergenerational transfer more effective

– Help companies to apply lean principles and techniques

Over 50 people were present at the meeting and showed a high level of interest for the themes discussed as testified by the numerous questions which followed the presentations made by GC&P and SCV experts.

Of particular interest were the experiences of intergenerational transfer presented by two young entrepreneurs: Chiara Bolcato of “Tiziana Industria Noleggio Tessile” (industrial laundry) and Sandro Marcorin of “BPT Group” (domotics).

Although their experiences were different under many respects, the two speakers agreed that a project involving the whole company and capable of short term results like a lean transformation, can help solve many problems in the intergenerational transfer process.

The final debate allowed those present to receive further suggestions from the two protagonists. One basic concept was underlined: a young person who inherits a company and as such receives a top down investiture, must also receive a bottom up investiture if she or he can prove to be capable to innovate and bring more efficiency and prosperity to the company.

In particular Marcorin’s experience has shown that not only the production process, but also areas like management accounting and administration can be significantly improved using lean methods and techniques and can become part of a comprehensive lean transformation process.

The event was followed by a rich Japanese style buffet with a wide selection of different types of Sushi.

For more information on the event or on our approach to lean and intergenerational transfer contact our colleague Nicola Rigobello.