Please welcome our new R&D Center – Cagliari Innovation Lab

Where does innovation stem from? In our opinion, from a fertile ground made up of constant experimentation and contamination, nourished by the most advanced skills and within a context able to trigger new ideas.

For Growens, investing in innovation means having the lymph to develop, every day, successful products capable of responding to users’ needs.

The central role of innovation in our business model is also recognized in the Group’s vision:

“To be an internationally recognized innovator where passionate people create an ecosystem of data-driven solutions that help with the evolving ways of communicating with customers”.

As well as in our mission:

“We bring growth and technological innovation to our customers and investors worldwide, thanks to ethical and easy-to-use marketing and communication tools, developed with passion by an international team”.

This is why we are thrilled to present the new Growens Research & Development center – the Cagliari Innovation Lab, located in Sardinia (Italy) and created in a twofold collaboration with:

• CREA, the center for innovation and entrepreneurship of the University of Cagliari
• The Net Value, the community of innovators founded in 2009 to support innovation and digital entrepreneurship in Sardinia

What is the Cagliari Innovation Lab?

The Cagliari Innovation Lab is the new Growens Research & Development center, dedicated to digital and technological innovation.

The Lab will host the new local Growens office and will have a dual objective:

• On the one hand, to support the growth of the Group through technological experimentation, with the aim of creating new products and technologies
• On the other hand, to acquire valuable skills thanks to the rich pool of talents attracted and trained by the University, and the context rich in contamination promoted by The Net Value

In a nutshell: the Cagliari Innovation Lab will be the place to build future skills, train specialist professionals and fuel the technological innovation that provides the lifeblood for the success of Growens and its business units.

As Michele Cappellini, CIO of Growens comments:

“We want to create a real innovation accelerator to create new product spin-offs and identify new potential business areas. Thanks to the partnership with CREA and The Net Value, we shall be able to draw on a rich pool of new talents and contribute to their training, by providing scholarships and mentoring activities for start-up projects”.

Investing in Cagliari

The choice of investing in an Italian province that is not central, but very fertile technologically, matured after a careful comparative analysis carried out by the IT and People & Culture teams at Growens.

In identifying the headquarters for the Research & Development center, various options were considered, both in Italy and abroad, with a careful cost/benefit analysis.

The final choice fell on Cagliari because:

• The city and the province boast a lively technological and digital ecosystem, home to many tech companies, including telco company Tiscali among others
• Investing in Italy has a strong value for Growens: established in Italy, with strong roots in the Lombardy region (but not only), the Group is today an international organization that has not lost sight of the importance of reinvesting in its native country. The choice of Cagliari is therefore perfectly in line with the corporate identity and culture.

But that is not all. With the introduction of the Growens Way of Working (the manifesto that formalizes flexibility as a cultural and organizational pillar for the future of the Group), we wanted to enable talent decentralization as opposed to forcing professionals around our main headquarters.

The result? A wider pool of talents, distributed wealth (both economic and intellectual), greater possibilities for professionals from non-central areas to have an international career without necessarily depopulating their hometowns.

As Enrica Lipari, People & Culture Director of Growens, states:

“The company aims to enhance talent in relation to the Italian territory, investing in local centers of excellence (as already happens with the CRIT of Cremona, the city of origin of the Group) and supporting the best integration between career aspirations and quality of life”.

The partners of the project

The Cagliari Innovation Lab is made possible by the collaboration with some outstanding organizations in the Sardinian territory, capable of transforming Cagliari into a true international hub for digital and technological skills.

CREA – University Service Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship – was founded in 2016 as an intermediary structure between universities, companies and the territory, to promote the culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and the development of innovative business projects.

It was therefore born as a meeting point between lenders, national and international stakeholders to lay the foundations for new business projects developed within the University, capable of creating a link between students, researchers and entrepreneurs operating at a regional, national and international level.

“Insieme a Growens potremo creare delle sinergie per i nostri percorsi formativi, in particolare con il nuovo Corso di Laurea in Informatica Applicata e Data Analytics (IADA)” – spiega il Prof. Diego Reforgiato Recupero (Università di Cagliari, coordinatore di IADA) – “con l’obiettivo di acquisire nuovi ricercatori e sostenerli tramite assegni di ricerca e borse di studio, oltre a promuovere la partecipazione a progetti europei.”

Established in 2009 by Mario Mariani (former CEO of Tiscali) in Cagliari (Italy), The Net Value is a team of entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and experienced managers in the digital sector, from startups to leading multinationals, as well as an incubator that offers consulting and incubation for digital businesses and for those who want to transform their ideas into successful companies.

Its TVN Academy works as a hotbed of digital talents, aimed at providing training and re-skilling on digital subjects in close collaboration with partner companies, which guarantee adherence to the real needs of the market and immediate employability.