Prof Daniele Gualdi Universit degli Studi di Bologna

Prof. Daniele Gualdi Università degli Studi di Bologna Docente del corso di Simulimpresa Bologna 15 aprile 2014

Project “Collaborative Reformation of Curricula on Resilience Management with Intelligent Systems in Open Source and Augmented Reality”. (RESINT) 540096 -LLP-1 -2013 -1 -IT-ERASMUS-EKA

In October 2001, with the creation of Perting Ltd Simulated Enterprise was launched the activity of Simulated Enterprise Laboratory in connection to the course of Business Management (Prof. Massimo Bianchi),

Simulimpresa was created to overcome the limits of the traditional teacher-student dialectic and to try to anchor knowledge by engaging students in more active roles

It is required to learn not only knowledge, but know-how and practical skills. It is important to develop the ability to work in groups, problem solving, effectively communication, and the ability to orientate in increasingly complex contexts which are constantly changing and characterized by great unpredictability.

Our goal is the development of skills that are directly targeted at rapid and easy integration into the job world

It is a shared opinion that it is necessary to widen the sphere of students’ knowledge and skills by introducing a new type of learning in University career. This could accompany the traditional methods founded upon frontal lecturing, in order to encourage a more active and participative role for students.

We believe that learning is much more effective when it occurs in situations that simulate reality, that reproduce it and force students to deal with problems. Students can rely on the knowledge they have acquired in traditional courses, apply methodologies, and make responsible management choices.

The Practice firm course aims at providing direct knowledge of how a company works through a realistic reproduction of its management, administrative and organizational methods and procedures.

The aim is to increase students’ skills and knowledge as well as to consolidate their knowledge of business subjects already dealt with in other courses. In this way we can move from a merely theoretical learning approach to a more practical and active one.

In the simulation of a business, students are required to actively participate in the company activities. They are required to be responsible for them by playing a central role in all the aspects relating to the company management:

• accounting and drawing up of a balance sheet; • organization; • administrative and fiscal duties; • internal and international trade management; • financing, investments, relations with banks; • application of Information, Comunication Technology

• to allow students to experience the working climate within a company in order to reduce the gap between theory and practice, • to improve students’ behavioural skills, • to help students become more aware of their skills and roles, • to allow students to apply the knowledge acquired, and to develop new skills that could be used later on in their university career

What is the goal of an experimental enterprise? To realize an immediate link between theoretical knowledge received during studies and its applied practice founded on action– oriented learning, where knowledge and know how represent the basis of the learning process.

Didactical goals üPractical experience ü Interdisciplinary skills ü Company culture ü Self achievement ü Personal training ü Facing responsabilities

How to create an experimental enterprise? In a classroom-laboratory that reproduces the main managerial functions, students carry on operative management with scheduled activities, bureaucratics burdens and legal constraints and fiscal duties.

The phases of an experimental enterprise vfounding v. Virtual business of goods and services v. Accounting management v. Annual accounts and budget v. Close down

Main organizational functions Foreign affairs Marketing Staff accounting and human resources Accounting

There also social organs as : üCompany meeting üBoard of directors üBoard of advisors

Job rotation Foreign Affairs Marketing Accounting Staff accounting and human r.

What is the experimental enterprise network EUROPEN ? MORE THAN 400 EXPERIMENTAL COMPANIES IN ITALY MORE THAN 5000 EXPERIMENTAL ENTERPRISES IN THE WORLD WIDE NETWORK EUROPEN

Italian Network Simulimpresa ü Professional Schools ü Tecnical and accounting schools ü Business companies ü Universities ü Chambers of Commerce ü Employers unions

Network EUROPEN • Non profit association (fonded in 27. 10. 1997) • World wide network • More than 5000 experimental companies in 40 Countries

The extention of EUROPEN North America: Canada, USA South America: Argentina, Brasile Western Europe : Austria, Belgio, Danimarca, Finlandia, Francia, Germania, Grecia, Irlanda, Italia, Olanda, Norvegia, Portogallo, Spagna, Svezia, Svizzera, Regno Unito Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Rep. Ceca, Ungheria, Lettonia, Lituania, Polonia, Romania, Russia, Rep. Slovacca, Ucraina, Slovenia Asia /Pacific: Australia, Cina, Giappone, Vietnam Africa: Senegal, Marocco, Tunisia

The network ties

New start ups University American College Skopje University of Prishtina - School of Economics, Kosova TEMPUS CHTMBAL - Network for Post Graduate Masters and Ph. D in Cultural Heritage and Tourism Management in Balkan Countries. TEMPUS DOCSMES - Regional Joint Doctoral Programme in Entrepreneurship and SME management for Western Balkan Countries

ALSO IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD OF SECOND LIFE

Previous researches n n n n n Gualdi D. (2001), L’impresa simulata, Paramond ed. , Torino Bianchi M. (2003), Il progetto della Università di Bologna per lo sviluppo delle P. M. I. in Albania. 2 Relazione alla conferenza internazionale: università: Ieri, Oggi, Domani, Tirana 13 -15 Novembre 2003, Ambasciata d’Italia in Tirana, Crui-Conferenza Rettori Università Italiane, Krush-Conferenza Rettori Università Albanesi, Accademia delle scienze di Albania. Bianchi M. ( 2004), I Progetti dell’Università di Bologna ed il ruolo del Porto di Durres per lo sviluppo del Corridoio 8. Intervento al Convegno “ Il Corridoio 8 – Una sfida per la costruzione di un “sistema di reti”di sviluppo nell’Area Balcanica”, Ambasciata D’ Italia In Tirana, Accademia delle scienze di Albania. Bianchi M. (2004), La simulazione d’impresa negli interventi di sviluppo dei paesi in transizione. 5° Workshop dei Docenti Ricercatori di Organizzazione Aziendale, Roma 5 -6 Febbraio 2004 Tampieri L. (2005), La Perting s. r. l impresa simulata e i progetti di sviluppo imprenditoriale nei Paesi in Transizione; in M. Bianchi, L. Tampieri “Life Long Learning and Managerial development in transition countries (Cases on strategy, management and performance control)”; Il Ponte Vecchio ed. , Cesena. Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2007), Clustering e networking nella creazione di nuove forme organizzative. I risultati del laboratorio di Simulazione d’impresa nei progetti di sviluppo dei Paesi in Transizione, in Atti del Convegno “Relazioni di lavoro e forme organizzative: nuovi modelli progettuali”, VIII Workshop dei Docenti e dei Ricercatori di Organizzazione Aziendale (8 -9 Febbraio 2007). Tampieri L. (2009), Simulazione in Second Life e business virtuale nello start up d’impresa del sistema moda CLUEB – Bologna Tampieri L. (2009), The enterprise simulation in Second Life. The case of Perting Ltd, in Proceedings S. Newell; E. Whitley; N. Pouloudi; J. Wareham; L. Mathiassen (Eds) Information Systems in a globalising world: challenges, ethics and practices; Università di Verona-Facoltà di Economia; 8 - 10 June 2009 Verona, Italy, pp. 1 -12; www. ecis 2009. it Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2010), “La Simulazione della creazione d’impresa attraverso la stabilizzazione dei rapporti clienti e fornitori”. Intervento al XI WOA Workshop dei Docenti e dei Ricercatori di Organizzazione Aziendale “Creatività, Incertezza e razionalità Organizzative”, 17 -18 Giugno 2010, Bologna Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2010), “Second Life and Enterprise Simulation in SMEs’ start up of fashion sector. The cases of ETNI, KK Personal Robe and NFP. Intervento al VII conference of the italian chapter of AIS “information technology and innovation trends in organizations, 8 -9 Ottobre, Napoli. Tampieri L. (2010), The simulation by Second Life of SMEs start up. The case of New Fashion Perspectives, in D’Atri A. , De Marco M. , Braccini A. M. , Cabiddu F. , (Eds), Management of the Interconnected World, Physica-Verlag, Springer, Heidelberg. pp. 267 -274. Tampieri L. (2011) Second Life and enterprise simulation in SME’s start up of fashion sector: the cases ETNI, KK Personal Robe and NFP, in D’Atri A. , Ferrara M. , George J. F. , Spagnoletti P (eds), Information Technology and Innovation trends in organizations, Physica-Verlag, Springer (pp. 523 -530). Tampieri L. (2011) The enterprise simulation in small business start up. The case of cooperation projects between Italy and Albania. 3^ Workshop I processi innovativi nelle piccole imprese. La sfida altre la crisi. Urbino 16 -17 Settembre 2011, pp. 1 -21. Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2012) Simulated Management in the start up of new Public Organizations. The case of AIVO, Agency for the Governance of the Volga River. Paper submitted to RUC Sunrise Conference, October 29 -31 2012. Tampieri L. (2012) Second Life as Educational Space for the Simulation of Enterprises’ Start Up and for Managerial Culture Development, in Nada Bates-Brkljac (Ed) Virtual Reality, ISBN: 978 -1 -61470 -246 -7, NOVA Science Publisher, NY, USA, Chapter 1 (pp. 1 -49). Bianchi M. , Gualdi D. , Tampieri L. (2013) The Laboratory for Enterprise Simulation in Forlì and the performance of Perting Ltd. 2001 - 2012. In S. Santoro (Ed) Skills and tools to the cultural heritage and cultural tourism management. Edizioni D’Errico, pp. 291 – 298. Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2013) Simulated Management in the start up of new Public Organizations, Journal of US-China Public Administration, May 2013, Vol. 10, No. 5, pp. 475 -487. Bianchi M. , Tampieri L. (2013) Effects of Networking Activities by Internet on the Creation of a Business Network: Experimental Results of Simulimpresa Laboratory. In P. Spagnoletti (eds) Organizational Change and Information Systems. Working and Living Together in New Ways. Springer Berlin Heidelberg, pp. 119 -128. Tampieri L. (2014) The Network of ties in practice firms for the education to entrepreneurship. The case of Perting Ltd. In Procedia-Social and Behavioral Journal (ISSN: 1877 -0428) (in progress of publication).

Semester dates and module structure Simulimpresa Course The module is intended to be taught during the autumn semester (October – December). The module is structured in 7 weeks and usually 6 hours per week for a total of 40 hours. Module credits: 6 ECTs

Simulimpresa Laboratory is waiting for You ! http: //perting. poloforli. unibo. it

Perting srl virtual enteprise n n n Perting S. r. l. is the virtual enteprise introduced in Economic Faculty of Forlì since 2001 Perting was the first practice firm in Italian University Perting operates in the informatics sector : trade goods and provides services, like: personel administration, accounting and enterprise organization

Perting’s Departments Administrative n Commercial n Consulting n International projects n

Administrative Department Is composed of the following offices: n Accounting n Treasury and financial management n Budgetary control n Human Resources administration n Executive secretary n

Accounting office Formation of accounting plan n General accounting with software OS 1 n Special accounting n Cost accounting n Balance sheet n Income tax return n

Treasury and financial office Banking operation on current account, like: n Money transfers: invoices, taxes, wages n Receivables n Financial planning n Financial report n

Budgetary control Preparing 3 years business plan with software “Cartesio” n Preparing annual budget n Auditing: accounting and worker productivity n

Executive secretery Comunication with other companies n Comunication with internal offices and departments n Keeping corporate books n Director’s report n

Personel Office Labour contracts n Pay Books n Montly salaries n F 24 preparation: monthly payment of employment taxes n

Consulting department It is composed by these offices: n Accounting consulting n Personell Consulting n Companies organization n

Accounting consulting office Preparing Business Plan for other companies n Preparing annual budget n Budgetary control n Start up n Company shake up n

Personel and Organization consulting office n H-R administration n Redeployment of labour n Corporate structure

Commercial department Marketing office n International trade office n National trade office n Web site office n

Marketing office Updating catalogue n Sales promotion n Advertising promotion n Market research n Customers and suppliers analisis n Advertising promotion research n

International office n International trade: import and export n Drawing up standard documents for EU and non EU commerce: Invoice, Packing list, CMR, DAU

WEB SITE Office n Updating web site n E Commerce n Record keeping

In the Europen net system now work more than 5000 practice firms. Trades happen among enterprises which belong to different and heterogeneous formative institutions, such as high school and universities. The question is: Is it possible and useful to create a network among VE which trade inside Europen network universities?

Today the level of sharing of this experience is very limited and restricted to a few countries. But this phenomenon could increase if simulation experiences now living in Faculties of Economics will put themselves in the network, in order to develop relations and share way of working and knowledge.

The difference between university and high school formation requests in fact a very different management and a more accurate target selection. In college case, we need to utilize a more developed knowledge of enterprise management with a way of working which prefer problem solving.

In sum, we need a management much closer to problem solving than to operational exercises. Targets such as direction, planning, control, marketing, finance, budget, fiscal management need to be central in the leading process of a virtual enterprise.

Also in the way of working and in trades of goods or services, we need to choose instruments, solutions and procedures very closer to the enterprise professional reality. This way of working can be shared among all enterprises in the network, with a special attention to those that don’t refer to a university. They are the majority, and this strategy could increase the level of their work.

We do not think to a network close only to university enterprises: we’d prefer a narrower relation between academicals experiences. This argument could make a decisive improvement of the virtual enterprise system, which could become a point of reference for both university courses and real external enterprises.

How to proceed? 1) Analyze and calculate the existing situations: how many VE work in the European universities and how many in the rest of the world? 2) Establish direct relations with professors to create occasions of work sharing: actually we could begin with a 20 -enterprises-core working together.

How to proceed? 3) Plan common stages in order to consolidate relations among university VE 4) Plan a college VE meeting; a challenge on case study; a school formation on methodology. Italy could organize the first edition.