Now in its sixth edition, the prestigious International Master can count, this year, also on the contribution of one of the top managers of the motorsport world. Five successful years, five continents, five prevalent professional specificities: this is the background of the starting preparations of the new (sixth) edition of the international Master in Business Administration (MBA) at the University of Pisa. One of the spearheads of the University of Pisa, the MBA spreads over a intensive program of one year, is entirely in English and, among its list of achievements includes the highest incidence of foreign students (over 90 per cent), from all continents and in possession of professional backgrounds ranging across various sectors: engineering, economics and finance, science, organisation, communication.
New prestigious entry in the faculty
Among the relevant new features of the Academic Year 2015 stands out the presence of Walter Sciacca, top level entrepreneur and manager in the automotive and the international motorsport world. It will be part of the faculty as a Speaker. Sciacca also attend the traditional round table discussion on the topic that will be held in the spring, during which he will tackle his experiences “on the ground” and will present the unique characteristics of the new project of development and business of the Racetrack in Pontedera, of which he is the conceiver and will be general manager.
“I am honored by this new and prestigious post – said Sciacca – which will allow me to be able to transfer the experience gained in over 20 years of practise specialising in motorsports management and business administration. I would like to express my gratitude to Riccardo Paterni for having wanted me in the team, and Prof. Marco Allegrini, MBA lecturer and head of business economic chair, with which we have often compared our views on various issues related to the implementation of the master plan and business plan for the development of new racetracks. Finally, last but not least, I would like to thank Prof. Giulio Greco, director of the MBA, for welcoming me in his extraordinary team of lecturers with great enthusiasm. I’m ready to start this new and exciting professional experience.”
The forty one years old from Palermo, AD and DG of MPA (Motosport Professional Advice) has reached the top of his career by climbing to the summit, as the Chief Executive Officer and General Manager of Enzo e Dino Ferrari Racetrack in Imola, crowning a twenty-year career in the organization and management of track events and international competitive events.
MBA and the Racetrack in Pontedera: a great partnership
The new Tuscan structure, however, will also be the subject of a series of activities in collaboration with the MBA, which will range from research projects and analysis in the economic-financial sector, marketing, communication and even of technical nature, due to the presence some skills available in the Master that come from the automotive sector, as well as through the former alumni network that consists, to date, of more than 150 people working around the world in various management and entrepreneurial levels.
Man of Two Worlds
In the context of the Master, one of the reference pivots between the Academic world and the automotive industry will be again Riccardo Paterni, another leading figure in the sector, author, among other things, of various publications and books on knowledge management. His publishing career, however, has found its culmination in recent times with the release of the last work “Innovation full throttle! From a hundred years of Motorsport the fuel to organizational innovation”. Lecturer and Talent Manager of the MBA, Paterni manages two different modules within the academic program utilizing his experienced know-how that spreading between business and education. Graduated in “Dynamics in organizational environments” at the University of Wisconsin, Paterni then attended modules of the Master in Human Resources at the London School of Economics. Entrepreneur, co-founder of Synergy Pathways in Mumbai (innovation and internationalisation), and Synergy Pathways Motor Racing Academy (development projects in Motorsport India-Italy) as well as active in taking care of identifying, managing and developing talent at the organizational and individual level.
“My motto – comments Paterni – is ‘knowledge for action and action for knowledge’: knowledge and action reinforce and develop one another and I believe that the cooperation between the International MBA and Walter Sciacca perfectly exemplifies the concept. These days there is much talk about the need to innovate, to create new horizons and opportunities for development and this requires the spirit of pragmatism and visionary capacities that characterise the undisputed professionalism of Sciacca and the driving force of our teamwork in MBA. This synergy has the potential to create something unique at an international level regarding the identity and planning of both the Master and the innovative development project of the Racetrack in Pontedera.”
A global Master
Internationalism is the great key word that is the background of the MBA University of Pisa. In addition to the overwhelming presence of candidates (with a maximum of 30 for each year, for an average age of 26 years) from various international educational and occupational contexts, the term also refers to the teaching staff and speakers from a multitude of nations and prestigious foreign universities.
Diversity of culture and academic and work background manifests itself also in the intense group activities, allowing you to reproduce at best the complexity of globalisation. Even for these reasons, the program offers unique experience and learning opportunities for participants.
The 30 students of the Master will come to Pisa from various professional courses in companies that operate globally (the automotive sector is very active in this sense) and who want to use the MBA to fit in the company of origin at a higher managerial level or intend to expand their managerial or entrepreneurial horizons, going beyond the specificities of a sector. The Master, finally, is integrated with the national and international organisational fabric that allows participants to develop their theses on concrete and marked quality projects. Official website and contacts: http://mba.master.unipi.it/
