From aggregations breakthrough for professionals and enterprises
As public opinion increasingly tends to be formed on digital platforms, Artificial Intelligence is fostering the development of filtering algorithms that customise the selection of news and comments for each user so as to effectively confirm their pre-existing opinions. It is the phenomenon of echo chambers that also has the effect of contributing to the process of commoditisation. Goods that have a recognisable economic value in terms of quality due to uniqueness or brand name become generic goods for consumers. Companies see their control over prices, customer loyalty and the value of their business vanishing. To counteract this process, companies intensify the exit from their comfort zone with bundling operations in relation to customer value generation.
With regard to the regulations on the transfer of businesses and shareholdings, the amendments introduced by Legislative Decree 192/2024 play a significant role. They have innovated with respect to the rigidities and uncertainties of the previous system, extending the scope of the controlled realisation regime and tax neutrality.
At the same time, in the area of national accounting standards, the project to revise OIC 4 - Mergers and Spin-offs - is underway, the central issue of which is the choice between a single accounting treatment for business combinations, regardless of the legal form used, in line with international accounting standards, or the preservation of the current separate rules for different types of extraordinary transactions. Similar innovative efforts are made by aggregations of lawyers and accountants in order to provide their clients with an innovative and competitive service. There are many who adopt a code of ethics to make explicit their values of fairness, honesty and transparency, as well as a sustainability policy aimed at involving stakeholders inside and outside the firm. This policy is all the more advisable in view of the widespread practice of using, even in professional firms, generative artificial intelligence with the consequent need for careful management of the risks associated with the reliability of output, the confidentiality of processed data and transparency towards clients, judicial bodies and the public administration.
For professional firms in aggregation or reorganisation, the opening to capital and the involvement of investment funds can represent, and in important national and international realities already does, an accelerator of growth. These new scenarios give rise to the now frequent need for the presence, in the staff of professionals, of new figures such as the HR Manager, Managing Partner, Marketing Manager and/or Office Manager.
The aggregation of professionals requires skill, strategic vision and relational skills, but also the need to always keep in mind the admonition of the Bank of Italy Governor Fabio Panetta at the ABI assembly on 11 July: 'Technological evolution must not take away the centrality of human capital: investing in increasing skills is the most effective way to deal with change and drive innovation'.
