More innovation by grafting start-ups into ecosystems

In Tuscany, their name immediately seemed familiar. Because Rifò is a local inflection of the verb 'to remake' and echoes the textile regeneration born in this land devoted to craftsmanship. A way of working - and recovering - that has been handed down for over a century. On the other hand, to write pages of the future one can take inspiration from the good ones of the past, updating them. We are in Prato, 200,000 inhabitants in what was once considered the world capital of textiles and then over the years has experienced mixed fortunes due to the contradictions of globalisation. But ingenious intuitions manage to scale even local boundaries.

Today Rifò has a turnover of more than 3 million euro, employs 25 people and as many companies in the area. From Italy it looks to the whole world with exports at 30% and growth of +20% year on year. "We want to offer a clothing line created from regenerated fibres, which implies a reduced consumption of water, pesticide dyes and chemicals. The garments are produced within a radius of 30 kilometres. From the regeneration of wool, cashmere and jeans to the creation of the finished garment, we are able to guarantee a product made in Italy that does not travel around the world twice before reaching the people," says Niccolò Cipriani, 35 years old from Prato by birth and talented by return, founder and CEO of Rifò, with a degree from Bocconi University, a past abroad for the UN and a present in rethinking the textile supply chain.

Rifò initially joined Nana Bianca's incubation programme and today the corporate structure includes ten local and international investors. "Recycling used to be simply common sense. We want to make the tradition of regeneration known. We are tied to our roots and want to present ourselves with a contemporary style,' says Cipriani. Out with the vertical industrial districts of yesteryear, which were sometimes structured in silos and had little inclination towards innovation. In the new knowledge economy, the plug-in model wins out: so today the focus is on the grafting of start-ups with already established realities, delineating wider perimeters. It is the time of entrepreneurial ecosystems that think in terms of systemic alliances. These are realities with a strong tech content that operate close to the main production chains. A sort of hinge companies that combine manufacturing know-how with business models and advanced human capital management, putting the entrepreneurial figure back at the centre.

"There is a growing contrast between the classic industrial district and the new entrepreneurial ecosystem. The former is based on dense networks of micro and small specialised manufacturing enterprises, spread across the provinces, capable of cooperating and competing together. A polycentric model, widespread and rooted in local communities. The second is contemporary, developed around innovative and knowledge-intensive start-ups. It is more concentrated, selective and is linked to the presence of qualified human capital and financial capital,' says Giulio Buciuni, professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Trinity College Dublin and author of 'Innovatori Outsider' for Il Mulino.

Thus, territories can become incubators for plug-in companies. "Passing on new knowledge and new technology within mature industrial supply chains is not just a technological issue: it is above all a cultural issue. Technology can be acquired relatively quickly: it is enough to invest, buy machinery or software, or collaborate with research centres. The real difficulty concerns the willingness of companies to question their business model, to open up to external expertise, to accept the risk of innovation. In the book, I show how plug-in companies manage to graft new knowledge and technology into mature supply chains precisely because they bring a different culture,' Buciuni points out.