So the Country Can Change with Us
ALUMNI |

So the Country Can Change with Us

MATTEO DEL FANTE, CEO AND GENERAL MANAGER OF POSTE ITALIANE, BOCCONI ALUMNUS OF THE YEAR 2021, TALKS ABOUT HOW HE DEVELOPED DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AT A COMPANY WITH A 160YEAR HISTORY IN THE MIDST OF THE PANDEMIC. PRAGMATISM, MORE AGILE MODELS, TEAM SPIRIT AND THE WORDS OF ADRIANO OLIVETTI AS HIS NORTH STAR

Making its platform available for the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is the most recent act of a transformation process that is leading Poste Italiane to combine traditional services with those of a tech company capable of propelling a large part of the country. The role it has played throughout the pandemic emergency is among the reasons that convinced the Bocconi Alumni Community led by Silvia Candiani to name the CEO and General Manager of Poste Italiane, Matteo Del Fante, Alumnus of the Year. A 1992 Bocconi graduate in Political Economy, in four years Del Fante has made the company he leads an international success story thanks to the speed of innovation and the evolution of the skills of its people.

How do you manage innovation and digital transformation at a company that has almost 160 years of history and is the top employer in the country? 
“I’m particularly pleased to answer this question because, in terms of size and distribution, Poste Italiane is a scaled-down version of the country. So the transformation of Poste offers interesting ideas for the country’s digital transformation. Digital transformation is certainly complex, but it is essential for a company like Poste Italiane, with its history, its size and its multiple businesses, in a global scenario in which digitalization in the economy and way of life is fast-moving and irreversible. The pandemic proved this, because forcing millions of people to stay home facilitated the explosion of eCommerce, especially in Italy, where millions of new eShoppers were won over and the spread of digital payments was accelerated. We anticipated this, renovating our logistics and technological infrastructure early. And this transformation will continue within the framework of our new '2024 Sustain & Innovate' business plan. The pervasiveness of technology and the continuous evolution of the digital market have almost completely bridged the gap between business projects and technology projects. This made us realize that Poste Italiane, the most physical company in the country in terms of presence and employees, should also become a tech company."
 
The IT planning horizon has changed from several years to a few months. What organizational changes has this new context brought about?
“An adaptive approach was needed that exploits 'test and learn' methodologies and rapid prototyping, towards a leaner and more agile model. The watchword has been 'pragmatism.' Primarily with the progressive adoption of a new approach that natively guarantees flexibility, quality and security, using the cloud as a strategic and technological accelerator. In addition, services and data can be reused transversally by the various businesses of the company, to focus action on the customer. To allow all this, strong governance has been implemented with centralization of the companies in the group's technology departments, placing operations under the same organization in order to ensure coherent action and greater traction. Today, the department that leads the company's digital transformation has around 8,000 people. These choices have steered massive investments that have led to the accumulation of a stock of technologies and knowledge that are available to the country.
 
What leverage did you use as a manager to promote this transition? Human resources, organization, marketing...

“All these kinds of leverage have proved invaluable to concretely translate a constant tension for innovation. In particular, I aimed to strengthen team spirit, which is today generating the excellent results we are achieving. Poste Italiane would not be the great company it is if it weren't for the commitment and dedication of all 125,000 employees, each in their own role. It's also very important to mention the working method. Our North Star is Adriano Olivetti's motto: “Bold management in planning, meticulousness in execution, unrelenting against obstacles.”
 
In short, widespread presence throughout the territory was accompanied by a similar “digital proximity” which brought services closer to people. How do these two sides, a more traditional one and one that is more avant-garde, coexist today?
“At Poste Italiane, tradition and innovation are perfectly integrated. The network of offices that offers postal and financial services every day to millions of residents throughout Italy and the mail carriers who deliver correspondence and an increasing number of eCommerce parcels: these are the two traditional expressions of the corporate 'physicality.' They coexist with digital services, apps, paytech and fintech..."
 
...the role of the SPID digital identity provider...
"Exactly. In this regard, I would like to take this opportunity to mention that we are the leading Italian provider, with over 20 million registered digital identities, 15 million of which are SPIDs that were enabled during the months of the pandemic. More than 80% of these 20 million SPIDs were issued by post offices. I’m convinced that the company draws strength precisely from its pervasiveness, from its 12,800 post offices. Only companies that maintain their physical presence throughout the territory can play an active role in the country's digitization. Because the digital divide is not only geographic but also intergenerational, and it will continue for many years. It will therefore not be possible without physical infrastructure. Not least, without such a widespread physical network, we would not even be able to collect and manage the savings of Italians, who have always contributed to the country's development and competitiveness thanks to the construction of public works and infrastructure networks."
 
What considerations resulted in the idea of making the Poste digital platform available to the vaccination campaign?

"Since the beginning of the pandemic, Poste Italiane has shown it supports residents and plays a social role in the country: it has never stopped, guaranteeing all essential services. This includes services relating to the distribution of vaccines provided by our SDA express courier, which has so far delivered about 20 million doses to Italian regional governments. We therefore decided to offer our technological agility to institutions to promote the national vaccination campaign and we were commissioned to create a platform for vaccine bookings and data collection to be made available to the regions. Our technological infrastructure allows vaccinations to be booked online, through the call center or through Postamat ATMs and PDAs supplied to mail carriers. Poste Italiane thus contributed significantly to the vaccination campaign, especially here in Milan and Lombardy. It was also an opportunity for me to give back a part of what I received from my Alma Mater and the city that welcomed me so many years ago as a student.”
 
 
Biography
A 54-year-old Florence native, married and with two children, Matteo Del Fante is CEO and General Manager of Poste Italiane. His career began at JP Morgan even before graduating with honors from Bocconi in Political Economy. “Initially, I thought I wanted to study economics at a foreign university and become an economist,” Del Fante recalls. “I was also offered a Fullbright scholarship for a PhD in the United States, but I turned it down after accepting an internship at JP Morgan in London. That was my sliding door. Working at an investment bank was a very important training ground which also allowed me to learn more about the dossiers that the Italian government submitted to the bank through the Ministry of Economy and Finance. From there my career as a manager at Treasury subsidiary enterprises began.” Thus, the position of Director General in Cassa Depositi e Prestiti was followed by a position at Terna as General Manager and, starting in 2017, at Poste Italiane. However, Bocconi's imprint remains intact. “The Bocconi lesson that I always carry with me is undoubtedly its culture of merit,” says Del Fante. “In those classrooms I was taught that merit is the only unit of measurement to use to assess the value of students and people. The merit of those who know how to be committed, learn, participate, all without shortcuts, and which becomes indispensable when taking on management roles at companies providing services for the collective interest."

by Emanuele Elli
Translated by Jenna Walker


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