Project Management

When: 19 & 20 November (08:30 – 17:30)

Where: USI Executive Center, Blue Room

Why do so many projects fail? Why do so many others fail to produce lasting results? Why do so many projects suffer from cost and time overruns? How can firms identify and design high-leverage policies to improve project performance? In this course, we will cover three important aspects of project management:

• The theory, methods, and quantitative tools used to effectively plan, organize, and control projects;
• Techniques for managing projects more effectively revealed through practice and research; and
• Hands-on, practical project management knowledge from optimization and simulation exercises.

Goals and objectives we aim to achieve in this course:

Financial Performance Measurements and their use

When: 26 & 27 November (08:30 – 17:30)

Where: USI Executive Center, Blue Room

This course provides the necessary information and tools to understand accounting performance measurement and their use in management. Successful completion of this course will result in improved financial agility and higher awareness of the effect of use of financial measures in decision making, control, and learning processes.

In terms of skill objectives, the participant will gain:

• A better command of “language of accounting”, and of the main Key Financial Indicators
• the ability to access financial strengths and weaknesses
• the awareness about the strengths and limitations of financial accounting measurements both
– for financial markets (external financial communication)
– or management (internal financial communication) understanding their effects on management behavior and decision making e.g. the manager myopia problem
• an understanding of how to design and use integrated performance measurement systems (balanced scorecard design and use)

Professor Laura Zoni, PhD Bocconi University

Ph.D. in Accountancy, Bocconi University. She he is currently Full Professor at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Senior Professor at SDA Bocconi, and MISB Bocconi. She has been Associate Visiting Professor at STERN School of Business, New York University (1995-1998 and 2008-2012) and at INSEAD, Fontainebleau (1999-2000). Sometimes consultant to the United Nation Development Program and the European Union for management training projects in Eastern Europe, Russia, Kirghizstan and Kazakhstan. She has been consulting to the industry on performance measurement systems design and implementation.
Research interests include the role of CFO, innovation and control, management of change and accounting change, role of performance measurement systems and international development, CEO compensation and incentives. Independent Board Member of Yoox Net-a-Porter since 2015.

To enroll, email us: emba@usi.ch

“My Path with Sintetica”

Special Keynote Speaker: Nicola Caronzolo, Corporate CEO, Sintetica SA

When: 18 November 5.45 PM

Where: Executive Center, USI

Nicola Caronzolo, Corporate CEO of Sintetica SA, headquartered in Mendrisio, Switzerland.

SINTETICA SA.

Established in 1921 and headquartered in Mendrisio, Sintetica is a Swiss pharmaceutical company delivering injectable medicines to patients worldwide, through innovative science and excellence in development, production and marketing.

Sintetica has developed a clear innovation strategy following patient needs and new sustainable pharma trends.

For more info, visit the website: https://sintetica.com/

Nicola Caronzolo.

I deeply love this company for which I have worked for 20 years with passion, energy and dedication. I love its nature, its history, the magical mix that we have been able to build, all together, between great professionalism in doing and deep respect in living.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in Industrial Chemistry at the University of Milan, Nicola Caronzolo specialised in Polymer Science at the Giulio Natta School in Milan. A dual-national, Italian and Swiss, Nicola Caronzolo lives with his family in Lugano, Canton Ticino. After his studies, Mr. Caronzolo worked as an academic researcher at the University of Milan and afterwards for a company that manufactured polymeric support drugs. He joined Sintetica in 2002, when the company was beginning its progressive path of major expansion. He had an extensive career in the Industrial Affairs division and, after several years as Chief Operating Officer, he was appointed CEO of the company in February 2022. In his new role as CEO, Nicola Caronzolo intends to work to consolidate the major strategic directions of marketing Sintetica’s products in the most important global markets.
At the same time, he is committed to further strengthening the innovation sector, one of the hallmarks of this pharmaceutical company known for the quality of its products and its ability to innovate therapies by customising the answers to questions from professionals. What he finds fascinating is that such a growing company faces many challenges. Those challenges are determined by the company itself, and everyone works together to overcome them.

Book your place: emba@usi.ch

Connect with academics and practitioners to move beyond current practice, exchanging the knowledge and expertise that will keep Switzerland at the top of banking & finance.

USI Executive MBA is pleased to announce the participation to the 17th Annual Meeting of the Swiss Finance Institute.

Join us for the day in Zurich, Lake Side, on 10 November, from 13:30 to 17:30.

• Prof. Franklin Allen

Professor of Finance and Economics, Vice Dean of Research and Faculty, and Director of the Brevan Howard Centre at Imperial College London

• Ralph Hamers

UBS Group Chief Executive Officer

• Dr. Andréa M. Maechler

Member of the Governing Board of Swiss National Bank

• Prof. Jean-Charles Rochet

SFI Senior Chair, SFI Head of Research, University of Geneva

• Moderator: Carolin Roth

Business Journalist

17th Annual Meeting

USI has progressed and moved from the 301-350 range to the 201-250 range of 1799 universities reviewed in the new rankings of the world’s best universities. A step forward that also impacts the national rankings, which sees USI climb from eighth to seventh in Switzerland, tied with the University of Geneva. This progress, along with the number of matriculations for the 2022-23 academic year setting a new record, is a significant achievement that highlights the quality of the university.

“I am very pleased with this new result,” stresses USI Deputy Rector Lorenzo Cantoni, “which shows the commitment of everyone – faculty, students, administrative staff – to the USI’s development and excellence in teaching, research and service to the region. The ranking also marks that, in just 26 years, USI has shown that it fully belongs to the Swiss university system, which is considered among the best in the world and is attractive and competitive globally… It is an achievement, I believe, of which the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland can be proud and which inspires us to do even better.” 

The Times Higher Education is one of the world’s most widely used and well-known academic rankings, along with the QS World University Rankings, in which USI is also featured. The rankings are compiled based on the analysis of numerous data. From these, indicators are developed, such as bibliometric data (citations and references in scientific publications), the impact of the research carried out by universities, the quality of teaching and international perspective. Results may vary among rankings because different indicators are used and weighted differently in the calculation of rankings.

More details on Times Higher Education Rankings 2023:
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2023/world-ranking 

Overview of USI’s position in the different rankings: 
www.usi.ch/it/universita/chi-siamo/dati-e-cifre/ranking

Roberto, could you explain why you decided to take an Executive MBA program and what motivated you to study at the EMBA of Università della Svizzera italiana?

I have always been a great believer in training, most of all in continuous training. Training, determination and passion I believe are fundamental elements in any field.

I am an Executive Director, Private Banker, at Bank J. Safra Sarasin in Lugano and I have been active for over 25 years in the Swiss Banking sector; specifically in Private Banking. I have a degree as an Economist; a title obtained at the Applied Sciences University Lugano (SUPSI). Banking and Finance are sectors where demand is increasingly complex and sophisticated. I strongly believe that the only way to always ensure a high level of quality content is to constantly question oneself and never remain in that comfort zone in which we are used to living.

Why an EMBA at USI? I make no secret of the fact that I have also considered other solutions at two prestigious universities; one of which is in Milan and the other based in Zurich. Regardless of the costs and distances compared to Lugano, I felt that the quality content that USI in Lugano would give me was incomparable in terms of network due to the very high status of the international professors with whom I could interact.

Between 2020 and 2021, Università della Svizzera italiana undertook the independent procedure led by the Swiss Quality Assurance Agency (AAQ), which examines the quality system of Swiss higher education institutions, on a regular basis.  Your contribution helped the University to overcome the institutional accreditation. Could you share your experience?

I was asked to participate as an EMBA student representative in an interview by the Supervising Commission for Accreditation at USI.

It was undoubtedly a very interesting experience. I won’t hide the fact that initially I had no idea what a university institutional accreditation process meant. I had the opportunity to meet other representatives of the various faculties.

It was then necessary for me to read up on the self-evaluation reports, the professional accreditation guide and to familiarize myself with the complexity of the processes and the respective terminology used. My takeaway from this experience was highly positive. I got confirmation that USI is an important international hub with enormous potential to attract the entirety of Canton Ticino tremendously.

To what extent would you say the EMBA has made you grow personally?

It has contributed to my personal growth on three main levels. Firstly, I had to get used to navigating outside of my comfort zone. After this step, I was able to develop an out of the box approach in the sense of having to find solutions and to think quickly from a problem-solving perspective. Thirdly, the network: I had the privilege of getting to know a diverse range of colleagues and professors with very interesting profiles.

 With what tools did the USI Executive MBA provide you?

The raw materials of an EMBA are the depth of the teaching staff, the program itself, the infrastructure and the course participants.

Most of the lecturers have a high international profile. They come from important professional backgrounds, prestigious universities and academic institutions. The curriculum was largely an excellent level with innovative content and methods. The infrastructure and organisation have, in my view, confirmed my expectations.

How has the EMBA helped advance your banking career?

Refining managerial skills and through the in-depth study of notions of a more technical nature. Some subjects have already been addressed in the past in a more didactic form, but this time were adapted and tailored to the concreteness of professional needs.

On the management front, my career has benefitted thanks to the techniques learnt during the EMBA. By way of example I am thinking of those in-depth modules such as organization behavior, change management, leadership or negotiation. On other more technical contents, the modules on Finance, Innovation & Creativity, Accounting, Economics, HR or Quantitative Methods proved to be the most advantageous for me in my career.

How will your employer benefit from your participation in the Executive MBA?

Both in terms of managerial skills and in terms of added value to the service required. In general, having qualified and up-to-date personnel gives the company a competitive advantage, and that is before we regard the positive reputational aspects.

What is your advice to those interested in the EMBA?

Think out of the Box. If you are considering an EMBA then you have probably decided that you want to change something in your life. Don’t wait. You will always find a thousand reasons to put it off; don’t. Take the steps towards a change in your life.