After meeting Elena Corsi – Development Unit Manager, Vittoria Monleale – Impact Developer and Giuseppe Lombardini – General Manager, the journey inside our team ends with the words of Enzo Viganò, President, who offers an overview of CISA’s role as Advisor to the Public Administration between current challenges and future prospects.
- CISA’s mission is to support the evolution and development of an area by identifying strategic, financial and governance tools in a programmable and incremental logic. In the world of consultancy for Public Administration, what is the element that distinguishes CISA?
2019 was the year of the turning point, of the paradigm shift, the year in which we developed and started to apply the ‘CISA’ model as an adaptation of the European institution of the I.T.I. (Integrated Territorial Investment) to make it performant applied to small and medium-sized Public Administration. It is our flagship. Our DNA. Moreover, within the model, we have been able to use the I.T.I. tool to accompany the Municipalities in the development of projects that benefit the territory, where the territory is the same Municipalities that have joined the I.T.I. without having to cut current expenditure, a revolution. The synergy that is created helps to combine aspects ranging from politics, to finance, to the needs of the territory, all framed in a strategic vision useful to provide support for the implementation of infrastructure enabling the development of mobility and accessibility services, digital transition, preservation and enhancement of historical and cultural heritage, repopulation and development of new economies, sustainable energy and tourism enhancement.
- CISA specialises in supporting small Municipalities in particular: what are the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis in these contexts?
The common denominator always remains I.T.I. and the model with which we bring it to the territory. Urgency bingo with current expenditure, Administrations are often struggling with the day-to-day running of the Municipality with obvious staffing problems, both administrative and technical. It makes no difference if a Municipal Secretary or the Technical Manager of a Municipality is shared by other Municipalities with the result that they can barely cope with the day-to-day. In a context such as this, ‘availability and skills’ become added value in the service of results, the real challenge lies in being perceived as additional resources, not competition. This attitude has always characterised our operations and is an important distinguishing element that is recognised as well as appreciated.
- More and more often, unfortunately, Administrations are forced to favour emergency management instead of taking a long-term view. What is CISA’s role in this? And what is the important element in ensuring that projects continue over time?
From the very first moment that we approach the I.T.I., our modus operandi sees us paying attention to assessing the position of the individual administration, with respect to the others that are part of the I.T.I., with regard to the needs of the Administration itself, the sharing of projects that have affinities with other Municipalities, and all seen in a logic of sharing the territory. We never take a hit and run, but we engage with the Municipalities through the proposal as a promoter of a Service Project that ends with the signing of a multi-year concession in this way we are guaranteed continuity in the long term, even 8 or 9 years. But that’s not all, a project company is created to manage the concession, into which local personnel also flow, which at the natural expiry of the concession will continue to operate in the spirit of Integrated Territorial Investment, thus guaranteeing continuity for the future. This is the real added value, the activity that over the years contributes to the training of the managers to whom the management of the territory will then be entrusted.
- You have been active since 2018 and have toured almost all of Italy: in these years of activity in the Municipalities, have you noticed a change in attitude with respect to the willingness to collaborate to try to improve one’s own territory?
I call it the ‘good politics’ that advances in a context where the Mayor interprets the concept of
government of the territory with a vision that goes beyond his own mandate. More and more often one encounters administrators who are willing to invest in long-term projects and who, free from the logic of parochialism, are aware that the management of their own Municipality must be shared with the Municipalities of the surrounding area, think of mobility issues, transport and the sharing of sports facilities. This is a new spirit that I find in the new generations entering politics, but also in those long-standing mayors who understand how, through the collaboration that Cisa proposes through its model, they can have access to a series of opportunities that they would otherwise not be able to tackle alone.
- Looking ahead to 2025, what challenges do you foresee and what prospects do you wish for CISA?
Let’s start with the results: today we have five active concessions in Lombardia and Campania, and situations in the making in Sicilia, Puglia and Calabria, all of which have an average duration of 8/10 years, and which involve complex projects within public-private partnerships where our role is often that of project management for these activities. The first challenge, therefore, is this: to ensure the correct course of the concessions and the achievement of the stated objectives from 2025 and throughout the duration of the concession. Prospectively, we will then aim for further economic growth of Cisa, which will hopefully also correspond to the consolidation of its assets. The full operation of the active concessions and the start-up of those in the feasibility phase foresee an estimated increase in turnover of approximately 50% to 70% by 2025 and will certainly require further investment in terms of human capital both through new hires and through the activation of new strategic partnerships. In fact, in 2025 we will aim to consolidate our market position through partnerships and collaborations with some companies of national importance (SCS CONSULTING/MBS), thus integrating the business proposition and competitiveness of the model we have developed for the design of ‘Integrated Territorial Investments’.
