Today, almost all enterprises share a common feature: in an ever-changing economic and political environment, they need to integrate within an ongoing scheme of change.

Planning, if not anticipating, change has become a key component of business management. An enterprise that does not integrate changes within its development strategy is doomed to failure.

Understanding and managing change constitute the overriding topics of modern management. Being capable of adapting to an environment in constant change is an indicator of success in a future marked by uncertainty.

It is worth pointing out that the implementation of a scheme for change is not, and should not, be an end in itself. So as to ensure success to it, the enterprise should draw upon such a scheme in order to develop sustained control and improvement processes.

It is also advisable not to look upon change as a necessity or a constraint, but to consider it rather as an opportunity which we need to make profitable use of.

Any project of management of change rests on a number of key stages. These are: analysis of what is available, development of solutions, implementation and monitoring. The success of the project depends mainly on the clarity of the objectives, on short and long term planning, on adhesion by the staff and on regular and transparent information about the implementation of the project.

Within a globalised economy, where international competition, innovation and the use of new technologies play an increasingly decisive role, the time factor has become one of the most important components of the success of the strategy of any enterprise. The task is no longer to merely achieve the objectives set beforehand; it is, above all, to achieve the (measurable and sustainable) result in the shortest time period possible.

The true test for any given strategy is its implementation. And there is no recipe for that. For each enterprise, and for each problem or issue, there should be devised an appropriate methodology. It is in this regard, in fact, that the enterprise's internal competencies have a paramount role to play.

These are, indeed, the topics we propose to consider in this presentation.