Finmeccanica CEO inaugural lecture

Business School's latest adjunct professor Dr Pier Guarguaglini gave his inaugural lecture to an invited audience

Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, chairman and chief executive officer of Finmeccanica, marked a strategic collaboration between London's Imperial College and the Italian-based aerospace, defence and security group with his first lecture as adjunct professor at the college's business school.

Professor Guargualini's lecture - Talent, Technology and Growth: Finmeccanica's Re-engineering Strategy -outlined how the group's relentless emphasis on human capital has seen it grow to a 70,000 employee, £10billion per annum turnover group able to compete with American-based competitors Boeing and Lockheed.

The public lecture is part of Finmeccanica's Executive Leadership Programme, developed with Imperial College Business School. The advanced management course will, each year, put 100 of the group's most promising young executives through a demanding programme aimed at consolidating leadership skills that are seen as essential for competing successfully in a global market.

Continuing education, measuring oneself with colleagues, and sharing skills, strategies, and goals: are the basic ingredients of the initiative, which is emblematic of the group's significant investment in education and human resources development. The aim is to propagate a new managerial approach that rewards merit, responsibility, and operating efficiency, to build a Finmeccanica that is ever better able to confront the challenges of the future on a global level.

The project is part of a broader strategic collaboration agreement between Finmeccanica and Imperial College signed in 2009. The partnership aims not only to create innovative management training and development plans, but also to set up joint research projects and collaboration.