Today, inventions are born in “smart” work environments

A modern, dynamic and welcoming office is a guarantee of innovation. This is what data from the European Patent Office says.
Do you remember the story of Google and its inventors Larry Page and Sergey Brin, confined in a garage to revolutionise the world of computer communication and the Internet with brilliant intuitions? Well, it’s time to put it aside.
Today, inventiveness – or at least that part of inventiveness that translates into feasible and patentable innovation – depends heavily on the environment in which we operate, work, communicate and interact with colleagues and neighbours. Whether they are at a desk or working on the floor.
This comes from the data on Italy in the 2018 report of the European Patent Office: while Italy ranks 19th in the world for innovative skills, with 70 (approved) patent applications for every million inhabitants, the situation changes drastically looking at the numbers for Lombardy alone, where smart forms of work and sharing are used more, the development of modern types of a flexible and shared office is more advanced and, according to ISTAT data, the percentage of employees is higher than the national average for each age group, thus promoting inter-generational relations and exchanges of know-how.
In Lombardy, the patents filed per million inhabitants are more than double the national average (143/million inhabitants), a result even higher than that found in the USA, the first country in the world in terms of absolute number of patents registered (130/million inhabitants).
In short, a modern, dynamic and welcoming work environment not only guarantees greater well-being for employees, but also allows companies to maximise their results, and sometimes even have an impact on the future of their sector.