The School of Industrial Administration (SAI) was founded in Turin in 1957, on the intuition of Prof. Federico Maria Pacces and with the support of the main economic and entrepreneurial realities of Turin. In this way, one of the first and most significant examples of strategic collaboration between the academic world and the entrepreneurial world for the training of managerial resources is realized.

In December 1974, SAI changed its name to Scuola di Amministrazione Aziendale (SAA) of the University of Turin, the only Italian Business School to:

• be an integral part of the university system;
• issue legally recognized diplomas;
• operate in the city that is the symbol of Italian industrial culture;
• introduce learning paths calibrated to the real needs of the entrepreneurial world.

All these uniquenesses have responded to a single mission: to train managers capable of guiding companies towards results.

Since its inception, SAA has distinguished itself for its ability to anticipate change and to represent a concrete laboratory for the experimentation and development of innovative training methodologies for both university education and management training.

With more than half a century of experience in teaching and collaboration with companies, SAA is fully aware of the processes of change in the corporate world and it is in this perspective that it has enriched its training offerings, including courses designed to respond to the changed logic of doing business, among which the theme of sustainability and the generation of social impact play a fundamental role today.

Another qualifying feature of its learning pathways is represented by the teaching staff that synthesizes, in a mix with high added value, the knowledge and scientific rigor of the academic world with the concreteness and experience of those who work in a business reality.

The structure, integrated with the University of Turin, has implemented interdisciplinary projects that have as their subject the management in its various forms: it was and is the link between the world of research, higher education and economic fabric.

In January 2013, SAA S.c.ar.l. was set up which, capitalizing on experience, knowledge and relationships with the economic fabric, in collaboration with the University, has the twofold aim of

• to continue and intensify the collaboration with the Universities in the development of high managerial training courses with high didactic intensity
• offer companies integrated training projects that combine solid experience in managerial training with the real needs of clients.

Among the emerging developments that are characterizing the evolution of organizational and managerial models of companies, the theme of the social impact generated is now one of the most salient. It requires a profound review of management models, in particular those relating to the management of human resources, but more generally of the very role and meaning of being and doing business.

How to generate social impact, how to modify organizational and managerial practices and models in order to acquire this capacity, are areas of research, analysis, training and accompaniment of companies that SAA pursues and concretizes in a range of activities, such as studies, workshops and meetings with companies, training courses of various levels and duration, dedicated to issues such as the management and enhancement of diversity, new organizational practices and human resources management, the impact on health and organizational and personal well-being, the management of cultural and organizational change, etc..

In its role as a bridge between business, public sector, third sector, with the intent to “hybridize” and contaminate these worlds, SAA promotes in particular moments of encounter and joint planning aimed at developing new and fruitful relationships of collaboration and integration between these worlds in the generation of social impact. In this sense SAA stands as a reference point for updating and training of the Third Sector, accompanying the process of transformation.

Through LabNET, SAA’s innovation laboratory, a specific field of study in which SAA plays a role of research, innovation and knowledge transfer, is that of new practices, methodologies and tools for social intervention, with particular attention to the theme of Social and Relational Capital, Social Networks, emerging methodologies of intervention, on issues such as labor market, health and welfare, community, poverty and social exclusion.