By EXP Legal 

In a moment of crisis such as the one we are experiencing in recent months, thinking about new business internationalization strategies or export plans can be a winning choice, in a medium-long term, especially for Italian SMEs that may struggle to regain large market shares in the domestic market.

In this context, despite all the problems deriving from the epidemiological emergency, the United States remain the first commercial partner of Made in Italy among the non-EU countries and the third Italian commercial partner at worldwide level.

With a total of 42.4 billion euros of exports, 2018 closed with an increase in Italian sales to the USA of 5% compared to 2017. The provisional data for 2019 show an increase compared to 2018 of 6.5% (SACE-Simest data).

Furthermore, despite the fact that in March 2020, for the commercial exchange with non-EU27 countries, a clear reduction was recorded both for Italian exports (-13.9%) and imports (-12.4%), the USA were the only market in which our exports grew in the first quarter of 2020 (+0.9%).

For these reasons, EXP Legal – Italian & International Firm, in partnership with the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce Southeast, has organized two webinars with the aim to provide companies with an overview of the business internationalization opportunities in the United States.

The topic of the first webinar will be “how to start a business in the USA”: from obtaining visas to establishing a branch/subsidiary and subsequent fulfilments. During the second online event a successful business case in the United States carried out by an Italian company will be analyzed in detail:

• Fare impresa negli USA pt. 1: costituzione di una filiale e questioni legali, fiscali e di diritto dell’immigrazione (Monday, 8 June 2020 at 3:30 p.m., ITA time – zoom platform). Register here: https://bit.ly/3cdIFg4
• Fare impresa negli USA pt. 2: analisi di un “business case” (Monday, 22 June 2020 at 3:30 p.m., ITA time – zoom platform). Register here: https://bit.ly/2AnzD36

The two webinars will be in Italian language.

For more information please contact the Firm at info@explegal.it.

By Magniflex USA

Italian mattress giant, Magniflex, has dedicated part of their focus to quality, washable, Made in Italy face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. Magniflex is committed to supporting the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce during this tough time by offering face masks to its members at wholesale price and has pledged to donate $1 per each sold mask to the Italian Chamber as a contribution to help support their initiatives that promote Made in Italy during this time of need.

SPECIAL OFFER FOR IACCSE MEMBERS

Face Mask with Italian Flag and adjustable ear laces:

– $6.99 per mask, sold in 5-pack

– Minimum order 5 masks

– Shipping included with USPS

– Faster UPS shipping – $4.99 surcharge for orders of 5, free for orders of 10+ masks

– $1 per mask will be donated to IACCSE

Face Mask in Blue with adjustable ear laces:

– $5.99 per mask, sold in 5-pack

– Minimum order 5 masks

– Shipping included with USPS

– Faster UPS shipping – $4.99 surcharge for orders of 5, free for orders of 10+ masks

– $1 per mask will be donated to IACCSE

The face masks are made in 95% cotton and 5% spandex and can be washed up to 10 times when using common detergents. Additional colors and customizations (e.g. personalized logo) are available for orders of minimum 250 pieces.

Throughout the pandemic Magniflex was proud to donate face masks to the Forest Firefighting Surveillance Service (VAB – Vigilanza Antincendio Boschivo), which works hard every day to deliver groceries to the elderly and less fortunate. To show continued support and gratitude Magniflex also made a donation of face masks to the Meyer Hospital in Florence during the COVID-19 crisis.

These masks are great for the service, restaurant, and hospitality industries.

For more information on pricing and ordering please contact silvia.galasso@magniflex.us.

By Digitance 

COVID-19 emergency has forced governments, in many countries around the world, to impose drastic measures of social distancing. One of the main consequences of this decision was the immediate increase in the use of ICT technologies, in order to fill the inconveniences imposed by this distancing.

For example, educational institutions have replaced face-to-face classrooms with remote teaching. Companies immediately began to use the “Smart Working” methods in a massive way. The ordinary citizens, forced into their homes, have used video communication as an alternative to direct socialization.

Digitance believes that human factor always remains the fundamental element in every activity, in every process. Its centrality is indisputable.

Human behaviours are a crucial element in every analysis, in every situation.

The massive use of ICT tools, in the past few months, has brought public attention to the increasingly frequent and pressing actions of hackers who, taking advantage of the situation, have become progressively aggressive.

Apart from any technological disquisition, a “first line of defence” against hacking actions can undoubtedly be represented by some “virtuous” personal behaviours towards tools and technology applications.

First, in the use of “social media”, we should never describe our habits, our lifestyles and, above all, we would never talk about our possible absences from home and from office. This is information that hackers would know how to exploit.

We should learn how to build “strong” passwords, wisely using the full range of available characters, including special ones. We should never use full names connected to us and not even places or dates.

We should create our own personal password rotation policy. We would try not to keep the same password for more than a month on the same application and create our own archive of passwords and rotation criteria, which we will keep outside of our PCs, smartphones, tablets, etc.

As far as possible, we should avoid using free email services, web conferencing, VoIP, etc. … the so-called “no-cost economy” does not cope with security. Free platforms are the preferred target of hackers, who take advantage of the intrinsic weakness of the platforms themselves.

As soon as possible, we should equip ourselves with a system for encrypting our data, our hard disks, in order to decrease their vulnerability.

These are just a few small tips, which can however start to define a virtuous behavioural model, that could be a robust base to start building – with the help of a specialized company such as Digitance Group – a real Security Management System.