Small and medium enterprises which have developed an original Italian Way of Doing Industry stay power in front of the present severe crisis. Not the same happens to the great majority of Italian SME. Societal factors hampers the Italian SME, as fiscal burden, labour costs, bureaucracy, organized crime and corruption and other. Reason why the increase of internal capabilities of firms are crucial in this severe environment. Three are the recommendations to management and government for increasing the capabilities of SME: the strategic use of ICT, the cooperation in networks, the entrepreneurial succession. Technology should be integrated in the different formal and not formal components of the organization; networks of enterprises should be developed though financial, ICT, consultancy, educational services; forms of participative governance beyond monocratic leadership should be developed.
Keywords: SME; sociotechnical design; network enterprises; governance.