Businesses that do business

Judgement day. It appears now that finally things are being called to account…. which means, speaking of Italy, the accounts obviously don’t balance up.

This may be the case. Perhaps this is just one of the many, all too many indicators that state that Italy is done for, if not immediately, certainly soon, this concerning competitivity, investments, employment, corruption…
Perhaps though, due to this very climate one cannot but register and highlight cases from the world of doing that subtract themselves, like a sort of life-raft, from the disastrous general state of affairs.
Examples, that I would not call  isolated, of people (groups, companies, associations) who  are still looking ahead, with faith, to an imminent palingenesis. As if to say: everything is still possible.

This was stated with conviction by Pietro Lironi, outgoing president of Giflex, in occasion of the Autumn Congress held in Florence, that had the title “Work underway….beyond the crisis”: «We have to prepare ourselves because sure enough the difficult situation will finish. We have to find a way to do better than we have done up to today». And he speaks in facts, or that is those of a sector, flexible packaging, that, among the few, continues to grow even in these troubled times.

Well and fine, if the objective is “press beyond”, the watchwords that most frequently spring up are innovation, internationalisation, sustainability, cooperation.

Innovation not so much of the product – as ever important – but of the way of viewing ones own business.
This is the case of Elena Sampellegrini who inherited her father’s company, Taba Srl, in disastrous conditions and who, among a thousand difficulties,  in a few months managed to invest in a  new realty going from the production of caps for car batteries to that of containers and accessories for the cosmetics sector. A woman with courage and with clear ideas:«I want to offer my products “packed” up nicely,  I want my smile, my energy, and my love of doing to come  across and in the end I want the customer  to be happy with the purchase they have made».

Fortunately – contradicting Sampellegrini  - not all the great stories are born out of sadness and pain.
Proof of this is offered by Pusterla 1880 (owned by the Meana family) that, coherently with a past and a present of excellence in well able to “to turn imagination into reality through enthusiasm and passion” (1), announced, in the occasion of Luxe Pack, a strategic alliance with the London Fancy Box Co Ltd (Dover, U) which will lead to the creation of one of the largest paper converting groups in Europe focussed on high end cardboard packaging.

But the Italians involved in packaging are not only capable of looking abroad with garb and longsightedness,  but also how to do business in an intelligent, or that is sustainable manner.
This is what sets Boxmarche apart, a Corinaldo (AN) based company, that for the tenth year in succession has drawn up and published its own integrated document on economical-financial and social matters plus human resources. A Global Report that renders justice to Italian industry by countering the many clichés that state that Italian companies are incapable of organizing themselves and operating their companies transparently. A document that offers an account and the bears witness to the commitment, the results and the pride of the people of this company, and that we find summed up in a justifiably highlighted quotation “the technology that we are most proud of, goes home every evening”(2). Worth reading, believe me.

Innovation, internationalisation, sustainability but also cooperation… like that fielded by the two companies with the objective of  giving “eyes to automation”. The Austrian company B&R and the American Cognex Corporation, protagonists in their respective fields of automation and vision system,, have shown recently on the occasion of two “live workshops” and a press encounter,  how productivity can be increased choosing to use single  growth environment and a standard bus, such as Powerlink. As of to say that the time for remaining enclosed in your own garden, however lush, florid and scented it may be, has passed.

Summing up… Let’s get a move on! Or, if it sounds better to you, Gotta Kick It!

(1) Giuseppe Meana, Pusterla 1880. Making ones mark (Pusterla 1880 SpA)
(2) Giuliano De Minicis, Boxmarche Global Report 2012 (Box Marche SpA)