The premiere networking circle for English-speaking professionals who do business in Italy

American Business Group Milan

Presentation by Laura La Posta, editor-in-chief of Il Sole 24 Ore Rapporti24

Milan, June 7th 2013

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,

I am honoured and very pleased to be with you today and grateful to the American Business Group of Milan for the kind invitation. I am also slightly anxious for my English, and I was actually thinking of inviting as my spokesperson my 7 year old child who probably speaks English better than me. But while she was practicing with Chinese on her iPad and I was preparing a few notes for today, she raised her head and said Mum, you can do that, go ahead. So, here I am. Thank you for the attention and thank God for the new Italian little boys and girls 2.0 we are raising.

I often think of our younger people when I work at Il Sole 24 Ore supplements Rapporti24, as the editor and co-ordinator of a team of journalists: what kind of information could be useful to them, to find a job, to find their way... which tone should we be choosing: the hard truth describing the recession in which Italy is deeply in? And most of all, what country are we going to leave them?

As I see it, journalists should always tell the truth, analyze data objectively, but should also make an effort to look for good news, innovation seeds, diversity champions. We should bring back a sense of optimism in Italy. Our main headline on Il Sole 24 Ore’s front page yesterday was a quote of the entrepreneurs president, Mr Giorgio Squinzi: we MUST believe in growth. Yes, Italy had lost 15% of its manufacturing basis by the end of 2007. Yes, Italy lost more than half a million of jobs in industry, as Confindustria analysis showed on Wednesday. But Italy is still the second manufacturing country in Europe, after Germany, as the World Trade Organization studies show.

You may say: "Of course, everybody knows how good is Italy at producing fine foods, fine wine, glamorous fashion, luxury cars...". But Surprise! Surprise! Made in Italy is strong in much more different and technical areas than you would believe. The Italian mechanical and engineering industry in Europe is second only to Germany. It has a workforce of 200,000 people, revenues of 41.5 billion euros and it exports 56% of its goods.

As a matter of fact, Italy is the seventh manufacturing country in the world for industrial output, after China, United States (which lost its leadership in 2011 but now is growing again), after Japan, Germany, South Korea and India. Italy produces 3% of all industrial production, globally. More than Brazil (which is going to surpass us, apparently, in the future) and France. You can find this analysis on our website Ilsole24ore.com by searching in the Centro Studi Confindustria industrial scenarios presented on June 5th.

Moreover, a recent study by McKinsey Global Institute (Manufacturing the future, released in November 2012) shows that Italian manufacturing industry is fifth in the world for net production (value added). And a recent Fondazione Edison study demonstrates that among the 4,000 most exported goods globally, 1,200 Italian products perform better than German products on the commercial balance point of view. On 5,000 industrial products worldwide exchanged, Italian goods are on the podium for 1,000 products, globally.

As Eurostat data demonstrate, in the Eurozone Italy has six industries of excellence for value added production among 20 industries: in the mechanical and engineering industry, in steel production, in food, furniture, fashion and hard chemical industry (plastic production mainly). As professor Marco Fortis of Fondazione Edison puts it,

Made in Italy is not only food, fashion and furniture, but is more and more related to the mechanical industry, which is worth a surplus of 66 billion euros and is in the third place in the world, after Japan and Germany.

Export is the key: the export of Italian manufacturing goods was worth 373 billion euros in 2012.

Italian small and medium dimension companies mainly built this leadership. The relative importance of SMEs for the Italian economy exceeds by far the EU average: there are approximately 65 SMEs per 1,000 inhabitants in Italy, which is substantially above the EU27 average of 40. Among those enterprises there are what I call the hidden gems of made in Italy: companies that are leaders in the world for their products... companies you never heard of, probably.

A company of Cavriago (near by Reggio Emilia), Landi Renzo, is the worldwide leader of the market for LPG and alternative automotive fuel systems and components. It serves more than 30% of the global market.

Mapei, of Milan (the company of Confindustria president, Mr Squinzi), is a world-leading company in the production of adhesives and chemical products for the building industry, with a consolidated presence in the five continents. The Group invests 12% of its company’s total work-force and 5% of its turnover in R&D; in particular, 70% of its R&D efforts are directed to develop eco-sustainable and environmentally friendly products.

Leitner, a company based in Alto Adige, is the world leader of ropeways: it provides high-tech detachable cabin and chair lifts as well as aerial tramways. It also produces wind turbines: one of them has been built in New Jersey and can be seen from the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Brembo, from Stezzano (near Bergamo), has become the world leader in the braking system market. Brembo started to produce brake discs for cars in 1964; now is operating with 36 plants in 15 different countries and a workforce of more than 6,000 employees.

Agla power transmission system products, created in Avigliana (near by Turin), can be found in Audi and Volkswagen cars. There's not only Fiat in Piedmont, but a cluster of small and medium dimension companies of world level standards.

Fidia, headquarters in San Mauro Torinese, was founded in 1974 by two young engineers graduated at Politecnico in Turin. Nowadays, it is listed among the world’s leading manufacturers of high speed milling systems. And it is opening new plants, in Italy.

Technogym expanded from Cesena to the world: today is a leading company in the wellness and fitness field with over 2,200 employees, 14 branches in Europe, U.S., Asia, Middle East and Australia. More than 65,000 wellness centres are equipped with Technogym systems and 100,000 private homes all over the world.

Fratelli Branca Distillerie, of Milan, is in the top five of the fastest growing global brands in the spirits business all over the world and it's a case study in Argentina, where the national cocktail, Fernandito, is made of Fernet Branca and Cola.

Mermec group, from Monopoli (Bari), is a global leader of hi-tech systems for rail inspection and diagnostics (both systems and vehicles) and railway signalling. Its self-propelled vehicles for rail track and line inspection have been chosen in China, Brazil, Australia and many other countries.

Guala Closures Group, founded in Spinetta Marengo (Alessandria) in the 60’s, is today the world leader in the production of non-refillable closures for spirits. It operates in 5 continents through 25 production plants and and has sold more than 12 billion closures in 100 countries. Probably, the fine wine we had today had a Guala closure.

Robur, a company from Zingonia (near by Bergamo), invented the most efficient heating system in the world. First worldwide, it designs and manufactures modular and air cooled equipment for heating and air conditioning water systems, using the direct fired absorption technology.

We could go on and on for hours. But I think that the message is clear: we should look at facts and figures, raise our head and think that a new Italian miracle is possible. The destination markets will be abroad, but the important thing is that the brain, the know-how, the enthusiasm and part of the workforce are in Italy.

That's the message we - journalists of Il Sole 24 Ore - try to send every day on our integrated communications system: on our newspaper, on our website IlSole24Ore.com, on our radio (Radio24), on the news agency Radiocor, on our books and magazines, in our conferences and masters. We are now celebrating the leadership as the first digital newspaper sold in Italy. We have recently launched our Business Class offer, to be not only news provider but friend and consultant of our readers. We are running to stand still. Now we want to grow again, with our country.

So, finally I want to say once again thank you for the invitation and for your kind attention. And also thank you, from the deepest of my heart, for your interest in Italy.

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