19 February 2016
Building strategies for assaulting new markets and leaving behind the choked dimension of national demand, identifying partners in both internal and global contexts, making mergers or acquisitions with the assurance of an authoritative technical and legal profile, seeking extraordinary financing tools to pursue routes to growth. These are the priorities for the small and medium-sized enterprises in North Eastern Italy, who are calling on companies to free themselves from the burdens of the crisis and to re-launch at an international level and with new networking projects.
These targets focus on GESTA, an innovative business network that has been created to support Northeastern enterprises in merger processes and internationalisation strategies. Founded by companies and professional firms specialized in strategic business development consultancy such as Alquimia, FinLife, Sinedi and MDA business lawyers, GESTA operates in strategic analysis, legal advice and management consulting, corporate finance, internationalization process , the re-use of industrial areas, Mergers & Acquisitions, enterprise networks.
Therefore, a new subject in a territory that today is changing its profile. And to deal with north eastern entrepreneurs and institutions on networking strategies, legislative opportunities, and the tools required to become the protagonists of international business, Gesta has invited three first-level observers: the Censis President Giuseppe De Rita, the President of Cassa di Risparmio del Veneto Giovanni Costa and Nicola Riello, Chairman of Riello Investimenti. On Thursday, December 6 (from 10 am) at Roncade (TV) at the H-Farm venture incubator space, these three exceptional guests will attend the round table "BEYOND THE FAMILY ENTERPRISE - a project for the north-east to not give up the family jewels of small business" . The event will be introduced by the president of H-Farm Riccardo Donadon and Marco Costamagna, partner Gesta.
“Today entrepreneurship needs a project for a different kind of competitiveness - Gesta's partners emphasise in one voice-. The alternative is to be left behind as inadequate. And the professional system supporting companies in their evolution must prove itself to be up to the challenges imposed by the new economic environment. Our new hub brings together prominent professionals and resources in dealing with long-distance networks and transnational projects. "
The key dialogue partner is identified in the galaxy of small and medium-sized enterprises which now occupy over 80% of the Italian workforce and account for 75% of GDP. In the north east, those SMEs are often niche leaders, pocket-sized multinationals able to deal with global technology giants, but just as often they cannot escape from the local setting and fully develop their great potential. Now they are realising that if they abandon the purely family business dimension they can evolve towards systems that can adapt them to the changing world, without losing focus on their values or on their links with the territorial context.
BUSINESS NETWORKS TO COMPETE. 412 network contracts have been registered in the last year in Italy with more than 2,100 companies involved. 70% of the companies that have decided to join in a network contract have increased their income, investment and workforce. One company in four has improved its know-how and business relationships.
More and more Italian SMEs have chosen to change their skin and have finally made the move that today can prove decisive, adhering to the Network Contract promoted by the Government. They have realised that creating networks is the key to (re) launching on national and international markets, without however having to renounce their regional allegiance. And Veneto, the locomotive of Italy, is in fourth place among the regions with most active networked contracts.
The protagonists of this silent revolution are small businesses (98% of which have less than 20 employees) that have been aiming to increase stability and flexibility without sacrificing their autonomy and independence as fundamental values of the Italian production system. The declared benefits are numerous. For 63.8% of SMEs it has increased their competitive capacity and penetration in the Italian market, for 59.9% it has encouraged product and service innovation, for 52.3% a common brand promotion, while an increase in European Market penetration is the prerogative of 50.7% of companies belonging to the network.
60% of the contracted companies, however, complained about the lack of attention of the banking system towards networks and their development. A point for reflection.