I. Excellence in industry the case of manufacturing enterprises
In collaboration with Servizio Studi of Intesa Sanpaolo and with IMT - Institutions,
Markets, Technologies – Institute for Advanced Studies, Lucca.
To identify “excellence” in industry, all Italian-owned manufacturing businesses with
more than 50 million euro turnover and which in the 2003-05 period demonstrated
particularly brilliant performances in terms ofgrowth e di profitabilityhave been considered.
“Dynamic” evaluation criteria have been chosen, which prioritise capacity for medium
term development, in the absence of pressures to lower prices. Such criteria allow for,
among other things, a classification which is relatively mobile in terms of time: in later
phases of work new “protagonists” can emerge.
In detail, several indicators have been extracted from the civil balance sheets of these
companies, relative to the performance of: growth (growth rate from 2003-05 turnover);
profitability (the relationship between gross operative margin and turnover).
The 100 businesses with the best joint performance in both indicators have been identified
and a representation of their position in three main areas has been constructed: innovation
and value of patents, level of internationalization, value of the brand.
This allowed us to identify a group of 20 ‘excellent’ businesses, which were subject to
deeper case studies.
Excellent businesses
Consistent with the composition of the Italian industry there are many
businesses in the low technology content sectors.
The technological intensity is attributed to the product sector to which the
businesses belong, following OECD criteria to combine sectors and
technological content.
Graph in Italian - Many excellent businesses belong to the world of Fashion.
There is also a significant number of mechanics and metal producing
businesses.
Chemical companies are also well-represented
Most of the businesses are gathered in the North East.
The region with the most “excellent” businesses is Lombardy.
There is a reduced number in the South.
18 businesses belong to industrial districts.
The smaller sizes of businesses (50-75 and 75-150 million ) are the best
represented, confirming the dynamism of this sector of businesses in the recent
trend phase.
The competitive advantage of leading Italian companies is grounded upon distinctive capabilities in
marketing, R&D and internationalization. Three indicators has been devised: I(1) Innovation, I(2) Image,
and I(3) Internationalization. I(1) is based on the number of patents, patent citations, and technological
diversification. I(2) takes into account foreign press coverage, Google’s searches and hits, and company
website visits. I(3) evaluates the number, extension and importance of foreign direct investments. Top 20
companies in terms of I(1)-I(3) are listed below.
Company
Innovation
AGUSTA
AZIMUT BENETTI
COMAS
COSTRUZIONI
SPECIALI
DATALOGIC
DIESEL
ETRO
FABER INDUSTRIE
FERRARI
G.D
GEOX
GOLDEN LADY COMPANY
ILLYCAFFE'
INTERCOS
MACCHINE
Image
Internationalization
LEITNER
LUXOTTICA
NORDICA
TECHNOGYM
TOD S
UFI FILTERS
VALSIR
I. Le eccellenze in campo industriale: il caso delle imprese
manifatturiere