Italy from its entrepreneurs' perspective

Next post Thursday November 17th due to technical problems (no time and the on going process of new Italian government) next post is delayed to Monday November 21st. Sorry for that and thank you for your patience. 

I had the chance to talk with two entrepreneurs recently, one is the owner of a medium chemical company with an international market while the second one was actually the HR Director of a big company in the coal market. They were describing me the success of their companies, growing in competitive markets. None of the two companies is present in the Italian stock exchange.  So in some way their good performances are not recorded and are not taken into account while describing the statistical situation of Italy. 

Let me start from these news to get back to the economical climate in our country. Some days ago our primer minister claimed that there is no crisis in Italy since restaurants are overbooked and you cannot reserve easily a vacation.

Well it may be overestimated and too sharply said, but that it is not far from the truth.

Although the crisis bites hard and a lot of people are under pressure, especially professional people and consultants are the first in the row, the general trend could be described as clouded but sunny.

Some segments are suffering indeed, some others on the contrary are growing, and growing fast.

Let’s talk about banks as an example: we all know that banks could be defined the core problem of this financial crisis, and their present position is what seems to jeopardize the whole western economy status.

That’s not completely true in Italy. Yes, we do have big banks, big names, but we also have a lot of small local banks, founded to support local agricultural entrepreneurs or craftsmen. Small local banks, mostly based on an cooperative approach, who were not affected by greed or the desire to grow mainly through derivatives and speculations. Many of them are not even quoted at the Stock Exchange market.

And they are solid, still able to support the growth of their clients. Who are mainly small enterprise, craftsmen, farmer.

And who are considering to export and supply a global market. They need to mature and change approach and mentality. That’s true. But they are solid, someone maybe not strong, not even weak and fragile.

Isn’t this a good reason to consider Italy as an interesting market?