Zucchetti's Best Practice: Internationalization and Research
Truly resilient companies exhibit certain peculiar characteristics. Among them, focus on the product, eye on the long term, and the ability of taking strategic decisions rapidly. Also, customer-centricity and expansion through internationalization are essential. The latter, contrary to common thinking, means focusing on few well-chosen countries, as long as presence on the domestic market is strong. Such is the case of Zucchetti, a corporate group active in the information technology industry, whose current president is Bocconi Alumnus Alessandro Zucchetti. Today, it employs 2,800 employees. Of these, more than a third work for R&D.
What were Zucchetti's moves on the international market?
Going abroad with products made for Italy and then re-adapted to the various markets is no mean feat, but international growth is one of our core objectives and the results are starting to show. Zucchetti has had for quite a while 50 direct collaborators in Romania, as well as a Brazilian subsidiary which develops management software and business intelligence; our strategy is to replicate the indirect sales model which led to our success in Italy, which means we are seeking the best partners in Europe so that they can resell our solutions in their countries.
Have you found them?
Today we have more 200 foreign clients. Initially, it was our Italian cliens who opened offices abroad and asked to digitalize the company also across the border, while today with the help of our partners we are able to find foreign clients independently. In areas such as access control, employee presence detection, CRM applications, ERP, online ticketing, and other services, international software installations are already sizable thanks to the synergies between the companies of the Zucchetti group and partners operating abroad.
Being customer-centric adds resilience to the company..
Listening to the client is a cornerstone of our company culture, along with steady investment in R&D. Today, out of 2,800 employees, more than 1,000 are exclusively devoted to researching and developing new software products. No IT company in Italy, not even major foreign multinationals, has such a high number of people working in R&D.
What are the other elements of resilience?
The company's peculiar business culture, the low average age (35) of our people, and the constant drive of our corporate leadership. These are also reasons why we have become market leaders in all the sectors we are present; the market has rewarded our way of doing things, so much that Zucchetti has become and international brand known for its innovative and reliable solutions.
How does the company react to change?
Change is a constant in our field, so there haven't been veritable shocks, because the company was able to seize evolutionary trends early on. There have been major turning points, however. For instance in the early 2000s, when we were already market leaders in application software, we decide to rewrite completely our web technology offering, in order to anticipate the needs of our clients. It was a major investment effort for the company, but today our supply of web-based solutions is capable of meeting all the requirements dictated by new market paradigms. This is an example of the importance of change: having the courage of discarding established methodologies and worthy products to find even better solutions.