Soon after lifting sanctions, Danieli & C, a leading company in Steel Industry, announced investment of $5.7 billion in Iran Steel and Aluminium Industry. Italy is no doubt proud of presenting itself with Danieli & C, one of its most successful companies.
More than a century ago, Danieli was founded in 1914 in the province of Brescia, Italy. Its shareholders were Daniely and Angelini families. However, difficult years after the First World War cut this partnership short.
Danieli family moved to the province of Friuli Venezia Giulia and established the company in 1929 in Buttrio. Passing to a new generation in 1950 the company changed its strategy from producing steel to making machinery for steel producers.
Thanks to favourable economic period in Italy during the 60s and 70s, the company developed very fast. In 1977 Cecilia Danieli was nominated as the CEO and Gianpietro Benedetti as the Director of Engineering. Golden days were multiplied, lots of investment made Danieli to become a leader in Steel Industry.
Today Danieli with a turnover of €2.8 billion and more than 11.400 employees all around the globe, has one of the most successful stories to tell.
I had the chance to meet Mr. Gianpietro Benedetti, CEO of Danieli since 1999, at the headquarter of Danieli & C in Buttrio. In the following you read this interview.
Danieli growth during the 60s to 70s, when it still was a family owned company, was very considerable. What was the vision of the company at that time?
I think having an innovative idea is more important than having a vision at the beginning. During 60s when we were still in Brescia, we got the idea of making minimills which was new at that time. Using the technology of those days, we succeeded to do some projects in European countries like Germany and Spain.
Our second idea which helped us to grow was providing a full package of services, i.e. being an EPC. We finished a project in Germany and during 70s we entered the United States and decade later we were present in the Soviet Union. At that time, finally we got a vision!
Normally producers can develop their business either by verification of products or concentration on one product and providing everything around it.
We chose the second solution and concentrated on Steel. Later we built our plants in China and Thailand at a lower our cost.
Now in Iran, we plan to build similar plants as in Russia and it sounds to be a very exciting adventure.
Each one of these phases of development has its own risk. How do you manage this risk?
Very simple! Although we are registered on the Stock Exchange, unlike many other company, we do not distribute more than 10% of our annual profit. 90% of the profit is kept in the company.
We use this money to invest and finance our new projects. This also allows us to manage our risks.
Where does this idea come from?
It is a sort of respect we traditionally have for the company. There are people who think a company is a machine to produce money. We see our company beyond this.
If you would summarize the reasons for which Danieli got to the place it now is, what would you say?
We got couple of very innovative ideas, we worked very hard on that and we cared about internationalization and globalization. I don’t see any other particular facts.
Once in a while, we hear stories of the companies where their top managers did not know what is going on in the company. How much are you aware of the details of what is going on in your own company?
If a company produces simple products, its managers could lead it with a general knowledge of management. But if a company is a technological one, its managers beside such expertise, must have a good knowledge of the technology too.
It is essential to visit regularly different sectors to see if what they hear from their directors corresponds to reality. I spend every day 3 to 4 hours visiting different sectors randomly.
MBA courses are very popular all around the world. As an experienced manager what do you think about them?
I personally am not fond of MBA courses. At the same time, I am the president of one of the advanced schools for the past two years ago. Once talking to our Minister of Education, I told him that to my opinion, it is essential to have these courses while we get young students working at companies, manufacturers, etc.
Now, when they are 32 years-old they start asking what to do. I find it totally wrong. At this age, they should have already known what they want to do and just start it and get independent. Otherwise it will be too late.
You already mentioned “hard work”. I have heard very often that Danieli makes people work too hard. How do you explain this?
I think only those who don’t like to work hard would say so! We care about our human resources very much. We try to encourage them by granting different kind of awards; ethic awards, innovative ideas, young people, etc.
In my opinion, over the past years, we have even got worse. We achieved great results in the past and that has caused us to become complacent. Now our concern is to fight against it and get our productivity high again.
Do you think investing in Iran could help this?
No, the productivity in Italy has been reducing during the last 15 years. Iran is just coming out of a difficult period. Iranian young people and engineers are full of energy and just need to be assured that the good days are going to be back again. They will automatically work with high hopes and enthusiasm.
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