Continuing the analysis on the demands of generational turnover in the districts of the Marca, inspired by the research conducted in 2003/2004 from the Bilateral Board Veneto Handicraft (EBAV), we start studying now the Inox Valley District, between Conegliano (more developed and solid pole) and Vittorio Veneto (the place where in the ’80 and ’90 enterprises that gave new stimulus to the district were born). This striking name, inspired to the Californian Silicon Valley, does not indicate a production of electronic parts as the more famous homonymous, but a production of items in stainless steel, in particular electric appliance for restaurants.

History of the district

The development of Inox Valley is closely linked with that of Zoppas Group, that in the ’50, beginning the mass-production of electric appliance, changes in a short time from local producer into a big group opened to world markets.

After a first phase of growth under the leader, some specialized productive units became independent, both owing to the crisis of the big group and to get out of interdependence; moreover these new enterprises, in many cases, were no more vertically integrated with the group, but carried out different productions in segments not covered by the leader.
This trend intensified until it defined a real “spinneret” economy, based also on enterprises specialized in the production of particular items and essential components. For every productive segment it is now present a small group of enterprises that covers a specific part of demand and differs from the others in the supply of items and markets served. The district is divided in three big productive threads:
• household appliance
• facilities and equipment for the community
• small electric appliance.

In this way, in the last ten years a core of well structured and lively enterprises developed and started the competition in important markets, with the ability of innovation and adaptation. There is also a large group of specialized suppliers that have emancipated themselves from the district demand by now and go on spreading new requirements and experiences.
The clear need of differentiation by means of item innovations, quality advantages and capability of meeting customer expectations, is joined, in the district, to a predominant policy of price. Analyzing the present situation, we cannot set aside the fact that we are talking about mature productions, with constraints of competitiveness considerably linked to expenses and quality controls and to additional services for the item.

Also if the district does not present a critical situation, thanks to the soundness of a diversified and elastic productive system, we cannot undervalue some signs of trouble, as the conveyance in the ’90 of some enterprises of the district to buyers outside the area: we are therefore assisting to a concentration phase that redraws the sector profile. Anyhow, the growth in the last years has yet been possible thanks to a larger opening up of markets, to the more intense use of sub-supplying and to a larger and complete range of items, in addition to technological innovations.
Enterprises on somebody else's behalf, which are about the half of firms interviewed by the EBAV, strengthened their specialization strategy to consolidate their role of qualified suppliers. Nowadays there is the need to enlarge a little more the investments in productive innovation and to research the professional improvement of employees, as to make up for the chronic lack of skilled workers.

The Ebav research

The research is based on the assumption that the generational shift does not only depend on the situation of the single enterprise, because the trends of the sector and the district functioning can influence the choices of entrepreneurs.
In the first stage of the research we considered a sample of 106 district enterprises with less than 51 employees, aiming at investigating their respective length of service and the degree of involvement in the subject analysed. In the second stage of the study, in which we analysed the directions of entrepreneurs towards the continuation of the activity, we used a smaller sample, composed by enterprises involved in generational turnover, that are those in which:
• the present owners succeeded no more than three years ago;
• the owners have descendants as to forecast in 5 years the passage to the entrepreneur role.

In Inox district the sample for the first stage of the research proves to be composed by quite young enterprises (the medium age is 15,7 years, that rises to 20,8 in the smaller sample used in the second stage of the analysis) that started for the majority in the period of separation from the leader: only the 10,4% of enterprises have more than thirty years.
Also the medium age of owners is not high (about 45 years, 57 in the smaller sample); owners of first generation started up a firm after they developed some experience, in particular as workers, instead others have a higher education and intervene in a smaller scale in the production.
About the half of owners of the larger sample is interested in generational turnover, also if we must underline that the 82% of their sons is already present in the firm; it seem, however, that the subject of succession is still not very felt. Regarding the continuation of the activity, the prevailing orientation is that of preserving the present situation (50%), instead the 33% of owners wants to enlarge the activity, a sign of vitality of district enterprises and of that process of concentration that we mentioned before.

Skills required to young entrepreneurs

The district background, rich of qualified enterprises, of planning and productive skills and with a strong orientation towards international growth, imposes a continuous research of improvement on enterprises, aiming at facing up not only the external competition, but also the internal one.

1. For a new entrepreneur, the most important skills are strategic, aiming at qualifying the item supply. It means:
• to strengthen the capability of interpreting the demands of the market;
• to personalize the supply.
These points assume a specific mastery of techniques or a good capability to hold a dialogue with designers to give them the right technical, esthetical, functional and symbolical input. The entrepreneur must therefore supply a stimulus that depends on his abilities, but also on his willingness to research and do experiments.

2. Since the “spinneret” products require a careful enhancement on the market, the owners-to-be will be compelled to enlarge traditional forms of relationship with organizational and service answers and promotional activities. Especially in the food service equipment sector, it is increasingly required a marketing capable of understanding markets and demand transformations, while the quality of the product involves also the fields of environmental protection, energy conservation, duration and functionality, themes that district enterprises in future will be obliged to consider increasingly.

3. The pressure to enlarge commercial outlet areas will require also functional abilities to understand the specificity of contexts, the selection of distributional models, the organization of logistic, and the relationship with suppliers, their selection and qualification.

4. In the productive field, abilities required concern:
• Understanding of production restrictions;
• Capability of choice of investment solutions;
• Insertion of new technologies;
• Selection and research of new suppliers, in addition to reorganization of old relationships;
• Attention to the quality and to skilled staff, in particular the possibility of being equipped with qualified collaborators that may perform their functions in autonomy.

Silvia Andreotti