December 2024
Tell us about how COMEA was born.
COMEA was born in 2001 by my father and myself. I had just graduated, my father already worked in the industrial sector.
I started from the bottom, as they say. Covering a wide variety of tasks, I was able to understand the essence and criticality of the work, the company, and the processes.
Subsequently dealing with the acquisition and management of orders, I learnt who I was and explored skills and limits by constantly challenging myself.
I discovered business aptitudes, communication skills, problem-solving, perseverance and patience that I didn’t think I had.
Who are you today?
I’m a person who deeply loves my company, responsible for the employees and families, future-oriented, innovative, growth-focused every day, constantly getting involved.
Aware at every challenge of facing a new path and not without obstacles, always ready to handle complex, sometimes even uncertain situations, who never gives up in the face of difficulties, which are inevitable.
Have you ever been afraid?
Fear is part of us. Woe betides if we did not feel it. It is that emotional state that often arises in the face of adversity, but which is necessary, as it helps to bring out the best in us.
Being afraid teaches to have courage. Obstacles along the way represent that impetus that induces one to go beyond the limits of the mind and the enterprise itself.
To achieve goals and to become what you want to be, you must also and above all be able to dance in the rain, in the life, at work and in the business.
There are many difficulties only if you see them as such, but if you watch them as opportunities the perspective changes.
Today’s COMEA was born from how to overcome a difficult moment and what we could come up with to get out of it, creating a path that we could also enjoy. We were mainly dedicated and focused on a niche sector, that of designing and manufacturing machines for the production, handling, laying and storage of submarine cables.
With effort and dedication, we have become a beautiful reality, known, and appreciated on a European and international level, and for me, as the Italian that I am, this is a reason for great satisfaction.
His saying is that to be an entrepreneur one must be crazy.
I resume it in one sentence: be ingenious, invest without the absolute certainty of a return or immediate financial return.
In doing business, it is not so much important to ask ‘why?’ but it is good to ask, ‘why not?’.
One should never limit oneself as to what one thinks one can do. The further our mind can go, the further we can go. What we believe in is what can be achieved.
Perseverance, determination, and curiosity are essential. Of no small importance is dynamism. Having a flexible mind and approach, able to adapt and adapt to situations, events, difficulties, opportunities, is an indispensable key to success.
This does not mean that you cannot lose or fail. You cannot think you are unbeatable or infallible. It is how you get back up from losses and failures, the understanding of your mistakes or non-mistakes that makes the difference, that allows you to get back up and start again stronger than before.
Doing business means making many decisions every day. Sometimes some decisions turn out to be right, other times wrong.
In your opinion, is Italy a country where innovation and entrepreneurship are facilitated? Has our country facilitated (or hindered) your business path?
Italy was born as an industrial country, but unfortunately today doing business in Italy is complicated. Small, medium, and large companies suffer from severe tax pressure, the cost of labour is high, capital is decreasing, and that is why you must invent and reinvent yourself every day.
The problem of Italian companies is not so much productivity as size. Given the same size and sector, Italian companies are just as productive as those in other countries, but 97% of the Italian business fabric is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises. Italy has the highest number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the whole of Europe, and these are only 5% likely to become large companies, half the size of Germany and a third of the US and UK.
To grow, companies must make investments. To do so, either you have venture capital to invest, or you are tied to borrowing and resorting to credit with high interest rates.
The business crisis in Italy is on the rise. The initiation by struggling companies of new procedures to handle business crises, dissolutions and liquidations is increasing every year.
In our case, we managed to survive and currently manage to live, and grow having believed and invested, with great initial sacrifice, in customers and foreign markets focused on quality, technological innovation and sustainability. Three concepts that in Italy, unfortunately, still struggle to walk hand in hand.
What is your greatest future prospect?
To continue to be a good and valid company that can be counted on.
The biggest prospect for the future is not to become a big company, but to be a big company, recognised and equal to our customers and in part, I believe, we already are!!
