GIUGNO - LUGLIO 2012 sped. in abb. post. - trimestrale - 70% - P.T. Vicenza Ferrovia - tassa riscossa - taxe perçue - Italia

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VICENTINA Mi metto in gioco per l Africa RENZO ROSSO L ASSEMBLEA L intervento del

start-up a Vicenza. 2/2012 GIUGNO - LUGLIO 2012 sped. in abb. post.

1 VICENTINA Mi metto in gioco per l Africa RENZO ROSSO L ASSEMBLEA L intervento del presidente dell Associazione Giuseppe Zigliotto: Vogliamo che l Italia diventi forte, lo dobbiamo ai giovani. PRIMO MIGLIO Un progetto dei Giovani Imprenditori per far nascere un incubatore di start-up a Vicenza. 2/2012 GIUGNO - LUGLIO 2012 sped. in abb. post. - trimestrale - 70% - P.T. Vicenza Ferrovia - tassa riscossa - taxe perçue - Italia MAGAZINE DI INFORMAZIONE ECONOMICA PER LE IMPRESE :29:55

translation The cradle of new ideas in these new start-ups. The chief aim of our project is indeed to let new ideas and young entrepreneurs meet with possible investors.

2 translation The cradle of new ideas in these new start-ups. The chief aim of our project is indeed to let new ideas and young entrepreneurs meet with possible investors. Our next step will be to set up an incubator in Vicenza of new start-ups on a suitable, strategic location, where the ideas will be put to the test by getting expert entrepreneurs involved as mentors in giving advice and information. Also, a tutor will periodically visit the newly-established start-ups to see whether their growth is getting on well. "I put myself at stake for Africa" Establishing an incubator of start-ups in Vicenza to help new, young companies grow and develop is a goal set in a project by the Young Entrepreneurs of Confindustria Vicenza, in order to provide new innovative firms with opportunities for their growth and development. The initiative is to be found within the scope of Venture Community Veneto, a project by the Young Entrepreneurs of the regional Confindustria, which has set up a website called vcveneto. it, open to anyone who wants to set up a business but doesn't know how to develop it or where to get the necessary financing. Our goal is to let ideas come to Venture Community Veneto and identify the best among them says Matteo Cielo, president of the Young Entrepreneurs -. This project is aimed to promote research and innovation to foster the economic development of our country and the establishment of new businesses. The selection criteria of the submitted projects are easy and straightforward: the setup of a business team, type of product or service innovation, market opportunities, business model, degree of interest for prospective investors and clarity and comprehensiveness of the project. Over the past few weeks, new ideas have been submitted to vcveneto.it. We intend to arrange in Vicenza and in the Veneto a series of meetings to submit the chosen business projects and ideas to financing bodies says Cielo -. The Young Entrepreneurs are now trying to identify who can be willing to invest Wealth must be redistributed from the firms that make money to society. I believe that what we have somehow gained from society must be returned. The originality and pragmatism of Renzo Rosso, Diesel's founder, can also be seen in his clarity of doing business. His idea comes from the roots he has in the Veneto and in its craftsmen's genuine traditions and culture, so what you get needs to be returned and what you earn through hardship and tough work does not entirely belong to you but it must be shared and returned. That is the reason why socially-committed, go-ahead Renzo Rosso got over lots of bureaucratic red tape and set up a foundation that gathers part of the profits made by Diesel and other brands and allocates them to Only the Brave Foundation. We have met its founder and chairman to better understand what its mission is. 58

3 - Mr Rosso, when did you get the idea of setting up a foundation? I was flying from Edinburgh to Rome together with the Dalai Lama in 2009 and we were talking about lots of things, and it was actually him who urged me to use my name and my firm to do something good for the people in the poorest countries. He gave me this idea and I seized it straightaway. My social commitment belongs to my personal story and to my country. I have always been socially committed, but without showing off. Now I got myself and my brand involved to boost the fight against poverty. - So do you feel somehow responsible for Africa? The Dalai Lama urged me to become a social leader, that is to use my name to convince other businessmen to do the same. In my capacity, I can get a lot of contacts and use them to provide development and opportunities to the poorest countries. - Why did you choose Africa? There are already quite a lot of people who are committed to fighting poverty there and unfortunately there are still many unsolved problems... It is true that even recently they have asked me to support other poor countries in the world but unfortunately there are lots of people in need and you have to make a choice. I have chosen Africa because it is the most neglected and the least developed continent. But it is full of young people and of raw materials, a place and a land of resources that must be developed. I have chosen Africa because it strikes you when you visit it, you get involved and something special grows inside you. Doing something for those in need gives you joy and satisfaction. - What resources did you start with? We have gathered from our group part of the profits and in 2009 we set up the Only the brave foundation and with around 2 million euros. We began our project behind the scenes, to get to know how to work well and in a tangible way. I didn't want to do anything that you could not see or do it too slowly without any real impact on people's lives. Our actions must be forthright rather than useless words or projects. - And how does the Otb foundation work? It's got the same spirit and ideas as the rest of the group, that is innovation, sustainability, social impact and reproducibility. - What about the economic resources? 10% of our wealth is invested in the areas around Breganze, Bassano and Vicenza. At first our money was given on a monthly basis, but then we realised that people presumed on our money so we decided to create socially-useful jobs and urged people to look for a job. - How about the remaining 90%? We invest it in Africa. Now we have a big project in a village in Mali, where I have been many times. I also give them a hand in the building work and put my skills in interior design into practice, which I'm quite good at. Also, I like to work on the farm, grow vegetables, choose the best crop to grow and help with crop rotation. I used to do it when I was a child so it's great to reuse my past experience. I really like working with them, side by side. - Have you got many projects? 59

4 translation A lot. Just browse our website and insert one. Then a committee is set to evaluate it and chooses the ones that are more innovative, sustainable, reproducible and with a low environmental impact. - Can you describe one of them? We got a unique project from a Belgian who found out a species of mice that are very good at finding anti-personnel mines. It sounds unbelievable but it works and it's quick and quite cheap. These mice are everywhere but you don't have to train them because they have a distinctive sense of smell that enables them to discover mines buried in the ground. This is extremely important when it comes to help people remove mines from fields and roads without the risk of blowing up. - What are you also doing in Mali? We built a school and a well. We want to provide education and basic facilities such as schools, medical facilities and churches. We have to do one thing at a time. Our ultimate goal is to create jobs. After providing education, then we must provide work. For example, Mali is rich in cotton, so we aim to also give know how, our skills, what we can do and give. - How do African people react? You always get a warm welcome. You can see that from their faces, from their expressions. They look pleased, smiling, happy to get a chance of changing their lives. That reminds me of the faces I could see in Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin wall. People change, you can see that attitudes also change, there's greater respect and dignity. - What about the local authorities? I remember the welcome ceremony held in our honour. They are grateful because we are practical people. We don't give gifts or are keen on being photographed. We want to get involved and do what is needed. We offer cooperation rather than presents. - Doesn't your action risk of becoming one of many others that are underway in Africa, of being just like the NGOs, without giving a real change? We are doing our best but I reckon that the experience of the Arab spring will be a hint of what may also happen in the sub-saharan countries. The web will change everything. It is revolutionizing everything and everybody. Even the cruellest dictator cannot survive if people are given education and access to internet. That is why it is more important to provide education than work. The world will change through information and education. - What is your secret? I quite believe in the way we handle human resources, in a friendly way, so people feel free and work better and are committed to their work. Rigid work discipline are outdated. I believe our way of doing things can also be exported and used to promote people's skills, creativeness and abilities. - Are you afraid of becoming the new colonists of Africa? Absolutely not, even if colonisation is part of the history of many countries. In the past we were also invaded and colonised. Now you have information 60

Today technology allows us to have lots of ways of knowing and learning things. - In short, will Internet save Africa? Internet expands contacts and information sources.

5 that makes you more free. Internet is a powerful means that enables people to be free, to learn, to search and find what they want. In the past, religion taught us the truth and compelled us to follow the rules. Now information gives us freedom, it's the new religion. Today technology allows us to have lots of ways of knowing and learning things. - In short, will Internet save Africa? Internet expands contacts and information sources. It forces us to be true to ourselves. You can't pretend or cheat on the web because internauts will bring you straight to the open. You must be yourself and this holds true for everyone. VDP, twenty years of casting Next September VDP of Schio an acronym for Vicentini-De Pretto will celebrate twenty years of business. The firm, which is specialised in the production of gray iron, alloy and spheroidal graphite casting, is one of the few foundries in Italy that makes small-sized and large castings (from 1 kilo to 100 tons), unlike most foundries which produce castings whose weight is usually kg. The company's history dates back earlier than It was established as Fonderia Vicentini in 1942, when my grandfather Mario bought a small cooperative that made castings says Franco Vicentini, now Chairman and CEO of VDP -. In the 1960s the production expanded, first by manufacturing food processing machines and later pottery. In 1990 expanding the factory was quite difficult because the municipality of Monticello Conte Otto opposed that, so a joint-venture with De Pretto-Escher Wyss of the Sulzer group was set up. This company owned a foundry in the centre of Schio and they had to move it to another site due to environmental reasons. At the same time, De Pretto and Vicentini closed their foundry and also Vicentini discontinued production in the late Therefore, both companies moved their staff to the new site. The group's strategy also changed and so did VPD shareholding, which was purchased again by the company itself. In 2002 a new foudry was bought in Gorizia, specialised in manual casting and definitely closed in 2009, owing to the current recession. The share capital explains Franco Vicenti- 61

translation ni is now divided between four shareholders: my father and my uncle, the company's founder, Paolo Zardo and I, the company's managing directors.

6 translation ni is now divided between four shareholders: my father and my uncle, the company's founder, Paolo Zardo and I, the company's managing directors. Until 2010 the factory had between 145 and 160 employees, and later some finishing work was added and other types of work were increased, so the current number of employees amounts to around 200. Customers are to be found in Italy and abroad (35%), mainly in Europe as travelling expenses are high due to the type of products to be transported but also in the USA and China. In 2011 the company had a turnover of 58 million euros. Since 2000 it has been ISO certified and since 2001 it has been given an award in safety standards named Lavoro Sicuro in compliance with a Confindustria-Inail protocol. The success of VDP says Vicentini is chiefly the outcome of our staff's work as well as the shareholders' capital. Over the years major investments have been made in computer technology, which have allowed us to automatically and manually check the procedures required in product manufacturing: in a few seconds we can trace from our archives the casting parameters or the chemical or mechanical specifications of castings made even 10 years ago and this has been a great advantage over our competitors.here only cast iron is made by using manual and automatic casting. Automation standards are indeed quite high. VDP uses rapid prototypes, thus going from a 3D picture to sand moulding directly, without having to make a model. The company is also equipped with a laser system to re-make, through surface scanning, the 3D surface of a casting. Currently says Vicentini we are setting up an automatic moulding-production plant for castings up to 8 tons, equipped with an automatic 20 m tall warehouse, whose load capacity is 30 tons per cell, which is the weight of castings being made, along with the equipment needed in the moulding, casting and cooling processes. Such a warehouse has the highest capacity per cell in the world and so this is a great achievement for our firm. A female style "Made in Italy" For fifty years Peserico Spa has been dressing women in clothes made in Italy and in the best Italian fashion - a great achievement for this firm set up in 1962 by Maria Peserico. Established in Cereda, a small village near Cornedo Vicentino, Peserico consisted of a workshop equipped with three sewing machines, three employees, a room in the basement used for clothes ironing, while the upper floor was used for clothes making. In a few years' time Maria's workshop managed to stand out among Vicenza's leading textile firms. The company's history has indeed a few distinctive traits, if not for the fact that in the 1960s it was uncommon for a woman to establish her own business. In 1970 the new company's premises, which are still the firm's HQ, were built near 62

7 the workshop site and at that time Giuseppe Peruzzo, Maria's husband, joined her wife's business. They began to make clothes mainly for designers such as Elio Fiorucci and Mila Schön, or brands such as Benetton and Adriano Goldschmied. In the mid-1970s Peserico began with a small collection of women's trousers, the first step to directly deal with customers, while they made the first collection of shirts and skirts for third parties. In 1979 Peserico became a listed company. In the 1980s the firm started to invest in property trademarks and in the late 1990s the first Peserico sign was launched along with Peserico More Easy later on. More recently, Peserico Tricot, a new knitwear collection, has also been launched. Between the late 1990s and the early 2000 Riccardo Peruffo, Maria and Giuseppe's son, also joined his parents' business, thus blending experience with future visions. After 2000 Peserico began investing in new technologies and in setting up a new production organisation such as that of leading fashion industries, that is with offices dedicated to the design and research of products, textiles and patterns. Peserico then changed into a real brand in the fashion world. Since 2007 the company has begun establishing single-brand stores. The aim is to set up around twenty stores in the major cities of Northern Italy by This will be a great achievement because Peserico will begin to deal directly with customers so their feedback will be promptly evaluated. Now Peserico has over 100 employees in their HQ in Cereda and also owns around twenty workshops located between the Veneto and Puglia, while knitwear workshops are based in the Carpigiano area. The overall number of workers exceeds a thousand people. The company's turnover is 30 million and grows by 5-10% every year, exports amount to 30-40% to major markets such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the USA, where there are a hundred multibrand stores, Japan, Russia. In the future, their aim is to increasingly change Peserico brand into a global brand. Brand and product reliability is the outcome of investing in keeping up quality standards - says Riccardo Peruffo -. Ideas concerning made-in-italy, after-sale, know-how are shared by everyone working for us. It is not by chance that we have always promoted technical staff training to ensure the high tailoring standards of our brand. As well as quality, design has always been fostered in any collection. We always take inspiration from women who love elegance, straightforward and balanced lines, without giving up the comfort of daily life. The polymer boutique When Fabio Azzolin talks about polymers, his face lights up. This light embodies the ingenuity of a businessman who has seen the huge potentials of polymers and craved to explore them. At 29 Fabio Azzolin established TPA in Mussolente in In Italy there were 63

8 large plastic production plants but no one had developed the engineering of a product in the same way as he wanted to. After getting his technical school diploma, he had acquired a wide knowledge of subjects and, above all, a stimulus for trying new things, which then prompted him to set up his own business. His chief goal was to prove that by using polymers you can make lighter, cheaper and high performance components compared to those usually made with metals and alloys, whether they are mechanical parts of helicopters, ski protective gears, bicycle saddle supports or eyeglass frames. In 2009 Azzolin established a new division called Xenia Materials. Xenia is committed to studying and developing new cutting-edge polymer compounds. Their laboratories carry out thermal, infra-red, thermo-chemical, mechanical, rheological analyses and any other activity aimed to identify the chemical-physical DNA of the created compounds. Product characterization is performed in the lab centre of Brindisi and is reported in detailed factsheets. First, raw materials are chosen through a highly selective process. Ingredients have to be the best to create plastics capable of competing with metal alloys. A kilo of Xenia-made material can cost up to 50. The establishment of Xenia was greatly supported by a cooperation between TPA and the American Alenia aeronautical company. The Mussolente-based firm has been charged to research new components to reduce the weight of aircraft and keep the utmost efficiency at the same time. A great deal of research and development that is carried out in Mussolente is applied to the sports world, ranging from motor sports to sports practised in the snow, on land, in water and air. Nothing seems virtually impossible for the alchemists of plastics, constantly at work to create polymer compounds and other substances set to fully meet the customers' needs. Carbon is a material widely used in various combinations. When used, carbon reinforces polymers that in turn make up for its weaknesses, especially its fragility. However, this is just one possible combination. A lot of super materials are waiting to be discovered to showcase a wide range of applications and products. Around 25 employees work at TPA-Xenia, nearly all of them are engineers and chemists. The new range of skills available are also the outcome of a fruitful cooperation set up with Italian universities and research centres such as CNR and the University of Naples Federico II. The highest award was given to Xenia on 8 May when an agreement for collaboration and goods supply was made with Polyone Corporation, a leading worldwide supplier of specialised polymers. Such a partnership can introduce Xenia specialties to new market on a global scale. Our reinforced materials have already been chosen for cutting-edge applications such as for instance the components used in racing cars says Fabio Azzolin -. Through this partnership with Polyone we want to become the first European supplier of this kind of materials for an even wider range of applications. 64

SUGI INTERNATIONAL. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Sugi International Ltd is a leading player in the footwear industry. CONTENTS

SUGI INTERNATIONAL. Headquartered in Hong Kong, Sugi International Ltd is a leading player in the footwear industry. CONTENTS COMPANY PROFILE COMPANY PROFILE SUGI INTERNATIONAL Headquartered in Hong Kong, Sugi International Ltd is a leading player in the footwear industry. The Italian brothers Matteo and Massimo Sinigaglia founded