Successful networks are set up in industrial districts

If we step back in time to the post-World War II period, it is worth mentioning that highly specialised production areas had begun to develop in Italy, in which small and tiny businesses with considerable skills, specialising in one or several stages of the production process were emerging. By working closely together, they were able to successfully rebuild the entire industry. Advantages such as geographical proximity, which had encouraged the exchange of knowledge within the district and strong subcontracting relationships, later became limitations, especially from the 1990s onwards: many manufacturing districts clung to their roots and did not adapt to the fast-changing market and globalisation.

By contrast, in the districts that remained active, the management of several companies had to make a choice for survival, namely, if it was more profitable to develop the resources, means and components required to meet increasingly complex demands in-house, or to turn to the market by setting up network architectures based on cooperation. Within them, interdependencies and synergies are geared towards achieving common goals, opportunities and benefits. With its history of extensive relationships and know-how, the district laid excellent foundations for such networks to be established.

This is our case: Precisionet was founded in an area comprising at least three major manufacturing districts: first of all, that of motors, known as Motor Valley, which originated 70 years ago, whose allied industries have allowed the districts of mechanics, hydraulics and, more recently, electronics to flourish and become strategically important, while the plastics and food districts developed independently.