Interview with Claudio Fabbris

Claudio Fabbris is the Purchase Manager in NTS.
37 years spent in our company, he’s NTS historical memory.
In this interview he remembers anecdotes and noteworthy moments of an entrepreneurial reality in continuous growth.

 

INTERVIEW WITH CLAUDIO FABBRIS

What do you remember about your first day on the job?
In 1981 there were fifteen of us and we used to work in a quite little place. Marco’s (Manzoni) birth were expected in a few days and the atmosphere was enthusiast and proactive.
That lively spirit never faded in those years, our consequent great growth is the proof of it. The owners’ passion, their constant commitment and their example have been an inexhaustible source of inspiration. I feel a sincere gratitude towards them.

 

How would you define their style?
Sober, simple, concrete.
Gianrenzo, the founders’ son, had that extra oomph: he joined passion for his job to uncommon technical skills. His vision of projects was always pointed towards future and he was tireless. I remember that he used to work constantly during the weekends, and brought his little kids with him as he considered very important to make them breath a devote business culture, where sacrifice was normality. Today I find Gianrenzo’s passion in the eyes of all the members of NTS Management and I am very happy about it. The new generation will lead us to the future, this is the reason why it is important to share our original values, with new motivation and inspiration.

 

In your opinion, which features are useful to a young person who approaches working life?
I believe that nowadays educational level is higher than before.
Anyway the culture that young people put on the table today is not enough, it is necessary to show availability, seriousness, will to take challenges.
Each time you reach a goal, you have to set a new one to grow.
Grit and sacrifice are necessary to make great projects, I make a personal example with football: a person must have Pirlo’s feet and Gattuso’s grit to win. Talent and grit alone do not lead so far, but if they are put together they make the difference.

 

Do you like football?
I love sport, it’s a great outlet.
I have been a football coach for many years in different teams near Bergamo but, at a certain point in my life, I decided to take a bit of time for myself and my family. Today I am a passionate supporter of Atalanta and I often go to the stadium with my daughter.

 

How do you see NTS future?
I see the will to grow and make progress.
The combination of managerial aspect and family aspect will remain successful because, entering the company, one will always have to breathe that wellbeing that we’re feeling today.

 

What is your role in the company? Which feature is important in your job?
I have been working in the moulding dept, warehouse management, production planning till I became purchase manager. In almost forty years I have held many jobs and I believe that my best feature has always been keeping an open mind. I have always considered change as on opportunity to grow, an incentive. I think that sometimes it is essential to abandon your comfort zone and launch yourself into a new challenging dimension.
This is my belief: I have worked well only if today I am better professional then yesterday.

 

Is there a business episode that impressed you in particular?
The opening of the company in Romania in 2005, our international turning point.
It has been a delicate moment for our company as many of us were afraid that this delocalization would have taken our job away. But, also in this case, our Management explained that only a kind of plastic working technology was being moved as we were developing a parallel business with the aim of bringing value to the company.
I must admit that this international opening has been good for us, I go once a year to Romania and the exchange with my colleagues is always enriching.
All NTS values have been brought to Romania and the consequence is an aligned, available and very proactive team. We built very deep personal and professional relationships with our Romanian colleagues.
This experience taught me, once again, that we do not have to be afraid of shedding our skin, but that courage and determination are the keys to improve ourselves every day.

Relationship-centered corporate quality

As soon as you enter NTS Spa, a leader in the production of moulds and in the moulding of plastic materials, you sense enthusiasm and dedication, together with an irresistible desire to take up any whatsoever challenge to achieve new goals.

On the other hand the NTS payoff is more than eloquent: ‘Beyond Moulding’, overpassing the limits going beyond just moulding, as Marco Manzoni, vice president and strategy manager, explains to us: “2017 was a year of change: in the name, logo and website, to better communicate a certain type of innovation exemplifying a business model focused on an allround service. We have always been technically at our customer’s side to satisfy any project.

Quality of product and application of the zero defect principle are certainly essential, but a rapid response, incessant R&D, cohesion and continuity with the past also count.”
NTS is effectively an enterprise of long standing, founded in 1959 by Alessandro Manzoni, uncommonly courageous and long-sighted, and growing over the years, particularly in foreign markets that today generate approximately 50% of the turnover.

Both the founder’s daughter Marinella, currently president and managing director, as well as the third generation represented by Marco Manzoni, his brother Alessandro and cousin Ombretta, hold on tight the family values also shared by Operations Manager Fabio Daminelli and the entire management.

Apart from the centrality of innovation for which 7% is invested in R&D, the im-portance of relationship stands out from amongst the corporate principles. In the first place amongst employees, thereafter with supply contractors, collaborators and naturally customers.

With the contribution of qualified coaches we aim at improving our communicative approach, both internally with our colleagues as well as externally with the other stakeholders and, faced with differing customer typologies, we change our service modality.

To our mind, relationships are what create corporate quality. If you take heed of peo-ple’s explanations the piece produced is bound to be better.” A concept amongst others also linked with corporate welfare, internships in schools for young students, development in specific skills by some of the operators who work with machines and robots and who, from workers assigned to heavy jobs, are little by little transforming themselves into qualified workers and also programmers.

The Team from left: Marco Manzoni, Marinella Manzoni, Fabio Daminelli, Ombretta Invernizzi, Alessandro Manzoni

“Robots do not rob the personnel of their job, but actually optimize it, making it more fluid, safer and less heavy. We educate the employees to develop the competences needed to adapt themselves to these continual changes, not only technological but also relational.” But it doesn’t finish here. NTS also participates to the United Nations Global Compact, a project to encourage enterprises around the world to adopt sustainable policies, fostering the enterprise’s social responsibility and rendering public the results of actions undertaken.

For example in the case of NTS, it features projects for human re-source management, enterprise governance, reduced energy requirements, long-term vision and courage to be different, affording the Company substantial development which, we would recall, has two centres: the Italian one in Lallio (Bergamo) focused on cutting edge solutions devised with the aid of robots and vision systems, and the one located in Romania, labour-intensive with numerous workers for the more traditional applications. “Thanks to the two centres we are able to offer various types of service, one in a lower price bracket and the other with a higher added value”, points out Marco Manzoni.

NTS represents a business model exuding the dynamism of a young constructive entrepreneurship, wanting to share strategies and results with its collaborators and also be competitive on domestic and international markets for the next sixty years.

Article from Platinum – November 2018 distributed with Il Sole 24 Ore – Monday 26/11/2018.

PMI DAY 2018

Also this year NTS joined with great enthusiasm the PMI DAY – INDUSTRIAMOCI (Small Medium-sized Enterprise DAY– Entrepreneurship project for students) that is an initiative promoted by Confindustria, since 2010, which sees its associated companies open their doors to the students of secondary and upper secondary Italian schools.  By now at its ninth edition, this project involves in Bergamo more than 5.000 students.

The first recipients of this initiative are students – to whom it is intended to transmit business culture – their families and teachers, which play a decisive role in orienting their students, but also administrators of local institutions, media and all those who interact with the activities of the companies.

 

For this occasion NTS hosted 53 students of the eighth grades of Lallio and Treviolo. After a brief welcome, they visited our production departments to experience firsthand the values of work and business culture. Afterwards there has been a moment of exchange and comparison between students and NST staff.

The aim of the initiative was to show the strength and the innovation of the small and medium-sized enterprises of the manufacturing sector in Bergamo and how they are vital for the socio-economic endurance of our territory, giving a fundamental contribution to the economic and social growth of our Country through the creation of wealth and occupation.

 

These events allow to publicly show the true potential of the enterprise in transmitting its social role, also helping younger people to orient themselves in their next formative choices and gain a higher awareness of their upcoming future.

 

The great involvement and the interest shown by the students, made this SME Day very meaningful for all participants.

 

 

INTERVIEW TO MATTEO LONGHI

These days we have interviewed our Eng. Matteo Longhi, Production Planner at NTS.
We’ve asked him to reveal the secret of the good organization.

 

INTERVIEW TO MATTEO LONGHI

When did you arrive in NTS?
In 2008. My arrival did not correspond to a positive period for the world’s economy, at that time I was in charge of the industrialization of the processes. A few years later – in 2010 – our company underwent a market increase, as a consequence I have been assigned to the production planning, branch that I am pleased to coordinate with great enthusiasm today.

 

What do you deal with concretely?
I plan the production of the company.
My role consists in managing all the resources (raw materials, labor, machineries) to produce according to right schedules and to the agreed quality standard.
Apart from management skills, I believe that the most delicate aspect of my job consists in interpreting and filtering the requests from the outside in order to find a proper balance for our internal resources.

 

 

How do you nurture your balance?
I cultivate a thought each day: there are no preconceptions, stereotypes, receipts suitable to all contexts. Each situation and person deserve a specific and personalized treatment. It is necessary to find a terrain of dialogue with everyone, and never a conflict one.
Another powerful help to counterbalance energies is sport, my way to let off anxiety and negativity.

 

What kind of sport do you play?
I love basketball. I try to carve out at least two or three weekly appointments.
I am also President of Associazione Sportiva Pallacanestro Ranica.
I believe that sport is a great resource: I try to instill this principle in young people and, especially, in their parents.
Training as best as we can for a competition, behaving fairly, rejoicing in victory and understanding oneself better through defeats are all experiences that do not remain in the playing field but reverse necessarily in everyday life.

 

Many people in NTS enjoy playing sport. Is it a coincidence?
I believe that in life, after wandering a lot, you feel attracted by people which are similar to you.
Values like honesty, commitment and determination are shared by everyone of us in NTS, therefore a common background among colleagues does not surprise me.

 

What do you like the most in NTS?
First of all  those who work here feel they are part of something.
Decisions are never imposed from above, they are always shared and explained with the team.
I believe that the word listening is really felt at all levels.
A personal example: when I realized my workload was too much, I have immediately been supported by a collaborator.
This allowed me to delegate some operational activities and to focus more on coordination.
It’s been a choice that our Direction made with great naturalness and availability.
I think that the beautiful aspect of NTS lies in this deep attention towards people, that’s it.

 

Are there other keywords you would use to describe life in NTS?
Transparency and familiarity. Even though the company is now quite extended, there is always that sensation of deep connection which allows you to feel fine and work well. We do not feel single units but part of a team.

 

Training about soft skills is considered really important in NTS. Do you find it useful?
Even if I was a bit skeptical at the beginning, I must admit that the personal growth path we are facing with Paolo Manocchi is very enriching.
I am learning for myself how it is necessary to create an auto-sustainable corporate system, to have reliable colleagues, create a working team which can operate even when I am absent.
When you focus on the quality of the relationships, you experiment a new way to work: more productive and, at the same time, more satisfying. I hope that this training path will be extended to all roles in the company.

 

Talking about future, what do you expect for the next years?
If I daydream, I see a product made in NTS, completely ours, from the design to the final production, a high technological and high level product.
Let’s not forget that I am always an engineer, after all 🙂

Paolo Manocchi in NTS

A few weeks ago, as every month, Paolo Manocchi, behavioral trainer – Life Coach, held a cours about effective communication in NTS.
The meeting, open to all our collaborators, focused on the features that a good professional must hone to better work in a team.

In a recent video interview – Paolo Manocchi – tells us about how NTS has been investing in the quality of the interpersonal relationship for several years. One of the aspects he is working at, in particular, is the management of the emotional state. The first cause of micro- sufferance in our everyday life, in fact, lies in the tensional discharges.

According to studies about this topic, it is evident how worked up people are not able to manage themselves by actually hiding their problem. The management of the emotional states, which consists in the ability to remain adequate in context changes, allows people to achieve their goals.

NTS sets the person and his serenity at work at the center. For this reason we have asked for Paolo Manocchi’s precious help, in our constant improvement perspective.

Interview with Andrea Seroldi

Travel around the world, listen carefully to one’s neighbor and always be genuine.

Today, Andrea Seroldi, Sales Manager at NTS, tells us about his entry into the Company and reveals details and curiosities about his professional and…sport life.


INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA SEROLDI

Tell us about your life before NTS.
I’m a recent purchase: I have been working in NTS since 2017.
I used to work in different companies before, among which a multinational corporation linked to the steel branch and a company operating in the radiological machinery industry.
I have always travelled a lot owing to my job: just for instance, in 2013, I took 97 flights and drove for more than 50.000 km.
Travelling means honing one’s adaptation abilities and improving relational skills, both features are fundamental for those who have a commercial role.
Travels and different cultures have attracted me ever since I was a student; after my graduation in Milan, I immediately enrolled in the London International School of Marketing. I have lived in London for two years, a unique experience that marked me deeply.

 

Does an international point of view help in everyday life?
It helps a lot. You learn to get along with people of different languages and cultures, you get trained to consider things starting from a pluralistic and multifaceted approach.
At a certain point you understand that you can dialogue with everyone, you just need to create a common conversation ground.
Relationship and its management are the keystones of all good transactions, in life and in business as well.

 

Is there a vademecum for a good Sales Man?
There are no fixed rules, but some behaviors help to be appreciated.
The first necessary feature nowadays is transparency: today-market is hypercritical and hyperconnected and fairness is the only corporate philosophy that always repays, as it concerns reputation.
“Our business coach, Paolo Manocchi, always reminds us that “it is not important to tell everything you know but it is important to know everything you tell”.
Another thing: you need to listen carefully to the customer’s need to interpret them in the best way. We call it active listening, a way of listening that foresees the proper understanding of the message, a good dose of empathy and a sincere interest towards the interlocutor.
Our company coach, Paolo Manocchi, always reminds us that active listening is the most powerful instrument to guarantee success in professional life and beyond.

 

Which feature makes the different for a commercial figure?
I think it deals with the ability to work in a team.
A good sales person must team up with professionals of different departments, I am talking about the Technical or the Production department, for instance.
Sales people too oriented towards the market and not very aware of the business reality in which they operate isolate themselves and this makes the sales process more difficult and less fruitful.

 

What did you find in NTS?
Many things: open-mindedness, the ability to team up, the will to overcome one’s limits, the constant investment of money in each collaborator’s  training and the creation, day by day, of a brand with real and tangible values.

 

Does a successful brand facilitate commercial strength?
Absolutely yes.
Every one of us makes a first brand experience by word of mouth of acquaintances, websites, social networks, advertising campaigns.
Only afterwards commercial figures give a face and a voice to that brand.
It is fundamental for brand and business figures to be aligned on values, tone of voice and standing. All this contributes to generate an expectation in the market.
Obviously it is necessary not to disappoint this expectation, but rather to overcome it: it is the only way to create a true customer retention.

 

What do you do when you are not travelling or working?
I love sport. I like being on the move and I do running, cycling, boxe.
But my biggest passion is kite, I also became instructor.
Kite is not only a sport to me, it’s a lifestyle.
It teaches patience, when you have to wait for the wind.
It teaches to find a balance as in no time you need to manage board, body, mind and waves.
It teaches to manage unforeseen turbulences as a blast is always lurking and it is up to you to find a way to reach the shore, despite everything.

NTS new partner of JobsAcademy

NTS S.p.A., leading company in mold building and molding of thermosetting and thermoplastic materials, has recently joined the ITS JobsAcademy foundation, as participating member.

“This decision is based on a sound conviction: the person is at the center of the Company together with his precious personal and professional growth.

A partnership, the one between JAC and NTS, that has to make our school-business relationship more and more fruitful in order to generate future and technology in our territory”.

With this perspective, NTS considers our “Technology of composite materials” path as an opportunity of collaboration and development, sharing projects, in the interest of the students and companies of this branch.

With its membership, NTS confirmed its will to contribute to the pursuit of the JAC Foundations’s goals, in particular by carrying out – in collaboration with the companies of this sector – a series of initiatives whose aim is promoting and enhancing the education paths proposed by JobsAcademy, to optimize their theoretical and practical teaching methods to allow the “super-technicians of JAC” to accelerate their entry into the labour market.

 

NTS joins WHP (Workplace Health Promotion)

We spend about 1700 hours per year at work.

A really important time in which we have to keep and improve our professionalism together with our health. Feeling fine at work generates a positive effect that affects not only the organization but also our everyday life.

 

We strongly believe that the workplace is a constant discussion and improvement habitat and, right because of this, we joined with enthusiasm the WHP program (www.whpbergamo.it).

We involved our whole team through a promoting group of people and, a few months after adhering to the WHP program, we have already implemented important virtuous actions.

 

Any example of good practice?

Twice a week we make baskets of fresh fruits available to our team for a healthy snack.

The vending machines nearby our relax area are equipped with healthy foods (such as dried fruit or simple carbohydrates) and low-cal refreshing drinks.

To cap it all, we decided to discourage smoke, isolating the smoking area in a small portion near the parking.

Into the bargain, we are thinking of new activities.

If you follow us on our socials, you’ll be update in real time.

 

WHP: what is it about?

WHP program has been conceived and experimented in Bergamo by the Health Protection Agency together with Confindustria, with the endorsement of different institutional and scientific partners.

In 2012 it has been spread to all the territory of Lombardy Region.

The workplaces joining the WHP undertake a path that foresees the realization of good and effective actions to promote health and safety.

WHP companies promote physical activity, offer opportunities to quit smoking, support a healthy diet, implement activities to improve the well-being at work.

 

Further information about WHP available at: http://www.whpbergamo.it/

Interview with Jenny Janet Vera Hidalgo

Jenny Janet Vera Hidalgo is a young Ecuadorian woman, working in NTS for more than ten years.

She is a specialized worker in the molding dept., who recently cooperated to the writing of some internal and very useful instructions to her operation and to the one of her colleagues.

Here is her story.


INTERVIEW WITH JENNY JANET VERA HIDALGO

How did you live your condition of foreigner when you arrived to Italy?
I came to Italy in 1999 and in the 2003 I moved to Bergamo for personal matters, I immediately liked this city for its tranquility and beauty.
I felt welcomed and worked in different local companies, among which Nolan and Necta.
After some time, one day, I left my curriculum in NTS and my professional life changed since then. I remember that the first job interview had been very positive, my fluent Italian had been particularly appreciated.

 

What did you find in NTS?
A company that made me grow a lot, on professional and human level as well.
I learnt to sharpen my perceptiveness and my critical thinking, I improved my organization skills. Thanks to the team work, I understood that having a common goal is not enough, it is necessary to share a method to reach a real harmony.

 

What’s the air you breath in NTS like?
I’d say that there is a very cooperative atmosphere: none of us feels a number even though the company is big.
I have a memory about this aspect. After working for a few time in the finishing department,
I had been given a new role in the moulding department. My responsibilities grew, in particular I had to take care of the functioning and maintenance of some machineries.
I was afraid of this step but I was followed by Giuliano Bresciani, the moulding technologist that became my reference point. A very scrupulous professional who supported me with professionality and patience.

 

What did Giuliano tell you to reassure you?
Once, at the end of the day, he saw I was kind of discouraged and told me: “Jenny, don’t worry, your work must become a part of you. Each day you will gain new information and, without even realizing it, you will feel as sure as you have never felt before. Let time run its course”.
These words remained in my heart, really.

Is there any other episode of your work you would like to tell about?
Last year I saw a colleague of mine having some difficulties. After a week training, he was not able to use a machinery properly, he did not remember the procedure. I thought it would have been useful to him to have some written instructions at hand, so that he could consult them in case of need. As I went home, I started to write them into a document.
I do not know very well the Italian grammar, therefore my children helped me as they are born here and know the language very well: I like to involve them in my work and they know NTS even thanks to what I tell them about the company.
When I completed the document, I shared it with NTS Direction who really appreciated my contribution, and made it official together with all the Quality documents. There is no need to say that I felt very gratified.

 

What led you to undertake this action?
The sense of belonging and the love for my job.
We spend most of our time at work, I think that loving it is necessary to feel satisfied and pleased.
It is a teaching I am trying to transmit everyday even to my children.

Is there anything you like to do in your free time?
Spending my time with my friends: I have many in NTS as well.
I also like to help less fortunate people.
I cooperate with the organization Naga Milano, specialized in welcoming immigrates in Italy. We try to give them basic assistance, even speaking the same language often helps them to feel reassured. I believe that everyone of us has the duty to give help to those who need it.

 

Do you have a long-cherished dream?
When I arrived to Italy I did not continue my studies in Economics and Business, I had to work. Maybe it’s gone for the best like this, I did not feel talented at scientific studies. I don’t know when but I would like to study psychology to better understand other people and always feel useful.

 

 

Interview with Davide Licari

Davide Licari is the head of the Moulds’ building workshop in NTS.
He coordinates a team of twenty people, he loves sport and educational training.
He is been working in NTS since January 1989 and he lived the switch from artisan to industrial business.

We interviewed him to get to know his professional history.


INTERVIEW WITH DAVIDE LICARI

What does your job consist of?
I manage the complete mould productive process in NTS.
All our moulds are generally conceived by our design dept. and then put into production.
There are many activities which are nowadays handled by anthropomorphic robots but the human position remains anyway central: in the setting and monitoring of the machinery, and in the finishing phase of the mould as well.
This synergy between Machinery and Man is a very important aspect in my department.
If on one side I have to monitor the perfect functioning of the equipment, on the other side I have to make sure that all human resources work at their maximum potential.
Technology and Man must coexist in an harmonic way: my task is to make it happen. It is naturally perceivable, that the digital evolution has changed the way to work in the last years and, further to this, the Company has invested in my training as well.

 

How?
With NTS I attended technical classes, but especially, I have attended classes to improve my personal abilities, for example the one of managing a working team.
I am really grateful for the educational path I undertook.
I learned a lot from our coach Paolo Manocchi: he taught me a lot but especially to listen carefully to my interlocutor since often his questions already include the answers he is searching for.

 

Our work often make some unknown aspect of our personality emerge. Do you agree?
During the years I realized that I get a lot of satisfaction in seeing motivation in those who surround me and, quite the opposite, I get very annoyed when somebody is unenthusiastic.
There are some young guys wanting to work here but they back out after a few days.
I find it curious that, even thanks to some TV program, it is considered noble to oil one’s hands in the kitchen but not very elegant to soil them with cooling lubricant used in a workshop.
There is a common opinion, that I don’t share, which divides series A and series B manual labors.
I strongly affirm that doing a manual job involves concentration and mind commitment together with the ability of using one’s hand with professionality. It means being able to create something, it is really priceless feeling.

 

Can parents help their children to fulfil themselves?
We have to stop being hyper-protective towards our children. Sometimes parents accompany their 18 years old children to our company and recommend not to make them tire too much. We must understand that loving our children means to help them to find their own way, to encourage them to dare, experiment, and do what they do with commitment and heart.
Making experience and being humble are necessary to grow up: there are no shortcuts.

 

What do you like in NTS?

I have been working in this Company for more than thirty years and I can say it is a company that believes in values such as transparency, coherence, sharing, responsibility and flexibility. The switch from artisan to industrial reality has been gradual: we all felt we are a part of the growth of this Company.
Moreover the fundamental values remained the same: even if workers and collaborators have exponentially grown, none of us has ever felt like a number.
NTS is able to keep up with the times without degenerating: I think this is its greater strength.

 

What do you think about the new company image and the social turning point?
I believe that company communication is coherent with our way to be.
Technology, environment and human relationship are always at the center: simple values that everyone of us tries to transmit to customers, suppliers and collaborators.
I appreciate the choice of being present in social medias: it is a way to open to the world, to dialogue and converse even beyond physical confines. We are like this: we love confrontation.

 

What are your passions?
I like running. I also have a directive role in the sportive society Atletica Stezzano.
Many people think it is an individual sport but they are wrong: the most beautiful aspect of running is training with mates and preparing for a competitive event keeping united.
I believe it is a wonderful metaphor of life: every one of us runs with his own legs but breath and heart are the result of an inner strength that you find only when you share your path with valuable people.