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.
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.