Businesses as an engine for creating value in the territory

Rana: we improve through symbiosis and the transfer of skills

By Massimo Mamoli – Daily editor of L'Arena

Extract from the article published in the newspaper L'Arena on 6 June 2024

A source of pride for the country, an ambitious project that aims to make businesses a bridge to the future. Businesses as social cells to create value. A project that has its temple in the Arena of Verona. A unicum in the world of opera, represented by the 67 columns, that virtuous union between private and public which also this special year supports the Arena festival. A project driven by the enthusiasm of its founders and ambassadors, Gian Luca Rana, CEO of Pastificio Rana, and Sandro Veronesi, president of Oniverse.

Credits: Photo Giorgio Marchiori / Larena.it

“The Arena – said the Undersecretary of Culture Gianmarco Mazzi last March 8 at the start of the new edition of the 67 columns project – has a know-how like no other in the world to create great opera productions with excellence”. In these editions of the project you have had the opportunity to experience first-hand the value of the human capital that works in the talented Italian artisans at every performance that makes the Arena season famous throughout the world. This too is a heritage, not immaterial but material, which makes Made in Italy unique in the world. How does this become the added value for you entrepreneurs and ambassadors from food to fashion and beyond?FROG:There is an important aspect of our being entrepreneurs, a distinctive trait that makes the difference: it is the concept of craftsman, of "having one's hands in the dough", the original element from which our businesses started. It is learning through a symbiosis, a transfer of skills. The artisan's workshop is the place where arts and crafts are exchanged, generating an understanding of what is happening around. This is what we bring abroad, our cultural peculiarity, a substantial difference between those who tackle any job looking at all aspects and those who instead have a narrow declination of specificity. There is a widespread competence within us made up of a thought that looks at the entire process, which is not limited to a specific approach, but integrates different points of view. This makes it unique. And let's not forget the manual skills, often underestimated, which needs to be rediscovered, because in addition to being so rooted in the excellence of our country, it contains and preserves a very profound nobility, representative of our way of being and acting.We participate in the life of Verona in the full sense, even outside of our specific role as publishers. It's part of the obsession we talked about before. What we are creating is a historical watershed that will remain over time. The path we have set out is taking on exemplary value, so much so that our crowdfunding has already become a model capable of inspiring numerous foundations and institutions in Italy and around the world, as well as for future generations. It remains as an indelible sign of a common desire to participate in collective life in a proactive way, at the service of civil society. On the contrary, if an activity only allows the growth of the individual, it will soon be forgotten. What we are creating is a project destined to last forever, a connecting link.VERONESI:We have supported the Arena Foundation for almost twenty years. We decided to support the 67 Colonne project from the beginning because we were convinced that it would be another important step to make our city and its amphitheater even more known.Four years later, we can say that we are satisfied with how this project has been able to achieve increasingly challenging results. Both for the constant growth in membership, including companies and entrepreneurs united by the desire to be part of a cultural, economic and social operation of international scope. Both as a form of gratitude, in terms of notoriety and economic return, towards our territory.

This centrality for our city is a great responsibility. What advice do you give as entrepreneurs, looking and working in the world outside its walls, what do you want to give to the city you love so that it becomes more and more of the world's heritage?FROG:At the basis of great successes there are always great dreams. Dreams must be stimulating, wide-ranging, precious. We must always set ourselves high, ambitious goals in a positive sense, without settling for easy-to-achieve, short-term dreams. We must set ourselves goals that look far ahead, to deliver a better city and Italy to future generations. We must be a great inspiration to make our city, Italy and the world different and better.to share the best aptitudes of each individual, breaking down and recomposing the various parts, smoothing out any limitations and enhancing the diversity of skills.Listening to the stories of the Arena's artisans, I was struck by the fact that from the smallest details they manage to have a complete vision of the entire scenography. They can see it already finished while they make it. Drawing a parallel with my world, I would say that it is precisely by observing the details that you can discover the talents necessary to carry out great projects. As Shakespeare would say “Men and women are part of this play”.VERONESI:Like most Italians, we were born and raised surrounded by the wonders of our territory, which seemed almost natural to us.For us entrepreneurs, this beauty is the starting point, our distinctive trait that has made Made in Italy grow and made it famous throughout the world: it is the uniqueness of our product, conceived from an idea of ​​beauty, worked and finished "by hand", so much so that it has become something characteristic, an ambassador of our country. In Italy we have a unique craftsmanship in the world, made up of attention to detail, traditions, skilled hands and handed down knowledge. Many professions are born precisely from this and, recognizing their value, we must be able to make them live over time.To do this, a meeting of skills is needed. Of those who can pass on, with their own wealth of experience, and of those who can learn, always adding something new through study, their own thoughts and their own attitudes. With our entry into the "67 Colonne" project, we had the opportunity to "enter the scene" and access a world that we only partially knew as spectators. The painstaking work of seamstresses, musicians, screenwriters, extras and all those involved in the creation of each individual work represents the true artistic heritage to be protected. Through Italian talent it is possible to stage real works of art.

When you reach this high, repeating yourself is not easy. And this year, after the first time of the Arena festival a hundred times, overcoming oneself becomes the horizon of the new edition of the 67 columns project which achieves ever greater success and participation every year. How do you interpret this challenge in the company that is an engine of growth every year?FROG:The summary is simple, throw your heart over the obstacle! I love encouraging my team to leave their comfort zone, because only by overcoming one's limits can one face the unknown. Not everyone is ready to venture out of their comfort zone, but when this happens, an even stronger, more cohesive team is built. This way we all grow together and develop new skills. We should never be satisfied with already known boundaries, we should always push further: it is the style that is called "Blue Ocean Strategy", that is, the ability to explore unknown seas.If I think back to my beginnings in the company... today the Rana Group has exceeded one billion in turnover, but if I had only listened to the "rational" reasons, today we would have much less significant growth, contained within national borders, we would not have addressed those international markets where today we are successfully present. In car racing they say “If you have everything under control, it means you're going slow”. It's a maxim that I often use: for me it means not being afraid of the unknown, not being frightened by temporal and geographical limits. When I look at my company, I go beyond the immediate horizons, I project each project into a distant future so that the company can continue to surpass itself, proving itself to be a relevant and significant reality for generations to come.VERONESI:Growing means always creating new goals, trying not only to do well, but to do better what was done yesterday. In practice, it means knowing how to innovate and having the courage to make choices, sometimes even adjusting the aim along the way, also trying to learn from missteps.Opportunities are always around the corner, it's up to us to know how to seize them. Even the recent recognition of Opera Singing as a UNESCO intangible heritage can represent a new growth engine for the Arena Foundation, a new opportunity for visibility to continue to surpass itself. For us as Oniverse, the daily challenge is knowing how to satisfy the needs of our customers in the 56 countries where we are present, offering them a product that meets their expectations and needs.

The 67 columns have triggered an important economic and social impact, in the same way your businesses, by spreading culture, also generate a significant social value, rooted in their territory. How?FROG:As entrepreneurs we have the duty to invest to generate new opportunities and support culture by betting confidently on its beauty and uniqueness, because the arts have an essential social value. Gathering more and more people around this focal point is the most effective method to exponentially multiply the value of our city, and at the same time, consolidate the identity of our business and civil society.VERONESI:Our goal has always been to build something long-lasting and oriented towards the long term, respecting the surrounding social and natural environment. The choice to support cultural and artistic activities like this allows us to concretely enhance the territory, developing an economic spin-off and offering new opportunities and meeting opportunities for the community, creating a virtuous circle for the benefit of all.

What is the magnet, in the world of work, to bring together young people and skills today?FROG: My two children are the icebreakers of Rana's journey towards new generations! I entrusted the scouting of young talents to my son Giovanni. He meets students from schools and universities on an ongoing basis both in Italy and in the United States. It proposes a company concept that promotes the aggregation of young people for the development of projects. Young people have great space in our company, for them we have created a sort of hub called the "butei club" - we defined it in dialect! – a space where Giovanni brings together people under 30, developing a way of using skills in a new way, giving a lot of space to listening and discussion. My daughter Maria Sole, on the other hand, works in Control & Quality and is responsible for the "Ambassadors" project. The Rana Group, although market leader, is never completely satisfied with quality, which, being a relative concept, can always grow, elevate and go beyond. Ambassadors are those who, obsessed with improving the product, perceive it as an expression of themselves: for this reason they work to build an environment of excellence beyond all limits, where quality is not a technocratic parameter but one of values, ethics. I asked Maria Sole, a polyglot since birth, to introduce new technologies and network all the laboratories of our Group, to unite skills and people, giving voice to a conversation capable of overcoming any barrier for absolute, unifying quality. The future belongs to those who started it – I always say – but we need to listen to those who are facing it. The roles in Rana are quite unstructured. The idea of ​​a new product or a new activity, such as the sponsorship of volleyball in Verona, may not come from marketing, but from the feedback and opinions of kids from various work groups and skills. The choice of volleyball is the result of recognizing ourselves in the volleyball environment as a place of values, an amplifier of the dreams of the new generations. We wanted to make volleyball a community project and for this reason for each match we offer employees and their families the opportunity to go to the arena for free. Great enthusiasm was created even among those who had never seen a volleyball match.VERONESI: For our Group, the valorization of people has always played a fundamental role, promoting the building of strong and positive human relationships. Young people today are increasingly looking for a profession that stimulates them, reflects their values ​​and which, in a constructive and motivating way, allows them to grow and express their aptitudes. In this direction, we try to guarantee a company that is as welcoming and stimulating as possible for all our collaborators, also expanding over time the experiences and services offered (such as three company nurseries, the welfare programme, the internal counselor and agreements and initiatives to promote work-life balance). We are a young company, the average age of the people is in fact 30 years. Our strength is precisely knowing how to combine the know-how of those who have been with us for the longest time, with the ideas and new approaches to the work of those who become part of our reality on a daily basis. Today I myself am supported by my children, each with their own talent and aptitudes. They were able to bring their vision and a new approach to the company, creating new teams and new ways of collaborating in the company. Tradition and innovation also come together in Oniverse, the new name of the Group, which represents our universe, made up of brands, people and values. A heterogeneous set of different realities, but at the same time part of the same project.

One last question. Returning to the theme of increasingly challenging the limit, the bar, is there one thing in particular in which you would like to surpass yourself today?FROG: I can't say that yet! My boys are still amazed by the latest projects I proposed to them in the kitchen... but it is precisely with the desire to surpass oneself that one grows and moves forward. In the company there is a joke we make when we have a good idea: "Okay, it's all done." When an idea is good and we are all convinced of it, at that point you just need to have a little time and the ability to execute, everything will come together in a flash. “It's all done” means that you just have to work consistently with the idea. Because in the end it is always the idea that wins.VERONESI: For an entrepreneur, this idea of ​​overcoming the limit often coincides with the birth of new ideas and inspirations. I believe that today for our group, present in different sectors (from socks to underwear, through wine, to boating), surpassing ourselves means being able to consolidate our position and experience in each area of ​​expertise. It is always right to set yourself far-sighted goals, but it is equally important to know how to seize the opportunities that life holds for us. I myself chart a course with goals, but if I find a headwind or better conditions, I change direction. I start a journey but I remain flexible, also based on the opportunities and people I meet.

Credits: Ansa / Larena.it