It's a good thing that in Italy there is the fourth capitalism of medium-sized enterprises, those companies – often pocket multinationals of a family nature – which have a turnover between 15 and 330 million euros and a number of employees between 50 and 499 units. Although 2012 went worse than expected both in terms of turnover and production, Made in Italy – which represents the heart of medium-sized manufacturing companies present above all in the mechanical, food, household and personal products sectors – holds up and confirms its propensity to export, its dynamism and its financial solidity. Unfortunately, taxes penalize intermediate companies more than large and small companies.
But the most interesting novelty coming out of the Report on "Medium-sized enterprises in Europe" presented in recent days by R&S Mediobanca, Unioncamere and Confindustria is represented by the fact that Italian medium-sized enterprises are, together with the Spanish ones, the most profitable with an even higher profitability to the German and French companies: their net operating margin on added value reaches 19% against 15% of the German and French companies. In terms of productivity, however, the Germans prevail (56.900 euros of net added value per employee against the 53.300 euros of medium-sized Italian companies, which however do better than the French and Spanish) while the Italians have a per capita labor cost (39.600 euros ) among the lowest and second only to that of Spanish medium-sized enterprises (36.800 euros).
At a time when in Italy everything or almost everything seems to be conspiring for the worst, knowing that there is a piece of the system that holds up and works is a consolation. And indeed the Fourth Capitalism – which represents medium-sized manufacturing enterprises and which is so called to clearly distinguish itself from the First Capitalism of large private enterprises, the Second Capitalism of large public enterprises and the Third Capitalism of small and very small enterprises – is a reality that it has always given satisfaction to the country and to the Italian economy. And if in the last 10 years - claims the Report - medium-sized Italian companies had had a more favorable taxation equal to that of large companies, today they would have capital solidity, which is already good, even comparable to that of their German sisters, the 76% of which are investment grade.
Basically, medium-sized industrial enterprises are confirmed as the most dynamic segment of the Italian production system and hold up very well compared with their German, French and Spanish cousins, but they have some defects that only a modern industrial policy could overcome: 1) there are still too few : only 4 thousand (between 2000 and 2009 their number even decreased by 669 units) and moreover located almost exclusively in the North and to a lesser extent in the Center but almost none in the South; 2) they do not have the means to carry out sufficient research and development and are not very present in high tech, even if they are very innovative and very much projected on international markets where, not infrequently, they are niche leaders; 3) they contribute only to a modest extent to the formation of the national GDP.
In other words, it would be illusory to think that medium-sized enterprises are enough for Italy and that they can replace large enterprises, so rare in Italy, but the fourth capitalism remains a fundamental factor of dynamism of the production system that an intelligent political class would have everything the interest of valuing. But this is unfortunately a sore point.
