In the current context, exports and growth abroad are not an option: they are an imperative. If we look at Italy in particular, this is the path to follow for companies that want to maintain or rediscover the path to prosperity and this is the path for the country system to give new stimulus to economic growth, reduce unemployment rates, restore perspectives to young people and find new stability.
Looking beyond national borders, we also have to deal with the complexity of a system that has changed profoundly in recent years. The phenomenon of globalization, which has characterized the last few decades, has in fact revolutionized many competitive dynamics, increasing rivalry at an international level and reducing many advantages of traditional logics.
However, if the concept of growth cannot ignore those of globalization and internationalisation, it is also true that today the dominance of the global market seems to be questioned by a new protagonism of local markets, the so-called phenomenon of deglobalization. This is a process that is common to many industrialized countries.
Moreover, if we look in particular at the political and social sphere, the globalization of the markets which took place since the XNUMXs has brought with it not only benefits, but also consequences which, over the years, have proved to be less positive.
If, for example in the new Asian powers, the classes that have benefited most from this phenomenon have been the middle-low ones, in traditionally advanced countries, the middle class has been particularly affected by the effects of the crisis, fueling feelings of distrust and uncertainty about the future and, in some cases, aversion to the process of globalization itself.
A further push towards deglobalization also comes from digitization and the acceleration of technological progress, which contribute to defining new business logics.
If, in fact, globalization was substantially based on the delocalization of production where labor costs were cheaper, today the evolution of competitive dynamics seems to leave ample room for companies that focus on differentiation and that value the factors of uniqueness and quality of products. Technological innovation is also pushing towards the replacement of low-value-added labor with automated work, thanks to the spread of increasingly pervasive technologies, which tend to progressively reduce the physical work component, favoring highly specialized and knowledge-intensive work.
The combination of the various factors indicated has therefore favored the start of a real process of reshoring, i.e. the repatriation of production activities to the country of origin. A process that is already underway in our country, as it fits in well with the Italian industrial system, which has always stood out for its creativity, quality and widespread presence throughout the territory.
I believe that the factors we have indicated are not leading to a definitive decline of the globalization how much, rather, ad an evolution of the same. We are probably facing a new course, in which the traditional models of production and consumption take on an ever more global and "delocalized" dimension at the origin. In this logic, the new non-territorial connotation of business activities is destined to make the contrast between the concepts of off-shoring and re-shoring lose its relevance.
Specialization, flexibility and agility they are, and will increasingly be, the watchwords to compete successfully in the future. In this context, in order to be leaders, companies must increasingly identify future sources of value creation, innovating products and services and placing the customer and his needs at the center of corporate strategies.
Enel is a truly multinational company, with a profile built over the years, also through the internationalization process. An almost obligatory passage for the energy business which, by its nature, is traditionally characterized by a strong local matrix.
The complexity of our business, in which the strong local presence, the relevance of investments and the definition of the time horizon are intertwined, makes the process by which we make our investment decisions equally complex, as well as relevant. Let's think, for example, of the relevance of the regulatory context, the geopolitical positioning of a country, the risk in terms of political and regulatory stability
For this we have defined an evaluation process which is based on the assignment of a specific investment rating to each investment taken into consideration and which also allows for the valorisation of variables linked to industrial, market, commercial, regulatory and scenario profiles.
So here we understand even better why the “sustainability” variable has such a significant meaning for us in our choices: ours is a business in which the relevance of the long-term component is intrinsic.
In a rapidly changing world, we know that the recipe for managing complexity is to never stop innovating: the only way to remain competitive is to continuously innovate and innovate. Our solution responds to the concept of "open innovation", i.e. the permeable attitude of the company towards the world around it to take advantage of the knowledge and opportunities that can come from other companies, suppliers, universities, start-ups, public institutions or private.
Large multinational companies can play an important role in facilitating the development, growth and internationalization of smaller companies, playing the role of leading company in the supply chain, as Enel is doing.
A role that also carries with it a great assumption of responsibility: that of supporting the country system and supporting the world of SMEs, which probably otherwise would not have the strength or the skills to enter and establish themselves on certain foreign markets. The related industries that revolve around Enel are made up of companies that support us, both as partners and as suppliers. In particular, around a hundred small and medium-sized Italian companies work with us abroad today.
If Italy is historically the country of small and medium enterprises, the dimensional growth of SMEs is certainly a vital element to support the recovery and solidity of the country's economic and social fabric.
