Marco Rossi Zaitex SpA

Marco Rossi, CEO of ZAITEX SpA, highlights how honesty on the part of all players, collaborators, customers, suppliers, banks contributes to the success of a company. The company needs everyone’s help, “… but ask yourself a question first: what are you giving at that moment to the company and also to yourself?”

The entrepreneurial adventure begins

I am Marco Rossi, I am CEO of Zaitex SpA.

Zaitex is a company that deals with chemical products applied to various sectors, especially in the color sector, which has various applications, textiles, leather, wood and many small niches that one could not imagine.

Zaitex was born in 1974, thanks to my father, who after a long experience at Acna, which was one of the most important color companies in Europe, after having worked in Germany, having worked in England, moved to Veneto, which he also came from. After a few years of work in Veneto, he saw the opportunity to buy a small company there, which in reality wasn’t operational and to start doing his job as a distributor of products for small customers. He always says that when he started, he started in the basement of his friend’s dry cleaners, who had helped him get started, and then he was a partner for some time. But basically, he did everything with his own strength and has since evolved along with the Italian market until the years 2000 and 2001, when the market had a fairly constant growth over time, despite the vicissitudes and problems . Then, since 2001, the textile crisis began a bit in Italy, and became dramatic in the following years. Let’s say that today, in our area, textiles is about 3 to 5% of what was there in 2001.

So the company has gone through periods of great difficulty, from an opportunity point of view. Year after year, customers had to be regained, where customers were missing. And for that we started to look outside, so we started acquiring companies, especially in Lombardy, and to look at other markets, so not only textiles, but also leather markets and other specialties. Until today, where today we sell from Central America to Bangladesh, we have customers in thirty countries, although Italy remains the historical base of our work.

The money to start

This company was born thanks to my dad’s savings, with the help of his friend, then over time he also had a partner, who was then liquidated and today we are about 60 people divided in four factories. We make a turnover of around 26 million and treat over 1,200 products, which together create a great complexity both in terms of logistics and management, as they are all technical products and come from all over the world and are distributed mainly in Europe, but also in many countries outside Europe. But we have adapted a lot to the changes that the market has imposed on us and if at the beginning it was a great effort and for many years it has been an effort being able to adapt, today it has become the DNA of the company and the reason why we still manage to grow.

A negative and a positive event

If I have to talk about negative and positive events, certainly in the period after 2001, we experienced periods of great difficulty, especially for my dad it was difficult to see some customers, whom he considered first of all friends, but also solid companies, with great history, with people very well prepared inside them, to collapse, to go bankrupt, not paying debts and we saw a territory die very quickly, among other things without any involvement, from a public information point of view, rather than politics, therefore you felt almost abandoned and you could see a drowning sector. Those years were a great stress for us, that changed us, made us improve in some ways, be more realistic, because the myth: “work a lot, do it well and you don’t have to worry”, honestly it’s not true. We live in a supply chain and therefore everyone in the supply chain must be healthy and have the ability to react to difficulties. This for me is a set of events, in reality, it’s not an event alone but it has really made us change.

Instead if I have to think of positive events, there are so many, I will tell one that happened to me. Over time we have been in contact with large multinational groups and last year we had the opportunity to meet the technical leaders of HanesBrands, which is an American multinational, owner of several famous brands, such as Sara Lee, Champion and during the presentation of the company and of what we have been able to develop from the point of view of research and results, I saw those people who looked at us almost with “an open mouth” (dumbfounded). Here, going to such a company and bringing the developments made over years of work and seeing these people have such a reaction was an incredible experience for me and also for all the people who work here.

Doing business in Italy

Doing business in Italy today is certainly not the easiest thing in the world, even if we have some cards up our sleeves. It will seem obvious, but surely the people and the way to adapt to their problems, is one of the keys to work in Italy and work well abroad.

If we look at Italy, we have competitive advantages that are above all linked to aesthetics, history. But there is one, perhaps not always considered, which is precisely the people and the great spirit of ambition and personal pride we have. Which, in some ways blocks a certain growth because everyone thinks they are the best, but on the other hand this creates really great people, that when are involved in the work, in the results, in the objectives correctly, they “have an extra gear”. An extra gear compared to abroad, because we have good taste, because we have the imagination and creativity to go inside the problem to the very end and find a solution, maybe simple, but one that no one could figure out. So today doing business in Italy, you do it because you are surrounded both in the company and outside by these people.

The key traits of an entrepreneur

Entrepreneurs have so many features, so many peculiarities and honestly I don’t feel like saying that there is a profile of the entrepreneur that always succeeds, compared to the other ones.

I can say what I respect in the entrepreneurs I know and which I think are the real “drivers” that allow you to create a company and make it sustainable. I think it takes a lot of courage, it takes great generosity in the sense that being an entrepreneur means making everyone grow together, not just creating a business and being able to describe the road you want to take and seeing it, this is a true “plus” you can have. Because you can easily find people with specific knowledge in a particular sector, instead finding a person who has a vision of the whole and the road to take that is rarer and I believe that it is the true “core” of the entrepreneurs who succeed.

I think it is very important for the entrepreneur to look at himself in the mirror with honesty, because it is something that is transmitted to everyone, being the first that makes an honest, non-destructive, not exciting self-critic, looking at reality is the way to not make big mistakes, to value everyone and also to have a real idea of what to do tomorrow.

The future for the new generations

If I had to say something to young people, it would be to be curious, be curious, try to know things as they are, not through a virtual world, make real experiences, touch everything you can touch. Be brave, give everyone a chance and don’t rely on a prejudice that may melt in the sun and prevent you from doing so many things, from seeing so many things. Learn languages, English is the most important thing ever, to do business, to live in a world understanding it, for us.

Respect all the people who are distant, because it is easy to look around and think that the world ends there but that isn’t true. What happens 10,000 kilometers from here, today comes here, whether we are talking about pollution, about technology, about politics, about society. So don’t stop at the first sight, at superficiality, at laziness.

Then think, when you go to a company above all, surely run away from those who exploit you, but first ask yourself a question: “what are you giving at that moment to the company and also to yourself?” Because, it can become a big investment or it can be just a situation that ends there and it’s just a big disappointment. Have the courage to decide quickly, always. If I can give you advice, don’t rely on your knowledge on cheat sheets, on copying; when you arrive in the company, honesty, being transparent, the fact of knowing how to adapt, pays back enormously. Even, at times, it is the only way, it is the only way to solve problems, when there is no one else who passes them to you, when there are unexpected situations and when you need to talk to third parties who may lend you money or third parties who are your suppliers and therefore lend you money anyway when they give you the goods.

We deeply value an approach which isn’t stingy towards suppliers, not aggressive towards banks, one that over time has led to a perception of profound honesty on the part of all the players who work with us. Maybe sometimes it has affected our margins, but in the long term it pays, honesty pays.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You May Also Like
Read More

Giuseppe Aquila Penne Montegrappa

Giuseppe Aquila, CEO of Penne Montegrappa, takes us to the world of the early twentieth century, when the pen together with the paper represented an important means of communication. Montegrappa pens represent a useful means of representation of Made in Italy, where the creativity and professionalism of Italians are valid witnesses in the world.
Read More