The entrepreneurial adventure begins
I’m Mauro Righi, I’m the President of Righi Group. Righi Group has grown, has transformed over the years. It was born in ’91, but in reality the group was born because of me but also because of a series of circumstances that occurred.
After school I worked for a technology company, I really liked it but this company basically failed. So at the age of 25 I found myself having to choose, because there weren’t too many options. So I started to think of what I wanted to do when I grew up. It must also be said that there was another aspect that was something that I really had inside, because since I was a kid I felt the desire to create something of my own, to embark in an entrepreneurial adventure in the field of technology.
So here is the Group today employing more than 200 people, it was born from this strong determination of mine, since I was a kid, of wanting to do something, something that came from inside me, I really felt inside and then from situations that in life can, and will happen, in this case the loss of a job that I liked and a fresh start with on a new path. Along this journey I met my current partners. This is a family company, the Righi Group, and two of my cousins have joined me. But, although, this is a family group, we operate like an industrial group, therefore the meritocratic principles are applied, the role is not tied to the fact that one is a partner or a relative but it is linked to the fact that he is actually the right person for the job.
The money to start
Undoubtedly in this path the problems that I’ve had to face have been many and the economic and financial aspect hasn’t been a negligible one, you need money to grow.
My family, a family of workers, my father was a mason, he has always been a mason, a construction manager, and therefore he has passed on to me this culture of “brick by brick”, which means growing by building upon strong foundations. Today the group employs many people, makes tens of millions of euros in turnover, about 40 million, but when we started, just because of the logic of “brick by brick”, we start by doing very small jobs, we tried to be a bit like ants, so we put aside what we could, and reinvested it, we have always invested almost everything we earned. Undoubtedly an investment aimed at an industrial project, a growth project. So this allowed us, step by step, following the strategy of the small but steady steps, and always in the right direction, because there is nothing worse than taking a path without knowing what direction to take, what is the goal and the point of arrival. So this is the criterion we used to get this far, and we continue to apply it today.
A negative and a positive event
In recent years there have been many negative events, many satisfactions, positive events, but I don’t like to discriminate between negative and positive, because if negativity and the negative event is caught with the right mindset, with the right sensitivity, it can teach you a lot, and that what allows you to grow. Because the entrepreneurial path and the companies grow if people grow, in terms of skills, in terms of competencies and often the biggest leaps in quality are made starting from a negative event.
Undoubtedly, they were difficult times, but I always connect those periods to people. A rather complicated period for me was when I achieved excellent results, results that went beyond my expectations. And since my path was linked to a dream, a goal, when I reached that goal I didn’t know what to do. And I must say that this was a really difficult time for me, because I couldn’t find the right motivation and the right energy to continue on the path I had started with education, which I recommend to everyone. Even if someone thinks the opposite, he always needs education because education is a continuous process and it triggers a series of mechanisms and stimuli linked to curiosity and “vision”.
Another very important element was that of the testimonies. In this course of training there are people who have built, very, very large companies. We deepened the experiences of others who have made history in the world, so we have really gone far with respect to the experiences of others. Somehow then we are all used to reconnecting others’ experiences to ourselves and consequently listening and understanding the difficult times and what has driven other people to build huge empires, which operate globally and are leaders, this always gives some ideas to start from, with which to correct what we are doing. And then it is very, very stimulating, for someone who has the enterprise within, who has the desire to grow inside, you can understand that there is nothing more stimulating than the example of someone who has achieved enormous things.
Then another very, very important thing that emerges in these moments, is that we are our own limit, basically, it is us who often self-limit ourselves, so in relation to certain opportunities or the desire to do something that we have inside, we often more easily find the motivations not to do it, instead of doing it. These are the elements that I have collected, that I have internalized in this training path.
Doing business in Italy
My job as well as being the president, is commercial management, so this role often leads me abroad, to move, we have many customers abroad, over 60% of what we do goes abroad, a lot of what we do with Italian customers, the rest directly. So the comparison with other countries, other contexts is continuous and sometimes we ask ourselves: why is it so complicated to do business in Italy? Then we go to the core of the problem, and there is, indeed, a very, very complex bureaucratic aspect.
The entrepreneur in Italy often, not always, but very often is abandoned, but the peculiarities that Italy and Italians have I must say that they are unique in the world. Italy is an extraordinary country, under many standpoints and there are extraordinary people. We work in technology and I must say that unfortunately we cannot create a group, but the skills of the technicians, of Italian people are second to no one.
If we then add this concept of customization more and more and everything that is done today, it is done with the mindset of customization, therefore getting closer to the needs of the individual customer. Our customers are in the industrial world, because then the final consumer needs a personalized product. From this point of view, I must say that Italy in the technological field can do a lot, because our nature of inventors, which penalizes us when dealing with big issues, big companies, etc., but now helps us a lot, because the world truly seeks customization.
In Italy it is very complicated to do business, undoubtedly, precisely because of the lack of clarity. But more and more Italy, also in the technological field, is obtaining many good results. If we look at what is happening in Northern Italy in terms of excellence, and there is a growing integration with foreign groups, especially German groups, who work extensively on technology, precisely because in Italy they find what they don’t have. And this combination, the ability of the individual Italian, combined with the organizational capacity that some countries have, I must say that in a global market is a winner. We need more attention towards the company, even if I have to say that in recent years, the policies that have been made go in the direction of enhancing companies, because then without companies, without those who work in them, all the rest is nullified. But it is definitely not enough, in particular if we compare it with what is being done in countries that could potentially be competitors.
The key traits of an entrepreneur
Doing business not only in Italy, but also in the world is almost a mission, so the basic characteristics must be those of truly believing and wanting to contribute to the development of the company. Being very free, mentally free, to be able to grasp, understand and then also tending to work not only within the company, because then you risk being too nuanced compared to what happens every day, but also looking the company from the outside.
Then undoubtedly the courage to risk. We took so many risks, but I have to say that because of the education I received, all the risks we took were risks that already had a parachute, so this is one of our characteristic and probably if we hadn’t done it this way we could have achieved even more. But I must also say that everyone must be consistent to his principles his goals.
Undoubtedly, almost always the entrepreneur is alone, in his decisions, in his own path, even if I have to say that around me I always have in particular my partners, but also the collaborators. In particular the partners who have always been punctual in being able to contribute to everything that has allowed the company to grow. This is another very, very important thing, but then the final decision almost always takes a person, beyond the board of directors, beyond all the organizational structure, so you must also have a little bit of courage and sometimes even be a little… not unconscious, absolutely, but you have to throw your heart over the obstacle.
The future for the new generations
Our group is always close, it has always been and still is, close to the young people and we are in the technical committees of schools, we collaborate with the University for development projects, to contribute also with respect to the didactic choices that the schools take and then I really like to attend, to talk with young people. We have many in our company, considering that in our Group the average age does not exceed 36 years, so we have many young people, we pursue training, we introduce them to the company by training them.
One of the messages that I always give our young collaborators, even when we are in meetings, but not only to the newly arrived ones, even to those who have been here for a long time or the adults, is to never to be satisfied. I always say, if you are not happy in the work you are doing, then it lowers the motivation to put yourself out there, to grow, to learn, etc., you have to change, you have to find another job, even if the company may be against it, but it is your life, so there is nothing worse than spending 60-70% of your time, because in the company you spend these percentages, if we consider that you also sleep, in a workplace doing something you don’t like.
We talk about entrepreneurs, often separated from people. Another concept is that each of us is the entrepreneur of himself. Then there are those who create businesses, hire people, create industrial groups or not, but in the everyday life we all have to make choices that often are not very different from those made within a company. Undoubtedly, it is the game that is different, so it is very, very important, in any case, to get involved, to know what you want to do.
And then I always reiterate the concept of the goal, a life without a goal, without a dream is like leaving for a trip, taking your car, your scooter and going on a road and not knowing where to go. But you understand that we void everything, we don’t get anywhere. Life is like a journey and you absolutely have to know where you want to go: then it’s not important whether you arrive, but the important thing is the path, so respecting others, respecting yourself, undertake it and enjoy the journey.
IP Crew
