CASE HISTORY 10
INTERNATIONALIZATION AND GENERATIONAL TRANSITION (INDUSTRIAL COMPANY)
by Marco Bazzerla
The Italian SME was focussed on the Italian market with only a 30% export share. The entrepreneur decided to reverse the trend and increase the export share to more than 70% and concurrently he planned to succeed in the company to the next family generation. With these dual objectives, an Interim Manager was introduced into the company to define together with the entrepreneur, both the strategic plan of internationalization and the plan related to the training and insertion in the company of the family member. Firstly, the plan involved the acquisition of small foreign companies (to minimize financial commitments), and secondly, the INTERIM MANAGER included the entrepreneur's daughter in a staff position. The multi-year path allowed the Company to become a de facto multinational group and at the same time transfer the role of commercial manager to the entrepreneur's daughter. Unfortunately, the project also showed that family succession was not practicable in the short term.