| Excellence with Passion |
The 28th and 29th of September 2006 saw the Forging Innovation Meeting, the annual event organised by CEFRIEL o discuss innovation at international level, learn from the experiences of leading corporate and government speakers, and strengthen the commitment and passion for the Centre's activities. In particular this year, university professors, industrial executives and representatives from central and local government discussed together with CEFRIEL people the question ofinternationalisation. More than once in the course of the debate, speakers underlined that, in order to work at international level, excellence is indispensable, and welltrained and motivated people are the key resource for obtaining this result. It is no coincidence that in the annual research carried out by the Great Place to Work Institute, CEFRIEL, which has always looked to attracting and keeping talented staff, has been classified for the third year in a row (this year in 10th position) among the best Italian companies to work for. "The aim is to go beyond the traditional paradigms of resource management and create something new", explains Gilberto Dondè, the CEO of Great Place to Work Institute Italia, adding that: "In the business world, we are hearing the word talentmore and more, butthe companies have to develop all their people internally and direct their efforts to the best". At the core of the perfect company, then, we find people. However, does this all work from an economic point of view? Yes, it does indeed. As a matter of fact, the economic results ofmany companies, all classified by international rating organisations, prove this truth. These organisations confirm that knowing how to obtain excellence from own resources leads to significantly better performance than that realised by companies which do not or do not know how to take this approach. "Companies are really excellent - Dondè underlines - only when internally they are able to create the right climate to develop their normal talent and to obtain excellent results from normal people". Passion, trust in management, good relations and pride in one's work are qualities which are not lacking at CEFRIEL, as emphasised by the Centre's managers who, during the concluding round-table discussion, analysed their ability to look to the future. The central role of people and relationships is once again the leitmotif of the argument. "We can have the most advanced technological tools, but in the end, what makes the difference are the people who create and share the knowledge and information". CEFRIEL managers believe in it and know that renewing everyday their own enthusiasm and that of their staff is the best drive to attain new goals. Increasing the Centre'slevelofinternationalisation isone of these goals. CEFRIEL is already collaborating with European teams in numerous international research studies and working on important innovation projects with foreign customers. From these experiences, CEFRIEL staff has learnt that, to generate new ideas, it needs an international vision and approach, as getting together with other people always leads to improvement. Furthermore, to be international, we also need to know how to attract valuable resources from abroad. However, the attractiveness of a country or a job cannot be merely a question of salary. Rather, we must create an environment that facilitates the sharing of knowledge and encourages the cultural exchange between people from different countries. It is CEFRIEL's aim to become the point of reference for this development in Italy. Positive thinking, the central role of people, passion, pride in one's work, sharing knowledge, vision of the future: these are the values that CEFRIEL reposes on to attain its aim. It seems to be a formula that works, and the good news is that it is getting better day by day thanks to the work of everybody. |
