The industrial district of Bologna in which Datalogic flourished has an ancient and complex origin. By the fifteenth century, the city of Bologna was already distinguished in Europe for its mills, especially those spinning silk, which entailed a remarkable combination of technical knowledge and artisanal skill. Just think of the paddle wheel, moved by hydraulic energy, setting in motion a mechanism that rotated hundreds of spools in unison. The oldest university in the world spread the thirst for study and innovation, and manufacturing activity was supported by an excellent location in an area of advanced agriculture and intensive trade. When the profitable production of silk – for which Bologna had become famous throughout Europe – went into decline at the end of the eighteenth century, it was not easy to find new ways forward, and for several decades the city subsisted on the legacy of the past. Its genius for mechanics was not long in reviving, however, thanks in part to a training workshop – the Aldini Valeriani, founded in the mid-nineteenth century – which had at its heart the aim of preparing new engineers and which became the hotbed that nurtured many small entrepreneurs. The end of the nineteenth century saw production begin on machines for processing agricultural products and foodstuffs, but it was in the 1920s that new areas of success were really identified: motorbikes, cars, tractors, packaging machines, radios, lifts, machine tools, machine parts and other various mechanisms. It was immediately clear that the talent of Bologna’s mechanics lay in working creatively on specialised products that had never attained Fordist scales of production, whether due to the intrinsic characteristics of the product – a machine tool must adapt to its user and effectively be “personalised” – or by choice: the cars made by Enzo Ferrari (starting in Bologna and later moving to the Modena area) were constructed in single pieces. This required a great capacity for creativity and flexibility, both of which were drawn from a deep pool of versatile craftsmanship linked to the manufacturing glories of Bologna’s past.
Thus a new field in mechanics took root in Bologna and, after the severe damage of the Second World War, was ready to ride the wave of the economic miracle. With an unprecedented economic boom, businesses multiplied and grew, while one winning product line took shape among them – that of packaging. Before the modern consumer revolution, goods were most often sold “loose”, often in containers brought to the shop by the customer. But hygiene and practicality, as well as self-service in supermarkets, dictated the rise of packaged products, and opportunities for packaging machine producers increased dramatically. Thus arose a dense network of super specialised companies, which forged close relationships and supported one another to create quality products, improving the professionalism of their employees and putting customer satisfaction first. This is the model of the “district” so often examined in economic literature, and not only that of Italy: a community where knowledge is shared and circulated in an honourable way. Businesses remained anchored to the founder’s family, as this form of containment was suited to this stage of development in Bologna’s mechanical industry, which had always been accustomed to exporting abroad.
This was the context in which Datalogic was born in the early 70s. At this time, with the electronic revolution taking off, it became clear that many machines, based on complex mechanisms derived from nothing less than mediaeval clocks, would greatly benefit from the introduction of optical electronic sensors that would allow huge improvements in product quality. Notably, it was the “critical mass” of mechanical businesses existing in Bologna that provided the first suitable and fertile market for an entrepreneurial idea such as that of Datalogic’s founder. The progression from these early electronic optical devices for packaging machines to the creation of bar code reading systems was almost inevitable. This was another of the rich markets that stood out for electronic optical readers at a time when commercial distribution in Italy was increasingly diverted towards supermarkets, hypermarkets and department stores, and cooperatives took a leading role in their sectors, especially in the regions of Emilia and Tuscany. However, there were many other fields of application for bar code readers, from postal services to couriers, from logistics to baggage handling at airports. So, born to serve the packaging industry, Datalogic then developed much larger spheres of activity. This steered the company more strongly towards markets abroad, not only to export, like other businesses in Bologna, but to exchange technology with more advanced countries – Germany, Japan and above all the United States – where Datalogic opened subsidiaries and acquired other companies.
Meanwhile, the watchword of borderless markets became internationalisation, meaning the ability to oversee markets at a global level through a network of commercial structures and agencies distributed throughout the world. Even where a product niche was not large, as in the case of Bologna’s specialisations, it was no longer enough to manufacture only in Bologna. Few companies in the industrial districts were ready to make this leap, and Datalogic is one of the businesses that have succeeded in leveraging an early presence abroad. This would never be an easy step for companies that were strongly rooted in their territory, more accustomed to speaking in dialect than in Italian, but it was more difficult still when it required changes to the governance of the business.
It was at the beginning of the 1990s that Datalogic confronted this problem and set about creating a managerial structure for the group, accompanied by an increasingly focused osmosis between managers from the various geographical areas. It is well noted in literature that the transformation of a family business into one headed by a management team, where ownership still has a part to play but day-to-day activities are placed in the hands of managers, is not an easy process. The owner and founder show great resistance to relinquishing important areas of decision-making power, while it is not easy to come by high-quality managers who will create a collaborative, horizontal working environment rather than the strong vertical hierarchy typical of large multinationals. Yet without this change it is impossible to grow, or rather it is impossible to survive in advanced sectors such as the one in which Datalogic operates. In this way, Datalogic became one of the Italian companies that make up the so-called “Fourth Capitalism”, which denotes the phase of Italian capitalism following that of Fiat, Pirelli, Alfa Romeo and so on, of the IRI and Eni, and of the industrial districts. This phase sees the consolidation of numerous small businesses which have grown to medium size and become international, taking the form of “pocket multinationals”, another successful expression, and becoming world leaders in their fields of specialisation.
We can therefore state that Datalogic has been born for a second time, still under the guidance of the same founder, who firstly knew how to steer the company in a rapidly expanding sector and secondly transformed its organisational structure in such a way as to continue, or rather accelerate, its growth in a newly created international context.
And all this has been achieved, not in the sectors of food, fashion or precision mechanics – all of which, by history, culture and tradition, are areas of excellence for Italian industry – but in the field of electronics, where all the big players now seem to be American, Japanese or Asian. Yet Italian entrepreneurs can also excel in advanced electronic technology when they adopt the right strategies, strategies which are above all consistent with the new global/international market.
Businesses like Datalogic are the ones that will be able to guarantee Italy’s future, stratifying the industrial districts and giving them that international dimension that is now indispensable.
In an Italy where big corporations have little chance of taking root, for reasons of history and ideals, the winning card for the future of industry is held by medium-sized businesses of technical and organisational excellence.
They can then become great: Datalogic may serve as an example.
by Vera Zamagni
University of Bologna
