- Owner - There’s no more the question from back then…
- Me - From the segmentation of your sales, I can see that these services have high profit margins. Why don’t you work there?
- Owner - Because in our industry things are done differently: I can’t just do something that my competitors don’t do!
- Me - Then stay in the price war where you are.
Although Italians are distinguished by their unflappable Florida Effect, reality shows evidence that’s completely different: DOING BUSINESS IN ITALY IS EASY!
10 OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE PROFITABLE BUSINESSES IN ITALY
The patterns we’ve found over years of support, business flipping, and managing countless companies led us to classify these 10 harmful traits for the economic well-being of any business—things to avoid if you want to win the race for competitiveness:
1) Many market segments are not covered
You look into space at opportunities right under your feet.
This aphorism captures a trend: overly futuristic business ideas, out of context, almost like a dream—yet also super-established, habitual businesses, commodities from 30 years ago, and so on.
Then there’s Franco, who for 3k€ worth of air conditioner installations pockets 1.2k€ and installs 2 per day for 240 days a year.
While the “enlightened” entrepreneur thinks about creating the moon, Franco brings home 576k€/year of contribution margin.
2) The synergy between companies (even between competitors) is not leveraged
We’ve seen in other articles how the status quo bias is very strong for the various peoples that make up Italy.
Big monkey (me) won’t form alliances with other monkeys.
That’s the little voice of the status quo bias.
Eliminating that little voice makes it possible to generate revenue at zero cost. No salespeople or agents.
3) (Almost) nobody innovates
9 innovations out of 10 fall under the Tale of the Leopard Syndrome: small aesthetic tweaks to the product/service or marketing, but they don’t touch either processes or the value proposition.
Innovation is NOT technological and is carried out only through a consolidated method to change the business model according to customers’ needs.
Point.
4) Performance is poor
For one of our client companies, we followed the qualification process of a critical machine that requires special attention.
We asked for a quote from 3 potential suppliers: the first supplier sent an offer after 2 days, the second after a week, and the third after a month.
Same product.
When the third supplier asked for a follow-up on the offer they’d sent, we replied that the first supplier’s machine, besides already having been delivered, had been in operation for a week.
That’s it. It explains itself.
5) Lack of courage
Leonardo Del Vecchio, Michele Ferrero, Sergio Marchionne, Silvio Berlusconi, Giovanni Agnelli.
Only a few of the “entrepreneurial sharks” that used to generate Italy. In the past.
Nowadays there are no leaders to follow, to admire, to use as a model. The courage has died out.
This is a huge advantage: with only competition made up of “sheep,” it’s enough to be a “fox” to take market share. You don’t even need to become a “wolf.”
6) Many companies fall victim to “mirrors for guessers”
- Owner - We bought this CNC-controlled robotic machine with programming done by AI agents;
- Me - Awesome! So why are all your operators on manual lathes?
- Owner - Because they don’t know how to use that machine—it’s too high-tech;
- Me - Looks like only that machine’s seller made a profit from this deal…
Today’s marketing is done well. That has to be said.
It’s a shame that all these great technologies only benefit the people who sell them.
7) Many companies sell nonsense
Open your LinkedIn feed: 9 out of 10 posts try to sell products or services that are made up.
They don’t back up a specific value proposition, there’s no positioning, and you don’t know what the customer benefit is.
Great marketing with high-contrast images, memes, and various exploited biases—but then you look at the financial statements and the books are in the red. These are smoke sellers.
8) “Salad leaf” marketing
In the 1970s–90s it was fashionable to put a salad leaf on the plate.
In the past. Not today.
You can tell the age of the marketing manager from the content they publish: anachronistic, cringe, out of the market, anti-engagement.
It would be better to avoid advertising if it has to be done like this.
9) An emotional approach is rewarded instead of an objective one
Various studies have already shown how the Italian people are particularly prone to following emotional behavioral models. That makes them more likely to be manipulated than to follow businesses based on objective and data-driven evidence.
Let’s add that one out of three Italians isn’t able to understand and make their own decisions: in fact, 35% of Italians are subject to functional illiteracy.
If you like winning easily, this is the right country.
10) A prevailing welfare dependency culture
Since polls have existed, statistics show strong attachment to a “secure job” and welfare from a higher entity (like the State).
In other words: zero competition to do business, create, and generate income from different quadrants.
Whoever “goes for it” does it only inside a supermarket where all the products are free giveaways.
CONCLUSION
Once you remove some bureaucracy and a few laws, Italy in this historical period is particularly suited for doing business.
Willpower is at its lowest, as are creativity and motivation.
This guarantees enormous potential to develop and do business.
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