While many Italian businesses chose to league with multinational corporations over the last years, in order to survive, maybe this is not the way to follow anymore. According to Paolo Preti, Professor of Organizations of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises of the University Sda Bocconi, small and medium-sized businesses that are still bound to their territory and are family-run, will save Italy. Such vision reassures us, above all those who still stamp the ground to defend and preserve the real made in Italy. Consumers are protagonists: although being more aware and informed, their consider purchases more and more unreliable and want to rely on the bar and shop around the corner again.

In the last few months, media have been stating that Made in Italy products in the food sector will save us from the economic crisis. May we hope it?

Food is of great importance in Italy and can chart a course all companies should follow in order to get the Country out of the crisis. The route to take is the one I call strong business. The slogan is “do what you’ve always done at your best, making it visible”. Small enterprises cannot compete on economies of scale; they have to turn into an opportunity what many consider a limit: their small dimension as reign of quality. A further aspect is specialization. We are compelled to compete with the best, which is the result of a more and more pushed specialization, besides the skills even in mature sectors, as long as it’s incremental, or taken with small steps. Small and medium-sized enterprises are led by entrepreneurs that love to act, where the only difficulty is to manage to communicate it properly. In Italy, we need people that help with diffusion, taking products around, talking good about them, having them close to potential consumers all over the world. If we want to compete with multinational corporations, we have to do it with the weapons of small enterprises aiming at quality, doing their job well, having a story made of people as background.

Apropos people talking good about our products, recently, attention to a new community is given: food-evangelists. Who are they and how do they behave?

Having pioneers that try, experiment and talk about it means spreading knowledge. However, I believe the real food evangelist is not the one going around and talking of a job. I would rather like that a tripadvisor model would be created for the food sector, an opinion coming from below rather than from above. Not a profession that inevitably triggers a lobby eventually. Someone that gives life to a means on the web where everyone can give a judgement that is not maneuvered. Obviously, you would need at least a hundred judgements for each products, among positive and negative ones, in order to have feedback that is as true as possible. The sole limit could be a judgement according to one’s own taste.

Compared to the past, Italian consumers are more careful and informed. How aware are they of what they buy?

The real problem is trusting. Nobody is deep connoisseur of everything, and be informed not always clarifies their ideas. Consumers can trust certifications, products featuring the Made in Italy brand, but real trust comes from a long-lasting relationship between producer and buyer. It’s made of personal relationships, which are very hard to obtain in the globalized market. That’s why the strong attachment to one’s own territory is important. Small and medium-sized enterprises are hardly ever based in the county town, no matter which sector, but in small provincial centres, where relationships are consolidated, where family has been operating since ever. Collaborators live there, together with a close relationship with the banks of the area. Those who do their job properly emerge. Those who don’t intend aiming at big numbers, but personal relationships survive. The bar around the corner serving the three hundred people living in the neighbourhood gains long-lasting relationships and therefore confidence.

Therefore, a more and more direct relationship between buyer and producer. How much did social networks affect?

Nowadays, all are friends on social networks, but they are all locked alone in their rooms and don’t have a real friend. It undoubtedly is an excellent instrument. From a personal point a view, one can strengthen a bond on Facebook, but expect to have new real friends. From a marketing point of view, one can strengthen communication and take advantage of such means as word of mouth, thanks to those who had the chance to experience a product or service and promote and spread them freely on the internet.