National Borders Today

by Mauro Rizzolo, Assiot Managing Board

Nowadays there is a high need for interaction in the economic systems and the economic structures have become hugely more advanced and mature if compared with the past. They can therefore begin to take shape in a more autonomous way, i.e. they can ignore and cross limits and national borders: in other words, the tendency is less territorial-oriented. Moreover, we are witness of the arrival of the new industrial revolution, Industry 4.0: this leads to the need for networking, for creating economic and social connections which may go beyond the classical territorial definition.
As a company producing transmission elements we ask ourselves: how will people travel in the future and how will goods be transported? Which resources will we use and how many of them will we need? Megatrends such as mobility, energy & environmental technology and mechatronics are major challenges: they will shape our future life and make it unequivocally clear to us that a fresh way of thinking will be inescapable in many fields.
The role of the Schaeffler Group, for which I have been working for many years in different managing positions, is essential in order to contribute to such fast developments, which are taking place worldwide, always having as a constant our own approach, based on quality, technology and innovation.
World-changing events do not happen every day. But we work every day to systematically improve things as they are. This is because we know that innovative force is a significant factor for the success of a company – now more than ever before. We have understood that innovation requires not only creative people but also a culture that makes it possible to awaken the potential that exists and to use it efficiently. This culture of innovation is a daily and essential reality at Schaeffler and I would say this should also be the essence and role of sector associations, which represent several companies, each coming with its own excellences. In their institutional role, they are responsible and have an active and recognized role in order to contribute to the development process of the specific sector they represent on a national scale.
Progress is often a matter of detail and of knowing that every great thing is the sum of many smaller parts. This is the value and the sense of the national industrial representations. Within the associations, people work together in order to achieve common purposes. Through the associations, everyone (company or single person) gives his personal contribution with ideas and information, enhancing new knowledge to the members.
The objective to pursue on the national territory is to create opportunities and supply intelligent answers that turn the major challenges of today and tomorrow into equally major or even greater opportunities.