Vainer Marchesini0:10
May 2012: Earthquake in Emilia. WAM was established on December 21st, 1968. We were two people: myself and a worker. I was the apprentice.
Between 1969 and 1970 we refined the production technique for these machines. In 1971 we began to export to France because I spoke French. Later we directly exported also to Germany.
We went to the customers showing them our products which seemed to give a better performance than the ones on the market at that moment.
This went on until the beginning of the 1980s. However, in the early '80s, we exported close to 60% of our production. We were still fairly small.
Then came the idea of controlling the market through our trading companies. The first trading subsidiary was opened in 1984 in France. That year was a turning point in our corporate culture.
We opened our first manufacturing company in the United States to build our machines there. We had the problem that we could not export to the U.S. because delivery times were too long.
The trading companies immediately showed very positive results. Over the next few years we covered the entire European market with trading subsidiaries. Then came Asia followed by South America.
The experience of producing in the United States was truly tragic, because we lost a lot of money and there was always the question: 'Close or continue?' Thanks to my stubbornness we continued to manufacture in the U.S.
After 6/7 years we became appreciably successful. In the 90's we started up another plant. Today we have 3 factories in the U.S. plus two trading companies.
In 2000 globalization really took off. We set up companies abroad for manufacturing components and providing service. We would do that where we found it most convenient. 56 companies and 17 plants located in 4 continents.
Innovation: from iron to steel to composite materials of the cochlea. Research and development center, more than 100 patents. Turn a tragic event into the engine for renewal.
We quickly set up some alternative structures for the other 50% of employees who were without a workplace.
Unfortunately there was not only one earthquake but five. These five quakes have caused abnormal damage to both public structures, works of art, and also to production facilities.
The primary objective of the company is to give work to the people immediately so they wouldn’t have to think about the misfortunes that had occurred.
We were able to provide work to 80% of our people only 6 weeks after the earthquake. After 8 weeks 100% of our employees were back to work.
After another 4 weeks it was necessary to add 10% more personnel to maintain delivery times which had shifted for a while due to decreased productivity.
Today we are even, but we have 10% more personnel.
Before I had the earthquake experience I could not imagine what it could be like. At that moment I was afraid to die because I was on the 2nd floor. Everything was moving. The office moved 1 metre back and forth from the shocks. I couldn’t even walk, couldn’t move. I had no balance. I thought that with the next shock I would fall down along with everything else. Those who were on the first and on the ground floor thought that sooner or later the whole building would collapse on their heads. What an earthquake really is you actually learn through the fear of dying. That is the moment when you really know what an earthquake is.
