Contec, in the future the key word is servitization
When it was founded in Verona in 1962, Contec was one of the first engineering companies to be set up in Italy. Today, after sixty years, it is a group structured in ten divisions and a research laboratory: a significant growth, especially in the last ten years, which made it possible to celebrate such an important milestone in the world of technical services and consultancy. “Contec Group was born in the world of construction and architecture – Stefano Lappa, member of the Contec Group board – says – but today it operates in many other sectors, such as robotics, information technology, safety at work, the environment and infrastructure. The growth of the last few years, particularly positive, has taken place both internally, with the birth of new divisions, and through the acquisition of existing companies: in 2021 we took the first step in this direction, acquiring an organization that has brought to our portfolio of services also the skills in the field of project management and construction management, particularly requested nowadays ».
A Benefit Company is also part of the Contec Group
It is not obvious for an engineering group to have a Benefit Company within. The goal, in this case, was reached by Open Building, a team that deals with design with great attention to the issue of digitization in the construction world. «Open Building has embarked on this path by registering itself as a Benefit Company with B Corp certification – explains Lappa -, a rarity for the context in which it operates. As a Contec Group we have always given particular importance to the issue above all of certifications, but to the path behind it, often realizing that we can be certified because we spontaneously carried out certain actions. Contec was one of the first engineering companies to obtain a certified quality management system and over the years we have also added environmental and safety management system certification for some of our divisions. Some guidelines have recently come out in view of a certifiable norm on gender equality: reading it we realized that, also spontaneously, we already certify ourselves for this aspect, having an equal relationship between men and women, very rare in the STEM world. , of which we are particularly proud ».
Servitization: the turning point for the manufacturing sector
The key word for the Contec Group’s future is servitization, which can be translated with the term servitization, a turning point for the manufacturing world, including in Italy. It is a different business model, less focused on the sale of the product, which looks at the actual final need of an asset, favoring the provision of services, with the aim of creating greater value for the customer. “We deal with it through Next – adds Lappa – a strategic, organizational and economic-financial consultancy company within the Contec Group. I would like to start with some examples to explain what we mean by servitization. The Rolls Royce company, for example, in its division dedicated to engines for aeronautics, is now extending the rent of the engines, paid on the basis of flight miles, over their sale. This is because the need of the airlines is to have a vehicle working in the air, not stationary in the hangar. The same thing happened in Philips, which started providing lighting services rather than focusing on selling products, because the interest of buyers is to have a level of elevator lighting comfort, not to buy light bulbs.
Our industrial fabric already offers examples in this sense, just think of machinery manufacturing SMEs that increasingly rent their products guaranteeing assistance services. A practice, that of servitization, which is fundamental both economically and environmentally for future development. «Remaining the owner of the asset and guaranteeing that it works for years – Lappa specifies – means designing it to have greater durability. In this sense, this approach would wipe out the phenomenon of planned obsolescence: the product must last a long time and break as little as possible. At the same time, as a manufacturer, remaining owner of the asset allows me to continue to collect data, knowing better products and customers, allowing me to be able to reuse it, in whole or for some of its components. An innovative approach that will renew corporate strategies, bringing incredible benefits from an economic point of view but above all from an environmental point of view ».