People at the centre: the beating heart of Bottaro policies

For the Novate Milanese company, 2021 was a year of important investments: environmental sustainability, digitalization, automation, but above all, the enhancement of new and old employees. This is how Bottaro looked to 2022, maintaining its leadership in the sector and expanding into new markets.

In this article we’ll talk about:

• Robotization: Bottaro entered into the 4.0 industry
•  The role of people in the new Bottaro strategy
• Simplifying complexity: the Bottaro ecosystem
• Bottaro in Brazil: people at the centre even in new markets
• From employees to clients: for Bottaro the future is built together

Robotization: Bottaro entered into the 4.0 industry

Yes, two years of pandemic and economic crisis have not stopped Bottaro and its stainless iron wire. Actually in the last period, the company has become the protagonist of a series of important investments that have concerned all business sectors.

An internal expansion policy which primarily interested the two Milanese production plants, with the acquisition of new production areas and the inclusion of innovative 4.0 technological systems designed by the same company.

Today Bottaro is, in fact, a data-oriented and interconnected company, thanks to a new management software of the latest generation. Moreover, it’s increasingly robotic, with equipment that has exponentially increased process automation and monthly production tonnage.

However, the choice of automation has not taken away space and skills from people, the true beating heart of a company which considers the experience, commitment and passion of its collaborators an unattainable and irreplaceable plus.

Read also “Bottaro company turns 65. For 2021, 4 million investments in technology are ready“.

The role of people in the new Bottaro strategy

Changing the technologies and dynamics of the various departments meant considering the impact that new technologies and the digitalization of the process would have had on the human resources operating in the departments. This is why every change has been made recognizing the value of the person and facilitating the continuation of work in the company.

The robotization process didn’t have the reduction of the company staff as a consequence; actually, over the last two years, Bottaro added 20 people (among workers, employees and middle managers) to the two Milanese plants.

Where robotic technology has unavoidably taken over from human manual skills, Bottaro has proposed a relocation of human resources to other areas, with a view to improving their working position and expanding their skills.

Paradoxically, internal company job opportunities have increased for both newcomers and employees already in the company. To support collaborators in this transition, Bottaro intervened proposing, on the one hand, prizes and incentives, including economic ones, for those who demonstrate commitment and resourcefulness and, on the other, various training courses: some compulsory, others which are necessary following the implementation of new technologies, and others organized by the company upon request of the same employees.

Therefore, the number of hours reserved for training has already increased since 2019, adding some specific training to the basic courses required by law.

Safety Course

Even though it’s compulsory, Bottaro dedicated more hours than the standard ones to it, training the operational staff and the persons in charge of raising awareness of accidents and intervention in case of need.

Foreign languages course

The request of three employees in the accounting sector was clear: to perfect their knowledge of the language to improve the relationship with clients. The course activated by Bottaro with the support of external professionals included 6 intensive months which allowed the employees in question to reach a professional language level.

Course for forklifts and pallet trucks drivers

The new machines purchased by Bottaro are increasingly complex and equipped with advanced safety systems. Knowing these machines in depth makes the workers’ tasks easier and guarantees a greater safety.

IT training

The new management system implemented by Bottaro and its connection with the new systems equipped with 4.0 technology required a refresher course covering the most varied business areas.

Even in phases of profound changes, Bottaro’s goal remains that of optimizing and enhancing, first of all, the resources already present in the company, inserting new elements when necessary.

The best way to achieve this is to always offer collaborators new opportunities for growth, facilitating them and providing them with cutting-edge tools and, at the same time, providing them with the necessary skills to use them at their best, also making their work safer.

Simplifying complexity: the Bottaro ecosystem

The ultimate goal of this all-round investment policy and the choice to always keep the focus on people is the achievement of an optimal and efficient internal functioning, which can mirror the external perception of the company.

A team that works in perfect synergy implies rapid decision-making, division of tasks and specialization, which guarantee maximum continuity of work to the advantage of timely and quality production.

All this is carried out, on the one hand in total autonomy and with specific rules for each department, on the other following a common vision always transparent and shared in its entirety, communicated through all the available channels, inside and outside the company.

In this way, we start from people to get to people. From employees to clients. From a team of 60 people who make up the company, to many entrepreneurs around the world who place their trust in Bottaro products and in that optimized ecosystem of production, transport and communication created by the company to always meet the needs of the client.

Bottaro’s method is surely complex but so organized that, over the years and with the contribution of all company functions (logistics, marketing, accounting, commercial…) it managed to communicate simplicity and efficiency.

This is the client’s perception, who appreciate Bottaro’s speed in its three main aspects:

• Information speed: Bottaro’s communication proves to be effective, so as to guarantee the client immediate information and responses;
• Administrative speed: Bottaro’s accounting department is clear and timely in its operations;
• Logistic speed: Bottaro’s fast transport is able to ship material to the USA in less than 20 days thanks to partnerships with various shipping companies (more information here).

A way of working and interpreting business that is decidedly avant-garde and which is capable of adapting quickly to new markets and technologies. These are the challenges to face nowadays for a leading company in its sector, and here are the answers that Bottaro decided to give:

• Industry 4.0 and robotics: the automation developed in the production and logistics departments aims at making operators’ work more interesting, safer and lighter.
• Sustainability and responsibility: Bottaro’s total control of an increasingly green supply chain in many of its components goes hand in hand with its corporate responsibility policies. Having adopted a Code of Ethics is, for example, a duty towards all its partners and collaborators, as well as an excellent opportunity to improve the company’s image on foreign markets where it’s compulsory, and even more on our national territory, where its drafting is left to corporate sensitivity.
• Training: the selection, updating and professional growth of highly qualified personnel, in every business area, also raises the quality of the final product and customer service.
• Digitization: the investment in digital infrastructures has allowed the company not only to streamline internal management processes, but also to adapt to the new post-pandemic needs related to remote working and smartworking. It has also been essential to start with successful multichannel marketing communication campaigns with international coverage.

Bottaro in Brazil: people at the centre even in new markets

All this is valid not only for the Italian market and company plants, but also for foreign ones. The recent opening of Bottaro to the Brazilian market is the best example of this.

The operation of opening a commercial outlet in South America was rather complex, but all the components mentioned so far were integrated in it:

• New human resources: Entering a new market means finding someone who knows that market, a connecting figure capable of becoming a stable and exemplary point of reference. Bottaro’s choice fell on Fernando.
• Training: updating a newcomer on methods, procedures and company philosophy was a team effort. Product training, sales and commercial techniques, communication and marketing were the “subjects” on which the senior figures of the company trained the new resource, Fernando.
• Business management: new market, new rules! Accounting and logistics were adapted to the new reality, rules and logic of the Brazilian market.
• Speed: making everything work at its best meant adapting all departments and technologies to the new situation in a timely manner.

From employees to clients: for Bottaro the future is built together

In short, Bottaro proves to care for people more than ever. For all people.

Whether they are employees or clients, there are many factors that the company cares for: from the security of a job to safety in the workplace; from the perception of the image offered externally to the satisfaction of the needs of the B2B market with products and services that are always of high quality; from improving the quality of life of its employees to the creation of a green and sustainable supply chain capable of benefiting everyone in terms of well-being, in an indistinct and disinterested way.

The true soul of Bottaro, therefore, is not an iron wire appreciated all over the world.
People are the real beating heart of the company, which has always understood their value and puts in place investments, technologies and strategies intended to facilitate their life and work.

Because when a worker is satisfied with its work, also the client will be satisfied and will recognize its value.

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