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Note of Sept.17th 2002
I wrote the following text at the end of 1999 and it has been on line since then.
A that time I was writing something unpopular and uncommon, since every newspaper
or magazine was at the top of the celebrations for the so called new-economy.
I make many mistakes but that time I was right. Unfortunately for many people who
passed their money to some smart guys who bought and sold at the right moment.
Once more it is better to see and understand what you buy, once more is better to stay
where real things stay today and not trade them for tomorrow's impossible expectations.
We make the real things!
At the dawn of the third Millennium things have become more and more virtual, at least in the western world.
This is certainly a good thing from the point of view of doing less work. It is certainly better to be a computer slave
rather then a 'servo della gleba' as in Italy where called the farmers, in the middle ages.
Nevertheless, I think we should not go too far and lose contact with the real world. We should not overvalue the virtual world
and the virtual work and put down real manufacturing.
I say this because what I hear and read from consultants is to reduce the stock, to reduce employees, to reduce investments
in production and invest in pure financial products.
The ideal is to invest in activities that are involved as little as possible with the real world, and its problems.
Of course the Internet is the ideal place where to invest, and this is why people are flocking with money in anything
that has the INTERNET label on it, even if it has nothing to do with it.
Of course most companies are serious and will have a bright future, but there is also a lot of VAPORWARE out there.
It is far too easy to launch an idea and convince people to invest in it, expecially if it is an obscure hi-tech pretend-to-be
killer application nobody really understands.
Unfortunately it can well happen that the only ones to be killed (in their pockets) are the investors.
The story is a little different when you deal with an established company that has something real.
Of course this makes things run slower, yet safer!
We design and manufacture machines since 1981. We do Hardware and Software for them, we design the mechanics,
we engineer them and we face a lot of problems making them, ranging from suppliers delays to new regulations to comply with.
Nevertheless I am sure that manufacturing is what provides us with the know-how that is essential in doing good designs.
Because we don't just imagine things...we make them!
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