Word: benedetti
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Putting companies together is nothing new for De Benedetti. He earned a degree in engineering from Turin's Polytechnic in 1958 and ten years later took over as manager of his father's flexible-metal-pipe plant, which had just 80 employees. During the next five years, the younger De Benedetti expanded the firm by buying up small, mostly unprofitable companies. By 1976 his company was Italy's largest producer of car components and had annual sales of more than $46 million...
That same year, De Benedetti accepted the post of managing director of Fiat. But after 100 days on the job, he submitted his resignation for reasons that neither he nor Fiat has ever revealed. In early 1978, Olivetti's board of directors offered him the same job with its company. He bought $17.3 million worth of the stock to become Olivetti's largest shareholder...
...time, Olivetti sorely lacked the kind of foresight and strategic thinking necessary for a company in modern office equipment. Among De Benedetti's first moves was stepping up research and development--from $28.3 million in 1978 to $130 million last year. He abandoned the manufacture of money-losing mechanical equipment like typewriters. He also began paring down a swollen payroll. From 61,500 employees when he took over, the number dropped to 47,600 last year, and is still declining. As a result, productivity has leaped more than 22% annually for the past two years...
...Benedetti, the moves taken to rescue Olivetti in the late 1970s were only emergency first aid. Now he has to make the company a player in the global electronics field. He foresees a struggle looming in the industrialized world for the automation market, which is expected to more than double in size by 1990, to $100 billion. Says he: "We have to remain No. 1 in Europe and also become a major world leader. It may seem paradoxical to mention survival and expansion at the same time, but in our business there is no future in becoming a second-, third...
...tactics, De Benedetti has sought strategic allies in the biggest computer market of them all, the U.S. In December 1983, Olivetti and American Telephone & Telegraph announced that the U.S. giant would put up $260 million to buy 25% of Olivetti, with an option to expand its share up to 40%. De Benedetti considers the agreement "a brilliant alliance," formidable enough to take...