Ugo Salerno
Chairman & CEO, RINA
"In a fast-changing world, we must be able to react quickly, moving from an era of detailed, prescribed procedures, to one of risk management and agility. Afterall, if we regulate every detail, we do not leave the freedom to innovate and take advantage of the interpretation of skilled personnel"
In 2019 I had the greatest pleasure of seeing the results of the efforts made in the previous two years, with strong growth and performance across all our business units. The challenging market conditions in 2017 and 2018 had restricted the growth of the company but provided huge opportunity. During this period, we focussed on restructuring, integrating and improving our knowledge-sharing within the business. We worked on improving profitability, stream-lining our processes and investing in digitalization and our work bore fruit.
Our strategy to build competences into the RINA business has enabled us to successfully deliver complicated and difficult projects. There have been several of these during the year, but the standout one must be the demolishing and rebuilding of the Polcevera Bridge in Genoa. These larger projects in 2019 give us a strong platform from which we have even greater opportunity for improvement and growth going forward.
We have finished restructuring our management team; an important step in ensuring the integration and sharing of knowledge within our business units. Our focus is not on individual success or acclaim, but about constructive teams, working together for the overall good of the company. I am proud and extremely confident in the strong management team that is now in place.
For 2020, we will continue to strengthen our business, particularly in Transport & Infrastructure and the transference of cybersecurity and software solutions from the Defence industry to other sectors. We will also carry on streamlining processes, without degrading the quality of our services.