This year MCS celebrates its 40th anniversary. For this reason, the protagonist of the first post of 2023 is Mr. Giorgio Vignaga, founder of the company, managed today by the children Alessandro and Valeria.
How did MCS come about? With what goals or desires?
MCS came about through a set of coincidences, as often happens in my opinion. I am a chemical expert and at the time I had a small pesticide store, which I carried on after my father passed away very young. The passion, however, was for electronics.
The acquaintance of friends and some lucky coincidences led, in 1983, to the birth of this reality, which was then MCS – Master for Printed Circuits.
Over time it has evolved into the company it is today. As for goals, it’s not as if there were any defined ones. There had been no definite planning, there was just a passion to build something and make it grow.
I think that 1998 was a turning point, or am I wrong?
In that year I acquired 100% of the company with my wife. Until then it was me and two other partners, with 20 percent each, and a company of friend, through which we started the whole thing, who owned 40 percent. Taking home 100 percent was no small gamble.
My wife and I plunged into this adventure, throwing away all the certainties we had: we even sold the house to pay off debts and partners. Of course, we believed in it: within a couple of years, we got ISO 9001 certification for quality, and from there it was all growth.
If you could go back in time, would you make the same choices?
I have always been very instinctive. My wife suffered and accepted this instinctiveness of mine and then supporting me totally.
A real luck, because without her things would have been very difficult.
With hindsight I can say that everything went right and in most cases my instincts worked, so I think I would make the same choices again.
What is the greatest satisfaction you have had?
Definitely, setting up this company, which was a kind of extended family for us. My wife often told me: “ze come aver 15 fioi” (it’s like having 15 children), and like a child every collaborator had to be personally supervised.
Many have been collaborating with us for a very long time. There is a collaborator who in the very first office saw my son Alessandro in his mother’s arms and is still here with us.
How was the transition from the first to the second generation?
Again, it was a kind of coincidence. At a certain point we were followed by an accountant friend of ours, who suggested the generational transition.
Once he put this “flea” in our ear, we reasoned about it and finally convinced ourselves that it was the right choice to make. Alessandro has always breathed the air of the company, and after school he joined MCS, experiencing all the operational areas, all the departments, making a sort of career.
He did not come in as the son of the “owner” by putting himself in charge. Absolutely not. He was the colleague of many and gradually he got to know and mastered the entire production process, up to the point of leading the company. Valeria also integrated herself first with her colleagues, and then increasingly took over the administrative reins.
Operationally, the transition was natural, but I don’t know if we would have come to this assumption on our own without the help of our accountant friend.
I also discussed this transition with the professional who did our annual audit for quality system certification. He complimented us for our choice, comparing us to other small and medium-sized companies he follows, where the owner who is more than 80 years old is still in the company to supervise everything, while the son, who is 65 years old, does not know what to do because he has not had the opportunity to face and solve certain problems, to test himself and even make mistakes: in this way he has not been able to acquire the necessary management skills.
And maybe there are also grandchildren in the company, who are often only there for proforma. Once the “owner” passes away, it frequently happens that these businesses fall apart because the heirs do not have the ability to manage them.
An anecdote to which you are particularly attached?
I don’t know if this is an anecdote, but I remember my wife often telling me that I would never become a “rich man” because money was not my priority. And actually, for me, doing, working, always inventing something was a priority, not profit for its own sake. Profit is a consequence of what you do.
Speaking of values, which ones should MCS never give up?
Willingness to customers is an indispensable value. Reconnecting to my previous answer, one does not follow customers for profit, but to satisfy them and consequently make profit.
If the customer is successful, so are we. It is important to be available to customers’ requests, share their goals, and always be cooperative and proactive.
The company under the leadership of his son Alessandro has grown and matured. What do you think?
Not only Alessandro, but also his sister Valeria who is in charge of the administrative side. I am proud of both of them. Obviously, Alessandro is the one you see most on the front line because he is in direct contact with customers, unlike Valeria’s administrative side.
He is a person with a great sense of responsibility, more posed and assertive than me, and this is probably an advantage in the psychological management of the whole: customers, employees and suppliers.
To use a metaphor, I gave them a little car that ran pretty well, and they tuned up the engine, added spoilers, lowered trim, etc. to make it faster, drive it safely, and achieve more ambitious goals.
One piece of advice you would give to an entrepreneur who has not yet started a path to bring the next generation into the company?
It can only be to think about it in time, when the children are still young, in order to allow them to make their own choices, to get used to making decisions independently, even at the cost of making mistakes.
If you don’t delegate something right from the start, you won’t have a chance to see whether the heirs will have what it takes to be entrepreneurs. If you wait too long, then it will be too late. In my case I would say it went very well.
What challenges do you think MCS will face in the future?
Currently I am little presence in the company, but if I had been asked this question 20 years ago, I would have said that you build the future as you go along, partly because unforeseen situations are becoming more and more frequent, so it is difficult to predict what awaits us. I think the ability to react immediately and effectively to adverse events is crucial.
Of course, you plan, you envision a direction, you make investments in that direction, but even more important is being able to adapt as quickly as possible to changes. You must have the ability to react immediately and exploit the negative event in your favor.
Do you feel like describing today’s MCS in three words…?
Challenging but satisfying. Challenging because it is necessary to manage complex elements, given the multiplicity of services/products that we offer.
Satisfactory because the appreciation of customers becomes a source of satisfaction, or when, for example, a relationship is created with some customers that goes far beyond the simple working relationship.
MCS Marketing Office