SICE PREVIT PHILOSOPHY
By Arturo Caprio, based on the book “Mano d’opera, 50 anni di Sice Previt”
There was once a site engineer – a strong and determined woman – who later became a close friend, who likened Sice Previt’s workmen with the testudo formation of the Roman army. “The testudo was designed specifically for a division of legionaries, each armed with a gladius and a large, sturdy, quadrangular-shaped shield. These shields we held above their heads as means of protection, allowing the legionaries to advance without being exposed to arrows all the while concealing the real number of components. In this way, the legionaries could march up to within a short distance of the enemy lines, where they broke the formation and hand to hand combat began”. Never was a definition more perfect or a compliment more appreciated.. In actual fact, describing Sice Previt and its ethic is no easy matter, although the reason for its success is undoubtedly found in the mentality that characterises those who work there. It is precisely this uniqueness that has allowed the company to reach certain goals and become established as a valid enterprise in the sector of construction and upscale furniture for stores.
I would like to take the opportunity with this book to outline, both to those who know us and to all those who have yet to make our acquaintance, the motives that spur us daily to go about our work with determination and great enthusiasm. Being honest with ourselves and with others. Ever since the company was founded honesty has been the prerogative of its owners. The concept is simple: if we want our employees to be honest, we ourselves need to be so in the first place. In an age in which dishonesty is rampant it is not easy to defend oneself from immoral re-quests and remain true to ones convictions, at the risk even of losing contracts. In the long run however we have seen that keeping a firm hold onto our principles rewards us with the complete trust of our customers. . Honesty, obviously, also means fairness towards one’s employees and suppliers. In fifty years of business not once has there been an employee or a supplier that was able to claim of not having received the wage established. This does not mean that Sice Previt has never had to face differences or objections, but no employee will ever complain of not having received the promised amount and no supplier working in the correct manner may say they weren’t fully paid for the services carried out. Being honest has always allowed us to look straight into people’s eyes and, above all, it allowed us to grow in the last fifty years.
Honesty means being able to admit one’s mistakes and weaknesses without trying to shift one’s own responsibilities onto others.
Creating a company made of people and not merely capital and machinery. This has always been Monica’s and my dream. When a company is evaluated it is never the value of the people who work in it that is taken into account, and to us this means overlooking the company’s true richness, because it is the people who make the difference. Certainly, it is important for an enterprise to have capital and machinery. Sice Previt is a solid company that has always reinvested the profits produced through its business mainly in research and the purchase of last-generation machinery and equipment. Anyone can invest money or buy machines, but it takes years of hard work to create an efficient and closely knit structure, in which the personnel is given prime importance and where everyone offers their own individual skills and knowledge. Harmony amongst the employees of a company is essential and everyone must give their best to achieve common goals rather than the individual’s ones.
Living to leave a mark in the hearts of those who will come after us, just as those who came before have been able to do with us. Yet why work so much? Why strive so hard in the pursuit of perfection? We are all mere mortals in the end and we all have the good fortune of possessing gifts that others do not have. Our duty is to leave behind the mark of our existence. The great advantage of those who work like us in the building sector is that, in most cases, what we create lasts longer than ourselves; let us do our job well, then, so as to leave a something for our descendants. We all have to work to live, so let us make it possible to ‘have to’ work with the pleasure of doing something that gives us satisfaction, something that satisfies our desire for beautiful things and, above all, for things made with love.
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