Foreign investors

A foreign company that is willing to invest in Italy (the same is true for any other country in the world) has to take into consideration the peculiarities of the country, such as

• the culture, whose condideration cannot be omitted; local culture has to be known and understood, since its impact can be either  positive or negative, and it’s better to know it in advance in order to be proactive; besides the general culture, also regional and sometimes municipal peculiarities have to be considered
• the legal system, that, albeit belongs to the Civil Law, is different from other legal systems;  it is not enough to know the law theoretically, but it’s needed to understand how it is applied
• the procedural path for authorizations, variations, contract and claim management and so on
• the situation and problems of the economy, at country level, at regional level and and sometimes at municipal level
• the managerial culture
• the possible developments, namely “what is going on”

The list could be continued. The hearth of the matter is that, for keeping all those aspects under control, there is a need to include in the management team an Italian or, at least, a person who has the full understanding of the Italian situation.

Another important point is to create social consent, this is mainly relevant to municipal level or to local communities. Create social consent is costing money, since it’s required to be active in supporting charities, promoting cultural events and other activities, apparently this money has no return. However, in case something goes wrong, the cost of not having social consent can be dramatically high.