When he turned 3 years old, he asked for a motorbike as a present. However, he did not ask for a toy motorbike; instead, he asked for a real motorbike – the Italjet Baby 50. For some years, it had been the object – or even the victim – of a not so childish curiosity; indeed, that motorbike was dismounted and re-mounted many times, until he got to know its smallest detail and functioning.
That present triggered his passion for motorbikes, which, throughout the years, resulted into a collection of over 50 models – mainly vintage motorbikes. His collection still includes that Italjet, which somehow is still working and in a very good condition.
This man is Renato Alzani, born in 1965 and current CEO of Imbalplast. When he finished high school, he joined the family company working his way up the ladder, loading the trucks for deliveries, going from a machine to another by practicing his natural passion for mechanics, in order to learn all the secrets of extrusion, printing, and packaging of sanitary bags. He worked side by side with his parents, Sergio and Mariuccia, gaining confidence with the job until, 25 years ago, he became the leader of the company. Together with his wife Beatrice, he started the third generation of Imbalplast, as well as a satisfying and continuous development.
If we look at him while at work, it is hard to see the difference between the entrepreneur and the man, as he lives and experiences the company as a big and extended family. Every morning, he greets all the employees – at the moment there are 49 of them – and, if there is discontent, he always finds the way to bring peace. It is one of the strong qualities inherited by his parents, as their idea of entrepreneurship not only encompasses profit and company solidity, but also the responsibility to increase the well-being of their co-workers. He extends this vision to the territory he lives in; there, he does not play the part of the great benefactor, but, through small, simple, and discreet actions, he shows how much he cares for the community.
If someone asks him what the strong points of Imbalplast are, he immediately answers “[they are] my employees and my suppliers – I cannot satisfy my customers without them”. Thus, we go back again to human capital; however, it is not easy to acknowledge that, as one generally tends to speak about their skills, magic intuition, market knowledge and so on.
In general, Renato is not a very talkative person; however, he lights up when he speaks about motorbikes and job, and he shows great curiosity towards innovation – something that in the last 10 years has made Imbalplast a 4.0 company. Then, there is his strong commitment to build a more and more sustainable company, under every point of view – being that environmental, economic and social. The readers of this blog might recall Imbalplast’s cooperation with the University of Parma in order to evaluate the environmental impact of materials and packaging produced. This research required two years in order to be completed and, during that period, there were many researchers here in Imbalplast to monitor the activity and gather all the data.
Therefore, is it all plain sailing? Of course not… Indeed, just like for everybody else, obstacles and difficulties are the order of the day. In addition, the moment we live in also contributes to create new issues; however, what truly matters is the spirit of Renato and “his tribe”, thanks to which they can face and overcome obstacles, as they did during 2008 crisis and COVID Pandemic – something that really challenged most Italian enterprises.
Future goals?
There are a lot of them but now we want to highlight the most important ones. Among them, we can list: first, the company expansion, for which Renato already has some good ideas, although it is now too soon to deal with it; secondly, the generational shift. The latter is a delicate and crucial aspect of family businesses; indeed, in order to guarantee quality and continuity, it requires time and great attention as it is not so easy to hand down the foundations of a company culture. Nevertheless, we have some good premises, since Leonardo, Renato’s 22-year-old son, seems well disposed and ready to follow the path of his parents.
There is much to do but hard work has never scared Renato, who instead copes with stress and fatigue by getting on his bike – another passion inherited by his father, who was a professional cyclist in his youth – and covering km after km in the beautiful countryside in the Lower Po Valley.
