In the world of industry, business and finance awards are made to proclaim excellence in a particular field. The EFMP are delighted to announce that our Italian partner, Settimo Piano was named one of the winners of the prestigious “Champion of Growth” project, was born of the partnership between La Repubblica Affari & Finanza and the German Institute of Quality and Finance (ITQF). These institutions conducted a survey of companies in Italy and selected those which had driven economic recovery in Italy. The selection for inclusion on the list was based on the average annual growth generated by the company in the three-year period 2017-2020. 

The project is promoted by La Repubblica, which was itself named the second best-selling newspaper in Italy, according to Accertamenti Diffusione Stampa (ADN) -11. 11. 2021. The list of winners was made public at the beginning of November 2021 in a special publication in La Repubblica Affari & Finanza, and online, on the Repubblica website. 

The initial list included over 25,000 high-growth companies and was compiled by searching through publicly available databases, online company data, tender analysis and communication portals.                                                            

To be part of the ranking of the 600 Champions of Growth, however, it was necessary to comply with several criteria:

• The company was required to be an independent company with a registered office in Italy;                            

• Company growth was required to be organic growth and not reliant on the acquisition of other companies as a business model;                                         

• And lastly, the company was required to be corruption free, and not have a record of continuous decline in employment, or a record of persistent losses.

Settimo Piano is delighted to announce that they made it onto this prestigious list, ranking 124 out of 600 companies.

The survey brought to light the following data:

• 600 companies, with an aggregate turnover of 14.7 billion euros in 2020, are driving Italian development by generating turnover and creating new jobs. The turnover figure is up 50% compared to 2017; and almost 30 thousand new jobs were created, which, on average, worked out to be more than 38 new jobs created per company. 

• More than half of the selected companies are situated in the center-north of the country (Lombardia, Lazio, Emilia-Romagna and Veneto).  

• The businesses selected are active in 5 strategic sectors (industrial products, technology, sales & marketing, food and services, and consulting). 

Settimo Piano is justifiably proud of this public recognition of their business achievements, and they credit their hard-working personnel for being instrumental in this attainment. They also give credit to the investments made by Nous Lab in capital and staff training over the last few years, as well as to the international visibility, and the transfer of skills and knowledge obtained thanks to the partnership with the EFMP. This allowed Settimo Piano to be able to stand out, differentiate itself from the competition and get noticed for the work they do, which enabled them to be included in the German ITQF rankings.

Settimo Piano is, however, intent on looking to the future and continuing to work hard to achieve their next goals. 

To be included on this list of champions is obviously a huge honor, but, for Settimo Piano, being cited as an example of excellence in the Italian economy in a macroeconomic context made difficult by the Covid health emergency, is an even greater source of pride.

Hearty congratulations to them on this momentous achievement as they go full speed ahead towards their next goal!