Baglioni around the world: Pietro Mezzanotte on leading Morganton Pressure Vessels
Baglioni around the world: Pietro Mezzanotte on leading Morganton Pressure Vessels
Operating on an international scale means dealing every day with different markets, people and organisational models. It is a challenge that calls for technical skills, the ability to adapt and a strong openness to new perspectives.
Pietro Mezzanotte, Vice President of Morganton Pressure Vessels (MPV), has been living this reality for four years.
After a long experience in heavy engineering, he chose to move to the United States together with his family to lead the Baglioni Group’s plant in North Carolina, which specialises in the production of pressure vessels for the North American market.
It is a journey that has allowed him to observe at close hand the differences between two industrial cultures and to develop an even broader view of the manufacturing business.
A professional and personal choice
The opportunity to take the helm of MPV came at an important moment in his professional career.
“My family and I felt ready for an experience abroad. When this opportunity arose, it was easy to decide to seize it, because it came at the right time and with the right company,” Pietro explains.
It was a decision that involved a significant change not only from a professional point of view, but also on a personal level, paving the way for a new phase of growth and comparison.
First impact with the American context
Although he had already visited the United States for work and collaborated with numerous American customers, taking on responsibility for a production plant in the country proved to be very different from observing it from the outside.
“I had often travelled to the United States and worked with many customers from across the ocean, but living in and managing an American business from the inside was something different. At the beginning there was curiosity and close attention to detail; over time, professional and personal relationships became increasingly natural.”
Among the aspects that most highlighted the differences compared with the Italian context, workforce management stands out.
“In Italy we are used to an almost extreme loyalty on the part of employees. In the United States, by contrast, turnover is an everyday occurrence and is an integral part of American culture.”
Two different organisational approaches
One of the elements that struck Pietro most concerns the different way of conceiving skills, responsibility and work organisation.
In the Italian context, the value of individual skills often represents one of the central elements of the production system. In the United States, on the other hand, a logic geared towards the standardisation of activities and the transferability of knowledge within the organisation prevails.
“People want to be put in a position to carry out their work in the most standardised way possible. Know-how must be transferred into processes and machinery, keeping interpretation and subjectivity to an absolute minimum.”
It is an approach that directly influences company management.
“Know-how and skills must be a company asset, not an individual one. Everything stems from this fundamental principle.”
Leadership and collaboration in an international context
Settling into MPV was made easier by the presence of a management team that had been used for years to working with the Italian parent company. This made it possible to build professional rapport and a shared vision of objectives quickly.
The American experience, however, also left important lessons on the managerial level.
“You cannot expect to perform a role of this kind well without first having understood and absorbed, at least in part, the culture of the place where you live.”
Understanding the context in which you operate also means identifying the most effective tools to encourage collaboration and participation.
“I have learned to appreciate even more the value of involvement, of co-engineering and of sharing not only the solutions, but also the decision-making path that leads to defining them.”
It is an approach that strengthens dialogue between company functions and helps to build solid, lasting professional relationships.
The value of Morganton Pressure Vessels for the North American market
With twenty years of activity in the production of pressure vessels, Morganton Pressure Vessels is today a well-established part of the Baglioni Group and a strategic stronghold for the North American pressure vessel market.
“MPV has found a structural balance between valuable people, established processes and reputation on the market.”
The aim is to continue offering customers reliable, timely support, while maintaining high quality standards and the flexibility needed to respond to the demands of a constantly changing market.
“We want to be a point of reference for our customers in terms of production capacity, flexibility, speed of response and attention to their needs. The activity covers the design and manufacture of pressure vessels and tanks that comply with the standards of the North American market.”
Looking to the coming years, the opportunities for development concern expansion into new markets, the broadening of the offering and increasing integration with complementary activities, always with an approach geared towards industrial sustainability and the creation of long-term value.
A wealth of experience that goes beyond work
Looking back on these years in the United States, Pietro identifies the most important result in a dimension that goes beyond the professional one.
“The real added value that my family and I will carry with us into all our future adventures is having had the courage to step out of our comfort zone.”
The challenges faced, the successes achieved and the difficulties overcome have contributed to enriching not only his managerial path, but also his personal one.
“Simply having lived through all of this is a priceless treasure that makes me a more complete professional, but above all a better person,” Pietro concludes.
Stories like this clearly convey what it means, for the Baglioni Group, to have a presence around the world: not just plants and figures, but people who choose to take on a challenge to build something new, far from home.
Would you like to get to know more closely the people, skills and projects driving the international growth of the Baglioni Group?
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