“We began as a startup, then embarked on a growth path thanks to several investment funds and, subsequently, by joining the Ca’ Zampa Group,” says Ciocia. “We know how crucial supplier relationships are in the early stages of development. When a company is still young, it often lacks the necessary internal expertise and focuses its resources on its core business, which, in our case, concerned the acquisition and development of veterinary clinics in Italy. In that context, we relied heavily on external partners to integrate expertise and operational capabilities, even though it’s not always easy to establish favorable conditions.”
The first critical aspect is finding the right-sized supplier. Small companies typically look for a similarly sized supplier, because they’re less expensive than a large one and more flexible. So as the group grows, Ca’ Zampa is now expanding its reach, evaluating larger suppliers to support the expansion of services throughout Italy. For Ciocia, however, two elements remain key in collaborating with vendors: flexibility and trust. From this point of view, the supplier issue is also critical for Brunetti.
“We’re a typical Italian manufacturing SME that’s almost a large company, but we don’t yet have the size or budget of companies with large IT teams,” she says. “I coordinate a team of four people, and we need to provide our services to the entire group ecosystem, including the factories and some overseas branches. We need suppliers who can support us with both infrastructure and second-level systems services and support. Our challenge is finding those who are the right fit.”
