Interview with Domenico Petrone, President VIASAT GROUP
Mr President, what is the importance of understanding, as well as innovating?
It represents the challenge of today. Quality products and services are no longer enough to keep up. It is rather important to foresee the market direction, consumers preferences and how to improve a company’s competitive edge. To achieve these information, a modern company cannot ignore the importance of an effective and accurate analysis of every little detail, in order to develop optimal strategic plans and to offer the most innovative solutions. Big Data Analytics activities acquire increasing importance for companies aiming at staying competitive in their market field. Even more to mobility and waste management companies.
Is this the context in which Viasat Group is moving?
Every production systempresents some critical issues, in terms of costs, hidden waste, useless loss of time and resources: to understand data means to obtain the necessary information to intervene and optimize every inadequate company process. This is Viasat’smission: to design, produce and commercialize security systems and services, care and assistance through the most innovative satellite and IoT technologies. There is room for improvement in the current business model, to improve efficiency and to cut costs which have a deep impact on the community in terms of pollution, accidents, time wasted in traffic congestions, logistics and transport services efficiency, urban hygiene and waste collection management.
Will this lead to a safer, sustainable andmore efficientworld?
A globalisation process of telematic solutions is taking place and Viasat will play a key role also thanks to its subsidiaries and distributors in 50 different countries in Europe, Africa, Middle East and Latin America. Our plan is to provide efficient and sustainable services for public institutions and companies in search of an optimal mobility and environmental planning and management. Results are conclusive: we manage a base of 741.000 connected vehicles (31/08/2018) including fleet management, insurance telematics and car connect; 7,6 milion people connected (through apps, wearable devices and workforce management, 6.481 connected buildings; 400 municipalities cities served with intelligent transport systems and 655 employees (31/12/2017).
An International company with an Italian heart?
Italy is where everything has begun, the place in which we have established Viasat headquarters and we monitor every segment of the market, as well where we design and produce those products that we are now exporting in our subsidiaries’ countries. The direction we are heading in the last years is definitely right: we aim at being a pole of attraction and aggregation of local excellence, both companies or single talents and a reference Service Provider for our global customers.
Viasat is constantly innovating and looking forward to the future. Is this right?
Definitely. At a managerial level, we are evolving as well as our technological platforms are doing: we aim at connecting all the resources who are working in different venues in a sort of “Internet of Companies”. Not only we are trying to connect things, but also people who are involved in decisional process in order to propose our services and to contribute with our products to the creation of a world that looks beyond the horizon and which is willing to plan its future.