Cannon is an entrepreneurial Group of 30 companies in 40 countries which employs around 1,200 people (of which, more than 600 in Italy). 30% of these have engineering degrees and 30% have technical diplomas. It recruits 50 – 60 new employees every year. The Group has a turnover of around 250 million Euros and the company is divided into 3 business divisions, Plastics, Energy and finally Automation. There is also a holding with the main Corporate Staff departments, including the Group Personnel Management, with responsibility for the entire global workforce, transversely to the companies and businesses belonging to the Group.

Cannon works in very different businesses which are however firmly linked together by their strong orientation to the development of engineering solutions with the highest technological innovation, respecting the environment, from the point of view of the maximisation of systems efficiency and reduction of energy consumption.

In its half-century history, the company has obtained more than 350 patents and it invests 5% of its turnover in Research and Development: a choice which is almost obligatory for a company which, for example, in the “plastics” business works on orders 80% of which involve the development of engineering solutions which have never been made before.

Within the Group companies there is a family atmosphere, with everyone having great faith in the strategic choices made at the top, which has always shown over time a special respect for all the business partners of the value chain. It is unlikely that Cannon business choices involve excessive risks or leaps into the void, thus the Group tries as far as possible always to work in a framework of reasonable predictability of the business developments, with attention to the present, but a strong focus on the future.

This strong sense of direction and people’s high level of identification with the company allow everyone to safeguard, together with their professional project, fair and essential projects in their own personal sphere as well, without the sense of precariousness which unfortunately weighs on many other companies.

The quality of the internal climate encourages the expression of excellence by everyone, who are then supported in their professional development, also through considerable investment in education and training. In 2017 these investments amounted to around 3.5 days on average of training per capita per year.

The company thus monitors and develops the abilities of its employees with an approach which is however very far from the classical approach of comparison and measuring gaps between some target profiles and individual profiles to then define possible plans of action. The company does not consider its aim to be that of adapting professional profiles, supporting people to improve their areas of weakness in the direction of a common and abstract reference target. In Cannon we prefer instead to work on individual strengths, better recognising the different personal features in which to invest and make a difference, with the conviction that this is the only way to truly appreciate individual characteristics and concretely recognise the distinctive value of individual people.

The progress, results and professional life of people are then monitored regularly, at a global level, through a simple performance management system which first of all poses the aim of recording the person’s history, with his features, improvements made and the areas of possible support. All this is then characterised not by a mathematical evaluation of performance, but through a consideration of the trend with respect to the previous period, a simple comparison which helps to identify possible factors limiting the best expression of the individual performance.

The consideration and respect of the features and history of people can only be paralleled with the same attention for the Group’s history and the origin of its technologies; in this regard Cannon has built two important museums, one at Pont Canavese, in the province of Turin, dedicated to plastic and another at Netro, in the province of Biella, dedicated to iron.

Leader in the present, proud of the past, aiming at the future.

This is Cannon Group.