Letter to Shareholders
Dear Shareholders.
2016 was a year characterised by major changes. Over the last few months, the foundations have been laid for a new world, a different world from what we have experienced in recent years, one which will be rapidly defined and set up.
Unexpected events have, in fact, if not changed, at least brought into question an equilibrium that until now seemed certain and immutable. The result of the “Brexit” vote in the UK, the large migration flows towards Europe, the banking sector crisis and the recent US elections are certainly the most resounding indicators, although not the only ones, pointing to a profound transformation taking place in society.
A transformation that can no longer be stopped and will lead to an inevitable crisis in any sectors that are unable to evolve and adapt to new scenarios, by finding new and different competitive levers and often opening themselves up to new business or service models.
At the same time, the technology influence domain saw further expansion, becoming part of our everyday life and modifying traditions and relationships, both professional and individual. By now, the separation between the physical and the digital realms, between real and virtual has definitively and permanently disappeared. There is no longer any industrial, transformation or services sector that has not rethought its processes, redesigning them starting from the technology and the digital components.
The paradigm shift did not only affect the end customers. Consulting companies were also forced to radically renew and extend their portfolio of products and services offered, both in terms of skill-sets, as well as partnership ecosystems, realigning them to new and more complex needs.
For Reply, this new world represents a great challenge, but at the same time, a great opportunity. Reply has always been at the frontier of technology and themes which many companies are just beginning to explore today (such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Mixed Reality, Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things), for us represent structured product and service offers on which we have been working, together with our customers, for quite some time.
At the same time, the investments made to expand the set of skills allows Reply to be one of the few players today who are able to propose a heterogeneous skill-set, extending the boundaries of traditional consulting, integrating, also, profiles until recently unknown to the market. Examples are Data Scientist and Strategic Designer: two new advisory roles essential to support companies wishing to introduce more and more extended models of data-driven business.
However, now more than ever, it is imperative that we continue to move forward. Our competitive advantage, reflected in the positive results recorded in 2016, combined with our Group’s financial strength, allows us to continue investing in order to ensure that Reply's product and services offering is better aligned to the demands of a new world in which the innovation component, linked to technology, changes from being an enabling factor to a strategic lever of corporate success.
Over the coming months our commitment will be at a maximum, ensuring that Reply can capitalise on this moment of strong discontinuity, translating it into new value for its shareholders, its employees and its customers.
Chairman of the Board
Mario Rizzante
