EP.004 – A coffee with Prisma Engineering

In this article, you'll find the complete transcript of the interview with Francesco Viero from Prisma Engineering.
An opportunity to get to know a multidisciplinary engineering company with 40 years of history, combining technical expertise, innovation, and a focus on sustainability.

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Full Transcript

Massimo: Good morning and welcome back to Marketing Cafè, where over a coffee we get to know a new company. Today I welcome Francesco, who will tell us what Prisma Engineering does and what his role is. Good morning Francesco, thank you for accepting the invitation, and to save time, as our rule is questions in the time it takes for a coffee, I ask you what Prisma Engineering does and what you do within it.

Francesco: Good morning Massimo, thank you for inviting us. I am Francesco Viero and I work at Prisma Engineering, which is a multidisciplinary engineering company founded in 1985, so we have 40 years of history. Our headquarters are in Padua. We work with public and private entities to design and build complex structures of various types, such as hospitals, laboratories, but also university or school buildings, complex industrial plants, and even nuclear facilities.

Massimo: I remember when we first met, precisely discussing the complexity of your application area of design, we talked about how not only in recent years, but continuously, regulations and especially the focus on green initiatives have greatly changed the sector of designing and building these structures and plants.
If you had to identify one challenge that you perceived as a necessary step in recent years, what would it be?

Francesco: Definitely everything related to sustainability and safety. Let's say that in the past it was considered an added value in projects. It was already something we did, but in a less structured way, the market demanded it less. Now, however, it has become a starting point, if not even a legal requirement. This has therefore led to the need to introduce new ways of working, new skills, and so for example, we now have a sector that deals precisely with integrating all the various disciplines, various professionals we have in-house or even with organisations we collaborate with, with an eye on sustainability and all these dynamics.

Massimo: Naturally, even discussing it casually as we are doing, it emerges how technical and competitive the sector you operate in is, and how highly specialised the skills can be relative to development needs.
Stepping into the marketing and sales area, in such a highly technical sector, what helps you intercept or find new opportunities?

Francesco: The sector, as you say, is technical par excellence. There are many professionals who follow projects of varying complexity. One of our advantages has been to follow projects of maximum complexity. When we talk about the design and construction, for example, of a hospital, a laboratory, or nuclear facilities, we are talking about the highest complexity in this sector. Our calling card is to present ourselves with well-executed, well-designed projects that we are familiar with, and this is our best marketing tool.

Massimo: So, we could say that complex challenges don't scare you, and those then become your calling card, as you mentioned, for new opportunities that may arise with new clients or projects. Since I mentioned challenges, if we were to look ahead, even if it's difficult today to answer “where do you see yourself in five years,” in the coming years what is one challenge that you think you will face to continue to grow and innovate?

Francesco: I'll be blunt in my answer, but obviously for this sector too there is a big question mark over the role that artificial intelligence will play.
It will certainly radically change our sector, like many others, and it is a challenge we are actually already facing, in understanding how to develop new tools, how to adapt, and how to use this tool consciously, which is already powerful and will be even more so in the coming years.
Indeed, we are already collaborating with the University of Padua on some projects in the field of artificial intelligence, trying to develop new tools that should provide significant added value to what we do.

Massimo: The ability to integrate new technology with the skills you already have in-house, also with the support of the university.
This integration between the business world and the academic world is always relevant.
Since we mentioned the university, classes have resumed in recent weeks, so in closing, I would ask you: if you had to give advice to an engineering student, even a first-year student, what specific advice would you give them?

Francesco: The advice is very simple: focus heavily on the fundamentals, so physics, mathematics, even the more technical subjects that at first don't rely on actual IT tools. This is something that students usually complain about at university, “you don't teach us the programs we'll actually use,” which on one hand is a valid criticism, but on the other hand, there's always time to train on these tools. There's much less time, if any, to build the foundations. So this, in my opinion, is very important. I would also add a bit of computer science. Probably knowing Python could be very useful.

Massimo: So, to use a metaphor, first learn to spread jam on toast, then when you want to make a more complex cake, you'll find it easier, knowing the basics of how to do it.
In closing, perhaps I would ask you for those listening, the contacts where they can find more information about Prisma: I imagine your website and perhaps social media channels.

Francesco: Yes, we are present through our website, but also on social media, especially on LinkedIn.
We like to talk about what we do through these channels too.

Massimo: Perfect. I thank you for the time of this virtual coffee and I wish you all the best, and thanks for the information and advice you've given us.

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