Already Merloni has closed two plants in Western Europe, one in Italy, the other in Portugal.
Fiat might be in less trouble today had it shared Merloni's enthusiasm for research and development.
Mr Merloni was a pioneer in the use of electronics and software in domestic appliances.
Merloni also shows how family firms can defy the factors that often limit their growth.
Mr Guerra expects Merloni to maintain its role as a consolidator, buying market share rather than more brands.
Merloni, with roughly 15% of the European market, uses a tried and tested two-year timetable to integrate acquired firms.
His customers include manufacturers with a strong presence in Europe, such as Italy's Merloni, Electrolux Zanussi and Domar in Spain.
Merloni has succeeded by being a regional champion and using a few strong brands to keep its product range manageable.
As Merloni grows, they claim to accept that they may have to give up control and become mere passive investors.
Founded as a family company in 1975 and floated on the stockmarket in 1987, Merloni's success owes much to Vittorio Merloni.
Merloni bought Hotpoint in Britain, but walked away from Brandt in France, believing the group to be too complex and troubled.
Merloni has tried to anticipate market trends, sometimes a bit too eagerly.
Merloni's shares have outperformed most European rivals this year, rising by 84%.
In Italy, Merloni, despite its unusually good labour relations, cannot mirror in its production cycle the highly seasonal demand for fridges and freezers.
Merloni grew both organically and by acquisition, buying Indesit in 1987, Stinol, Russia's top brand, in 1999, and Hotpoint in Britain last year.
In white goods, Merloni (now Indesit), which was set up 30 years ago, has become Europe's third-biggest supplier of fridges, cookers and washing machines.
ECONOMIST: So easy to pinpoint what is wrong, so hard to put it right
Its founder, Vittorio Merloni, who is still chairman, notes that almost half the company's products are made abroad, including in China, which he first visited back in 1975.
ECONOMIST: So easy to pinpoint what is wrong, so hard to put it right
Crucially, Mr Merloni, who is still chairman, successfully handed executive power to professional managers in 1997, in the process easing his children out of positions in the firm.
Merloni can connect machines to a service centre via a phone line, making possible off-site billing, testing and the dispatch of an engineer who knows what needs fixing in advance.
Mr Merloni believes it would be fatal to be distracted from his firm's focus on white goods. (A family holding company oversees unrelated investments, notably in energy.) Fiat diversified way beyond cars, spanning tractors to financial services.
To accomplish the desired effect, he assigned a dozen reporters (and himself) to chronicle the game-day activities of an eclectic collection of individuals, from Henry, Lucchino and Epstein to such players as Boston's Bill Mueller and Lou Merloni and New York's Hideki Matsui and Mariano Rivera--and even the guy who's been working the centerfield scoreboard at Fenway for the past dozen years.
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