Model Management: A tale of entrepreneurial persistence

Well surely then fresh-faced kids straight out of Silicon Valley or Cambridge (either the English university town or the home of Harvard and MIT)? Wrong again.

In fact the 'best' best entrepreneur in the world is a 77-year-old Italian who has been building his company since 1949. Paolo della Porta, president, chairman, and group CEO of SAES Getters, has been named the first Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year, beating other entrepreneurs from Canada, the Caribbean, Ireland, South Africa and the US.

John Wall, president of Nasdaq International and chairman of the judging panel, said: "In a dramatically changing marketplace, Paolo della Porta stands as a role model to entrepreneurs around the world for his ability to grow a small local firm into a true multinational company with global impact. His sustained command of an accelerating technological environment for more than half a century greatly impressed the panel of judges."

Even the technology is far from the sexy high-tech stuff we've become used to, though it is vital. SAES Getters makes high-tech products that extend the viewing life of television screens and computer monitors and has been the world leader in this technology for more than four decades. In May 1996, SAES Getters became the first Italian company to be listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

In his acceptance speech, Paolo della Porta said his success came from a constant dedication to research, and remarked that "SAES Getters is not a conglomerate but one united company with a clear mission".

Even so, SAES Getters Group - with 1,250 people - is present worldwide and has 21 companies in 12 countries, and, in 2000, revenues of E172.6m (£106m).

The World Entrepreneur of the Year award grew out of the Entrepreneur of the Year award created by Ernst & Young in the US in 1986. The programme grew from one award region in the US to 44 US regions and 19 countries around the world in 2001. Programmes are now hosted in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, the Caribbean, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

In 2000, 8,000 entrepreneurs around the world were nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year award in their respective countries. Of that group, 22 were honoured as their country's overall Entrepreneur Of The Year. This is the group from which Paolo della Porta was selected as the first Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year.

FTdynamo features writing and research from leading business schools and management consultancies. A free trial of its services is available at http://www.ftdynamo.com