Deloitte Consulting: Luxottica, Good Prospects Even in a Panorama of Uncertainty about the Future

According to research company Deloitte Consulting, Luxottica is one of the top manufacturing companies worldwide with the best chance of achieving good financial results, even in a context of general uncertainty about the future. The research company, which is about to change its name to Braxton, analyzed the latest financial year's sales of the world's top one thousand manufacturing companies on the basis of the "Performance Index", i.e. the ability to combine competitiveness here-and-now with far-sightedness.

Luxottica ranks 43rd in the world classification and it is the only Italian company to be up there with the first 100 (the Americans, Dell Computer and Oracle, and the Finnish company, Nokia, are at the top of the list). It is, however, seventh in the European classification. The other two Italian companies included in the Deloitte analysis are Benetton, third in the textile category, and Edison, second in the 'coal and alternative energy' category.

Luxottica's 51.3 points in the "Performance Index" is the result of two parameters: 'Current Performance", determined by "cash flow return on investments" less the cost of capital, and "Future value expected", i.e. the value expected from a company's future investments expressed in terms of a percentage of its current market value.

According to the experts at Deloitte Research, three factors determine the success of a company: integration of technological systems, identification of the components that can create value, and prudent profit management. "Strategic flexibility" therefore seems to be the name of the game. In other words, the ability to deal with a multiplicity of scenarios and make the most of the advantages that even a situation of uncertainty offers.