The US-based Fortune magazine has nominated Ferrari as one of the 10 Great Companies to Work For in Europe. This is the text of their inspection visit, written by Milton Moskowitz and Robert Levering :

Even when Ferrari workers go out on strike--as they did the day we visited the auto company's factory in Maranello--the atmosphere is anything but confrontational. No pickets greeted us at the factory gates. No executives stopped us from talking to workers protesting layoffs and plant closings at Fiat, Ferrari's financially troubled majority owner. True, production was down that day because nearly a quarter of the assembly-line workers stayed home. Only five cars were manufactured instead of the usual 19 (retail value: up to $235,000 each).

But the strike had nothing to do with labor problems at Ferrari itself. Far from it. Ferrari workers enjoy a first-rate work environment--and they know it. Among other perks, the 2,500 employees at the Maranello factory have a state-of-the-art fitness center, a terrific cafeteria, free annual physicals at the company clinic, a new training center, and an at-home Internet training program that allows them to take courses in English.

The factory floor bears only a slight resemblance to one in a typical auto plant, where workers often have just 90 seconds to perform a single operation before the next car appears on the line. At Ferrari work teams do a variety of tasks, spending about 90 minutes on each car before it moves on to the next team. The process makes the jobs of Ferrari workers more interesting, as they get to learn an array of skills, and it fosters an intense attachment to the company. Said one executive, Antonio Ghini: "For many of us, working for Ferrari is like working at the Vatican."

The measured pace makes the factory feel more like a workshop than an assembly line. Certainly the 40 women in the upholstery department did not seem to be watching the clock as they hand-sewed the custom-ordered leather interiors. These are craftspeople at work. "There's a passion about everything we do here," said Benedetto Orvietani, a machine engineer in the experimental department.

But most of all, people here get to work with Ferraris, machines that car buffs treat more as sacred objects than as a mode of transportation. "There's a feeling here of being part of a team, like we're all racing in the same direction as everybody else," said Gabriele Prato, who works in the racing-team department. "It makes you feel part of something important to work here." The racing-car production facility is truly like a sculptor's workshop. Everything is assembled by hand. Teams of four workers make the engines, and each worker is capable of assembling the entire engine by himself.

Despite the layoffs at Fiat, Ferrari workers are hardly worried about their jobs. Ferrari Maserati (the two companies merged five years ago) had its first billion-dollar year in 2001 and reported operating income of $62 million. Its profit margins have risen in each of the past three years. There seems little reason for such happy trends to falter, considering there's a two-year waiting list to buy most Ferrari models.

When we visited, the only anxiety we saw was over whether Michael Schumacher and Ferrari would win a fifth consecutive Grand Prix world championship in 2003. After all, the company threw a huge party with Eric Clapton for employees and their families--more than 7,000 folks--in Bologna to celebrate Ferrari's victory last year. No one wants to miss another blowout.

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