Why Project Work is our mantra for the success of our customers
We introduced it in the last edition of “Facts that Figure” and keep talking about it ever since. Because, and in fact, we live by it every single day. Project work is really our recipe for success! And today as in the past and future, we have been or are working on many exciting projects in Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, The Netherlands, Zimbabwe … just to name a few.
Market conditions have been changing fast already in the past, but nowadays things seem to happen at greater speed, requiring better decisions faster to stay ahead of the game.So, what is it with project work that makes it such a different and better approach?
“There are so many pros it sounds like a broken record”, says Xabier Arbe Managing Director of H&N International.
Let’s look at all the Pros of Project Work together:
Project Work -what does it really mean?
It’s a form of fast and effective collaboration across boundaries or hierarchies. Imagine a big company with an architecture of solid and dotted reporting lines, defined processes, approval procedures et cetera et cetera pepe. All this takes considerable time. H&N International, too, deploys all necessary business procedures, of course, but on a much leaner, far more agile scale.
At the same time each of my colleagues is a specialist in his or her area, empowered to take own decisions in their areas of expertise – after all, that’s what they are particularly great at. It’s their knowledge and experience that makes each of them great assets to the team.
Everybody is informed about the goals and purpose of the project, but the specialist takes the lead. This is a very important concept, because it takes a holistic approach. All team members know the challenge and what is at stake, all work in one direction and towards one goal.
Does that mean that knowledge is proprietary?
The very opposite! Everyone in our team is an expert. But there is no property in the sense of owning a field of expertise, a role or sitting on some exclusive knowledge. Each team member is responsible for the whole thing.
But none of us is ever alone in this. We share our knowledge, each of us is always eager to learn new things and teach their own knowledge to others at the same time. And we always work on various projects together. This way of collaborating makes us faster in responding and catering to our customers.
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Would you say that this requires a special grade of professionalism?
Absolutely! Despite having very lean structures and processes that give us such liberty to engage in various projects this is only one side of the coin.
The other vital part is our way of communication and a spirit of sharing of the customer and achieving together. These are the main ingredients.
How many projects are there on average?
It depends, there is no average really, because every project is special as much as every customer is unique. A team member can be involved in various projects at the same time.
One may be a customer-facing project such as support in achieving performance improvements.
Another may be a marketing project around developing new training materials or supporting new product images. Everyone supports everyone according to what a certain project requires.
But propelling forward isn’t always easy. How about handling challenges?
Project teams work even better when there is a challenge to master, because you get the very experts pulled in to solve your case. Let’s say, there is a severe issue of enhanced mortality on your farm, and you need help fast.
The responsible region manager will either be able to help you directly because he is the very expert for your problem – or we will involve the right experts in our team who can help.
And we will do so right away, no matter where they are located – we find facetime and we help with translations, should that be necessary. The customer does not have to go contact-shopping or re-telling the issue several times to several people. We pick up on it right away and put our team to work on the issue.
Every project is special as much as every customer is unique.
You just welcomed new customers. How do you shoulder new projects?
We don’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to proven processes. But we do in our way of dealing with customers. We absolutely treat every customer uniquely, because no two farms are alike. Everyone has their very own way, and we know and respect that.
Besides, new customers especially expect a greater deal of support and individual training, that H&N International is very happy to give to new and existing customers alike. And that’s not all folks, H&N International will also help to train technical teams at the customers’ side and support improving technical knowledge.
In doing so we help to establish and reinforce the bond between our customers and their own layer customers.
With so many different projects, how do you keep track of goals?
That is easy! Because there is only one greater goal: We simply work to be the most customer centered genetic.
New customers especially expect a greater deal of support and individual training, that H&N International is very happy to give to new and existing customers alike. H&N International will also help to train technical teams at the customers’ side and support improving technical knowledge.
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