April 1 Sales meeting edition

Got this beautiful set of  pictures from Ivo. Ivo born on the first of April is most certainly not a fool. Bright guy growing in his job to get information organised and help out people to do a better job tomorrow. He is someone understanding that information and passing on information is one of the important keys for succes in the modern world.
His nick name "Ivo Jobs" He promised me that he would write "what this picture means according to Ivo Jobs" Will share that in the episode of my blog. Expect a lot of wisdom.

March ended above expectation. Already in the beginning of the week it was obvious that we would jump over our budget. Even better news for me and my family is that my kids are doing great at school. Especially my son Steyn is a mystery to us. We need a stick to get him to do something. But it seems that "less is more" is his motto, working out pretty well for him.

Monique did a Fools Day trick on me. As said last episode Tom and Marloes found another job. To make that even worse Monique showed me on her telephone a device that tell's you "pregnant yes/no" This picture, you guessed it already, showed YES. Of course my first reaction (not!!!!) was to congratulate here.

Well don't start sending congrats to here. I would appreciate if you send emails to her husband, because he doesn't know .....
Here is the address "Martijn_your_wife_is_pregnant@hotmail.com" :-)





What else. Bart Mulders got a very nice compliment from Derek about the Ohari bottle. As a suggestion Derek proposed to name it THE MULDERS. Well knowing Bart, sensitive guy, likes attention I thought "a picture tells more then a 1000 words" So there you go young man.

Annual sales meeting was pretty much a success. The table football game anyway :-) Pascal you are fanatic monster :-) I promised a beautiful lady that I would not write about speeddating. So I am not. Marcel was under the impression that she was s...e but she is not. We made a trip in the Sweberbahn.
Everyone will remember the story about the elephant. But at the end I had a bit enough of the word Wupper. Sounded a bit like "I Wupper, you Wupper, What have you Wuppered, When will we Wupper again" Anyway the trip was nice, altough the city gave me a feeling that if they would have told me that a lot people commit suicide, I will immediately believe that. So depressing.

What happened - a lot happened. Marcel was deported to a deserted island and we were invited to take over his job. Ivo Jobs did a great presentation on sharing information. Dennis clearly linking his assignment, getting better results out of the operation, to customers (used the word customer more often then any of the other speakers did that day and by doing so created a lot of good will) Annette was pretty quiet. Since I know here it was the first time that I had to talk to keep the conversation going. Poor thing was ill the first day. So was Kees. Will spare you the details he shared with us about spending the night in the bathroom. Nevertheless he did a good presentation on colour sampling and introduced a new tool for for sales. Great job. With this tool it will be much easier for sales to help customers pick the colours we are good at.Maria brought travel guides trying to win souls for holidays in Greece :-) By the way the Menonitia Amyroanoy was delicious.

Beautiful hotel, especially the central bathrooms were my favorite. All those girls looking at me.

Raoul had a challenge to talk to sales people about high tech raw materials. Not always easy in a group with different levels of knowledge/ experience. Annette focused on new products and triggered the group to come with ideas. Hope that your email box is not big enough for the ideas coming in. I did a gig with the distributors, will remember the silence when I said "oke if what we are looking for is clear to you, we will leave you alone now. Let us know when your plan is ready" Of course there was not enough time to come up with a plan, but the very clear statement that the group wants to work on a plan together with us was heartwarming. Thanks for that. 1st of July is written in stone in my agenda

And to end of 2 days Dusseldorf:

Wise lesson. Look for simple solutions







In the end we are all workaholics. 

March part 2

Every day the ninja turtles, Andre, Louis, Bram, Nico and Jim, go for a walk. 5 Minutes away there is a miniature wildpark, with a lot of water. Here is where we go for a cosnult with our leader, the incredible PET Power turtle :-)
Since a couple of days this turtle is, together with frogs, living in this pond. Feels good to have our great leader near by :-)




Well, Marloes left and we try to manage with the people left. Thanks to the help of Marjan I am confident that we can keep our service on a reasonable level.

Sun is shining, temperature goes up. Let the summer begin. At the same moment (don't know if it is a correct English expression) a fresh, new wind is giving people in Etten Leur a lot of energy. The moments that all machines are running at the same time is growing, and positive internal competition is driving people and machine towards a very dynamic flow.Which of course helps us to boost sales, turnover.

Despite this new energy, the postivie effect in the plant, the improvement we have in the process flow,I am sad that Tom informed us that he is leaving PET Power as well. I started this episode with "Well, Marloes left ..." at that moment I was not informed about Tom, so I am facing a new situation "How to keep the process flow with 2 heads down" Besides the help of Marjan I have to reconsider how to manage.

The fact that 2 good persons are leaving my department hits me in the face. It is not because people are leaving. I always tell everyone `follow your heart, make sure you are happy` But the fact that more then one person deicdes to step out at the same moment is pretty frustrating.

The month of May will (especially) be exciting as Babette is cruising the west coast of the USA
I will hand out sportswear and towels, start up training programmes to make the rest of the team top fit, give instructions to go to sleep at 9 PM latest (and go to sleep!), everyone coming in the office before 6 AM will get a massage......

Next week the EU sales meeting. Finished my presentation, discussion piece "how to improve the win/win for distribitutors and PET Power" I am curious for the ideas coming out of the distributor group. We will see.

Today, March 27, is a very good day. About 4 months ago Operations Office and Customer Service started what is called "Internal Branding", I mentionned this in my first blog/ chapter.
Frenk visited us and asked us "what can you tell me, how can I connect" Great questions !!!!We showed him the posters telling who we are, what we do, why we do it, and what our way forward is. I also showed him the 4 (out of 15) targets for customer service that will be leading the coming month(s) in our discussion. Besides his good taste for music, the person he basically is, as from today he is decorated with the medal of honor. Frenk thanks man.


End of March Babette and I visited our friends at France - Sophie, Isabelle and Marjolein.
Next step after our team meeting in November 2011. It is great fun to talk as a team, Really gives me pleasure and motivation. Team spirit, good questions, open atmosphere and constructive discussions helped us to set new steps in our road map to succes. We are on our way to change the bumpy road in to a French highway.

March part 1

I receieved an excellent youtube link from Annabel. Annette suggested to put the link on my blog (ladies - thanks|) YOU MUST CHECK THIS ONE OUT. We think we are creative but I never heard a suggestion out of the sales team for this purpose :-

I challenge you all to come up with great ideas for a new purpose of our products....


Our plant and warehouse are "decorated". From a safety point of view we have marked the floor with lines so everyone can see where you are allowed to walk, where not. Go outside the lines and the alligotrs will eat you

Drawing the line is in many countries an expression.
In Holland (lijntrekker) we use it for people that do exactly what they are hired for, nothing more nothing less. In a way that you cannot catch them doing something wrong, in an irritating way.
In England something like STOP, this is how far you may go or this is how far I will go.

I am curious if "drawing the line" has a specific meaning in your respective countries. Appreciate when you add it as a comment in my blog at the bottom of this chapter.

There I am sick. The tension of another good month was too  much for me :-) Angelique arranged that Johan Zwaan (shiftleader) would drop of my laptop at my place. Saturday morning Johan rang, I opened and we were both suprised. Johan started "Is this the place where Jim..." He never saw me in my pyama's, with eyes looking gloomy and a beard of 3 days. I , on the other hand, I only know Johan in blue, his dresscode being a shiftleader. When I opened the door I saw a young man in a leather jacket. I recognised his voice earlier then his face. Always funny what context does with your brain. Johan thanks for bringing the laptop.

Sad news. Marloes is pregnant. That is not sad that is great news!!!!!! Sad news is that she is leaving PET Power. March 2012 is her last month. Appreciate your reactions at the bottom of the page in a last desperate attempt to keep her on board. And if not, this this is the link to her linkedin page . I will linked in with here the day she closes the PET Power door, as I appreciated her as a collague and as a person. And I am basically curious what she will be doing the rest of her career :-)

February part 2

For the dutch readers: Paul Witjes, my brother in law joined my blog. Paul is sitemanager of a Mikro Electro Store in Middelburg (Zeeland) I recall a discussion I had with Paul. I asked him "what is selling about to your opinion" He was at that moment 27 years old and he was managing his first shop. I just followed a training with Kenneth Smit and I was curious how he would answer "what makes a good salesperson" I felt from my chair, without training, limited experience, he told me what he does in his work and how he approaches people by asking the right question and filter what is important. And more important (for him and Mikro Elektro anyway) when and how to close the deal.

Well if you want to meet him and you are in the neighbourhood of his shop. This is Paul. Mentioning you know me might help :-)





It is freezing cold. We had some Petpower on Ice moments

(from left to right Jim, Louis and Andre) The people in the north are getting ready for maybe a new edition of the "elfstedentocht" The last tour (200 km on skates) was in 1997.

On a friday afternoon it started snowing big time. At that moment we were in a meeting organized by Sonja (HR manager) At the end she closed by saying something like "and next is ..." I responded with "a snowball fight" Marcel went out on the roof took some snow, threw it at me "catch". Next time Marcel will think before acting. A few moments later I burried his car with a lot of snow. It took him 20 minutes to dig out his car. Sweet revenge. And Marcel if you want to take revenge I drive a black Toyota :-)

The elfstedentocht is not going to happen, Not in february anyway.
After a good salesmonth in January, we are on schedule for February. At the beginning of February Dennis left after 2 weeks walking around at our site. He wrote an advice how to solve some bottlenecks in our process. Another step forward in achieving higher goals.When I asked him, the day of saying goodbey, what stroke him most he answered "You dutch guys speak so fluently English" After thanking for the compliment, I returned the compliment "So do you" Always funny to return a compliment like this to someone coming from the States......

February 14, valentines day. The team, Babette, Bart,Anton and Vincent, contributing in building bridges between people and creating teamspirit - do great things with little money. They challenged us to write tickets "loveletters" to a colleague. On the PV website I saw some very creative notes out of which you can tell that there are a lot of people having fun being part of the PET power team. Remarkable was the number of cards that were posted for Babette. For good reasons. Do great things with little money, an idea we can all use in our daily work.

Mid of february, Carnaval is making people restless. Everyone wants a day off. On Customer Service Tom, Babette and Marloes drew straws, Marloes is the big loser. She is working the other 2 are somewhere in Breda/ Eindhoven having fun. Friday Feb 17 I had the afternoon of to join my kids at school. The youtube gives an impression how, in a positive way, how our youngsters are brainwashed to believe that Carnaval is the most important event in the year in the south of Holland (Of course this remark is made by someone born in Amsterdam and does not have carnaval in his genes)

February part 1

January 17 we had our new year's reception. Love the location. Simply in our warehouse surrounded by pallets. Speech was pretty good. Words, tone and cohesion were presented in a way that it was clear to all of us what is expected of each individual and team. Afterwards the traditional tombola. And basis an idea of a person of whom I will not mention the name, but it was Chris, the set up was different. The person picked out had to give away the present to someone else. Only one from the sales side was lucky to give a way his present. Instead of handing the present over to me, his favorite colleague (obviously not) he gave it to Annemiek another favorite colleague (and celebtraing here 5th year anniversary with Petpower, congrats) Afterwards I was talking to Tom about tennis and we thought that the rest of the team was already back to work, bunch of eager beavers. But when we stepped outside we saw them all together 'fighting' for french fries. With cold feet and a full tummy I went home.


Someone asked "Who is Steynking". Well, Steynking is my 10 year old son. The youngman you see in January part 1, in the youtube about Ali B. Steyn is a talented artist and tabletennis player. As every father "a son to be proud of", you can follow his creativity on youtube by simple searching for winnaar183 . 
And by the way I found the person responsible for the museum at our office. Ivo you are halfway in cleaning up. Thanks mate.


Today, January 25th, Angelique is present at a seminar (focussed on design) in Breda. Location the MOTI Museum. Inspiring place to meet people and out of the box thinking. Hope that customers and potentials have a fun day and challenge us to design new bottles or jars for them. In the weeks before this event I noticed a commercial on dutch television I like to share with you. This commercial (my advice is to turn of the sound - Carry Tefsen here voice is .....) The reason for sharing is that it places the argument of the packing very very central  as USP. Who knows we can use it in our effort to convince (potential) customers to use our products.

 Hee you all Ton Bastiaansen is the first from production registered as a member of my  
 blog. Thanks man. Ton is Process engineer doing his utmost to solve technical issues and  
 keep machines running. In my first year I was part of a trainingsgroup together with Ton.  
 Had some good discussions with him and I learned a lot of his way of thinking. One of 
 the pillars of the Petpower earth. 



Last friday I was driving home listening to the radio. News is that our dutch government (I believe after 4 years) agreed on a law. This law, the newsreader said, concerns a group of 150-400 muslim ladies to forbid them to wear a burka. This was 10 minutes after I wished someone a nice weekend. But not just someone. This friday I was a bit suprised as two persons were leaving the office later then me. Normally it is the other way around. When I left I said to one of them "hee you are taking a big risk that I will make a joke on my blog" The person said "no names please", I responded "oke no names , I use pictures" And when you combine the news on the radio with this moment you get. 

Good meeting with the after sales team. Step closer in setting up an improved system to allow our offices to be even more in control of the orders. Sophie, Hasan, Isabele, Martina, curious? Ask the after sales team what we are doing for you and find out.


Andre, our man arranging the transport for deliveries to our customers. Honoustly the guy does a great job and I always tell people that he is accurate, eye for details and so on. But since today (30/1) I am not so sure. Last week he asked me for a day of. Out of curiousity I asked why. "Have to celebrate my wife's birthday, big party" was the answer. So oke he would not be there on monday January 30. Guess what, Andre is at work and he simply forgot ....... of course he did not forgot, he simply mentionned the wrong date on the holiday note. ANDRE FOR NEXT YEAR IT WILL BE THE SAME CALENDAR DATE. YOUR WIFE HERE BIRTHDAY IS ON JANUARY 31 AND NOT JANUARY 30. Please make a note in you agenda :-)))))


An inspiring link for sales people

January part 2

Ivo mentionned a movie as an example to change the world, our way of thinking. A movie with Brad Pitt - Moneyball Check out the trailer

Haven't seen this movie but after watching the trailer, recommend everyone to take a look and learn. Fits perfectly the Internal Branding concept changing the culture and way of working at our offices.

What about the money? Well as mr Gekko said Greed is good And the first 2 weeks have been quite good.
A dutch saying is "One swallow does not mean it is summer" - proven statement, but do hope that the trend of our turnover the first two weeks will bring us a lot of sun at the end of the year. Looking at the pale faces around me, we need it (the sun) :-)

The after sales team invited me for a meeting next week to update me on their progress. Very curious what they have achieved in making the systems even more efficient. I expect that "how to manage email" is on their agenda. Let's wait and see. The pre sales team had a meeting planned with the MD next week. I asked Regina to schedule a new date as I decided that hosting a customer coming tuesday (colour sampling) is far more important. During the week we exchanged some ideas how to give a customer that Customer Intimacy feeling. Very interested which ideas will be used during this first time hostng of a customer by the presales team. Both teams picked up good on the goal I mentionned at the end of last year. During december we took our time to talk to colleagues, taking over work and managing expectations. And the goal as from January 2, was to profile that the after and pre sales team are a life and kicking. I see good things happening.

I have set up a system to manage transport cost with a click on a button. After one week testing by Andre the results look good. Another week and we will set up a meeting with administration. The time spent today in "checking CMR's" and bringing them from the warehouse to Andre and from Andre to admin and back again to Andre is absorbing valuable time we should use paying attention to our customers.

What is new: Steynking is new. After a survey from Rob (good house keeping) I have cleaned various offices and left Steynking flyers. If you want to see more of Steynking, check out you tube search for "Steynking blackbook" . But Steynking is a bit dissapointed. 2 Weeks ago it was spic and span at our side of the street. But recently someone collected old computers and printers in the corridor and started a local museum :-(( Time for Steynking to take action.

The next flyer will show the museum with "Steynking says: Clean up or be cleaned up."




The date for the EU sales meeting is set, april 3 and 4 in Dusseldorf.
Great opportunity for Marc and his team to show what kind of host he is.
As every year when I talk to Derek (not often but always inspiring) he makes me a promis to buy me a beer during the meeting. For some reason we hardly talk to each other during this event. Well Derek this year I will not do my best  "avoiding" you and I really want to drink that beer. (I copied the picture from his linkedin, when you look at how he describes himself you probably understand why I find him inpsiring)

January part 1

2012 is about 5 days old and what a start. Babette stranded the first day with her car somewhere between her place and the office. Monique on the 3rd day stumach problems, for a scan to the hospital. Angelique had a bad start coming in on Jan 2 with an exploded 'haircut' (lovely curls by the way) And today a storm is hitting the Netherlands. Well some people started at a different desk. As part of the plan implementing pre and after sales it was logical to 'redesign' the office. Everyone found a new spot by now. Only waiting for Petra to return from holiday. She made the big move from one side of the road to the other side. So what is keeping me busy? Currently working on a tool to reduce labour hours entering and reserving transport cost. Should help Andre in making his job more efficient and create hours for him to focus on more important customer transport issues. Second a program how to improve the win/win cooperation with distributors. The outcome will be presented in april during the sales EU Meeting. As well developing a tool to keep track how the actual turnover follows the forecast, especially for our core assortment. Yesterday evening an inspiring moment with Ali B (turn around what you don't want to do and make it positive. Ali B is a dutch artist with his roots in Morocco. Someone asked him "what do you think about Geert Wilders" His reply "If Geert is against discrimination, so am I. Let's team up and make our lives more sunny, he continued by telling us "If we all start being positive against people like Geert, Geert (the movement he stands for) will dissapear. Amen) At the end of the show he gave us a preview of the old song "Merck toch hoe sterck" in a new jacket. The magic words at my work are "Internal Branding". "Branding" is make people breathe the quote "packaging your brand". And YOUR stands for OUR customer. In modern society easier said then done. The process is facilitated by Embedding Company (Paul and Mariska) Very positive approach and people in my team and I learn a lot. As part of the programme we are setting goals and keeping notes in our logbook. The general idea of a logbook is to make colleagues aware of "what I do is important for my fellow worker and more important the customer who is paying the cheese on our sandwich" and secondly a tool to start working on improvements that will give us this feeling of being the world champion in doing it right the first time. So the second week started. Hmmmmmm, some nasty issues on my desk at the beginning of the week. Let's see if I can move people in the organisation to get problems fixed. Europe has gone back to work, France, UK, Germany and Austria colleagues finished their holidays. Email bombing started again.

I fully understand that we need email but sometimes I long to the old days of pigeons flying with messages bound to their leg, or people picking up the phone and take the time to discuss issues and at the same time get a better understanding of what is happening. Yes I am getting older. As a fact this year I will be turning 50. Halfway, and the best is yet to come.