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.