Sep 22
PACE Offices in Berlin - Germany
Another week flew by and I continue to learn so many things.
I write down the ones I want to fix over time.
- The importance of continuous feedback. A manager told me: "Taking care of people in a company is like in a relationship, you can't remember about your partner only on your anniversary". Nothing to add, I reflect.
- An eco-friendly software. Through our FPO (Flight Profile Optimiser) aircrafts can save from 4% to 6% of fuel, polluting less; a team from Berlin - that has Yoda from Star Wars on their desk - takes care of it. Who knows what Leonardo would have done if, when he wrote the Code of Flight in 1505, he'd had the codes of our FPO available, would his CA176 have filled the skies?
- Start Upper & Co. Even TXT Group has its Zuckerbergs and Steve Jobs; only they are called Alex, Michael and Oliver, founders of Pace, a company that joined 100% the TXT Group in 2020. I got to know Michael and Alex, and their incredible story during my visit to Berlin. They too started with little or nothing, like any self-respecting startupper, only instead of a garage they started in a basement of 20 square meters in total, and a toilet in the backyard (certainly not pleasant in Berlin winter). Little money available invested in software and furniture assembled DIY together with relatives and friends. The only luxury item: a blue carpet, found by Alex in a friend's shop at a cheap price. During the day they worked as PhD students at the Berlin Polytechnic and in the evening they worked to distill the business idea. Then, with the crisis in the sector comes the "Dolores" project, which for Airbus collaborators represents real "pains" given the staff cuts, for Pace instead an opportunity to take on the orders that the sector continued to request from the market. After 25 years, from the basement, today they have moved to a company of 90 people, who work in a beautiful location inside an old train station in Berlin and subsidiaries in Toulouse, Dallas and Seattle.
- Get out of the comfort zone. Again in Berlin I met Alberto and Monica, two people who for three years decided to leave the Milanese headquarters and go and check out the German environment. The experience in Germany made also Daniele grow: two years of beers and sausages led him to become our CEO. Of course I'm kidding, and probably the beer has nothing to do with it, he would say that it only made his belly grow, but one thing is certain: the courage to step out of one's comfort zone, to experiment with different ways of working and different cultures, in TXT is rewarded.
- LOB? I know it sounds trivial but when you are used to hearing "BU" to say Business Unit and then suddenly everyone around you is talking about "LOB" (Line of Business) maybe you feel a little dumb asking what it means. I do it: I ask for all acronyms. Speaking the same language and using the same codes when entering a company is important. There is nothing wrong in asking a legit question, and luckily my colleagues are all patient and courteous in answering all my thousands curious questions.
The challenges continue this week as well (Week 3)
- We have a trade union meeting for the policy on Smart Working, there will be some elements for discussion, but the intention is common: to continue to offer our collaborators the opportunity to balance family and work, to work towards objectives and to encourage their health and safety.
- Prepare an external communication for Smart Working: it is not trivial, communication around this issue is very confused and debated, giving a clear message on how Smart Working is not Home Office, but it's based on a goal-oriented business management, is a mindset step not only for the employees of your company, but also for the public.
- Learn more about the Leadership project launched in Germany and see how we can align it with wider Group needs. A clear Leadership model is the basis of a training journey. Today all companies should make a thorough analysis of how their internal models have developed and how they need to be rethought. Seriously asking oneself which is the Leadership model experienced and perceived by one's collaborators and which one to pursue to better manage future challenges becomes crucial.
#connectingthedots
Tatiana Coviello
CPO TXTGroup