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Dr. Giuseppe Santagada, CEO of Vebego, explains in an interview how the traditional company Vebego started the transformation to an agile mindset, why he completely restaffed the management team and what role the Vebego ambassadors play in the new mindset.
Great place to work: Mr. Santagada, you got the ball rolling at Vebego - what was the trigger for a new mindset?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: We are a family business with a 75-year success story that has grown from three employees to 35,000. And so far, everything has worked perfectly. However, we realized that we cannot continue to work in this way if we want to be prepared for the future. All the facts show us that the market is changing very quickly and we need to adapt to this. At the same time, our company also needs a different mindset.
Great place to work: You moved from ISS to Vebego just under a year ago - what state did you find the company in?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: Until I was hired, the company was managed by one of the owners, who came to Switzerland from Holland at a very young age. The owners realized that a transformation was necessary. When I subsequently became CEO of Vebego, I realized that we were actually a very good service provider in terms of cleaning. However, we also realized that customer needs are constantly changing and that it will no longer be enough to just offer cleaning services in the future. We therefore had to become more agile in order to develop into a full-service provider in the area of facility management.
Great place to work: And how did you then proceed with the transformation to greater agility?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: We took a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, there was the technical track to cover newly required skills, such as FM management and building technology, and on the other, there was the cultural track. As a family business, we have a family culture that has many positive aspects. However, we also needed to establish a certain drive, dynamism and a winning spirit. My aim was therefore to revitalize our culture in order to implement the change of mindset, as I called the project as part of our transformation, and to make us more agile. We therefore had to design our structures, competencies and framework conditions in such a way that they meet the current challenges of the market.
Great place to work: What a mammoth task! How did you get started with the Change of Mindset?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: That was and still is the case, because I completely reorganized the management team. I also set up a group that I call the Vebego Ambassadors. These are all direct reports from the Executive Board and employees from Operations and the staff unit. Together, we develop key topics for our transformation on a quarterly basis. This not only gives the project broader support, but with the ambassadors I have employees who carry these ideas, this transformation, these important topics into the organization and represent them. So that the whole transformation doesn't end the way the CEO wants it to, but in a way that is supported by everyone.
Great place to work: How was the transformation received by employees when Ambassadors suddenly joined the company?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: Initially, there was a state of shock - regardless of the ambassadors. Precisely because we didn't have such a tightly managed culture. I don't mean that in a disrespectful or negative way. But it was also part of this family culture that the company was not managed in the way that the market environment would have required. As a result, the calculation worked out less and less.
The ambassadors cushioned this shock by supporting the meaningfulness of the transformation. Although we are still in the middle of the process today, we are making more and more progress. Looking at the results of the Great Place to Work survey, I can say with a clear conscience that the main messages have been received and that the meaningfulness behind the transformation is understood and supported.
Great place to work: In our study, we talk about different types of agility that can be beneficial or detrimental to a transformation - have you also identified different types of agility?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: Of course. That was also the reason why we had to make some new appointments to the Executive Board and other management functions. For a transformation like this, we need leaders who can go on this challenging but incredibly exciting journey with their heads and hearts. You can compare it to a train traveling at a certain speed: we don't throw anyone overboard, but everyone has to jump on themselves. We do everything we can to facilitate and support opportunities, but the will has to be there.
Great place to work: To stay with the train: you are still traveling at full speed. What are the next stages of your journey?
Dr. Gusieppe Santagada: A further step will be the move of the head office and administration to a new building, where we will implement a new type of collaboration, namely "activity-based working" according to the Vebego concept. There will also be no more individual offices - not even for me. When you come in, you shouldn't feel any barriers or hierarchies. Our corporate culture should enable an agile setup so that our employees can work together in a more agile way and we can move more confidently in the market environment thanks to an agile mindset and create added value for our customers at the end of the day.
