Solventure has been growing fast in the last couple of years (with a double-digit growth rate year on year). Earlier this year Michiel de Neef joined the company as Manager of the Delivery team to develop the coaching of consultants and optimize project management at Solventure. We sat down with Michiel for a short interview to hear his thoughts on the working culture at Solventure and the way the company is supporting its increasingly large number of supply chain consultants.
Hi Michiel, in which ways does Solventure help its consultants to grow personally and professionally, especially with a new junior squad of 6 colleagues joining in September?
Michiel: “It is quite exciting! To answer your question, we support them in two main ways: on the one hand, we give our consultants opportunities to grow not only their personal career but also their professional skills. We coach them actively to grow them as a consultant from the moment they walk into our office, so they can help our customers actively using their supply chain expertise as soon as possible.”
“And this brings me to the second way we support our consultants: we give them extensive technical support on their projects, along with project management assistance, so our customers can always rely on the services we deliver as a team. Even though they might have a more junior consultant working on their account, they know they are backed by the entire Delivery team filled with senior supply chain experts.”
How do all the new hires fit within the growth plan of the Delivery team at Solventure?
Michiel: “As we’re growing as a company, we want our new joiners to grow alongside us. That’s why we don’t onboard them on a never-ending string of small projects, but we give them the chance to make a name for themselves on large, complex, projects for very large customers. It might seem that the amount of responsibility doesn’t match their level of expertise, but when we hire new junior colleagues, we make sure they’re ready to take on these kinds of challenges, and perhaps skip a few steps in their career.”
“By focussing on these young talents straight from the university benches, we do put a lot of effort into getting them ready for the big league. But in the end, we get a lot of experienced people in return who are very thankful for the opportunity we’ve given them. As we keep on growing as a company, there’s also an increasing chance you can change your career focus over the years from supply chain consultancy to, let’s say, Sales or our dedicated Customer Excellence Team. And after this group of new graduates, we will be happy to engage another group. And another, so plenty of career opportunities for all.”
Could you give us some specific examples of how Solventure invests in the personal and professional development of its consultants?
Michiel: “One of the initiatives I launched since joining Solventure is an experiment to separate the customer-facing and executing roles for our consultants. This way a consultant can focus on one specific task and get really good at this, instead of juggling multiple responsibilities and never having the time to really excel in one of them. Additionally, it’s a great way to scale up as a company while keeping our company structure clear for everyone. This experiment is still ongoing though, but I have already seen a promising shift in the way colleagues look at their jobs and how they can improve them for our customers’ benefit.”
Finally, according to you Michiel, what makes Solventure such a great place to work?
Michiel: “For me, it’s all about the technical skills and knowledge already present at Solventure. We have a lot of smart and very capable people on board, and I can’t wait to welcome our new colleagues into the mix.”
“I'm also thankful to work with a team that can scale the existing expertise into a larger team of highly skilled supply chain professionals. Solventure offers lots of autonomy and the opportunity to actively contribute to the growth of our business."
"Next to that, I know and feel that my colleagues also really appreciate the young and dynamic setting, combining hard work with fun & interaction."
Thank you Michiel for your time, and all the best with the growing Delivery team at Solventure!