We were lucky to catch up with Claudio Gutierrez recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Claudio, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.
The success of Corporate America is obvious and undeniable. It’s the motor that drives the economy and employs millions of people, but what I think they lack is a human touch that would encourage and inspire individual employees. We’re all familiar with the sweatshop-like conditions of certain industrial giants: the limited bathroom breaks, the limited amount of personal time off, the strict 9-to-5, etc… This capitalism on steroids is great for corporate profits but it leads directly to burnout, stress, and frustration that causes loss of morale.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
My journey started like the trajectory of a typical engineer: from designer to applications engineer to director of engineering to a high-level capital projects manager. During this journey, I noticed that many companies were not being as efficient as possible, or they were not doing things following best-practices, so I would occasionally offer to support them with these activities during my time off. My company is based in Houston, TX but we have clients nationwide, from the Pacific Northwest to South Florida
I got laid off during one of the oil downturns, so I decided to dedicate myself fully to those activities and founded Valens Project Consulting with the goal of becoming the best project management partner for fabrication, industrial distribution, and manufacturing firms. What started as simply offering done-for-you services quickly expanded into a full-service consulting agency and now we also offer process improvement and operational efficiency support, among other services.
What sets us apart from others is our versatility, quick reaction time, and our company values, which are the following:
𝗔𝗴𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: We strive to deliver projects to clients faster with fewer steps and greater efficiency and precision
𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: We analyze processes to come up with new and improved solutions for our clients
𝗢𝘃𝗲𝗿-𝗗𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿: We aim to exceed expectations on every project
That last value is of utmost importance because we don’t nickel and dime our customers. We instead prefer to “delight” our customer by going a little above and beyond during each project. It’s what keeps our customers coming back and what I strive our reputation to be.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When it comes to resilience, every business that survived the first couple of years of this decade has a gripping story to tell. How we managed to stay afloat was by being understanding and putting ourselves in the shoes of our customers. Although most of our customers are on 12-month contracts, we allowed them to break the contracts during the height of the pandemic because we understood that times were extraordinarily tough. We didn’t try to enforce our contracts legally or apply penalties because we knew that they would return as soon as the economy improved and that’s precisely what happened.
Any advice for managing a team?
I think that one of the most formidable resources a company can count on and leverage with great efficiency is a properly motivated team. As mentioned before, one of our biggest differentiators compared to Corporate America, is the humane approach with which we conduct business, so we make sure to have a culture that keeps a team motivated.
We do this in the following ways:
𝗦𝗲𝘁 𝗖𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹𝘀 – This sounds like a no-brainer, and obviously every task at hand must advance towards something, but you’d be surprised at how many organizations just throw things over the wall and hope for the responsible team to somehow end up achieving success. This adds to stress and does nothing to improve motivation.
𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗮𝗻 𝗨𝗻𝘄𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 – Your team needs to be aware of what their efforts are achieving within a project environment, but also what success means for the organization as a whole.
𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸/𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 – Team members that can count on flexibility to not miss important family events or routine medical appointments, for instance, are much more motivated. So it’s important to remember that they have a life outside the office.
𝗘𝗻𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀 – A team leader should encourage individual members to work out of their nutshell and to provide everyone with new ideas and designs. During my time managing engineers in Corporate America, I made it clear that I wouldn’t micromanage and didn’t expect my team to work robotically attached to their stations. As long as the work was done on time and under budget, I was a happy camper, no matter what habits inspired genius.
𝗥𝗲𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺 – Who wouldn’t want to reward their team members with financial bonuses? After all, it’s through the combined efforts of the team that the result should please and delight stakeholders. However, lacking authority to dole out cash does not prevent you from enthusiastically recognizing individuals’ efforts and celebrate milestones, if even with just a few words: “Thank you, team, for setting a great example for your coworkers“, can go a long way in boosting morale all around.
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