Those who know me know that I often refer to my company Holland Innovative (HI) as a talent development company. And that I give creativity an important place in it. As a director, you should actually always set a good example, so I started my own little project to give space to my own creativity: I made a ceramic sculpture of HI.
A company is like an organism. It is born, goes through growing pains, and matures. Every company, I am convinced, has its own personality. I thought it would be a nice challenge to capture the identity, the personality of my own company HI in a sculpture. After all, a picture says more than a thousand words. No sooner said than done.
Light bulb
My love for sculpting started in kindergarten. That love was also reinforced by two uncles, both of whom are artists. Every birthday I received a lump of clay, which I knew what to do with. Modeling has always remained a hobby, which I recently picked up again with the HI sculpture.
I modeled it, fired it in a ceramic kiln, glazed it, and fired it again. The result is now waiting at our office on a beautiful wooden pedestal.
In this article, I give a brief explanation of the sculpture. That explanation is also a representation of our corporate identity because with the sculpture I tried to reflect all aspects and facets of HI.
Starting with the base, the base of the image. I designed that in the shape of a light bulb. That stands for the company Philips, where I, like a lot of people in the Brainport region, worked for years and gained a lot of knowledge and expertise about the high-tech world. On that light bulb base rise the letters HI, because out of that rich Philips past, we were born.
On the shoulders of others
HI is a people company. By that I mean that while we may be working on complex technology and dealing with numbers, formulas and data, it is the human, social side that ultimately makes the difference. If you do a project but you are not able to present it well, the gold you have in your hands becomes silver or maybe bronze. It's all about human skills and communication.
I wanted to portray that with the row of people hand in hand carrying the letters HI. You can also see that some stand on the shoulders of others, which is also true in a figurative sense: you build on the knowledge and skills of others and you need each other.
Projects, coaching and training
Just below that, you see two little figures fitting together like pieces of a puzzle. That stands for coaching and being coached, which is essential in our company. I very much believe in helping and strengthening each other through coaching. This is why each of my employees also gets to choose a personal coach when they join HI. Of course, we also coach ourselves. Below the puzzle piece puppets is a puppet teaching a class. That is the training part of our company, which depicts knowledge sharing.
Thus, the three pillars of our company are listed below each other: projects, coaching, and training.
Talent means getting and bringing
On the right side of the image on the letter I, I have clayed a factory. That's our high-tech market or industry. With the other little symbols on the I and the H, I wanted to depict our markets in that industry: the sun with the wifi sign for Smart Energy, the leaf with the factory for AgroTech, the car with the wifi sign for Smart Mobility and the light bulb stethoscope stands for smart medical technology or MedTech.
Voila, that's my image of HI. What I wanted to convey with it above all is that HI is primarily a talent development company and a people company. Officially we are called a project or consultancy company, but for me, the professional and his or her talent development are really central. Because if people don't develop their talents, they will take on less challenging jobs, the results will be less and they will enjoy their work less.
And talent means getting and bringing. At HI, we give you plenty of scopes to develop and broaden your knowledge and skills, but with the underlying idea that you will then use them with our clients and that it will contribute to a better life and a better balance for yourself. We must ensure that we transfer our knowledge so that our clients also become smarter. And that it stays fun together.
So all in all this has become almost a thousand words. But the image says more in the end.
Hans Meeske