A real engineer develops the customer Dimitris Gioulekas is MD of a company that has an expressed aim of driving technical developments in Sweden. This conversation is about how to get there and how Knightec, by consistently daring to question old standards and work methods, can attract new employees and make them grow and become real engineers. 

“There’s actually nothing strange in what we do,” says Dimitris Gioulekas. “We’re a modern service company with 300 employees. We’re at eight locations in Sweden and we have framework agreements with large, important customers such as Tetra Pak, BAE Systems Hägglunds and GE Healthcare. Our business concept is simple, we emphasise the foundations of the company, our customers and employees.”

Knightec has grown steadily over its first five year. By emphasising and developing a strong corporate culture, they’ve retained and developed their employees. And they’ve managed to attract many of the most attractive consultants and customers in the market. Something they intend to continue to do in the years to come. 

Crucial diversity At Knightec they have set a clear objective for the next few years: in 2012 Knightec shall be a company with diversity. 25 per cent of employees shall be women and 15 per cent shall have an immigrant background. In a company that makes very high demands of its employees. 

“Of course, as a successful company we must have a clear focus on our customers,” believes Dimitris. “Customers are having a really tough time at the moment with increasing global competition. We have to be a little bit smarter than our competitors so that we can quickly show our clients the value of working with us. Companies that have a multicultural approach and help their employees to develop and enjoy their work will be the winners.”

Long-term relations Knightec is a company with low staff turnover. Although they sit in eight different offices, from Örnsköldsvik in the north to Malmö in the south, and although most employees do their day-today work at clients’ premises, they display a strikingly strong sense of cohesion. Ever since Knightec started, management has striven to achieve a culture that encourages employees to achieve the unexpected – rather than the expected – and to see potential for development where others see a problem. 

“Relationships and continuity are important watchwords for us,” believes Dimitris. “We can only create long-term relationships with our customers if they feel that they can develop with us. It’s not good enough to present new consultants every time a new project is launched. 

Real Engineers Knightec has coined the term “Real Engineers” to sum up how a Knightec employee operates. So what makes a real engineer? Before Dimitris explains, he points out that the role of the engineer has changed radically in recent decades. From being a technician with a calculator and a computer, the engineer is now also a businessman. Knightec’s mission is to be involved in contributing to this change in the industry. 

“But if Knightec is to be a leader, it’s not enough to have the traditional approach in which only managers drive developments. We need real engineers, confident and inquisitive, who dare to go beyond their usual role as an engineer. As a real engineer, you see solutions that the customer hasn’t thought of, that maybe weren’t even in the project description. And you’re confident enough to present them. Because a real engineer has strong commercial awareness and is literally burning with a desire to develop both himself and the customer. Here you’ll have room to stand out. So, most importantly of all – you must be involved, then you’ll be what we call a real engineer.”

Working with Knightec As Dimitris starts to describe Knightec’s work method, the ambition to allow everyone to be involved becomes very clear. From the first customer contact, through project launch and follow-up until completion, communication and openness are everything for Knightec.

“Everyone must know what’s going on here. This is needed in order to quickly bring out knowledge, experience and ideas. It can be decisive in getting the customer to choose us. We communicate via the intranet and by newsletter. When a deal is signed, we don’t just turn up at the customer’s door. Two or three weeks in advance we agree which tools are needed to carry out the assignment. And we listen to any expectations the customer might have, over and above the actual project description."

At Knightec it’s important to perform follow-up in addition to the usual milestones and progress meetings. The customer is contacted within a couple of weeks of the project getting started. By means of both formal and informal progress checks, Knightec forms a view of developments. Can we be sharper? Is there anything the customer’s missing? The customer is also usually assessed in order to guarantee the quality of the delivery.

“A conclusion involves not only the obvious thing,” continues Dimitris, “that the actual delivery is completed. Our system also includes a follow-up procedure three or four weeks after the end of the project. It can be a phone call, quite informal, with a few questions just to check that everything’s the way it should be. Or maybe the consultant needs to call by to check a particular detail?”

In 99 cases out of 100 everything’s as it should be. But the phone call is typical for how a real engineer thinks. The objective is of course that a completed project will, sooner or later, lead to a new collaboration and that the customer will feel that they have developed together with us. When the time comes around for new assignments, we must be at the top of the list.”

A vision of diversity, breadth and growth “Retain, develop and attract,” says Dimitris once more. “As we look to the future, Knightec doesn’t just have full-time employees, we also have a network consisting of students, collaborators, former Knightec staff and retired engineers. We have a diversity that can be both seen and felt.” 

And the customers? If Dimitris Gioulekas is right when he says that a company gets the customers it deserves, then Knightec is also the first choice among customers.