After finishing his Masters in Industrial Engineering and Management, Robert joined the company of his father and uncle in 2006. He was given the time to find his own path, “I gradually found my place in the organisation, there was no rush and no clear route set out for me.” Robert explains. “I started in the engineering department, left my suit and tie at home and got my hands dirty. Soon I learned that I could play an essential role in connecting the world of technology and business strategy.“
After taking on various projects to improve production processes and professionalizing the engineering department, Robert was ready to join the company’s executive team. He was promoted to CTO while his brother Patrick became CEO of the firm. They took on their new roles just before the financial turmoil that started in 2008, a crisis that affected the company severely. “Many challenges were thrown at us those days. We had to restructure our production facility, reduce the number of employees and cut down on costs. While being in the moment it was stressful and emotional but on hindsight I realize that there is no better time to take on the helm of a company than in a crisis. It gave Patrick and myself a crash-course in the key drivers of our business and the company’s competitive edge”.
Robert is a passionate sailor that learned from a young age to sail authentic Dutch sailing vessels called “Lemsteraak” boats. He loves the energy, the speed and the comradery of competing in a race. We ask if he sees any parallels between his interest in sailing and professional career. He enthusiastically answers, “those boats are fast and furious, you need to be on your toes and operate as a close team. In a race there is no room for nonsense, the essentials emerge”. He continues, “when we design a new product we try to focus on the fundamentals. We understand that our customers want an instrument that delivers an accurate measurement and a product that lasts a lifetime. It needs to be fit for purpose and customers need to be able to rely on it. Sounds simple, but that’s it, we bring things back to their essentials.”
Robert is not the type of person who solely focusses on internal processes. For him innovation happens in the real world and is not the fuzzy long term daydreaming as some companies do. “At Badotherm we call this co-innovation”, Robert firmly explains. “Absolute magic happens when our teams cooperate with our customers and partners and create real solutions for real applications. We want to make an impact in the here and now.”
At the end of the interview we briefly touch on Badotherm’s future. With an look of excitement Robert explains, “We will continue to take new evolutionary steps in terms of the production process and the supply chain. This will further boost product uniformity, guarantee quality levels and deliver even more clarity and convenience to our customers and partners”. He then shows a picture of robots his team recently purchased and concludes, “we’ve got plenty of exciting ideas to make our products and services stand out. And we are embracing new technologies to bring those ideas to life”.
Got enthousiastic about Roberts story? Check our job openings if there is a position that suits you and come join us.
