BAck
Chapter
How should we work together? Inhouse and with our customers?
How should we lead and develop Rimaster for a promising future? These issues are what we intend to address in this third and final part of Master of Simplicity.
The previous parts of Master of Simplicity have focused on how the quality, the awareness of cost and the time-perspective have an impact in the competitive market for costumers.
This is something that all companies work towards and today live up to with nearly enough margin. And because of this, extra elements are necessary – necessary in order to bolster the strength of one’s company on the world market and win customer trust. And the things that can be added are also factors that make the company a more sustainable business and able to remain stable even when the economy changes.
This part will deal even more deeply with the values in Rimaster and how these values helps us and allow us to stand strong in the future. Welcome to Master of Simplicity Part 3, which is about “We and our Future”
A brand that we know about is one that is more visible among advertising messages, and whose message is more easily remembered when we want to recommend it to someone.
Our evaluation of the message sender, influences influences how we feel about the offer. It’s about values. It’s about the brand.
All companies, organisations and even us as individuals will eventually create a brand for ourselves – whether we want to or not. So, it's not about building, or not building a brand. Rather, it's about building the brand we want.
The brand is the collective perception that the world around us has of our company.
It is with customers, suppliers and society in a bigger perspective that the brand is made and filled with content.
It is what we convey at Rimaster and how we act that creates what the world around us think, like and feel about us as a company.
Everything we say, everything we do and how we get others to talk about Rimaster affects the image of our brand.
How the experience of the Rimaster brand is perceived must therefore be a reflection of our vision and our values.
Together, we can continue to build and enhance what we once started to do to strengthen Rimaster as a brand.
It all began with a thought from us – what values we wanted our costumer and the society to associate with Rimaster.
These values need to have importance for our customers, but also for us at Rimaster. And preferably where we know we can assert ourselves compared to our competitors.
Now it’s very much about all of us at Rimaster agreeing on how our brand can express itself.
Everything we say and do impacts both our customers and the world around us, and for this reason it is important to agree on how we behave towards our surroundings and towards each other in our organisation.
We have decided our direction.Our vision and our core values apply as a basis, and to achieve success we work according to the principle of persistence and continuity.
The value of our brand quickly declines if it is not perceived as important, or if we are not consistent in our behaviour. Everything is based on trust.
It takes a long time to build and consolidate a brand. We will therefore undertake periodic reviews of it to keep its meaning alive – all the things we want the Rimaster brand to stand for. To keep it alive, both with us within Rimaster, and with others outside the company.
We all need to practice and constantly develop our processes to ensure they are in line with how we are perceived.
This is how all employees in Rimaster shall behave in accordance with our values, our vision and thus our brand; and do so with such a clarity that it is a natural part of our everyday life.
According to research, studies and experience, we know today that brands are built through collaboration.
We have started that work in Rimaster, and we intend the work to be ongoing.
We will continue to develop work models, routines and processes to lay the foundation. But since the construction itself consists of the perception held by our surroundings, cooperation with customers and other players is also an important factor.
For this reason, it is important that all of us at Rimaster understand, and are involved in, this brand-building work.
We create added value by focusing on our watchwords and what they mean for us and others:
Rimaster’s logo is a graphic and visual symbol that we want to be associated with the values that we build into our brand.
It is therefore important that we ensure that our logo looks the same in various situations whether there is in presentation, on our website or a decor.”
“Strategic work of development has a target of achieving profitability in the long term, while operational work aims at profitability in the short term. This is a major issue in business.
What sacrifices can we make today to ensure our future profitability? Long-term work of development makes a burden on annual results and the return only becomes evident for a longer term. A company’s commission is to pursue profitability over both the long and the short term.
This may seem obvious, but in practice it’s a constant balancing act.”
Approx.quote Karlöf/Lövingsson
Priority goals in Rimaster are to work for a long-term stable company with a strong cashflow. That means that the goal of profitability also must be prioritized.
We require a financial base, and employeers, both equipped to meet rapid economic changes. These factors cost money, in both the long and the short term.
Examples of so-called hidden costs are those associated with the purchase of materials, together with the fact that materials and finished products are in our warehouses and costing money until the customer actually buys and pays for the materials, the goods or the services. Rimaster ties up stock capital, as it is known as.
Rimaster’s previous rapid growth has taken place with borrowed capital. Today, we have a loan that needs to be reduced.
This means that our profitability is an important goal, both for the long and the short term.
The difference between the concepts of efficiency and productivity can be simply explained by:
Efficiency = doing the right things and Productivity = doing things right
In practice, this means that an employee works productively and efficiently when the work is carried out according to the specified work method, using the right materials and the right tools and according to the drawings and timeframes specified in the production order. It is important that all Rimaster’s employees understand and contribute to the development of the company and its processes.
Within Rimaster, we want stable and robust processes. Then, we can meet our challenges flexibly, with slick and simple solutions. A global world is bordered with constant change and a need for adaptability. We have to produce results, and that requires efficiency. And that places an importance on our doing the right thing safely – in the right way, efficiently and productively.
In order to compete, we need to be skilled at handling changes and quickly adapting to new conditions. If anything, we have experienced this recently, where the Covid-19 pandemic has completely changed the conditions on the world market.
It required that we who work within Rimaster realise that we have two important tasks to perform, namely: To carry out our work, and also to develop our work.
When we have an attitude that causes us to learn from eachother, that creates a collaboration that gives results. When we have an ambition to do our work a little better tomorrow than we did today, we will then have the capacity to deal with the competition of the future.
Every year, strategic goals are drawn up for the immediate future. In the following figures you may see, in a simplified version, the strategic-process in Rimaster.
The most important task undertaken by HR is to support the organisation's development at all levels.
Possessing the ability to work together strengthens development, efficiency and therewith an enhancement of competitiveness in the market as well as that of the company’s stability and sustainability. And, in consequence this means job security and hopefully continual expansion.
This perhaps makes it easier to understand that information and communication within and between employees, departments and companies plays a vital role.
As part of this supportive development work, you can read about Rimaster’s work in accordance with Performance Management in the previous text.
More areas that have also received and will continue to receive higher priority in Rimaster’s ongoing work are its so-called CSR work (its work for social responsibility) and SDG, the UN’s global sustainability goals.
CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility and SDG – Sustainable Development Goals
The purpose of these goals is “To reduce inequalities and injustices in the world. To promote peace and justice. To find a solution to the climate crisis”. In short, this means that Rimaster as a company realises that we cannot save the world by ourselves, but we really want to take seriously in our responsibility in society as regards culture, laws and social patterns. This responsibility includes financial, environmental, social and ethical aspects that we take into account and responsibility for, because we care about our employees, and because we want to continue to be a well-accepted company in the society and in the world.
We at Rimaster have chosen to adapt our strategies and operations to meet the Global Goals – which means policies that are sustainable and socially responsible.
These policies form the basis of the Code of Conduct established within Rimaster and which all employees are required to be familiar with.
Our Code of Conduct is also reflected towards our suppliers as an integral part of our supplier contracts and regular supplier assessments.
Rimaster works purposefully in a number of areas within CSR and SDG, as you can read about on our website. Our goal is for all our employees to receive in-depth training at a later date on what CSR means and how Rimaster is working with it.
When we undertake our work and when we represent Rimaster, it is important that each and every one of us acts in an economically, socially and ethically responsible manner. This is the only way to ensure positive and sustainable financial and social development and the only way to ensure long-term trust among our customers, suppliers and in the society around us.
A basic minimum requirement is that we comply with the laws and regulations in each country where we reside and where we operate.
Human rights – Rimaster supports, respects and complies with all human rights laws in those countries where we operate
Labour Rights – As local or other applicable laws permit, all employees are free to form, join (or not join) a union and have the right to bargain collectively.
No form of forced labour is tolerated by Rimaster, and every employee has the right to leave their employment according to contract or local laws.
Rimaster has zero-tolerance of any form of child labour or any other form of exploitation of children. No person is employed before having completed primary school or is under the age of 15. No one younger than 18 may perform risky work within Rimaster.
Discrimination is not tolerated at Rimaster, nor is harassment such as physical or mental abuse or threats in any form.
The Environment – Rimaster applies the precautionary principle to environmental challenges, which means that we favour environmentally friendly alternatives when they are available.
Furthermore, innovative development of products and services is prioritised since they bring environmental and social benefits
Anti-corruption – Rimaster's reputation for honesty, integrity and accountability must be upheld and any involvement in bribery, extortion or corruption is strictly not tolerated in any form.