Who and what is Ensto? And what does it expect of its employees, partners, and customers?
When Ensto CEO Ari Virtanen joined Ensto in April 2016, he began by listening. Not only did he tour Ensto locations and factories, but he conducted an onboarding survey which received nearly 800 responses.
After many months working closely with Ensto management and the board, a new strategy has been developed. But a strategy cannot be successfully executed without values at its core which enable its success.
“The most often mentioned Ensto core value is Trust Capital,” says Virtanen. “Everybody knows that one.” But Virtanen adds two other values to that list, creativity and winning together.
“These values are what we know to be true, what underlie everything that takes place in our organization. But what is inside, our values, are not constantly visible to the outside world.”
“The middle layer expresses our behavior, the way we work in our daily life,” says Virtanen.
Specifically, trust capital becomes the behaviors of human centricity, openness, and responsibility. Creativity grows into innovativeness, exploration, and co-creation. And winning together manifests itself in collaboration, excellence in execution, and a customer focus.
These qualities may be suspected by customers and partners, but they are not always on visible display.
“Because we work according to these values, our culture develops naturally from them,” says Virtanen. “If trust capital means we are human centric, open and responsible, then the customer sees us as a trusted partner.”
“If creativity means innovativeness, then the customer recognizes this in smart solutions. And if winning together means excellence in execution and a customer focus, then this will manifest itself in the profitable growth of the business for both Ensto, its customers, and its partners.”
In the stairwell of Ensto’s Porvoo office hangs a large mural which was created by Ensto employees from all over the world. The title of the painting is “Winning Together.” It’s a tribute to Ensto’s history and values and their alignment with the face of the company which others see.
“Ensto values aren’t just for internal use, of course,” says Virtanen. “Our values are so that others understand ‘This is the company you are dealing with, and this is also what we expect of others.’”