To Reinvent the World
How Ensto and its HR team will play their part to solve the world’s big problems.
Ensto’s ambitions are grand: to become a growth-oriented high-tech company. “We’re building the biggest growth for this company ever,” says Kirsi-Marja Ura, Ensto’s SVP, HR, Brand & Communications, Marketing, Sustainability. “Our target is to double our size within three years, taking annual turnover to 300 million euros by 2025.”
Growth is not optional, according to Ura. “It’s not only that we want to grow, but that market conditions require it. A highly competitive environment means we need to launch current products in new markets and new products in current markets. We have to continue to invest in people and development while we focus on the electricity distribution business.”
Family-owned, value-driven
It’s key that Ensto’s values are real and ingrained in the culture. “Our legacy as a family-owned business and our value-driven culture are essential,” says Ura. “We are leading experts in smart and sustainable electricity distribution solutions. We see the big picture, but also we understand the local needs of the customer. We have a great reputation and truly high-quality products. And our values are very real. They’re not things which are invented in a conference room every three to five years. Legacy and company culture are important, because culture is capable of eating strategy for breakfast.”
“The companies we compete against are often stock exchange-listed companies or operate in a private equity environment where it’s a perform-or-die culture. Ours is a family-owned organization with a legacy of doing good and performing in the long run, yet at the same time we must be ambitious and challenge the existing way of doing things."
To this end, talent acquisition is now a major part of HR’s role. “We want people that fit the culture. We need change-oriented and diverse people with the desire to grow, reinvent, and change the world that connects us all, people who not only hunt for growth possibilities but constantly look for new ways of doing things.”
Ura concedes that perhaps one-third of Ensto’s growth target may come through acquisitions, but the other two-thirds can only be achieved by committed, hungry people.
Recruitment challenges
Ironically, one challenge facing Ensto is the fact that the company is not well known, sometimes even within Finland. “Sometimes we’re known for the businesses we divested,” says Ura.
“But when I talk to students or young professionals, they’re surprised by our smart technologies, the internal mobility we offer our employees, how international we are. We’re in 18 different countries today. We’re actually bigger in Africa than in Finland, at the moment. And our growth will come in new countries.” Ura’s job is, in part, to make Ensto more well-known, both inside and outside of Finland, so that recruiting talent will be easier. “If you’re not known to potential hires, they may be suspicious or wonder if you’re a healthy company.” The employment market situation in Europe, where there are more good jobs than people to fill them, complicates things even more.
The fact of the matter is, however, that Ensto has a lot more to offer than most potential hires realize.
“We truly are a key player in tackling climate change with smart technology,” she says. "We've got product development, laboratories, factories, and international tech support. But, unlike big companies, we're agile, low in hierarchy, and decision making is fast. We're like a large company inside a small company."
Ura says that in many big companies there are hundreds of engineers who may be frustrated with their situations. "They're looking for projects and independent responsibility. At Ensto they get that immediately."