What were your first experiences at Quint?
On a busy day in a cozy modern bar, just few blocks from the island of Cité where crowds of tourists storm Notre Dame de Paris cathedral, in one of my favorite night destinations at the jazz heart of the city… That’s where I met two country managers of Quint Wellington Redwood for my first interview. The whole environment and discussion made me feel like I entered a very dynamic and unconventional space, where colleagues move beyond the borders, work together, set challenging targets; they are enthusiastic about what they are doing and truly curious about the experience of others. Later, during my first working days in the headquarters I was meeting new colleagues every day. Some of them were bold leaders; others shared great research ideas, third ones were gurus in strategy and so on… What I discovered and what made me really intrigued is that Quint is a “melting pot” of bright personalities, where you are welcome to contribute and have great opportunity to learn from people!

Tell something about one of your tasks?
I specifically enjoyed working on this project where two parent companies were setting up a joint venture that inherited a few thousands employees and several factories. The timeframe was tight and our client had already made a number of strategic decisions. The new company required an IT infrastructure to be established from scratch and it was going to be 100% outsourced to some preferred vendors were already defined. Our client trusted Quint to create and negotiate the contracts with the selected vendors. The approach seemed to be straight forward, but during discussions it turned out that certain client capabilities were not as advertised. We were constantly challenged establishing the model of collaboration between the different parties; the financial part of the deal was rather complex but the entire project was very rewarding at the end. Every day brought new challenges and required us to step back or sideways to address ad-hoc issues and sometimes enter into unexpected situations.

But each of our team had a unique background and our success depended on our ability to share knowledge, support each other, to be flexible, open, while being able to keep the final goal in mind and consistently moving towards that goal. We had a truly international team working on multiple tracks with Brazilian, Italian, Dutch, Ukrainian colleagues and when the day is over we enjoy driving together to the nearest city for a dinner or taking a weekend break and escaping to the nature in the mountains.

What did it yield to the client?
The client organization had very few managers dedicated to creation of the new company; therefore it was crucial for our team to fully understand and embody the client position and to challenge the vendors, as well as build a good relationship and to negotiate a long-lasting contract on its behalf. Our key value is combining client expertise and the commitment of our people to yield a successful outcome.

How did it influence you?
Before joining Quint I was managing delivery in an IT service company, focusing on process, team organization, and performance and on the client relationship. In consulting, all these aspects remain important, but relationship and ability to challenge and think a few steps ahead of situations became much more important. Additionally, I am constantly learning about different organizations, people, and their ways of behaving, all of which is indispensable and exciting. And most important for me is that I have an opportunity to be on the cutting edge of industry best practices and contribute towards their further development.