Dear employees, customers, suppliers and other acquaintances,
When I think of 2022, I think of a special year when Powerspex celebrated its anniversary. That's a great time to evaluate the company's history. The conclusion: we have achieved what we envisioned 25 years ago, although it is an ongoing process.
2022 was a year with many great orders and extra profits. How much profit is not yet officially known, but at least sales doubled. Wonderful results, but it also has a downside, which is that we are all getting busier and busier. Some employees are even dropping out as a result. That's something that keeps me awake. I find that incredibly annoying. It doesn't belong to us and it doesn't fit the mission we have in mind.
On the other hand, we are a nice stable company with a very bright future. We are in all the layers of energy technology that is so evolving right now. Renewables, the new ways of generating energy, hydrogen... There is also a secret project I am working on myself. And no, I won't reveal anything else about that.
World famous in Twente & the Netherlands
When we started Powerspex 25 years ago, we already made our vision clear: Powerspex was to become world-famous in the Netherlands in the field of process automation and simulation engineering. That has now been achieved; Twente is a knowledge center in power engineering. That was true 25 years ago and it is still true today.
Twente has a lot of big companies in the energy world. Twente people don't hang that on the big bell but it is certainly true and we wanted to be part of that.
Evert always made me analyze and think about that very well. We had a lot of discussions about how we were going to achieve that. One of the important pillars was always the young people, because they are the future. The young people from 20 years ago have now become the knowledge carriers and very good.
As a result, customers now come to us when we used to have to go out and farm. That feels like great recognition. Large customers in the energy technology sector are granting us large projects that we dreamed of years ago. That's a great feeling.
Right in the middle of busiest market
We are of course very happy with these big projects, but because this coincided with the post-coronation period and then all our customers became busy, it became extra busy for us. In addition, there is so much change going on in the energy world that it suddenly looks very different. Actually, with Powerspex, we are exactly in the most changing and busy market there is right now. The energy transition is bringing about a lot.
The path we follow
The idea behind Powerspex is to establish a company for the next generation. Stability is important and, of course, profits must be made. In the early years, it was sometimes more luck than sense, but we have invested so much in training and development that we can now actually deliver.
Creating something for the next generation: this has been Powerspex's vision for the future for 25 years. We have come a long way to achieve this, but we will also have to continue to invest in knowledge and development. With the profits we make, we can do this. When my retirement is sorted out a bit, I think it would be nice to operate the company as a kind of foundation. I want to stipulate that I and my heirs do not sell Powerspex and do not take a lot of money out of it - through this I hope that we can really establish something for the next generation for the next 50 years.
It makes me proud to see that we have employees on whom the company relies, who bring their valuable knowledge to Powerspex. People do leave. You can't stop that, I know, but it still falls hard.
Looking ahead to 2023
Looking ahead to next year, I hope for a continuation of 2022, but better prepared for crowds, so that the sales/offer group can act more in line with practical execution. We can already assess the expected crowds pretty well at this point and we know how to act accordingly.
In addition, in the coming year we have to serve all customers well and work even harder to work with CO2-neutral technologies that will define our future. This is also something that suits the young generation: with these solutions we make the world cleaner and more beautiful. It would be great if they could turn those ideals into a career at Powerspex.
Of course, the commitment to CO2-neutral technologies is also driven by the market itself. Fortunately, we have already conquered a lot in that. All the energy we put into that when it was nothing is now paying off.
We have all worked hard for the past 25 (by now 26) years. It would be nice if now we could all do our work with metered pressure, allowing time for analysis and then starting a new project with fresh courage. If we can do that, then we can work more in the Google-like way.
With that idea, I would like to see more focus on healthier work. How do you get more out of technology? And why is everyone working on-site again? We need to figure out how to make more use of the benefits of working from home.
We also started the PsxAcademy and the Young Talents group, the incubator for the talents of the future.
Let's make a party
I am looking forward to the upcoming year 2023. That's the year when we will finally celebrate the 25th anniversary together at Beekse Bergen for a whole weekend. I've already spent a night there as a taster and it's even more fun than I thought. I am really looking forward to it and I hope you are too. Let's make it a great party!
Then we can get back to work.
Well dosed.
Happy New Year,
Jan Wilmink