For our Computronix employee interviews, we sit down with people from all levels of our company and ask them about their jobs, and what it’s like working for Computronix.
This is Part 2 of an interview series. Please read Part 1 first
For any company to survive for over 40 years, especially in the technology industry, they have to be innovative and do something different than the majority of businesses. That could mean creating an exceptional product, providing excellent service, or simply meeting an essential need. As the long-time leader of Computronix, Herman Leusink was responsible for steering the company, developing those differences that would allow it to endure challenges and continue growing. So what is it that makes us unique? Herman explains it by explaining that the basic business philosophy for most companies is, essentially: “we’re in business to make money. Period. End of story. Whatever helps us make more money, that’s what we’ll do, whatever doesn’t, we won’t. Obviously within the framework of being legal.” He pauses briefly, grinning as he adds “at least for most of them!”
However, the decision-making process at Computronix is guided by what Herman calls a “balanced scorecard,” which is made up of four key factors that are weighed together for every high-level decision. So for any project that is undertaken, the executives consider “the ability to make money (we share that with other companies), a concern for our clients, a concern for our staff, and a desire for innovation.” This means that the jobs we take on and the strategies we employ may not necessarily be chosen because they’re able to make the most money, but perhaps in order to improve a client’s user conditions or to give our staff more practical experience.
Obviously, many of the decisions that the CEO of a company has to make aren’t easy or even widely known. There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes that many people never see or hear about, including even the employees of the company. In Herman’s case, the entire process of “walking the tightrope between what’s best for the staff, what’s best for the clients, what’s best for the owners” is a big part of the job that most people don’t fully understand, and he says it was always a challenge for him.
He recalled a major project from several years ago where that balancing act became especially difficult, the Winchester project. It brought Computronix’s POSSE product from the client-server model into the web environment, which enabled us to serve our clients better. However, the needs of the project were more demanding than anticipated, and ran over time and over budget. Herman described it as “a juggling act between how much do we spend, how much don’t we spend, and how to do it. Because if we do something richer and better, it might serve the client better, but it’ll take longer and cost more money in the process. So how far do you go?”
But he had full confidence that the Computronix staff were up to the task. When asked what the company’s employees are best at, his response is quick and decisive: “Building software!” He takes a moment before clarifying “well, serving our clients, and initially that was just building software, but now we’re building innovative software solutions, which allow us to partner with our clients.”
It’s interesting how often the conversation returns to either the staff or the clients when talking to Herman about Computronix. He brings up the company’s products and services only in relation to the benefit they had for clients or the effort that the staff put into creating them. When questioned about this, he acts as though it shouldn’t seem unusual at all. “People are critical to the success or failure of a company. It is our people that make us as a company. The fact that people are going to help each other, encourage one another, that we can recognize successes. Those kinds of things are what make Computronix unique.” In fact, he identifies that statement as the single most important thing he’s learned from Computronix.
Herman isn’t shy about the pride he has for the company he built. In over three decades of business success, his achievements are far too numerous to list them all. In naming what he is most proud of, one might expect him to mention that the POSSE software was inducted into the Smithsonian, or the incredibly high rate of client retention, or perhaps just the fact that the company has steadily been profitable and steadily grown.
But after some consideration, Herman answered that “my biggest, most significant accomplishment has been building a healthy organization, where we support each other in both our professional and personal lives. Having a workplace where we focus on doing the interesting stuff, and having fun doing it. And then building a place where people matter.”
As we closed our time together, he continued, “I think you need to have fun in your work. I’ve always tried to create an environment where we could do that – besides doing interesting, challenging things and helping each other, we could actually have fun doing so and feel good about the things that we’ve built.” After taking a long moment to reflect and look out the window of his office to where the sun is setting in the distance, he finished by simply reaffirming, “I’m most proud of that.”
