Enercon: Energy for the World:
Enercon, the "Mercedes-Benz" of the wind turbine, is know worldwide for its high-quality standard. The company has been active in Taiwan since 2001 and has installed more than 217 wind turbines to date, with a total capacity of over 440 megawatts. Over the past few years, Enercon's Asia-Pacific team has been busy promoting the idea of onshore wind energy projects with community participation in Taiwan. This effort makes their voice heard on smart environmental policies, ensures a higher level of service availability for its customers, leverages its expertise in technology to drive innovation that can benefit the planet, and boosts profits all at the same time.
Director Bart Linssen:
“Sustainability means you have to return the seed that you took so that the future generations can also enjoy that.”
Interview:
On April 3rd, we had our first conversation with Director Linssen, the Managing Director of Enercon in Taiwan. Below is an edited excerpt from our discussion:
Sustainability:
The goal of The SAGE Project is to learn more about sustainability in different industries. What does sustainability mean to you?
This question makes me think of my daughter. You have to return the seed that you took so that the future generations can also enjoy that. For me, it's not about having to go back to nature; I think it's unnecessary. Our life is so comfortable because of the benefits we gained from natural resources. But, you do not want to consume it up to a level that the future generations have nothing to utilize. We have to find a way to balance the issue of how our consumption of natural resources affect nature and our home and make sure it integrated on a long-term basis.
Could you share with us your biggest concerns in sustainability?
People are very slow in change. I experienced that for myself. I would like to achieve zero consumption on fossil fuels. I have this target somewhere. But, this challenging because you have to make some sacrifices in order to achieve it. On the other hand, sustainability is a trend. The pressure from society somewhat will force you to achieve it. I had tried to make this office more sustainable -installing solar panels- for years; although the technology is somewhere out there, unfortunately, it's not available here in Taiwan. It's very expensive for your company to take care as well if the rules and regulations are not helping at all. Sadly, it's an obstacle that keeps people from making a change towards sustainability.
For students like us who are entering the job market, do you have any suggestions for us to achieve the goal of sustainability in the business field?
I think it's very important to get your priority straight, then live with it. You do all the things that you possibly do in order to align with your goal. Consider, for example, if you think that sustainability is important to you and you want to bring in this value to your company, then take this goal with you and by whatever means you can do, push your company to reach your desired direction through ways such as consulting with someone, doing research, initiating a proposal, and ,making it happen.
Leadership:
We are business student. Our goal is to become a successful leader like you, working with people all around the world. How do you demonstrate leadership and what are the most important values that you look for?
For my leadership style, I think the value of trust is important. Trust means empowering your team members, and giving them the opportunity to grow. These are easy to say, but they are not easy to achieve in reality. This is because, on a day-to-day basis, there are jobs waiting for you to complete. You actually want to delegate responsibility to someone, but you know that it's much more efficient if you do it by yourself. You can't simply delegate responsibility to someone. It doesn't work this way. You need to spend a lot of time, efforts, and step-by-step guidance until one's reaching the stage in which he/she is capable to independently manage that particular task. So, it takes planning. Also, communication is vital in building great work relationships. We all have a strong need for connectivity and belonging. In order to engage in healthy communication, what I did was introduce a weekly one-to-one meeting. The duration is half an hour. It's effective although it is a short time. Now,I have a better understanding of my team members' work progression and problems that they encountered in the workplace.
I think ambitious mindset is good; but, don't make it as a target itself. As a leader, your responsibility is to make sure that your company is successful and productive, to get your colleagues to work together effectively in order to reach a common goal. It takes an aggregate of skills, for instance, one's good at this, other's good at that; they need guidance, they need someone to show them where the goal is. I think the value of empathy is important too. You have to think of others' needs but still, it depends on the situation. If the situation is bad, you are there to show them the right path and also, keep the boats together.
Our Reflections:
The SAGE Team was amazed by Director Linssen's ability to not only set the sustainability bar high for himself but to also give his team members the means to achieve their goals. At the end of our last conversation, Director Linssen said something that resonated with us:" You have to hire the one who matches the job with the right attitude" - "Attitude" determines your altitude. To combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Taiwan must contribute to transforming primary energy, improving energy efficiency, increasing the share of non-fossil fuel energy in the total primary energy resource, and setting up a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient modern energy system such as wind energy. But above all, we need passionate, determined society with strong commitments to these ideals in order to make the change sustainable.
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