Fabio Negro reviews his first six months at MDD

My first move was to pick up the office key. Fortunately, I had the chance to take an inside look at the company a little bit even before my official start. I was also very happy to see some familiar faces when I started. My primary focus the first few weeks was to connect with my colleagues to understand the requirements, their tasks, their daily work, their challenges, even some of their frustrations, but also their successes. 

I was given the opportunity by the board to help develop the company's five-year strategy plan. I understand the pressure, but it also is a fantastic opportunity for me to implement the new plan with my teams. Another focus was to strengthen our internal communication processes - especially during the home office challenge we are all facing. This is not an easy task and is still a work-in-progress, but I would like to thank my colleagues at MDD for being open minded and highly motivated to overcome these challenges. 

When I started, I was introduced to the bi-weekly virtual coffee breaks on Mondays and Thursday. It is a great idea and I love it. However, I soon realized that not everybody is participating the same way. So, I asked to play the game ‘desire and frustration,’ in which everyone must talk about one of their frustrations and one of their desires, regardless of whether they are work-related or not. These coffee breaks turned out to be great fun, and we all we all join whenever we can. 

We want to offer a product which meets and hopefully succeeds, the needs and expectations of our clients. We want to offer a service that is on the highest possible level. We also want to continue to strengthen our relationship with our existing clients and to improve our products and services.
 

Employer branding is particularly important to us. Everyone in this company contributes a part to the success story that MDD is. We want to create a working environment and an atmosphere which is above average and where we not only offer benefits but also work hard to improve our level of communication on a daily basis, discussing individual needs and much more. Additionally, we ask our colleagues to participate in creating a comfortable working environment and atmosphere. Also, we are offering flexible working hours and working models. 

Internally, I am looking forward to implementing the strategy. When I look at the daily progress, I see that everybody is participating in a great way. In a couple of months, we will be more used to the new model, to the new way of working together and the new culture. And I am looking forward to the progress we are making in many fields as well as to celebrating the successes of course.  I am also very much looking forward to meeting all our clients in person. I think after these challenging times, we all deserve having a glass of wine or a cold beer together while discussing opportunities for the future. This is going to be very exciting and great of fun. I think that everybody is looking forward to doing that. 

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