Having spent three days in Austria as guests of hardware giant Blum, we pondered why such a successful company would take all that time and effort to show a bunch of Australians around their facilities in Dornbirn. The town is located in a gorgeous region about as far west as you can get in Austria – so far west that last night at dinner we could see both Switzerland and Germany from the balcony of a five hundred year old castle!
And it’s not just Aussies who are welcomed here. There have been more than 650 guests this year so far who have toured the most amazing facilities, been treated to warmth and generosity rarely seen, and learnt interesting details such as why there are more than 50 different components in a single hinge.
We spoke to Blum Australia’s National Business Development Manager, Ron Redman, about how this program started and why it’s been such a success. “The first Australian trip was in 1997, but the program started in the early 80s. The entire Blum management team came to Austria to experience not only the company but the culture. It’s an important part of our organisation and we all felt the only way to take this to our valued clients was to understand it for ourselves,” he said.
And it’s not just about the product as Ron explains: “To me it’s about looking at the faces of our guests as they start to comprehend what they are experiencing. Personally, I learn so much from this interaction and I am always grateful for the opportunity. I also enjoy participating in the reunion of groups we have had stay with us and the enduring friendships that are formed every year are an enormous driver for me”.
Our last dinner before heading home was with Christian Schwerzler, the man responsible for sales in both Australia and New Zealand. Christian has had the pleasuring of welcoming thousands of visitors from many regions around the world and he is able to describe very succinctly the philosophy behind Blum’s effort: “People and spirit cannot be copied.”
If you want more information on the Blum experience, contact Ron Redman on 0411 720 954 or ron.redman@blum.com
