Keyword: teamwork! Interview with Ioan Atănăsoaei, mill manager Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți

When he was a child, he was thinking of becoming a policeman.

The native of Fălticeni - with teachers as parents, passionate about mathematics and an engineer by training - studied mechatronics at the University of Suceava, settled with his entire family in Gura Humorului and, for the past ten years, has been working for Holzindustrie Schweighofer Rădăuți.

Ioan Atănăsoaei, also known as John – as his colleagues call him, is, starting December 2018, a mill manager at the sawmill in Rădăuți.

An old saying speaks about the chip off the old block…

John graduated in mathematics from the Nicu Gane College in Fălticeni, and today, his 16-year-old son, Vlad, is following in his footsteps, studying mathematics – computer in the English-intensive class at the Gura Humorului high school.

However, when he was a child, Ioan was thinking of becoming a policeman.

“I had an uncle who was a lieutenant in the ‘Militia’,” he remembers. “He used to come by our place all the time in the Police car and he used to drive me around, which I loved! He was very fond of me – he didn’t have children back then. We god along very well, so at that time I wanted to become a policeman.” In high school, his passions turned to mathematics and, when he finished the tenth grade, his maths teacher told him: “you will for sure become a mathematics professor,” Ioan remembers, “I, however, ended up an engineer. Honestly, now it seems to me that it would have been easier to be a professor!”

More than 30 years down the road, Monday to Friday John is adopted by Rădăuți, while the end of the week takes him back home to Humor, to the family ‘nest’.

“Last weekend, for example, the ‘kid’ and I solved some math problems together, he had about 30 to solve,” smiles John. “I had to be somewhere, but I just grabbed a piece of paper and solved one problem he had got stuck on!”

The father’s career path is a model for young Vlad, who wants to come work at the sawmill in Rădăuți during his summer vacation, “to come in contact with the professional environment in a large company and earn some money on the side,” adds John.

 

The not-so-secret recipe to succeed in your career

Ioan has been in the wood industry for 20 years.

He describes his career path as a calm and natural one. After graduating from University and completing his military obligations, John got hired at the Swedwood factory in Siret in 1999, a place where he also met his future wife. He worked as a shift leader and, later on as the head of production. From 2002 until 2009, he had worked in other smaller sawmills and production units in the Suceava county where, as he says, “I gained experience, but I did not find any seriousness or punctuality, we were all working for a certain remuneration, which never came in time.”

The year 2009 brought him to Rădăuți, where, following rounds of interviews which lasted for about five months, John got hired at the sawmill which had just been opened by Holzindustrie Schweighofer.

“I interviewed with two Austrian expats: Daniel and Hannes,” recalls John. “I remember that, before giving me their final OK, they held a vivid conversation in German. To this day I have no idea what they talked about, but I think it was all good, as I got hired.”

In his first two months with Holzindustrie Schweighofer, John was in charge of a machine, and in the following year he worked as a shift leader in the planing hall. His climb up the ladder happened in stages and naturally: “I was then promoted as head of the planing hall,” a position which he held until the end of 2018.

The month of December 2018 brought along changes at a management level.

The position of director of production was now available. Administrative director Nichifor Tofan feels John’s promotion in the new position is “a model of professional development. He already had a vast experience in the superior processing department of the sawmill – the exact part where we employ the most people and where high added-value products are made. Iona is an extremely proficient type of person and extremely qualified for the position of director of production. He is a model of how an employee can develop professionally in a healthy manner in this company, and promoting people internally, based on their merits, is one thing which can inspire many of our colleagues who also want a special career.”

Sorina Răuțu, the human resources manager of the sawmill adds: “Besides technical knowledge and the experience gained in the production field, it is also important to know how to address people, in a way that keeps them passionate and full of energy needed in meeting their daily objectives. Ioan is the type of person who knows how to do it and I am certain that in his new position he would be able to coordinate result-yielding teams.”

 

 

What does it mean to be a ‘good boss’

Ioan says his new position is the pinnacle of his career and that his former role models deserve praise for it.

“I had good bosses, whom I admired,” he says. “As a rule, when you have a boss that you can look up to you start to copy them, to do things their way, to see situations through their eyes. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. No two people can be the same.”

Of his first role model, a Swede at the Sweedwood plant in Siret, Ioan recalls fondly: “I had a special chemistry with my Swedish boss in Siret, I could see on his face when I was doing things the incorrect way. He was very experiences, I was just at the start of my career. I think I was exactly like a piece of blotting-paper, I was absorbing everything he said.” 

Talking about his Swedish role model, Ioan seems to describe himself - without even noticing.

“I liked that he was very calm in crisis situations and he always came up with solutions,” he says. In an engaging style – then and now as well – Ioan recalls: “as I was just at the start of my career, I was now waiting for a solution from him from the very beginning, I was first waiting to see how he would react and only afterwards I would express my opinion.”

Ioan’s team spirit and professional skills are appreciated by the administrative director. “He is a competent person and he has proven that he can lead large teams,” says Nichifor. “The planing hall which he led is employs most of the people in the sawmill. Ioan understands very well what team spirit is all about, in the sense that one cannot succeed if they cannot understand and know how to perform as part of a team.”

 

Quality, precision and the schedule

“Still, it’s been so long, what keeps Ioan in Rădăuți?” is one question which could be asked by anyone, at any time.

Ioan answers without even blinking.

“I honestly like working here! Had I not liked it, I would have left. Here I like seriousness, the possibility to learn a lot, the new technology and the working style.”

To him, it the quality and the precision in wood processing that make the difference. “As a rule, the Romanian market is looking for quantity, however, here, in the sawmill, we are looking for quality,” he says. “With timber, one deals with millimetres, here, on the other hand, I noticed something different: we have reached a tolerance of a few millimetres.”

From the naughty child who hated to stay put, to the director of production of one of the largest foreign investments in the Suceava county, Ioan now vales a schedule and the organisation.

“When I was younger, I hated staying home and sticking to a schedule,” he smiles. “Now, that I reached a certain age, I sometimes wonder: how on Earth was I that naughty and had no idea what a schedule is?”

However, ever since an early age, he has learned the lesson of patience and perseverance. The promise of a bicycle made him persevere.

“When I was in the eighth grade, my parents promised they would buy me a bicycle if I succeeded in the exam to the maths-physics class in high school,” he remembers smiling. “I was adamant – I might even have been a lit lucky – but I got into the maths-physics class in high school. It’s just that the bicycle didn’t come, those were the times.”

The reward remained a promise and the story repeated itself a few years down the road. “When it was about going to University, I asked my father: ‘does the bicycle promise still stand?’, ‘Yeaaah, it still stands, he told me’.”

Ioan became a student in mechatronics, is still waiting for that bicycle but has not been discouraged. “I sometimes ask my father: ‘are you giving me that bike in the end, or not?’ and he answers ‘eh, now you can get whatever bicycle you want’.”

The perseverance lesson followed Ioan throughout his career as well.

“I persevered, even if there were ups and downs,” he says. “When we both left the Siret factory, the Swede told me ‘Every knock is a boost’, and maybe that saying motivated me at some point.”

He kept intact his sense of humour.

There a peculiar happenings in the daily activities of the sawmill. With a delicate sense of humour, Ioan recalls an anecdotic – yet, a bit sad – instance.

“I was once called by a colleague from the warehouse, telling me that he had found I don’t know what type of bird tangled in bundle of timber,” remembers the mill manager. “He was just afraid of taking the bird out, because it could have bitten him. So I went! I put my hand in the bundle to take the bird out and I got bitten! But I saved what looked like some sort of a stork…”

 

„I wouldn’t have reached this stage if I hadn’t had good role models”

The patience he had over time was one of the main strengths that helped Ioan both in the recruitment interviews for Holzindustrie Schweighofer and in his future career development. “During the interviews, the expats were interested about my experience, my thoughts, whether or not I was a serious person – I believe this is what they were looking for,” he says.

Daniel and Hannes, the two Austrian recruiters, have played an important role in the development of the Rădăuți sawmill, as well as to the training and the cohesion of the team; they also acted a coordinators in production. 

Ioan recalls: “for us, they [the coordinators] were role models. As the large majority of the heads of departments is still in place ever since they were here, that means that they did a good job. There was no need for too much talk between us. We understood each other just by looking at each other. I learned a great lot of things from them.”

Andrei Zaharia, today one of the mill managers of the Reci sawmill, worked alongside Ioan between 2009 and 2014 at the Rădăuți mill and still works closely with Ioan in his new position.

“He has the perfect style tailored on the HS philosophy,” says Andrei. “He’s determined, direct, honest and with a discourse that leaves no room for interpretations. He explain shortly and correctly what he wants and how he sees things carried out.”

Andrei as well has seen the two expats - Daniel and Hannes – as models. “They had a positive impact on my professional development as well. They were two professionals not only as technical buffs, but also as a mentality, involvement, way of thinking and organisation. They weren’t over bearing, the never told us ‘his is done this way’, they let us think freely, just adding a drop of knowledge to steer us in the right direction.”

The promotion gave Ioan a new perspective over work relations. “I have to admit I changed once I got promoted and I believed I changed for the better. I am continuously learning,” he says. What is different? “In production I had to impose things to a greater extent, to tell people what to do more often, in the last months since I have the new position I learned that you have to discuss and find solutions together with your colleagues. It is a whole different level. In the past months I learned the importance of communication and collaboration. I believe this is the way to success.”

Ioan continues: “don’t get me wrong, of course you have to consult the people in the production area as well, but they are already actively involved in the production flow. They are qualified to perform a certain part of production and they do it perfectly.”

The new position means interacting with the other mill managers of the Schweighofer Group, who, in Ioan’s view, “are very strong personalities, proficient and passionate about what they do. That’s the reason some of the discussions are at some point a bit fierce. But it’s beautiful. I love it that I have who to talk to and they are all cool guys.”

There still are employees that have been there from the very beginning in the planing hall, which he coordinated until recently. “They learned a profession, they went up the ladder, they know what they’re doing, they are proud of their work, they have stability and safety which lead to results,” says their former boss. “As far as I am concerned, as a rule I am the type of person who needs to show, to let the results speak for themselves. But I believe I wouldn’t have reached this point in my career if I myself hadn’t had good bosses.”

 

“My family makes me happy”

An early bird, Ioan wakes up first and prepares breakfast for his family during the weekends and, in addition, “we take strolls or I listen to music. My hair was long in the ’90 – ’95 time frame. I was a rocker – I still am – and I was discovering Metallica, all these older rock bands. I like new rock as well, for example Five Finger Death Punch, Korn, Slipknot. Listening to rock music calms me down.”

The mill manager fondly recalls the period when he was reading a lot of Science Fiction. “The truth is that I miss those leisure times,” he says. “Right now I read what’s absolutely necessary, because time seems to have shrunk.”

What makes Ioan happy?

With a sparkle in his eyes, he admits: “my family makes me happy. My wife is my support and my energy” and his biggest life accomplishment is “the kid – my Vlady. For him I was - and I believe I still am – a role model.”