How many companies have guiding principles? Almost all. How many of the employees know what they say? Practically nobody. ABNOX wanted to prevent this and has created new guiding principles which dispense with the conventional text form. Benjamin Iseli, Head of Sales and Marketing at ABNOX, explains: “Our guiding principles consist of a cherry tree that reflects the values we live by on a daily basis.”
But how is it that in a company, new guiding principles take on the same meaning as a milestone birthday? Benjamin Iseli replies: “They are guiding principles with depth. Our workforce has worked out 13 corporate values, which we have always used as a guide, but which have not yet been fixed.” To visualize the ideas and put them into context, ABNOX brought in Ancilla Schmidhauser, a specialist in storytelling, and Livia Gnos, an artist.
The ABNOX team has come up with a little story for each guiding value. Some of these stories were (and will continue to be) made into films. The guiding values linked below lead to the videos
Pictorial representation of the guiding values
The ABNOX cherry tree embodies the course of life, sustainability. It consists not only of solid roots and a strong trunk in the sense of the 75-year tradition of a family company, but also of many branches, leaves and fruits - the employees and their completed projects.
The tree is also the centre of all activities in the company. In order for it to remain fertile, it must be cared for with passion from seed to harvest. The roots for this are a personal corporate culture, an entrepreneurship in which kindness and dedication dominate. As far as the attitude of the employees is concerned, in addition to quality and customer focus, flexibility and open-mindedness to new things are real guarantees of success. Of course, the resulting innovation, represented by the buds and flowers, is ultimately decisive for business success.
Whether with the fruit grower or in the manufacturing company, good cooperation is based on mutual appreciation and loyalty. If honesty and transparency dominate the team, the harvest will be profitable. The training and development of empoyees ensures that this will continue to happen in the future. With lived fairness, ABNOX goes one step further and also gives people with disabilities the chance to be part of the company.
In other words: With the ABNOX cherry tree, the specialists for dosing, lubrication and clamping technology have created consistently functioning guiding principles which will lead to juicy harvests made in Switzerland for at least another 75 years.