Hervé Donneaud
Chris Gough, Gemma Russon, Anna Woods and Kelly Taylor

Hervé Donneaud’s Reasons to be Cheerful – Part Two

Evoca’s UK Managing Director believes Evoca Group is on the brink of a golden age of unprecedented success. In a series of articles exclusive to Planet Vending, he tells us why…

In Reasons to be Cheerful – Part Two, Hervé Donneaud discusses his management philosophy of empowering people.

Hervé Donneaud
Hervé Donneaud

The upshot of Evoca’s accelerating development, that I discussed in my previous article, is that the business and its culture has evolved in recent years.

My management style reflects our group-wide philosophy; which is to empower our people and encourage them to use their initiative. In my opinion, you can‘t expect an organisation to work properly and seamlessly just by being A Good Manager, that alone isn’t enough. I put my trust in my people and encourage them to get on with the job. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

When you put people together who, as individuals, are inspired by personal accountability and ownership, then suddenly you have a group that is greater than the sum of its parts, a group that is much stronger and more confident than it otherwise would be. It’s been rewarding to witness the improvements in performance that this empowerment has delivered at Kingswinford. There have been positive changes in people’s mindsets and that’s created a positive buzz around the place.

We’ve built a team of up-and-coming specialists, that sees itself as such. As I’ve said many times, to me business is like a jigsaw puzzle. Every team member has to deliver their piece of the jigsaw. Harmony, synergy, trust, accountability, ownership: these are the qualities you need in place, if your team is to achieve its full potential.

Covid, of course, decimated the globe between 2019 and 2021. It was a really, really tough time for us. We had to shed good people, which is the very last thing you want to do. But I saw how those that remained reacted to that adversity and how they rebounded. The mindset, the spirit, the confidence, the willingness to move on to get somewhere…

Kingswinford: ‘People are more than happy to come to work every day.’

I was moved and impressed by their attitude, so much so that I now feel that this country, this job and this place of work is the perfect fit for me. (Back home, I now have a reputation for being something of an Anglophile!)

Hervé Donneaud
Andrew Barrow – HoReCa Sales Manager

It’s not easy to build a new sense of belonging in new premises when your people are compelled to work from home, but that’s exactly what we had to do, when the company left Bilston after being in the town for generations. We stuck at it, and now people are more than happy to come to work every day in such beautiful premises, with a new showroom where we can entertain partners and customers in a relaxed, coffee shop atmosphere. And for the first time, our fully-fledged range of machines can be displayed together. In fact, many of the visitors we’ve welcomed here have expressed surprise that our portfolio is as extensive as it is, and that we really have become a unique one-stop shop, in which all their requirements can be met.

NEXT TIME Hervé Donneaud discusses the ‘sheer breadth’ of the product range, and how Evoca UK is embracing digital communications.

Reasons to be Cheerful – Part One is HERE

 

About the author

The Editor

Planet Vending’s Editor is Ian Reynolds-Young and it’s Ian’s unique writing talent that has made PV what it is today – the best read (red) vending blog in the world, and vending’s best read (reed). Ian ‘tripped and fell into vending’, in the capacity of PR executive, before launching a specialist agency, ‘reynoldscopy’, dedicated to the UK Vending business. The company continues to represent the interests of many of the sector’s leading brands.

‘It’s all about telling stories’, he says. ‘We want to make every visit to PV a rewarding experience. By celebrating the achievements of the UK’s operating companies, we’re on a mission to debunk the idea that vending is retailing’s poor relation.’

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