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HUMAN RELATIONS With ‘tribe thinking’ , Sioux is committed to solid growth on its own campus
WITH ‘TRIBE THINKING’ , SIOUX IS COMMITTED TO SOLID GROWTH ON ITS OWN CAMPUS AND ELSEWHERE IN THE WORLD
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Sioux Technologies was founded more than 25 years ago as a specialist in technical software. Electronics and mathematics were added later. It is now the largest independent technical system unit in the Benelux, with competencies such as mechatronics, optics, system engineering, prototyping and assembly. High-tech customers can contact them for anything, from concept to serial production. At the main location, this is now all happening on one campus with seven buildings in the north of Eindhoven. Blood groups are not important. ‘The point is that technicians build very beautiful things together. ’
BY LUCY HOLL
t’ s about twelve o ’ clock. A whole procession of employees walks to Sioux Labs, the central meeting place on the Sioux site.
Above the door, twinkling lights that spell ‘Entrance ’ . The set-up is deliberately casual and pleasant, says Leon Giesen, who is responsible for the day-to-day management of the European Sioux branches, together with founder Erik van Rijswijk. Co-founder Hans Duisters focuses entirely on the Asian market. ‘Club House ’ Sioux Labs is where people meet and discuss each other, and where customers, students, schoolchildren and many more external parties gather for various meetings. Where you find pizza boxes lying around or the remnants of a barbecue, and where ‘bitterballen ’ and beer flow freely on Friday. Home-brewed ‘Sioux ’ beer, that is. ‘Unfortunately, we couldn ’t really organise anything at Sioux Labs in the last two years ’ ,
ECOSYSTEM
Leon Giesen is a member of several boards, he states on LinkedIn. He is also chairman of the supervisory board of MGG, a manufacturer of aluminium castings and assemblies, member of the supervisory board of Frencken Mechatronics and member of the advisory board of Cuyten Maintenance Service. They don’t bite each other, he says. ‘It’s actually a very good thing to do. I contribute my experience and see how other companies operate and where they are heading. It’s mutually enriching. Don’t just focus on your own business, we’re all part of a larger ecosystem. ’ says Giesen. When the lockdown was over, he immediately got a disc jockey in.
IN-HOUSE DISCIPLINES
Sioux Technologies has grown strongly in recent years, with the acquisition of mechatronics expert CCM from Nuenen in 2014 being one of the major strategic steps. Leon Giesen: ‘We have thus moved from mono to multidisciplinary. It’ s important to have your own assembly competencies, aimed at industrialisation and serial system integration. That enables you to properly guide the transition from pure R&D to production. Sioux wants to be good at prototypes, one-offs, series and complete Life Cycle Management. That requires a single organisation that’ s no longer about software, mathematics or mechatronics as separate units. Sioux Technologies is one multidisciplinary system unit. With all our disciplines we can design, build and integrate the most complex machines and modules in their entirety. ’ For each project, employees with the most appropriate competencies are put together.
OVERFISHED POND
The embedded software branch was already located in the north of Eindhoven. There was land, more buildings were built and that is how the Sioux campus was created. ‘We can build on our own image here. A branch in Brainport has many advantages, but the region is an overfished pond: in the game of attracting and retaining employees, your own identity is crucial. Sioux is all about fun & value: this is a nice company with challenging work. People can grow and increase their market value. Outside of work, there ’ s also a lot of attention for them, which benefits both employees and the company. ’ The name Sioux comes from an Indian tribe. At the time, founders Duisters and Van Rijswijk chose to oppose the Western focus on shareholder value. They put people first and wanted to focus on standards and values. Giesen: ‘Tribe thinking is popular these days, but we ’ ve been doing it for years: people and culture are important. There ’ s nothing artificial about it, that’ s how it evolved. It also applies to branches elsewhere in the world. It’ s in the DNA. ’
GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS
Sioux Technologies (turnover last year more than 100 million, this year probably 120-125 million) now has about 1,000 employees, including 75 in assembly and the vast majority in development and engineering. This includes many highly skilled people with a Master ’ s or PhD background. The company has branches in Mijdrecht, Apeldoorn and Delft and in China, Belgium, Germany, Russia, Romania, Singapore and Vietnam. All those cultures, blood groups and disciplines work together just fine, says Giesen. ‘No arguments during projects. Technicians want to build very beautiful things together and for that, they need each other. That’ s their motivation. ’ Take the Ultra-X, a high-precision and fast detection system for the Spectra Ultra S/TEM, the high-end transmission electron microscope from Thermo Fisher Scientific. ‘It’ s regarded as one of the most complicated systems ever built. The Ultra-X technology is a breakthrough that could win Nobel prizes, so to speak. It landed us in the Guinness Book of Records. Our people are very, very proud of that. ’ No-one mentions his exact background or from which Sioux branch he descends.
Leon Giesen (among a few employees in the assembly hall): ‘Hans Duisters looks after Sioux Asia, Erik van Rijswijk and I look after Europe. Erik is more the technical conscience, I’m the general CEO. I can play outside, I’m the chief entertainment officer. ’ Photo: Bart van Overbeeke
NO OVERPROMISING
Sioux rejects a large part of the new requests from customers, according to Giesen. ‘We ’ re often just not able to fit them in in terms of capacity. Overpromising is something I truly dislike: promising more than you ’ re able to do or give. An assignment must also match the challenge, so people can really make a
contribution. When clients start a project with us, we ’ re both often committed for three to five years. These are long-term commitments. We want to build a valuable, lasting relationship. ’ The character was different in the early years. A lot of staff was seconded. Employees were placed with customers, but these days, it only accounts for 20% of the business. ‘Eighty percent of the projects are completed at our premises. We are increasingly assuming full responsibility for developments, preferably at an early stage, almost in the embryonic phase. ’ Sioux thus operates as an R&D department of an OEM, or an extension of its R&D department. The range of competencies and markets including semicon, medical, telecommunications, agriculture and analytical - ensure great diversity. ‘We don ’t have to be good at markets ourselves, we ’ re good at technology. OEMs have market knowledge. They want us to use our competencies, whether it concerns a
high-tech tissue dissection system such as for start-up Xyall or for part of a lithography system for ASML. We prefer to be brought in for our knowledge and expertise. Not for our capacity, capacity is exchangeable. ’ Sioux wants to take care of more and more parts of the customer roadmaps.
ACCELERATING
The strategy is clear on paper. There are five key points, with maintaining the tier 1 position being the first: there shouldn ’t be any layer between OEM and Sioux. That would make things too complicated to understand the end customer properly. Point 2: Sioux is based on sustainable, long-term relationships. Thirdly, the company also wants to develop further outside Brainport, such as in Asia now and in America a few years later, so it doesn ’t depend too much on customers in Europe. Point 4 emphasises acceleration, that is, letting the turnover grow faster than the number of people, for example through more reuse of knowledge. Giesen: ‘The fifth point is growth. Both the company and the employees must continue to develop. And growth is never a percentage on a spreadsheet, it’ s a result of doing things right. Quality, culture, standards and values are aspects we never want to change. ’
EARLY INVESTOR
Sioux often bears financial risk when developing promising knowledge and innovative products for customers. It also uses a separate investment fund to invest in interesting ideas from very early stage start-ups. This way, it helps OEMs such as solar car manufacturer Lightyear in Eindhoven. Giesen: ‘We ’ re a very early co-shareholder to enable these kinds of initiatives. Usually, not a single euro has been made yet. Of course there are risks, but they are mainly of a technological nature. Can we help to speed up the market introduction, we ask. At a certain point, other strategic partners come into the picture and we can spend our money on other things. ’
