Yesterday  I met my colleague João (at a safe distance, of course) somewhere in Boavista’s offices, while we were both busy, and he commented honestly “We’re all fired up, everyone is really on board!” 

I’ve been thinking about it ever since and I couldn’t help but agree.

In May, at the end of the lockdown, we met on a Saturday morning at the factory to talk about company culture. We had just spent almost 2 months working remotely and we hadn’t seen each other without teleconferencing since then.

When we arrived, we had the scenery set up: chairs 2 meters from the following ones, alcohol gel available, breakfast ready. We were going to talk about what moves us and what distinguishes us from other companies.

For 2 hours we talked about what matters to us.

At Boavista we work as a high performance team. Based on Excellence, we are guided by our values, always questioning everything (to know the full context before making any decision), taking the day-to-day decisions with freedom and responsibility, being the strategy transversal and of everyone’s knowledge.

The main values of the company (or rather, of the people who make it) are Clarity of communication, Action, Innovation, Courage and Altruism. I think that anyone who meets with any of us will feel all this: we do not procrastinate, we always try to find solutions for everything, even if it involves creating new solutions and/or processes or giving a little more of ourselves. We don’t like misunderstandings and, above all, we have the courage to face a very conservative sector with totally new solutions that are (still) unknown to many of our potential clients.

In this small meeting in May we reflected on all this and, after so much time in an abnormal situation where we were forced to change all our routines and mode of operation, we “absorbed” the conclusions in a way that I think would not be possible in a situation of pre-covid normality.  

Since then we have felt a great buzz on all fronts: there is the will to do more, better, to go further, optimally. We have all made an extra effort, rewarded with small achievements, to go further. And 2020 is going to be a great year after all, no matter what.

And yes, João, everyone really is on board 🙂