Generating A New Team Spirit Around The World 01.12.11
With just days to go before the start of the second race for the Gamesa Sailing Team, the Transat B to B from St Barts in the Caribbean to Lorient, France, Mike Golding’s shore crew has been boosted by five ‘Ambassadors’ from the sponsor, Gamesa. The Ambassador programme is an opportunity to integrate employees within the Team to help spread the word, around the world, about the project.
When Gamesa announced its sponsorship of the British solo sailor in June 2011, one of the fundamental components of the sponsorship – their first foray into sponsorship of any kind – was as a platform engaging and inspiring colleagues worldwide working on different projects and in many regions.
Gamesa is a global technological leader: designing manufacturing, installing and maintaining wind turbines. With manufacturing plants, wind farms and operating offices in more than 30 countries world wide, including Europe, America, South America, and Asia (India, China and Japan), Gamesa employs more than 8,000 skilled professionals.
An inspirational human, sporting and technological challenge like Golding racing solo across oceans, is a theme which Gamesa hopes will grow to become a common talking point, a shared interest, for colleagues at plants on each continent.
Joining Golding in St Barts will be Gamesa employees from Brazil, Mexico and North America, selected from across all levels and departments within the company.
While modern communication platforms theoretically link these plants as one global community, a focal point such as Gamesa’s IMOCA Open 60 project can pay dividends many times over, whether inspiring technologists, researchers or scientists to alter their thinking or approach, or simply to inspire workers to challenge themselves to develop new skills.
As the new internal communications strategy attached to Golding and Gamesa’s IMOCA Open 60 starts to roll out through the company, ambassadors of all ages and levels are being selected from across different regions, functions and plants to gain first-hand experience of the sailing project and to share their experience with colleagues.
Christopher Nolan, Health & Safety Manager, from North America was in a decidedly chilly Southampton for the dedication by HRH The Princess Royal, and also attended the build up to the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre, in Le Havre in October. Chris worked with the Boat Captain, Graham ‘Gringo’ Tourell checking the kit list prior to departure and was particularly interested in the Skippers Emergency Handbook, which relates directly to his role within Gamesa, and in particular Mike’s solution to avoid depression whilst onboard. He sent back this video blog: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irkc97b8DEo&feature=channel_video_title].
Joining Chris in Le Havre was Sanju Davis, the India Plant Manager from Chennai. Sanju was struck by the European ways of sharing a long meal, as well as the care the shore crew took to prepare Mike’s food for the crossing, commenting, “The effort could well be compared with a doting mother who packs lunch and snacks for her kid who is set out on a tour.” Read more from Sanju’s blog here: http://www.mikegolding.com/2011/10/gamesa-ambassador-blog-sanju-davis-senior-manager-production/
Brian Lamay, a Manager for the Technical Office in the Services Department for North America is one of the Gamesa Ambassadors who arrived yesterday in St Barths. “My expectations for the Transat B to B race are quite high. With the research on the Team and discussion with my colleague, Chris Nolan, the Gamesa Sailing Team is one of the smoothest teams he has seen work together. I expect to learn from the leadership that Mike must have to compete at this level, and to see how he trusts his team in making him a world contender.
“The technical challenges of manning a team and a boat that will be able to sail across the world with minimal supplies and no contact will be fun to tackle with the team. In some ways it is no different than what we at Gamesa are challenged to do: optimise what we offer to provide the level of production and reliability, while minimising the cost of energy. I expect to study the process by which Mike and the Gamesa Sailing Team determine what is needed versus ‘nice to have’ to bring that back to my team of engineers.”
Blogs from the Gamesa Ambassadors will be published over the coming weeks at www.mikegolding.com & www.gamesasailingteam.com.
- ENDS -