Spotting trends and new trends early on is also important for a business leader. CEO and owner Jesper Pedersen of Hanstholm Skibssmedie has been aware of this for a long time. He is the second generation in the company that his father started.
- I could see that my father was going out there at full speed with his work, where we spent a lot of energy on what made the least money. We changed that, says Jesper Pedersen.
Jesper Pedersen may not have gone to Harvard Business School, but make no mistake. He uses the same kinds of analytical tools in his way of running and developing his business. There's a reason for that.
- I took many intense management courses, but every time it all came crashing down again after three months when I got home. That's why I decided to see a psychologist. I didn't feel bad or anything, but a change was needed, says Jesper Pedersen.
It wasn't a decision the director regretted - quite the opposite. The interaction between the leadership courses and the work on self-development gave a good result.
- It wasn't until I knew who I was that the company got going, says Jesper Pedersen.
- How many people do you think remember to take their gut feeling into account when they make rational decisions with their brains?, he asks.
Soft values in a tough industry
Remembering your gut feeling is certainly something that the vast majority of people forget in their professional lives. In Jesper Pedersen's company, it has also meant that he now thinks in terms of diversity when he hires employees.
- We often hire people who are very similar to ourselves. I think a lot about hiring those who are different from myself, says Jesper Pedersen.
Even when there have been employees where things have not gone so well, the company manager goes further than just stating the facts. He simply asks afterwards why things did not go so well.
- In 85 percent of the times when there are problems, something is wrong on the home front. It always turns out later, says the director.
That is also one of the reasons why he has hired consultants to teach the employees soft values. Diversity has also been considered here for good reason.
- We have no women employed. That's why I have demanded that at least one of the consultants be a woman, says Jesper Pedersen, who wants to develop his employees together with the company.
- If you feel good at home, you also feel good at work, he notes.
The good ideas that were shot down
Ideas and business development are something that Jesper Pedersen has brought into the company from the very beginning, when his father was still the manager. But the ideas were always not well received, and that also has something to do with the age of Hanstholm Port.
- The port was built in the late 1960s, and everyone who came here was a migrant in their early 20s like my father. They came and put everything into their companies, says Jesper Pedersen about ventures that went really well for many.
However, the willingness to take risks that you have in your early 20s does not last forever. Especially not if you have achieved success and have been satisfied.
Jesper Pedersen sees this as a general trend among the companies in the Port of Hanstholm, when the first company owners had reached a certain age, they were not open to renewal.
- They would not listen to the good ideas and at some point, they stop coming up with new ideas, says Jesper Pedersen.
At 48 years old, he sees his own generation of owner-managers at the Port of Hanstholm at an age now where ideas can still have space and be allowed to develop.
Development has long since begun in Hanstholm
The ideas, opportunities and momentum with an upcoming green transition are already in full swing, the company manager experiences.
- When the large wind turbine blades for the Østerild Test Center come here by ship, people come all the way from Germany and stop here at the harbor and look at it. Many here are irritated by it, and say that these kinds of tourists don't invest money here. But that's not right, because when they've watched the wings being driven away, they go into the smokehouse and eat a shooting star, says Jesper Pedersen, whose business is located next door to a smokehouse with a particularly praised shooting star.
Here Jesper Pedersen sees a comparison with a development that began about 13 km south of Hanstholm in Klitmøller 15 years ago.
- That time the surfers came, and there were also people annoyed with them because they didn't spend any money. They lived in camper vans at rest areas and only went to the discos when it was free to enter.
- But then Klitmøller was called Cold Hawaii and house prices tripled, he says.
Whether the development goes the same way in Hanstholm remains to be seen, but the company manager already sees a trend with new gastronomic businesses that attract people.
- It does something when people come and open restaurants like Madbar, Medvind and Røgeriet. It attracts people, says Jesper Pedersen about a development that has just begun in Hanstholm.
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