With time and sandwiches

I had better turn off the TV. What I see makes me shudder. Donald Trump is giving his inauguration speech as president of the United States. The changes he wants to accomplish do not bode well for the world. The other news is not very uplifting either: the climate crisis is manifesting itself more and more strongly. Fires, hurricanes, floods ... if we don't want to change, circumstances will force us to do so anyway.  

Change by design or by disaster. Why is it so hard to do the former? Why do people prefer to stick their heads in the sand rather than proactively address problems? Is change management on a global scale the answer? 

At Mermet Europe, this year we are completing a process of change that began in 2020. Even then, Trump was president. The corona crisis was still raging in full force. I remember how we were suddenly flooded with orders. After all, a lot of people were using the lockdown to install blinds. Our Hunter Douglas screen weaving mills Mermet in France and Copaco and Helioscreen in Belgium reached maximum capacity in no time. 

That a collaboration would bring efficiency gains was suddenly evident to everyone in the organization, whereas before we preferred to remain independent. In February 2024, we proudly presented our joint indoor collection and our new umbrella brand: Mermet. 

When I write it down like this, it seems like something of nothing. As if it didn't chafe and rub, as if this was just a little change we made for a while. I remember fierce discussions, Babylonian tongue twisters and a lot of misunderstandings. The work culture at Helioscreen was different from that at Copaco and even different from that at Mermet. During the frequent digital consultations, we spoke English and French interchangeably with the occasional dash of Spanish. 

Moreover, if you communicate mostly through a computer screen, you don't have all the nuances. We were also using different software and didn't have a common platform to share things. There was nothing that tied us together. Except that we were subsidiaries of Hunter Douglas and all wove fiberglass screen cloth. Looking back, I wonder how we managed it anyway.

'With time and butter,' we say in Flanders. So with a lot of patience and leniency towards each other. And with lots of colleagues who did not bury their heads in the sand and sought solutions. For example, I was allowed to collaborate on a quadrilingual internal newsletter for all employees. It did not have to contain only serious information. After all, humor is an ideal lubricant to promote cooperation. So we gave each other tips about our cultural idiosyncrasies, favorite recipes and craziest sayings. 

That the new brand would be called Mermet was also not obvious. I too had become attached to the Helioscreen brand for which I had been doing the marketing for 15 years. The alternative would have to be convincing. Fortunately, our marketing agency had understood that very well. I remember the sigh of relief that went through the room when they showed us Mermet's new look and feel. It was an instant success. 

Is that the end of the matter? Not at all: many changes will follow. But with good cooperation, goodwill and open dialogue, we will succeed. 

Now to the rest of the world.

The Pen - Ann van Neer - Product & Communication Manager Mermet