Thomas Sillesen will be known as the first international investor to win a major court case in Odesa.
Sales Team in Ukraine
His company, BIIR, succeeded in fighting off a raider attack on its building on Primorskaya Street in Odesa in 2017. In March 2020, Sillesen agreed to part ways with his former partners in Denmark, letting them have BIIR in Denmark, while he got full control over BIIR in Ukraine. He has renamed his company to Akkerman Solutions, to avoid confusion, and since the start of the summer of 2020, Akkerman has seen rapid growth. Securing a string of leading Danish industrial companies as customers, Akkerman has grown quickly in both Denmark and Ukraine. The company has recently finished renovating its Odesa HQ and opened a sales office in Denmark in January.
Akkerman/BIIR has been involved in engineering services for the wind industry in Denmark since the company was founded in 2013 in Luhansk. Today Akkerman has offices in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Lviv, and will soon open one in Rubizhne. Akkerman has grown to now include virtually all engineering fields. The company is also involved in software programming for a string of customers.
Thomas Sillesen
Asked about Akkerman’s main strength, Sillesen responds: “Our main strength is definitely our employees. Several have worked with me, for over 5 years, and during that time, learned how we Danes prefer honest precise answers, even when we do not like the answer. They combine this with the outstanding skills in engineering and programming that Ukrainians master. So naturally, Akkerman’s services have already become popular with our customers in Germany and Denmark”.
The Danish management style also means that Akkerman gives a lot of responsibility to the staff. “Instead of letting Danish engineers lead the team, we actually have Ukrainian team leaders. They then work closely with our sales team in Denmark. The sales team in Denmark is all engineers or programmers, so they understand the customers’ needs perfectly, and can work closely with the team leaders in Ukraine. For the other markets, we have our sales team in Odessa, which mostly consist of persons familiar with software programming, but which will soon also include engineering specialists.”
Management team at headquarter in Odesa
We then asked the CEO of Akkerman Solutions in Ukraine, Maryna Stiahailo, what it’s like to work with a Danish owner, to which Maryna answered with a laugh: “Fun, but also very serious. The biggest cultural difference is that we never get reprimanded, and no one shouts at staff. There is always a good tone, but still we are expected to deliver outstanding results to our customers on a daily basis. I remember when Thomas took over management in 2019. There was a culture of coming late, and immediately staff was informed to come in, no later than 8 in the morning, because customers pay per hour, so we should deliver. Naturally, with 150 employees, somebody did not come at 8, but instead of screaming at them, Thomas, together with Alina or me, stood in front of the entrance from 7:30 each morning, saying good morning to everybody as they came to work. At 8, and especially after 8, people were not proud of arriving and getting this good morning greeting even though we did it with a big smile. So in a few weeks, everyone was arriving before 8, with the exception of a few guys. Thomas then asked me one morning, if one of those, who normally came late, had arrived. When I said no, he went to this guy’s desk with his laptop, sat down, and started to work. The guy arrived at 8:15 just to see his seat was taken. Not knowing what to do, he circulated around the table for around 10 minutes, while Thomas was focusing solely on work on his laptop, staff began to smile and laugh a little, and finally Thomas looked up, and said with a smile Ohh… I did not see you come, I thought you were not working today, and then he stood up, and gave the seat to the guy. After that, nobody came late, without calling first to inform administration. And we could see, our productivity rose, while at the same time, we had a fantastic team and work environment. Now with Akkerman we carry that spirit on, while at the same time, have become even more customer oriented and efficient, as we work much more as a united team, than ever before, since now all is solely based around the Ukrainian engineers and programmers.”
Thomas Sillesen
+380950097888,
+45 40 50 22 99,
[email protected]
Maryna Stiahailo
+380664528888,
[email protected]
Martin Dohn
+45 31 45 72 01,
[email protected]
