France – Greece – Austria – Poland - HPC AG

Editorial
Invitation
DAUGHTERS AND DAUGHTERS-
IN-LAW
The reason I vividly remember the foundation
of HPC’s first foreign subsidiary is
that my own son was born just at the
same time, right at the upper reaches of
the Ohio River. Inspired by the spirit of
the pioneers and improvising in every
respect, we moved into a nine metres
room which was to serve as office, equipment
storage and library. In broken
English we convinced the US Americans
that finally somebody competent had appeared
to solve environmental problems.
Since then, more than two decades have
passed and the world has changed – and
with it HPC AG. All who witnessed the first
international attempts at walking will to-
2 www.hpc.ag HPC, September 2009
day surely be amazed when looking at the
map of Europe on HPC’s homepage: the
parents didn’t waste their time.
Well, usually children are not born unintentionally
and transferred to a company
this means that there are strategic considerations.
On the one hand, we fancy a piece of the
cake to be distributed in developing markets.
On the other, many competitors have
the same appetite. To spearhead, we have
to add some more competitive advantages,
and there do not exist too many in
the consulting business. The few of them
include technology, competence and the
quality of serving clients. On an international
level, add aspects of culture and language,
which may be obstacle and possibility
at the same time.
For multinational companies globalization
already started a couple of decades ago,
long before it was properly conceived by
general public. In recent times, worldwide
environmental awareness, transparency in
business practices and corporate governance,
i.e. the ethic behavior of a company,
have gained more and more importance.
We can no longer afford to observe
strict rules in one country and negate
them in the other. Constraints are also
Bayerische Wassertage 2009
November 11 th and 12 th 2009
http://www.kumas.de
posed by efforts of purchasing departments
to restrict the number of suppliers.
Most clients favor service providers who
are able to act worldwide on a consistently
high level and who are familiar with local
mannerisms. To meet these demands and
profit thereof, veritable monster consultancies
have developed. So far, almost all
of these consultancies failed in integrating
staff of the most various nations on all
levels and in trying to evoke team spirit
characterized by fellowship and communication
in order to serve clients by maintaining
quality standards beyond borders.
For me it seems that HPC has found a
unique composition by the duplicity of an
own, European expansion and a partnership
with Inogen.
Daughters and daughters-in-law, if you
want. Both belong to one family. Let us
hope that all HPC members of staff will
soon see themselves as part of an international
company – and that HochProCentig!
appears in several languages.
Dr. Dieter Hiller
Schlumberger Water Services
France