This week we held our (2020) yearly update event at Starware. In this annual tradition, we usually bring the entire Starware team together to look back to the past year and share our new plans. Our keynotes are not of the traditional kind. There is usually a great amount of silliness packed into the more serious topics like sharing all financial metrics and the news about our running projects and partners. Also, we always try to arrange some original and fun activities for everyone involved.
Of course, due to covid, this was not possible this year. As we are now a company that spawns every time zone, a live event is also not very handy. So we have chosen to make an over-the-top prerecorded tv show in which we would take everyone through all the details of the year. Next to that, the teams have prepared update videos in their own format, and we had a couple of great breakout sessions.
We use Basecamp for all our internal communication and created a dedicated space to share all the content related to the 2020 update. By hosting all content there, discussion and small talk flowed naturally after the release.
We did organise a couple of “Ask me anything” sessions in which Marc & I could clarify any questions afterwards.
SO HOW WAS 2020 FOR STARWARE?
Last year Starware further transformed into a (warehouse management) system development company. By this, we mean that we help our customers on the entire journey of implementing a new WMS. From helping them choose the right tools, take them along in the design, the implementation, and the aftercare. More and more, we can show them that we are in it for the long run; that it’s not just about implementing a project. If 2020 showed anything for our customers, it is the value to have a skilled team at your side to help you with all the changes that will constantly occur in every supply chain.
Our idea of being in it for the long run hopefully shows in all our decisions: towards our customers, our partners, our company, and most of all towards everyone at Starware.
Our main goal remains to have a great workplace full of professionals that can do meaningful work for our customers, have a lot of fun while doing that, and still have enough time for life besides work.
FLEXIBILITY IS THE KEY
When the Covid Pandemic hit us in March last year, we just started our new team structure, and we moved into our new head office. We were like everyone, anxious about what the future would bring.
We tried to focus as much as possible on helping our customers steer through the looming crisis.
The flexibility of our whole team really made all the difference. They all rose to the challenge last year and adapted to the huge change of working fully remotely.
Most of them have become part-time teachers for their kids; they have supported multiple go-lives remotely this year and did sales demos and design sessions from home.
We also even started two new companies abroad, fully remote.
So it turned out we had nothing to worry about: our flexibility made it our strongest year to date!
So it turned out we had nothing to worry about: our flexibility made it our strongest year to date!
SHARING = CARING
One of the biggest moments in the presentation is always the revealing of the profit-sharing results. At Starware, we always share a fixed percentage of our entire profit with all employees. We don’t work with KPI-related bonuses or sales targets. We feel that everyone that contributed that year should get his or her fair share. So profit-sharing is always linked to everyone’s contract hours and shared equally.
On top of that and because of our long-run principle, we came up with the idea of rewarding loyalty a bit extra. For this, we have introduced our profit-sharing 2.0 plan: the senior citizens’ edition! On top of the regular profit sharing, we have added an extra layer that rewards loyalty. Based on everyone’s years of service at Starware, an extra share of profit will be supplied this year.
It has been a great year for Starware despite the Pandemic. We are looking forward to more normal times to visit our customers and each other again. Until then, we’ll keep working with the same energy but from the relative comfort of our homes!
Here are some pictures to give you an impression of our “unique” sense of humor ?
