Work at VSP.

We think that VSP is not just a company. VSP is the platform for every employee to realize his or her potential and be successful.

The Educational Programme has been underway at VSP from the very start of the company operation, since 1996. The main asset of VSP is knowledge and expertise accumulated by the specialists.
What matters to the customer in the end, is a solution to his technical task in terms of a project realization, be it an IS circuit protection, a reliable flow commutation or an accurate process parameter measurement. An incompetent team cannot expect to hold a successful place in the eco system.
The Programme of Advancement takes into account not only the educational plan, but serves a «road map» for a specialist, for professional and career advancement, following which one may in the end expand his or her personal potential.

(1) 5% of the working time a week for reading professional literature. During a working week every employee of the company
may use part of the working time to read professional literature – books, magazines, articles on a dedicated internet site etc. According to the Russian Employment Code a working week constitutes 40 hours; 5% off the total working time is 2 hours. So, 2 hours per week every employee is entitled to use for a professional advancement.

(2) Free English language courses at the company office.
Staring with 2018, based at the VSP office, a permanent English language course has been launched. Every Tuesday, after the working day any company employee is free to take part in a lecture and training session on a foreign language. A professional lecturer helps every student to develop language skills irrelevant of a current level.

(3) InPO.
InPO – Individual Educational Programme. In terms of the practice, VSP specialists directly engaged in the work with customers, study in detail various aspects of both partners-manufacturers’ solutions , and competitive products.
As a rule, once per week the specialists make reports for all the marketing and sales team, presenting results of their research to the colleagues.

(4) Laboratory practice – hands-on.
It is not enough to have just a theoretical knowledge of all the peculiarities of the equipment you are working with daily. Equally important is to know the hardware – to have a real operational experience: to know how to assemble a fitting and a tube, to configure an IS temperature converter, to read a viscometer etc.
In line with the plan of laboratory practices, throughout the year we carry out hands-on sessions either at the office, or at our storage facility, as for example working with fittings is not appropriate at the office. Taking into the account that such skills are required by all the specialists engaging with customers, those who work remotely, as Sergey Kosik, our Regional Representative in Ukraine, come to Moscow especially to take part in such sessions.

(5) McKinsey Practicum.
McKinsey is one of the most professional business consultants in the world. Their advice is listened to by big business managers, and state governments.
Every Thursday some members of the VSP team discuss a new subject – a selected article published by McKinsey on their internet resource regularly. Subjects and depth of articles are variable: from general market overviews to deep analytical research essays.
Apart from additional language practice (all the articles are published in English), the sessions present a useful and interesting opportunity to discuss McKinsey ideas directed on optimization of business, development of the company culture, practical business task solutions, such as ways to optimize the company budget, reach higher marketing efficiency and many other issues.

(6) SPIN-Selling.
Skills of the so-called SPIN-Selling practice are some of the most highly estimated world business practices in the area of building long-term customer relationships. A relevant methodology is used by such leaders of industrial solutions for process control as for example, Honeywell. In view of the overall business of the company, we could not but included an appropriate module into the overall Programme of Advancement for VSP specialists. At regular intervals, usually on Fridays at the company office we run seminars on SPIN-Selling. Working on concrete elements of the method, the company employees acquire new skills to work with customers.

(7) Marketing seminars.
«Marketing for VSP is a complete working process. From А to Z» – often quoting this from the VSP site we wish to explain what our team understands under such a holistic notion as marketing. No doubt, we are striving to expand a multifacet meaning of this notion. We resort to available opportunities to raise the level of competence not only of our marketing specialists, but in the first place, of a VSP sales force. We consider sales to be the result of the work that all the team carries out for a customer, starting with a presentation of a solution and working through the original enquiry received in our e-mail box. In our terminology marketing is a complete working process, so marketing seminars have to aim at improvement of the quality of all the business processes. Under the frame of regular marketing seminars, keeping in line with a certain McKinsey methodology, we attentively study recommendations of a renowned company and look for parallels in our operations, providing for development of VSP services.

(8) 3I: Learn and Research.
«…routing out from the internal research and held interviews was the idea of a study in depth of a company, which expertise and practices could be used by our team contributing to the competence level. Later on the practice was named «3I: Learn and Research».
At the start of the year, having considered a number of ideas covering the 3I theme – the first target of research – Dentsu became the final choice.»

(9) Specialised courses and seminars.
The company specialists participate regularly in various specialised courses and seminars, conducted by partners-manufacturers and suppliers of different services, such as Consultant plus and 1C. Besides, VSP specialists participate in professional conferences on finance and legal subjects, on digital marketing.

(10) Webinars by partners-manufacturers.
With the possibilities opened by a digital age it is not always necessary to meet personally to share knowledge or to discuss capabilities of a new product. Some of the partners-manufacturers and the company suppliers run specialised webinars regularly, and VSP specialists participate in them with great interest.

(11) Training at the partners-manufacturers’ sites.
Visiting a manufacturer’s site is an important constituent to create a holistic understanding of a partner. To our mind there is nothing to substitute a personal perception by a specialist of a manufacturer’s capabilities – to see the process for oneself, to have «a feel» for manufacturing, to personally get in touch with colleagues and discuss some particular technical questions – such an experience is critical.
We follow the practice of the company specialists business trips to the partners’ manufacturing sites worldwide.

«For us marketing is a complete business process. We do not separate marketing tasks from other tasks facing our team. Detailed understanding of special capabilities of technical solutions by partners-manufacturers; a programme of competitive intelligence; the whole standard tool set for communication with a customer — site, specialised literature, seminars, exhibitions, … — this is marketing. All this in the end makes it possible to efficiently solve technical tasks posed by our customers».

proActive approach and information platform.
In the context of VSP tasks, we group our marketing activities into the following two blocks — proActive approach and information platform.
proActive approach — business trip activities, participation in exhibitions, running special seminars, frame marketing practice
(for example, ROSNEFT Special customer), special marketing events (for example, presentation of a new product to the market), …
Under the information platform we imply such tools as site, specialised brochures on various company businesses, information bulletins, company social accounts, product technical catalogues in Russian, an on-going advertising campaign both in industry publications, and on-line,…
Taking a closer look at who in the company carries out the functions, we may identify two groups of employees — Sales and Marketing. This is the approach we take — not to separate the work on Sales and Marketing. To our mind, only a united team of specialists on marketing and sales may achieve special results, and in the end, provide the customer with a comprehensive solution at the required level. Joining experience and skills of marketing and sales specialists, we strive to provide customers with a holistic approach, minimizing customers’ resources, both time and finance, related to a process task solution.
With such an approach it is important to keep the team motivated for success, so that all are interested in achieving the result, reaching sales targets. Working on our fourth revision of the Company Bonus system, we have taken the approach that Marketing and Sales specialists should focus at a common aim, and in case of getting to the right level of sales, the company will undertake to pay a relevant bonus to Sales and Marketing specialists.

On Quality.
At the time of continuous information noise, it is also important to give the customer a really useful information; which highly likely will be in demand. To find a balance between the desire to tell as much as possible and highlight what is really important is of principle consideration in a successful strategy of keeping the customer informed. We consider for the customer to get an accurate information material far more important, than to be attacked with spam. At the same time, the information needs to be accurate and verified, especially in terms of the company specialising on such critical solutions as, for example, intrinsically safe interfaces and systems. Mistakes and inaccuracies are unaccеptable.

In our work we try to keep in line with high quality standards. Keeping in mind VSP standards in force and Rules for Information materials preparation in particular.

VSP specializes in instrumentation products solutions, and as part of the project approach, the company cooperates with a number of manufacturers and suppliers. The final stage of our work is supply of equipment to the customer, i.e. sales. It is quite obvious that by the time the deal is closed, by the time the customer is ready to make a decision and a choice in favour of a specific technical solution and in the end to choose a supplier, one has to go a long way and a lot of work is needed.
A modern market of industrial equipment is flooded with solutions by various manufacturers — from high class latest developments of the world level and down to simplistic products tailored for some tasks. By and large, any product finds its buyer. And taking into account current situation, both globally, and in our market in Russia, the factor of a stringent competition between ‘class mates’ is more than up-to-date. The end-user will select only those solutions which fully comply with his requirements — starting with technical specification, prices and additional services and down to such ‘subtleties’ as a company reputation, its reliability, specialists’ competence, …

The principle algorithm of the work process is simple enough — present the solution or product to the customer, describe it the best way possible, highlight its strong features and advantages, offer an appealing pricing — and the customer is ready to buy. In real life things appear to be a bit more complicated. In the first place, the range of possibilities to choose a technical solution; market saturation with commercial entities competing for an order; stringent customer requirements to suppliers, including customer expectation of a certain level of the supplier’s financial sustainability, reliability and readiness to comply with rather complicated commercial terms. And finally, fight for ‘talents’ — a good team of specialists defines the real potential of the company. To be in tune with timely market demands is becoming more and more difficult.

A modern market makes high level demands on all those involved in business. We believe that building an open and longterm relationship within the company, with customers and partners present to VSP possibilities for implementing plans for the company development.

Year by year, the company advances together with the market, striving to meet the increasingly complex and at the same time specific requirements and expectations of customers. The approach of VSP to team development, to progress and achievements by every specialist in the company, by our new colleagues is also changing. There is no way to meet the company requirements without daily dynamic and persistent, focused on success work. We aim to achieve open, transparent relationships not only with our customers, but in the first place, in our team—such an approach implies the need for actual results, not declarations and just efforts. The results of work and the effectiveness of every employee are regularly evaluated. Based on the understanding of strong and weak sides of every specialist, VSP makes plans for the further development of the team.