This month, to illustrate our Employee Portraits series, we highlight the inspiring career and vision of Aurélie CAFFIN, Pre-Sales & Project Director at Vivetic Group. With a unique combination of technical expertise and people skills, Aurélie plays a crucial role in ensuring coordination between the different teams and customer satisfaction. Find out how she juggles her many responsibilities, what qualities are essential for success in her position, and her reasons for choosing Vivetic Group in Madagascar.
Could you describe your personality in 3#?
# Curiosity
# Empathy
# Perseverance
What is your role at Vivetic Group?
My role as Pre-Sales and Project Manager can be summed up in one word: assistance. The "Project" division has a very cross-functional role, as we liaise between all the parties involved in a project, from the customer to the production teams. Assistance to sales teams, i.e. supporting the sales force in making proposals to our customers and prospects with a view to gaining a competitive edge. This involves analyzing the needs of our customers/prospects in order to offer them the most appropriate technical and financial solution, while obviously guaranteeing the long-term viability of the account for the company. So, together with the sales team, I check the relevance of the proposed solution, identify its feasibility criteria and its profitability.
Production assistance, because production is also our customer, i.e. guaranteeing that the operational force has all the tools and processes it needs to deliver what our customers expect, and thus give them complete satisfaction. I make sure that the processes and tools sold are properly implemented, which involves coordinating all the departments involved (HR, technical, production). I provide this assistance either personally, or through the team of project managers I supervise and support in their missions.
What are the challenges we face on a daily basis?
The main challenge is to understand our customers' needs and expectations. From this understanding, the other aspects follow naturally: which processes to implement, which tools to use, which employee profiles to recruit, etc. Depending on the customer and the maturity of their project, it's crucial to know how to advise, frame, explain and guide. Other challenges can be summed up in the well-known triptych "Quality-Cost-Delivery": our daily objective is the success of the projects we undertake, by ensuring that deliverables meet expectations, stay within the budget accepted by the customer, and are delivered on time. Every project action must be assessed in the light of these 3 fundamental notions, even if it's not always easy to reconcile them.
What do you think are the key assets for this position?
- Be "Customer Centric", i.e. put customers (external and internal) at the heart of your thinking.
- Be a "Solution Finder", i.e. take a proactive approach to finding solutions by seeing opportunities rather than problems.
- Be a team player, because you can't do anything on your own. A collaborative approach is essential, as is the ability to inspire and guide the team.
In addition, it is essential to possess qualities such as the ability to listen (even to what is not said), interpersonal skills, agility and flexibility, the ability to synthesize and conceptualize, as well as initiative and curiosity.
Why did you choose to join Vivetic Group?
I was looking for professional renewal and new challenges. Living in Madagascar and not wishing to leave the country, I had the opportunity of an interview with Group managers. I found my renewal there: wide and varied sectors of activity, different and motivating responsibilities, a very strong positioning of the Madagascan teams in the company's decision-making process, etc. All these reasons led me to choose Madagascar. So many reasons that led to my decision to join the company.
Why did you leave your luggage in Madagascar?
Before Madagascar, I lived abroad for 5 years. I was enthusiastic about the "fresh start" and "anything is possible" aspect of expatriation. When you leave your native country, all your certainties and habits are called into question, and you realize that other certainties and habits exist, and that it's exciting to discover them. So naturally, after my 1st expatriation, I looked for a job anywhere in the world, but Madagascar came up several times in the process and finally imposed itself. It was both a professional and a family decision to come and discover this country. Now 13 years have passed, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't satisfied with my choices. You can't stay that long in a country that's not your own without becoming attached to it! I love the enthusiasm of the Malagasy people, who are always ready and willing, with a smile, to try out new projects. There's very little so-called "resistance to change", which is very appreciable in a professional context.
