Hans den Otter
Technical director
- 1987
- Sales
Your company has grown rapidly. How did you find this experience?
"The rapid growth of IVS has presented many challenges and brought responsibilities. IVS now has thirty employees and almost all of them have families. My work has seen changes, too. I used to sell, calculate, draw up and organise projects, but now I watch more from the sidelines. I am involved in a different way, as mentor and coach. It's important to be able to let go of the reins. Frank, the other director, and I have been sharing our knowledge with our colleagues for a number of years. That means that we try to describe everything right to the last detail. Our aim is to get better day by day."
How did you come to work for IVS?
"I am a plumber by trade. Jo Dielissen, the founder of IVS, saw me at work in the office of IVS's bookkeeper. He obviously liked what he saw, because he offered me a job as technician a few weeks later. We did jobs together. At that time, we did a lot of work for Koudijs, a manufacturer of compound feed in Den Bosch. After a couple of years, I knew that factory from inside out. That formed the basis for the IVS Dosing Technology of today.”
Together with Frank Dielissen, you are responsible for the day-to-day management of IVS. How would you describe your working relationship?
"Our characters are as different as day and night, but that is also our greatest strength. We keep each other in balance, and the business, too. Sometimes, I can get terribly worked up about something and Frank calms things down. It can also work the other way round. From a business point of view, we think along the same lines. Of course, we sometimes enter into a healthy argument, but that keeps us on our toes. People used to think that I was Jo Dielissen's son. He always called me ‘our Hans.’ So I was often referred to as Hans Dielissen, whereas Frank is the real Dielissen in the company!"