Karen Scharenguivel: “Safety is a very basic act of human kindness”

Though her name betrays a distant Dutch ancestry, Karen was born and raised in Singapore. As a true Singaporean, who straddles between cultures, countries and societies, her role at Ampelmann has been multifaceted and diverse. As she puts it herself: “My main scope of work is office manager, but soon after I started, we realised that there was a lot more to do than just managing an office. I'm Singaporean so when we opened an office in Malaysia and Brunei, I was kind of like a ‘cultural gap fixer’. My position grew and then I got more involved in the other offices. So now basically, in a nutshell, I do anything and everything that comes my way and I think I've customised my role in such a way where it's never a dull day. There's so much that that I can actually contribute to so I'm a supporter for all the departments that exist here in Asia Pacific.”

A self-described “social person, who can talk and talk and talk”, Karen, unsurprisingly thinks that Being One Team is her most cherished core value. Decorating the office, organising everything from social gatherings, events, lunches and birthday parties, she thinks it is important to focus on both the smaller and the bigger things. “I think its closest to my heart”, she says,” I try to take a positive approach and to have actual relationships with people. I talk to a lot of different people in our offices throughout the world.

To me, the teams that make up Ampelmann mirror the physiological properties of our bodies. There are limbs, organs, bones, a circulatory system, and so forth, all different systems working together without which the whole wouldn’t function. Likewise, all individuals in the various departments complement each other. By communicating and having a respectful relationship with each other, we become one team. By fostering the chemistry and the dynamics to achieve our shared goals, we become equals. I think we are in a very nice position right now where everybody understands that.”

Mutual understanding

Safety is crucial to Ampelmann, and when she first joined, it was refreshing for her to see how central it is to the company. As she says, “When you consciously think about staying safe, every moment of every day you start to notice the little things. It became part of my DNA and I realised, it's not just about me, but also about how it could potentially affect my environment, family members or friends.

Always looking out for people around, it slowly became a norm for me and nowadays I ask myself why we, as individuals within society, don’t do this more often? Why do we not reach out to the other people and point out when a situation is dangerous? Because we're embarrassed or afraid that they call us a ‘Kaypoh’ (Singlish for ‘busybody’) for interfering with their lives? Safety really is a very basic act of human kindness. As such I think I've learned to care more for people, or at least to be more conscious about caring for people.”

Caring for those around her is a common thread in Karen’s interpretation of the company’s core values. Drawing from both personal and professional experiences during and before her nearly decade-long tenure at Ampelmann, she points out that it has been characterised by both continuity as well as change. “I’m very glad, for example, that there are a lot more women in the company doing a lot of usually male dominated jobs. Of course, thinking inclusively, means everybody is equal, regardless of race, creed, language, gender, religion, and it’s been very good to see that the company places high importance on this principle.”

“But, in a broader sense, thinking inclusively is not just about equality but also about mutual understanding and it can help us to see how someone is doing and whether they need support. To me, it means we simply need to talk to people, about their opinions and experiences, their lives and their interests. When we don't sincerely consider others in our discussions or plans, even simplest decision such as where to have lunch, can lead to people feeling excluded.”

These cultural and empathetic considerations naturally flow over into why she thinks it is so important to dare to make a difference and she feels inspired by the company’s desire to promulgate progress and learn from its mistakes. “It's not just about the desire to make progress”, she says, “it's not about sitting in your comfort zone and expecting things to be the way they should be, but it's really about making a difference in your lifestyle and in your expectations. As a representative between the Asian colleagues and the Dutch colleagues, I try to encourage people in Asia to be a little bit more Dutch centric and the Dutch to be a little bit more Asian centric. When you create awareness of these differences and connections, we can point out how we can become more open and honest with each other.”

“Doing things differently also brings about changes and it brings about opportunities that you never even dare dream of or never would consider happening. To me it means trying out new things. It may work, it may not, but if we don't try, we won't know.”

Different interpretations

Though not directly involved with the technical side of the company, she feels inspired by the different meanings and interpretations of driving engineering excellence.

Semantically deconstructing how it fits within her personal and professional life, she points out that “for me, ‘engineering’ means to steer, being professional, being efficient, being productive and also being an ambassador for Ampelmann. ‘Excellence’ means to excel and by this I don’t just mean the that we are providing a product that is useful to the offshore industry. It also has to do with how we manage our processes, how we deal with customers and even how we write an email. And ‘to drive’ means to be an example, to help colleagues and to nudge them in the right direction when things can be done differently. That's where I can contribute specifically to this core value, to drive that, and to engineer that excellence in the best way I can.”

Taking a decidedly holistic approach, Karen believes that like the company’s many departments, individuals and skillsets, Ampelmann’s core values are all interrelated and reinforce each other. As she ponders: “How, for example, can you drive engineering excellence on your own, without being one team? How can you dare to make a difference without thinking inclusively and respecting each other’s opinions or vision?”

“For me, the core values are more of a natural thing, they are easy to relate to in my work and personal life. They’re not rigid, but quite flexible. I suppose it's just very coincidental that these are values that I also find very important in being a friend, being a parent/grandparent, being a colleague. I am who I am. I'm not somebody else at work and somebody else outside of the office. I hope others also see the core values as part of their daily culture and daily work life rather than just as an obligatory set of rules or regulations that they need to be constantly reminded about. Everybody has a different interpretation. That's the interesting thing, but that’s also what a company needs. You need people with different viewpoints, ideas and perspectives.”

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