Pete Bhargava

 

“I’m originally from India, but I've been based in AkzoNobel USA for 28 years now. So I’ve gotten to know many Business Units. It's a good company, people respect each other, the culture is entrepreneurial and it's pretty flexible. Basically it's up to you to make the most of the opportunities that come your way. We're very international. I've worked with colleagues from the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil and North America on numerous projects in the USA and China. Right now, I'm project leader for the construction of a new ethylene amines plant at Ningbo in China. We’ve recently started building, but the permitting procedures never seem to end – you really have to be patient, and you need a good local network (‘guanxi’). Guanxi is the key to success in China! If you’ve got it, everything works. If you haven’t, nothing works. It’s all about building trust. The work I do is very varied: I've worked on five projects in five years, with involvement in different phases and wide exposure to different parts of the company. You meet a lot of people, and you can quickly see where you fit in, so T&E is a good springboard for jobs elsewhere in AkzoNobel.”