AEGIR-Marine 'The Happy Company'

On November 5 Peter Zoeteman (director NMT) was presented by Ruud Muis (director AEGIR-Marine) the first copy of the book ‘The Happy Company’).

In the setting of the maritime exhibition Europort 2015 AEGIR presented its philosophy on entrepreneurship within the marine business.

It’s a book about the love for shipping, the no nonsense mentality that defines this branch and the way AEGIR-Marine became a major player in a market dominated by multinationals. Ruud Muis: ‘It’s not rocket science what we do. The main difference is that we continuously really try to put ourselves in the customer’s shoe. We think about the kind of service we like to get and give that to our customers. We are proactive, think in solutions and are there when they need us. That’s all.’  

No Management Book, No Jubilee Book

The cause for this book is AEGIRs 15-years anniversary, but it’s not more than a cause. Martin Visser (co-director AEGIR-Marine): ‘We’ve been thinking about writing this book before, but since I’s not our core-business we never did. Thinking about our anniversary we picked up this idea again. We didn’t want it to be a management book, nor a traditional jubilee book with anecdotes and old pictures. It had to be different.’

The result is a very special book. A ship is being used as a metaphor for a company. The philosophy has been put on transparencies that lay over the day to day practice. Photos and job examples illustrate AEGIRs daily work. Comments are not left out, simply because growing as a company reflects on the staff, the company and the customers.

‘Of course we are proud of what we have accomplished,’ says Hans Dekker (director/ founder AEGIR-Marine), ‘but we didn’t want it to be a hallelujah-story. Open and transparent is one of our key values. We mainly wanted the book to reflect where we stand today.’