The Team Behind the Technology at CBT
An Interview with Andy Anderson, Director of Client Services
Meet Andy Anderson, Director of Client Services at CBT. Hear about his key advice to maintaining long-term customer relationships, why he choose CBT as he celebrates his 20th year anniversary, and his famous quote “Our People Are Our Product” and what that means at CBT.
Transcript:
CBT’s Core Value: Forward Thinking with a Generous Spirit
Today, I would say, forward-thinking with a generous spirit resonates the most because I appreciate the great minds that we have in this company, that work every day towards greatness and diversification. And I appreciate that we see constant examples from so many throughout CBT. And selfishly I love when my team sees that I’ve been on calls or meetings for a while and I haven’t eaten lunch and I come back to my desk and there’s a plate of food on it. That really shows me that these values are real with everybody at CBT.
Key to Long-Term Customers
Great people. We’ve had virtually no employee turnover on the client services team, and in support of our pillar customers, I think that’s been a huge factor. With that, we’ve been able to build trust and familiarity and of course, provide top-quality support for our partners and our clients. I think quality and reliability go a long way in sustaining those relationships.
Why did you choose CBT?
I appreciated that it was a small, flexible, and nimble smaller company, and I think that’s been huge that it’s allowed us to take care of our partners and clients, a nd team members. I’ve been given great opportunities and work with a successful team and have trust and loyalty and all of our management and the great people that are here at CBT.
How has CBT grown over the years?
Talent acquisition in any industry is tough. But it’s a vital part of growing and sustaining and being successful. Nobody gets it right every time but to see CBT grow from under 10 employees when I began, to over 50 now has been quite the journey The diversification of our business and our capabilities has been awesome to watch. And we’ve got so many great minds that help lead us to this diversification and this change and being able to create different business environments and success outside of what we really started with.
CBT Awarded 2008 Boeing Supplier of the Year
In 2008, CBT was awarded the Boeing Supplier of the Year, which is a huge accomplishment and a huge testament to the team that supports Boeing here at CBT. W e’ve also had nine consecutive silver performance excellence awards from Boeing, which shows consistency. This goes along with the fact about how it’s been so critical to have such a low employee turnover, to have the familiarity and trust we built with Boeing. T hat’s been a huge factor and the success that we have acknowledged and awarded by a company like Boeing that works with so many suppliers. I want to say it’s over 50,000 suppliers so it’s great to be honored and recognized, we’re all very proud of that.
You coined the term “Our people are our product,” what does that mean?
Right after I started with CBT back in 2001, several of us took part in a public speaking course. One of the topics was for us to give a speech about CBT. I was brand new, still learning my role, and what CBT did. As I was preparing my talk, I started thinking about the people I was working with, the people that were training me: Kelly, Rachel, Jennifer, Dena, Deena, all five of which are still here with CBT today. And it just hit me that our people are our product. At that time we weren’t a Domain Expert Integrator, we weren’t bridging the gap between IT and OT, we were simply reselling IT products. But we were providing a superior level of service that our partners couldn’t provide and our customers deserved. Now, since then we’ve evolved significantly since those days in the type of company we become, but we have so many incredibly bright minds and talented individuals. We have a group of people that have diverse capabilities, strong work ethics, and high levels of accountability that truly stand out at a nimble company like CBT. So putting all that together when I look around, w here CBT is today I think now as much as ever, our people are our product and I’m proud of that.
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