• Ad Bertens

    ...be positive

    Attitude either makes a person or breaks a person. It is the key to success or failure in any of life's endeavours. What we perceive in this world is largely a reflection of our own attitudes and beliefs. If you talk negative your world will be negative and vice versa. We had a tete-a-tete with a man whose positive thoughts enlightened our day, a person who firmly believes that thinking and acting with enthusiasm will definitely attract positive results in life. Listening to such positive words, his success in life reminded us of the saying 'As you sow so shall you reap'- What you do is what you get.

    Mr. Ad Bertens, currently the Managing Director, Wartsila UAE, was born on Aug 6, 1968. Happily married, he is blessed with two children nine and seven years old. Every youngster has his own interests and aspirations and Mr. Bertens too at very young age knew what he was interested in. He was very much fascinated in mechanics and production techniques. "My interest was always with machines like lathes and milling machines. The improved techniques and considerable efficiency improvements which one can realize with new techniques had always fascinated me."

    His extreme passion for mechanics led him to pursue his studies in Mechanical Engineering. He enhanced his educational landscape by doing a 3 year course in economics at Fontys Hogescholen at Eindhoven -The Netherlands. We have encountered various intriguing stories on how the legends of the maritime world are attracted towards this industry. Mr. Bertens gave us a very fascinating statement, which explained to us his absolute adoration towards the maritime field "I like ships, from yachts to the largest VLCC's. Being a Dutchman I was almost born in water. When

  • Ad Bertens

    I see a ship my heart starts beating faster. Furthermore the world of ships & shipping has always attracted me enormously."

    After finishing his education, he started his career by joining Lips Propellers in 1989. "My first job being an intermediate between sales and production was in work preparation. During this time, I learnt a lot about production processes and efficiency improvement proposals in production environment like Kaizen and Lean manufacturing." Lips Propellers was acquired by Wartsila in 2002. "I have done several jobs in the organization of Wartsila from production, sales and service. For several years, I worked in the Newbuild sales for propulsion systems and finally in 1999, I made the decision to change to the Service world. I started in Propulsion Service, being Manager Repairs and finally being the Service Sales Manager and responsible for transferring propulsion knowledge in to the Wartsila worldwide network companies."Mr. Bertens landed in June 2006 in Wartsila Dubai. He was entrusted for all Services in the Gulf Region as Vice President, Services. In February 2008 he became Managing Director of Wartsila Gulf FZE along with assuming responsibility for all the Services in the Gulf region (in total of 14 countries).

    Accomplishments in life are determined not by the success ratio one has achieved, but by the number of obstacles one has overcome to get to that position. Mr. Bertens shared with us one of his greatest achievements which he considers to be one of his most memorable one "My greatest accomplishment is definitely the realization of the new State-of-the- Art workshop of Wartsila Gulf FZE in the region. I am proud of this new workshop at Dubai Investment Park and we have received many compliments from our customers. No one expects to find a fully outfitted workshop of European standards, in the middle of the desert. Regarding overcoming obstacles, my answer is very short. Our customers are always working with short deadlines (read dry docking times) in order to reduce the operational cost. These constraints are on our path each and every day and we need to manage them properly in a way that we keep our customers satisfied."

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    For every great accomplishment one has to take certain risks in life which has the power to change one's destiny. 'Making Decisions' becomes a crucial step towards that single stepping stone to success. But should these decisions be made alone or should others be involved in that crucial decision becomes a question to ponder. In Mr. Berten's perspective, the most important decisions in life should be approached with common sense. "Important decisions should be as much as possible based on common sense. I also like to go for the "buying in" approach when I like to decide on an important subject."

    Our tete-a-tete got interesting as we moved ahead asking Mr. Bertens about some of the business tactics. Considering his experience in this industry, we were pretty sure to get some really useful advice. First, we decided to know his views on what one should not do in this business "Making promises, which you cannot fulfill!" is what he said. "In our service world, we should keep our promises and inform our customers honestly. If we cannot take up a job because of lack of competence or unavailability of manpower, we should inform our customers with alternatives, if those alternatives are not existing then we should clearly tell this to our customers. In principle we need DOERS, we already have plenty of 'talkers'."

    We all yearn for success in life and what one should do to be successful in life has always been a matter of priority for all. Thus we put forth the question to Mr. Bertens to know about his views on what one should be doing in this business to be successful "Clear and direct communication with each other" is what he replied. He believes that very often long e-mails are prepared to inform people about issues. You can always take the telephone and discuss subjects straight away with each other or even converse over a cup of coffee." The second point which he regarded as important was "people management", especially in the Middle East region where the work force consists of expatriates from different countries and thus cultures are varied.

  • Ad Bertens

    After a whole lot of talk about business, we tried to lighten up the conversation asking about Mr. Bertens' hobbies "I am almost born on the water. I like boating and I am having a motor yacht myself. It is a relatively small yacht (26 foot) but it keeps me "busy" during the weekends. The yacht is moored at Dubai Marina Yachting Club and is one of my favorite places in Dubai. In general, I spend at least 1 weekend day on the water! My other hobbies include playing tennis and listening to music."

    With those interesting notes on the hobbies we wanted to know about Mr. Bertens long term plans in life. Departing from a normal script, we asked him about his plans when he turns 80. "Let us hope I will reach that age in good health" is what he replied to us with a smile on his face. He believes that most probably he will be back in his home country, The Netherlands, enjoying with his children and their families.

    Words of inspiration and great advices from learned people really do wonders on an individual's mind. We requested Mr. Bertens to put forth his advices to today's youngsters, based on his accumulated experience in this field "Be pro-active and enthusiastic!" is what he advised "Try to be positive and make opportunities from problems. If you can only talk negative it will be a waste of energy. I personally like people who are coming up with solutions when they are having problems."He exclaims that if he met any individual at his office who tries to make their problem his, he will be very tough. Finally we had to wrap up our talks with Mr. Bertens. It indeed was an extremely delightful experience for us. With an air of positive thoughts in our hearts and minds, we bid him adieu wishing him all the success in his future endeavours.

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