Ternium Colombia's Industrial Director is a Mexican man who has been working for the company for 23 years, enjoying his job to the fullest. He loves challenges, and as he says, he wants to “leave an impression in others.”
Eduardo arrived in Colombia October last year, together with his family: his wife Ana, and his daughters Isabela and Renata, 7 and 2 years old respectively. They initially set up in Manizales and now live in Barranquilla.
“In reality, it's been such an experience for me, moving my family mid-pandemic, adapting to Colombian society, having too many challenges in the company, starting with the new facility, the projects at Manizales, have been very funny, I haven't stopped at all”, Gutiérrez said.
Eduardo highlights that “the reception of people has been very good, very receptive people, many of the innovative programs in security and productivity have been implemented. People have taken it well. Personally, Colombian and Mexican culture are very similar in many aspects”.
Ternium has been a great school and a space of wide professional growth for Eduardo, since he started as a practitioner in a facility in Monterrey, Mexico; and with time, he kept ascending in his company going through roles as Chief of Management, Chief of Production, Chief of Lamination, Chief of Facility, all the way up to today, where he is Industrial Director in a very significative moment for the company in Colombia and the region.
Just like Ternium has been a school for Eduardo, his focus, besides reaching the traced goals, has a very high humanistic component, because, through experience and example, he wishes to positively impact his collaborators. One of the things he has enjoyed the most in this short stay in Colombia has been receptiveness from personnel: “When they thank you for giving knowledge to them. It’s something I really enjoy, especially when in the area; working with personnel, because as I see, they are people facing a situation they never thought they would be going through operating a facility of that size (Palmar de Varela), and they already feel identified with the scheme.”
For Eduardo, one of the main satisfactions is being able to pass along his knowledge to personnel, and the acquisition and application of said knowledge by them; for him, it's important to have found very receptive people in the company.
What about Palmar de Varela?
When I arrived in Colombia I had a huge challenge: implementing all the management systems at Ternium. It's a primordial necessity for new collaborators to line up with the values and goals of the company.
Eduardo, besides working, enjoys practicing football and softball. With his arrival in Barranquilla, he wishes to find more places to practice it again. Likewise, he mentions that one of his greatest challenges has been getting used to the food, but he’s learning to drink more coffee and eating arepa.
Also, language variations have been a new learning process for him, “At first, I assumed everyone understood me until several people did tell me, ‘Sorry, sir, but we don’t understand you'. But I am sometimes also shy to ask. Even though we all speak Spanish, sometimes regional variations are hard to get, but changes are to assume them and learn from them,” said Eduardo.