Our Business Unit Manager, Francisco Román, continues his leadership of one of PrimeIT’s units while taking on our new project, Prime Engineering. Find out all the details!

 

How did the change from PrimeIT to Prime Engineering come about?

It all stems from a business need or idea: the engineering sector is very powerful, and our clients were demanding more and more services that were outside our IT scope. That’s how we came up with the internal initiative to see how we could address these customer needs.

To consolidate the project, we developed a business plan that took us 2-3 months, in which we looked at which sectors we might be interested in, which opportunities to address, which clients/targets, and how we could adapt our way of working to this sector.

 

What new challenges are you facing with Prime Engineering?

The main challenge is finding a way to work in a brand-new sector. I have never created a brand or managed a project completely on my own, and in this case, I had to ask for help and create a complete plan: from a presentation of the company to seeing what kind of profile we would hire in the back-office team, to making internal moves and convincing more people to join this project. It was all about creating something from scratch.

 

What are you looking for in your new team?

As it is a new project that we don’t know if it will work or not, I am looking for people who can adapt very quickly and who know how to “navigate in troubled waters”. The team has to be able to deal with the problems of the sector, adapt to different types of companies and be able to take a lot of “no’s”, without ever stopping looking for the final “yes”.

 

Which sectors are you interested in?

At the moment, we are working in the construction sector (EPC) Complete Construction. Personally, I am interested in the aerospace sector because I have a degree in aerospace, as well as in the industrial sector since it does not seem to be very developed in Spain.

Industry is a sector that feeds a large part of the population and there are regions in the north of Spain that are less developed in IT but are a powerhouse in engineering. It is one of our future focuses.

 

What values do you consider fundamental to fostering a good working environment?

Basically, what I look for is to hire good people for the team. I prioritise people with values that allow us to work as a team, people who are understanding, who are not selfish, who share with others, who are involved in the collective well-being and who rejoice in their successes and support them in their failures.

 

Can you tell us a bit about your professional career?

I have been part of PrimeIT since its beginning in Spain. The kick-off of the company was quite difficult, we had no contacts, the team was very young, and we had no experience in the business area, but the challenges evolved and so did I.

I can say that it was not so much the business that made me grow professionally, but the management of the teams for which I had direct responsibility, as well as the business managers who taught me how to manage.

Throughout my career (so far), I have had three major professional challenges: understanding the business, managing different teams and now creating a new company, Prime Engineering.

 

What skills do you think are most valuable for an engineer in a company like ours?

When we hire engineers for our clients, we look for commitment, learning ability and, above all, resilience. Resilience is a fundamental skill in the teams, as they will need to be able to deal with the complex problems that arise during the engineering projects they carry out. At the end of the day, we value people who can provide valuable solutions for our clients.