A day in the life of our Account Manager - Ricky Cybuch
Ricky joined Sowga back in April 2019 and has made a really positive impact in his time with the organisation, providing effective strategic awareness, inspirational leadership, management and mentoring across our service and maintenance division to a team of contract managers, contract support administrators, engineers and apprentices.
Ricky has also become a valued member of our senior management team, regularly participating in board level meetings and contributing to key decisions around business strategy, continuous improvement and innovation.
No two days are the same for Ricky and that is just one of the things that he relishes about his role.
Ricky is responsible for the operational and commercial performance of the Service and Maintenance division of Sowga.
By leading his team on all necessary systems, processes and procedures Ricky ensures that the quality of our service delivery enables clients to occupy their premises efficiently, cost effectively and without disruption.
Ricky tailors his service depending on our client's particular situation, from being a key point of contact to a provider of customer support or technical assistance.
Working closely with the business development team, Ricky helps to ensure that the service provision fits the client's individual needs and desires through clear communication and attention to detail.
Ricky also oversees relationships within our service and maintenance division with a focus on building positive relationships.
For Ricky, like most of us during the COVID-19 crisis he has had to work remotely, with a typical day beginning at 6:30am when his alarm goes off. With this wake-up call, Ricky reaches for his phone, opens his emails and waits for his eyes to focus before boarding the rollercoaster ride that is his day.
After a strong Americano to kick him straight into work mode, Ricky asks 'Alexa' over breakfast for the latest news bulletin while reading any updates from REVHA (the Federation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Associations), CIBSE (the Chartered Institution of Building Service Engineers) and BESA (the Building Engineering Services Association).
At 7:50am Ricky sets his laptop up on his kitchen table and begins to read the responses to the emails he sent first thing (he admits he is one of those people who likes to achieve a zero inbox).
The morning is usually the busiest part of Ricky's day as he reviews all Cc'd emails, most of these are keeping him informed of operations and do not require his input however if they do Ricky either responds immediately or flags for later.
At 9am, Ricky catches up with colleagues, clients and consultants through the rest of the morning, allowing himself the rest of the day to work on achieving the objectives set and supporting his team in achieving their goals, while also looking at implementing some future planning strategies focussing on our continuous improvement culture.
When 1pm arrives, Ricky's lunch is often a working one, however it also presents an opportunity for Ricky to have lunch with his children to discuss what they have learned and achieved at home school during the morning. Lunch is followed up with a catch up on emails along with client video conference meetings.
At 4pm our Senior Leadership team have a daily review meeting over Microsoft Teams, with communication being a vital component within our business. This meeting brings all senior parties together with the board of directors to discuss any issues raised for that particular day to minimise the large amount of email threads. The company strategy is also discussed alongside where we are collectively in achieving our business goals for the quarter.
Our QHSE team have been working tirelessly throughout, closely monitoring the developments with respect to the Coronavirus and taking all the essential steps to ensure the wellbeing and safety of our staff and others that we may come into contact with during the course of our services.
Sowga undertook internal emergency meetings while reviewing and amending our business processes to ensure we were in-keeping with the government guidelines while still supporting our clients in keeping buildings fully operational and 100% compliant throughout the pandemic.
We have also been in regular communication with all our clients and stakeholders providing support and information guidance developed by REVHA, with additional content from CIBSE and BESA.
Ricky wanted to take this opportunity to thank each and every colleague across Sowga, our business partners and suppliers for their continued efforts.
Like most organisations around the globe, Sowga rolled out mandatory working from home where possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown, Ricky has found this both a challenging and rewarding experience.
The prospect of working from home seemed idyllic for the first few weeks then it took an interesting turn as Ricky unwittingly undertook the role of part-time entertainer and teacher for his children, while ensuring his work commitments were fulfilled.
The reality of having to juggle work commitments and family life simultaneously can be very daunting, with Ricky quickly comprehending children are very much like adults and thrive on routines. So it was important that he set out some kind of structure for each day so everyone could focus on achieving their objectives (Ricky notes that the children were not quite so enthusiastic as him about building structure to focus on achieving their school work objectives!).
As Ricky now predominantly works from home most of the week, he finds a change of scenery after being cooped indoors all day helps him relax. Walking around the local farmers fields looking out for horses, cattle and sheep and breathing in some fresh air with the kids.
As someone who strives to empower colleagues towards excellence, he has found watching his team grow in confidence hugely rewarding, especially in their ability to improve our client experience.
At times, the world of change management can be tough and quite lonely but it's the determination and talent of the Sowga team that makes the job so rewarding for Ricky.