Decency goes a long way. 50 years to be exact
This article is written based on an interview with Carsten Rønde, Director of Strategic Sales at PR electronics.
Prior to the 50-year anniversary in PR electronics coming up in December 2024, we met up with Carsten Rønde to discuss his almost 40 year-long career at the company and to shed some light on how PR has evolved since Carsten was hired in 1987.
A 37-year career paves the way for a diverse CV
Carsten has - understandably - held quite a few different positions at PR during his 37 years with the company and is currently Director of Strategic Sales. A position he is pleased with and that - in his own words - perfectly matches the final stages of his career. Without hesitation, he says having been able to try new opportunities within the company and having been entrusted with the right amount of responsibility at the right time is one of the main reasons he’s never considered leaving PR.
How it all began
While he admits starting his career in PR electronics by somewhat of a coincidence, probably because he grew up close by, he began working as an electronics mechanic apprentice because he was drawn to the company’s product portfolio and the technology behind it, which aligned with his personal interests. He’s always found the technical evolution of the products very interesting - not least with the latest entry of AI in the manufacturing of electronics.
The making of a successful leader
During his time in PR, Carsten has been encouraged to explore his interest and flair for leadership and he led a successful sales team in Denmark, managing both external and internal sales people for 13 years from 1999-2012. The operative word being ‘encouraged’ as he never actively sought out a management position, but in hindsight, he believes that management spotting his potential and acting on it was key for his growth in the company. He considers this particular period of time to have been the most rewarding during his time in PR.
In fact, he states that becoming an asset to the company, helping PR grow and being successful in his job are his greatest professional achievements, and he considers himself lucky for the professional opportunities he’s been offered. And even though he looks back on his time in PR as a manager with pride, he is also very clear about passing the baton of leadership to young talents in due time.
While sales growth and hitting certain milestones was an obvious focus in order for Carsten to be successful as a manager, he emphasizes that the most important metric for him personally was his employees’ happiness and growth. He valued more than anything that they enjoyed coming to work and that they knew his door was always open to discuss whatever they needed.
A one-man army pursuing strategic sales
Having closed the chapter of leadership, he’s now able to focus completely on the strategic sales task at hand without the responsibility of managing employees.
In his current role, he works as a one-man army. At this stage of his career, he believes it’s a better fit to work wholeheartedly at achieving PR’s growth strategy. And now more than ever, he wants to thrive and be successful in his job and with his customers.
The distinct family-owned company culture persists after acquisition
When Carsten joined PR electronics in 1987, the company’s workforce consisted of 36 people. Already then, the company was growing quite fast since its founding year of 1974 with only Peter Rasmussen at the helm.
PR has always been a very locally rooted company in which the executive management was present and active every day. The line of communication was - and is to this day - direct and straight forward. Everyone has access to the management and the opportunity to make their voice heard. In fact, Carsten points out that running into members of the management while doing your grocery shopping wasn’t all that unusual.
Through the years, the management has stayed very involved in the heart of the company, the production of signal conditioning devices. And it’s been paramount that nothing was outsourced: From bare board to the final product, everything is still kept under one roof at the development and manufacturing campus in Rønde.
The personal values of a founder grew into company values
Back when PR was founded, Peter Rasmussen’s own personal values permeated the company. Over the years, however, they became an integral part of a more formalized set of values exercised throughout the entire company.
Peter Rasmussen had a sustainable approach to doing business and used to say, “we need to earn money before we can spend it”. While that may not be entirely possible today, it certainly was a healthy foundation for a start-up in 1974.
Carsten describes PR as a familiar and down-to-earth company. A company that values both modesty and ambition. It’s ambitious in terms of providing high-quality products and acting with decency, openness and honesty. This goes as much for employees as it does for customers.
Luckily, the values of Peter Rasmussen live on in PR today resulting in a great reputation, both in the local community, among current and former employees and in the eyes of the public. That doesn’t happen overnight and certainly not if there is no truth to it. Carsten has experienced firsthand how colleagues are treated with respect and decency, especially when faced with either personal or professional challenges.
While there may be differing opinions about family-owned businesses in general, PR seems to be a best-case example. And even after Kirk Kapital acquired PR electronics together with AGIC in 2023, Carsten strongly believes that the culture and the values of the former family-owned company will persist and that they’re an asset that holds all kinds of advantages for future growth.
Getting to travel the world
Some of the best experiences Carsten has had while working in PR stem from his time as Regional Export Manager when he got to travel primarily to PR’s big export markets China, Germany, the US and Japan. Not having had the chance to travel much with his family when he was young, he reveled in the opportunity to see the world through his work.
Meeting new people, building long-lasting relationships with customers and distributors worldwide, seeing different cultures and experiencing nature in distant countries have made a great impression on Carsten. Particularly, his visit with a customer in Finland where he was able to experience the silent winter landscapes on snow scooters after hours is a memory that he’ll never forget.
Carsten claims to be a bit of a security junkie, so he is happy with the way his career played out in PR and that he was able to lead a fulfilling work life in the same company without compromising on growth and opportunity.
When asked if he could go back in time and have a do-over, he says without the shadow of a doubt he wouldn’t have changed a thing.
PR electronics - then and now
As a PR employee of almost 40 out of 50 possible years, Carsten is the right person to shed some light on how PR electronics has changed over the years. When Carsten first joined PR, the company was new in the game. It was a pioneer in the market and eager to take off. Back then, he says, they didn’t know the market nor their competitors very well. But through experience, they’ve learned a lot over the past five decades, perhaps most importantly that PR does have a place in the market and can compete with the very best.
Going from a very modest place - both literally and figuratively - in Malling (a small town south of Aarhus), PR has been building confidence and developing both its skills and product portfolio. By investing in research and development, the goal is for PR to keep striving to do better and to stay ahead of the curve in the industry.
In many ways, PR electronics has become a more professional and organized company, not least with the ISO 9000 certification in 1993. But with or without certifications, Carsten states the company has never wavered in its way of doing business. Because decency goes a long way. 50 years and counting.
