World Values Day

Our values of customer focus, partnership, humility, innovation, quality, and teamwork underpin every decision we make as an organisation, we truly live and breathe them on a day-to-day basis. From hiring decisions, operational processes, and how we interact with our people & customers, to our strategic decision-making, we don’t act at Bedford without aligning with our core principles.

Each quarter, our colleagues nominate our “values champions”, individuals within the organisation who are voted by their peers, for living and breathing our values, and often going over and above to achieve excellence.

This year we are celebrating World Values Day by asking our value champions what our values mean to them and how we engage with these values together.

Customer Focus: Arek Hadala

Our customers are at the heart of what we do, we aim to foster long-lasting relationships to support them in achieving their goals.

Arek Hadala is a Customer Success Consultant and Pod Leader working out of Poland.

“Being a Bedford Value Champion means being appreciated by the best. This appreciation drives me to go above and beyond. It gives me the fuel to go the extra mile. It also means that peers are noticing me, and my work is valued.”

“Being nominated for achieving excellence in customer focus gives me confidence that my approach to customers is the right one. I approach every client with the same ethos and try to influence others to put customer focus at the heart of what they do. In a customer success organisation, our priority is the success of our customers therefore being recognised in that category gives me a special boost of energy, motivation, and drive.”

Partnership: Andre Pretorius

Defined as fostering long-lasting relationships with our partners at Anaplan, customers and team. We stand together. We succeed together.

Andre Pretorius is a Customer Success Director; he has worked at Bedford for eight years initially as a Consultant. He has been recognised as a value champion for Partnerships.

“Being a customer focused organisation and always striving to deliver exceptional value to our customers, it is critical that we work in a collaborative manner within Bedford to share knowledge and experiences, as well as with Anaplan, our main partner to achieve this. Only by fostering these long-lasting relationships can we guarantee continuous value delivery for our customer. It is an honour being recognised for being a leader of such a key Bedford value.”

Humility: Jana Koleschnik

We define as acting with respect towards our colleagues, partners & customers.

Jana Koleschnik is a Customer Success Consultant working out of Germany and has been working at Bedford Consulting for a year and a half. Jana has been recognised as a value champion for Humility.

“Humility for me means working hard and doing my best on the job to support colleagues and clients, without expecting something back in return. This aligns perfectly with the Bedford way of by being a reliable and humble supplier for our customers continuously giving our best.”

Innovation: Pyry Peura

Defined as continuously taking the opportunity to develop new ways of thinking and working, being constantly curious, acting and adapting.

Pyry Peura is a Customer Success Consultant working out of Sweden. He has been at Bedford Consulting for one and a half years and has been recognised as excelling with innovation.

“Innovation, for me, stems from failing fast, this means that I dare to test and try new things without having a fear of failing, as the point when something goes wrong is the point where lots of learning can happen. This also allows me to try innovative ideas that I’m not always 100% going to succeed in or how I’m going to overcome the challenges, but I try. Bedford values innovation and successfully executed ideas are valued and I’m given that space to try different things where I see suitable.”

Quality: Irene Ortiz Molina

We define quality as an aim to work smart, work hard and be ourselves. We enter every engagement asking ourselves how we can help the business to make better, faster, and more agile decisions.

Irene Molina is a Customer Success Consultant located in Spain. She has worked at Bedford Consulting for just under one year and has several years of experience working with Anaplan.

“Being nominated for quality is impressive to me. It shows that my peers recognise the time I spend on delivering high-quality projects and making sure my customers are happy with the result. I think this shows we all take the time to get to know the people in the team, as well as how we can help each other. This is one of the aspects that I really enjoy about Bedford, we all work on growing together.”

Teamwork: Tim Ward

We define it as working as a team to succeed. It’s about being true team players, supporting each other, learning from each other, and sharing information to help grow as a team and deliver value for our customers.

Tim Ward is our Enablement Lead and has worked at Bedford for almost two years. Tim is fundamental to training and development in the team, he has been recognised for his teamwork.

“As Bedford grows, we are becoming an increasingly diverse group of people. We all have different life experiences, different superpowers, and different ways of thinking. When we work as a team, we can leverage the diversity in the organisation to solve problems, develop ourselves and deliver solutions to our clients.”

“I work hard to build trust between myself and others and to lead by example. If a colleague needs help, then I support them, if a process is broken, I make suggestions, if I see a hole that needs filling I fill it, if something needs to change, I make changes. My hope is that if colleagues see the impact, I can make by prioritising the team rather than just my small part in it then this will encourage them to take the same approach and make Bedford the collaborative, supportive and challenging environment we aspire to.”

Thank you to everyone at Bedford, as well as these six values champions for being part of our Bedford journey and living our values every day. These values are the basis for our DNA.