"Being part of a company that produces the basic materials for building civilizations has a natural attraction for me. I was drawn by the possibility to be part of producing something tangible. Ive noticed that the phrases claiming "customer focus" and "entrepreneurial thinking" truly permeate throughout the whole company. The culture of Akzo Nobel is characterized by encouragement of independent thought and action, taking charge and looking for new solutions to problems or even better alternatives to current solutions. In my role I am now contributing to building a new plant-wide financial reporting system, which gives me ample opportunity to come up with solutions. In addition, I am as well as everyone else encouraged to question current solutions, and to learn more about the business itself. Im not simply put into an office or a cubicle to do my thing. Im an integral part of the organization.