A Team Leader
Since joining the in-plant at Portland General Electric, Wes Friesen has worked hard to strengthen its team atmosphere while adding equipment and services.
By Bob Neubauer
Wes Friesen has been a busy man for the past six years. Since taking over as manager of Billing & Remittance Services at Portland General Electric, which includes printing and automated mail, he has been hard at work revamping the 11-employee in-plant—upgrading equipment, adding services and building a team atmosphere. The operation's success is evident from the handful of recent awards it has won.
"I really have enjoyed both printing and the mail functions," Friesen says. "I find them very exciting."
But with a bachelors degree in business administration from George Fox University, an MBA from the University of Portland and a PhD from Columbia Pacific University, this life-long Oregon resident would seem more at home working in finance. And, in fact, that's where he worked for his first 18 years after graduation.
"I spent many years working in finance and accounting in both staff and supervisory roles," says Friesen, who has been at Portland General Electric for 24 years now. "But I always had an interest in leadership and management, and I started getting real interested in operational areas of the company."
So when an opportunity opened up to manage the in-plant in 1998, he jumped at the chance. He had his work cut out for him. The printing operation, then located about a mile from the mail facility, had been somewhat neglected. His first task was to consolidate print and mail under one roof. Then came the hard part: Integrating the two teams.
"It was a bit of a challenge," he
admits. But the idea of turning workers into a team, and helping them work together to achieve goals was what had attracted him to the position. Before long he was cross-training mail and print employees, leading team meetings, throwing pizza parties and even taking them to ball games and movies.
"It was very important to me that the team has a sense of being a team and has mutual respect and care for each other, and are shooting for common goals," he says.
Focusing On Customers
One of those goals was improving customer service. An initial survey gave the in-plant only an average rating from customers. That changed.
"Last time we did a survey it was just kind of off the board how well our customers received us," he notes.
This was one of the shop's key successes. Friesen modestly credits his employees.
"I have a great team of people," he lauds.
Another reason behind this high approval rating was the increase in services Friesen helped bring about:
• When he first arrived, the shop, a non-offset operation, had no color capabilities. He added a Savin color copier, and later upgraded to a Xerox DocuColor 6060.
• Initially there was only a single black-and-white IBM printer; today the in-plant has two IBM 4000s and an IBM 4005 highlight color printer and prints, inserts and mails 10 million bills and late notices a year.
• The shop's old DocuTech 6135 was replaced by a newer 6155.
"We basically have upgraded almost everything in the shop since I've been there," Friesen says.
The in-plant has also added new technologies, like a Stralfors unwinder and folder/stacker. The mail department got two new Bell & Howell in
erters and an IntellaCenter system. Friesen added CD burning and walk-up scanning services. He upgraded the shop's old large-format printer, which provides engineers with maps, and will soon upgrade that equipment again.
His efforts have been recognized. In 2001 the in-plant was named Mailer of the Year by the Greater Portland Postal Customer Council (PCC) and also won a Technical Excellence Award from the Mail Systems Management Association and MailCom. In 2002, the shop won the IPMA Management Award.
"The external awards just kind of give that recognition that we have been successful as a team," he says.
Friesen is a strong believer in sharing what he's learned. He not only moonlights as a university instructor of graduate-level business courses, he speaks at numerous conferences, like IPMA and Xplor. He also serves as president of the Greater Portland PCC.
Outside of work Friesen is active in his church, collects sports memorabilia and loves reading. Last month the father of two celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary.
