PORTRAIT: Nova – Exporting Peruvian Innovation

Can you tell us how you and your wife began your entrepreneurial journey together?

Irene is Huancaína, and I am Cusqueño. We both came to the capital, Lima, to study in search of a better future. I chose to pursue a mechanical engineering degree without knowing exactly what it entailed. As a boy, I was a blacksmith’s assistant and enjoyed the process of working raw material into something useful – engineering appealed to me for this reason.

My studies at the National University of Engineering were life-changing. I was able to hone the technical skills and ingenuity that all Peruvians are capable of when presented with the opportunity. In the factory where I was working, I could practise what I had learned with my hands while paying attention to my mistakes. In seeing what can be accomplished with the right vision, I became motivated to start our own company.

Neither my wife Irene nor I had any entrepreneurial experience. However, what we did have was each other’s support, which I believe is the fundamental reason for our success. We are not only allies in marriage and in raising a family, we also complement each other in the management and administration of our business.

Without capital, we could do nothing, and so we took jobs. Irene worked in the public sector while I found employment in a company that manufactured metal bolts and nuts. It was a difficult position to get without experience, but I was very fortunate. Initially, I thought I would only stay for three months but stayed instead for seven years and three months.

When I began my tenure, the company was experiencing severe economic difficulties, which I took on as a challenge. I adapted where I saw fit, expanding into other areas and finding new opportunities. In a short time, I managed to transform the company into an industry leader not only in Peru but all of South America. The experience filled me with the confidence necessary to run my own business.

Our jobs compensated us well, which allowed us to give a solid education to our children. Eventually, however, Irene and I decided it was time for us to try something new – we wanted to invest the time we gave to our employers on a project of our own. We knew lean years would follow, but we took the leap nonetheless.

How did you go about building the company?

To begin with, we lacked the capital to buy even the most basic equipment, so we started without tools and machines – only what I personally had available. I rented a lathe to secure clients, and we grew little by little.

A tremendous opportunity came in the form of advising other companies. I had built a reputation for the ability to relieve bottlenecks and solve problems. Other business owners started seeking my help. Through consulting, we were able to buy some second-hand machines and adapted them to our needs. Noticing these modifications, a client asked if we could design and manufacture a dough kneading machine. I had made more complicated machinery in the past, and so, said yes.

That was a formative experience in terms of looking to niche markets for opportunity. Our aim was to save clients’ money by modifying or building machines for them, undercutting large-scale manufacturers who only sold brand new machines for large sums of money.

It didn’t go perfectly at first. We had to test and refine the process several times, but today, we are recognised worldwide as a top manufacturer of baking and pastry-making machinery. We now export to over 30 different countries and have representatives in the United States and Italy as well as our Latin American neighbours Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia and Panama.

Has internationalising changed the business?

The exposure we get has led to technological advancements in our products. Peru is our home base, but through our participation in different events around the globe, we are privy to the latest innovations in manufacturing technology on every continent. Through this exposure, we can assess and improve the value we offer to customers. To compete against the biggest suppliers, we have to find ways of imbuing our products with more quality, capable of higher performance and increased efficiency.

Aside from an emphasis on innovation, Nova also puts a great deal of importance on human talent. How do the two complement each other?

The interface between innovation and talent comes naturally to Peruvians. We have a rich cultural history rife with ingenuity. The challenge is more often keeping talented individuals in our organisation and not losing them to competitors or other circumstances. To that end, employee recognition is crucial to Nova. It’s important that our staff feels how valuable they are, not only in their roles as workers but also as colleagues and friends.

On an organisational level, Nova has built-in recognition mechanisms that are vital to employee retention. One technique is rewarding mistakes. It is much better to acknowledge the mishaps that occur during production than ignore or hide them. In doing so, we’ve generated countless ideas on improving our processes that would have otherwise gone undiscovered. The challenge then becomes incorporating all the great ideas our employees provide us with. To that end, we have a very skilled research and development team that analyses the employee feedback loop and modifies our operations accordingly. In the past, this has led to entirely new projects and even work in new industries.