Axess Technologies is a global company with unrivalled expertise in lifting operations. Operating around the world, Axess provides lifting technology solutions to the oil and gas industry, the renewables sectors, and other industries with complex heavy-lifting needs. As an owner-operated company, Axess has 25 years of experience and organic growth that has brought it to 30 countries, but its heart remains at its headquarters in the small town of Molde, Norway.
“It is a small town in the mountains, where people are creative and industrial,” says Trond Stokke, CEO of Axess Technologies. “Norway has not always been a rich country, and our culture is one of figuring things out by ourselves. You grow your own, fish when it’s possible to fish and farm wherever you can farm. That is a big part of our culture and what we are. That has always been a part of the company and a part of what we have exported around the world.”
The Easy Solution
Over 25 years Axess Technologies has carried out 3,500 projects for lifting operations.
“We have lifted almost everything on an oilrig, from the top of the flare to subsea,” Stokke says simply. “We can find new solutions for lifting very complex objects into the air or off the seabed. Our motto is ‘We are lifting’ and we find the best solutions for our clients. That is at our very core.”
That slogan is not just about what Axess Technologies can do, but about the things it will exclude to focus on its core skillset. The company frequently receives requests to work on engineering projects outside its area of specialisation, such as rebuilding a living module on an oil rig installation. While Axess certainly has engineers who are up to the task, it still turns these projects down.
“We focus on products and solutions for lifting,” Stokke says. “A lot of my job is to be compliant to our strategy and build us a company for the future and to be sure that we are not deviating from that strategy,” he says. “As well as the technical expertise, we have an intimate understanding of all the relevant rules and regulations. But more than that, we know how to find the easy solution to a difficult problem.”
As Stokke points out, doing things the easy way is deceptively difficult.
“When people see our solutions, they often say, ‘We could have done that!’, but finding the easy solution is a difficult task in itself,” Stokke tells us. “We always prioritise adding value where we can.”
It is a unique insight that means Axess Technologies is often punching above its weight, competing against firms a hundred times larger than it is even as Axess enjoys a great deal of growth.
“We are often an underdog, but we find smart, lean ways to complete our projects,” Stokke says. “We can think differently to the big players because they are incentivised to do things in a certain way. We are best suited to special operation projects. We earn our money on what the customer saves by using us, so we build trust and sustainable client relations by being transparent and open about what we do. We are a profitable company, but we are upfront with the customer about costs and how we add value to their operations.”
Elevated Values
As well as its focus on lifting technologies, Axess is also guided by the strong set of values that inspired Stokke to join and stay with the company in his 17 years with them. He joined the firm from leading a large engineering company because Axess’s profile and values chimed so well with his own.
“All companies have values on the wall, but here we live those values,” Stokke tells us. “The culture is a forward-leaning, client first, high-performance one made up of passion, engaged people. That culture has stayed intact even as the company has grown rapidly. That is something that makes it so much easier when you have a meeting at our offices in Mexico or India. Wherever you are talking to people with the same understanding and values that you do.”
Today the company employs 850 people who share those values, as the company has achieved a 1.6 billion kroner turnover – expected to grow past 2 billion this year. Stokke puts that all down to the passion of Axess’s people.
“The people here really enjoy coming to work. Any Axess office I go into, anywhere in the world, people are eager and passionate about their work. They are very engaged interested and curious about the work. They’re not just there to collect a paycheque,” he insists. “We hire a lot of engineers directly from school and develop them from there. We are good at finding the right people and putting them in the right position and developing them in the right way.”
For many key personnel within the company, that passion is because they have a real stake in the business – literally. A number of the company’s key staff count themselves among the company’s owners, creating a strong sense of investment among the workforce.
“We are a very Scandinavian company in many ways. We are very open, transparent, and inclusive. When I make a decision, I often discuss that with people throughout the company to find the best answer. It’s not just me sitting in my office handing down decrees. I anchor my decisions in the company,” Stokke says. “I think it’s very important to be able to involve people in things that they will be affected by further down the line.”
These factors all feed into the strong position Axess Technologies occupies looking forward.
“We are still the underdog in many ways, but we are becoming more and more recognised as a supplier and partner who can do a lot of good providing cost-savings and safer ways of doing things for our clients,” Stokke reflects. “Axess Technologies will grow by between 70 and 80% this year, which is challenging, but the way we solve problems for our clients continues to work very well. We are also receiving more and more recognition as a potential partner in the renewables space. We understand our clients’ pain points and we use that knowledge to always deliver above expectations so that clients want to work with us again.”
