Growing for gold, the story of Floriaan Tasche

January 28, 2020
 

Floriaan Tasche shares what he’s learned about career development at Signify

From Panama to the Netherlands, Floriaan’s been a part of Signify for 14 years. He started here in 2006, when LED wasn’t even fully developed yet. Since then, he has been through several industry transformations.
 

Throughout all these transformations learning has been key and Floriaan believes it should be central to anyone’s goals when charging down the corporate path.

As he himself says, “Being part of the lighting industry that has gone through such a transformation from conventional to LED, and being part of the biggest lighting company in the world? That’s a tremendous privilege and opportunity… you don’t see that in many industries.”
 

Floriaan currently heads up Product Management for Professional Outdoor Lighting in the Americas. His team manages product portfolios for Canada, the USA and Latin America. He took some time out to share with us some of the things he’s learned in his career.
 

Floriaan

That’s because when you’re 40 - 45 you still have 20 - 25 years of work life left, but you can’t take in new experiences as easily anymore. So, he says, “Build those experiences early in your career and then benefit from them over a long period of time after that. I’ve always taken that advice in my career and really took opportunities to broaden and develop my skill set.”

Floriaan’s first big learning opportunity came from Delight, a precursor to Signify’s current Horizon program. Delight was the initiative leading the transformation within (at that time) Philips Lighting. Since then he has had experiences leading the Outdoor team and went into sales when he felt he lacked customer-facing experience.

You can start to see a pattern here: where he felt he lacked, that was his next move. Until eventually that meant moving to a new continent where he was enveloped in North American and Latin American culture, which he still believes is the most culturally enriching experience he has had to date.

Floriaan thrives on learning, change and diversity, so it comes as no surprise that a company founded on constant innovation motivated him to stay.

Floriaan’s pride in Signify comes from just how much this company has achieved and how it’s helped those who need it most. From providing solar lighting in rural areas to empowering community leaders with lighting education courses there are many reasons to be a proud Signify employee!