When asked the question, “who are we?” the simplest solution is to define our business by what we do. It’s not an uncommon approach – the identity of many organizations starts and stops with the services or products they provide.
At Ion, we think differently. We’re more than just an asset and integrity inspection and engineering services provider. That is our area of expertise, but it is far too limiting, we see ourselves as so much more. To understand Ion, we think it’s important to hear our story – to learn the answers behind the 5Ws – Who we are, What we do, Where we do it, When do we do it, and finally – why do we do it?
By offering up these answers with complete transparency, we hope to provide our clients (and our staff!) a deeper understanding of what makes Ion great, and why we are the obvious choice to handle your business’ unique needs.
Clichés can be a crutch for businesses for that lack a true definition of who they are. It’s easy to say “our people are our greatest asset” or that we are a “leading provider” in any given sector.
It is far more difficult to back up such claims with facts or actions – and to stay true to those claims as your business evolves. Despite this reality, we do recognize that sometimes we rely on cliches simply because they are tried-and-trued marketing methods. Both can be true.
At Ion, our people are genuinely what makes our business work. We like to say that we are a “collaboration of oil and gas experts” because at the end of the day, there is no better way to put it. We use the word collaboration because we’re built differently. Ion breaks away from the traditional top-down hierarchical management structure and approaches our business from another perspective.
The reason for this approach is simple. Two people sitting side-by-side in a classroom can have dramatically different learning experiences. The same goes for those who work together. Two individuals who are experts in one area will not always come to the same conclusions or handle a situation using the same approach and methods. That’s what makes Ion work. We collaborate - understanding each other’s strengths, weaknesses, and unique experiences. This gives our management team the ability to approach every project and new client with fresh eyes and different perspectives.
Your business is unique – so it only makes sense that we handle it as such. At Ion, we will find the best person to handle your account, regardless of who it is or where they fit in our structure, rather than passing it off to the next person in line. Our internal open-door policy is one that ensures our people are never left in the cold. We work together, leveraging one another’s backgrounds, experiences, and expertise to find solutions that work for our clients.
On any given day, our people can be exposed to dozens of questions or scenarios from within our team, promoting a culture of collaboration, and ensuring that nobody’s day-to-day ever feels stagnant or boring.
Each of these factors are part of our customer promise: we put our clients first. By collaborating, communicating, and relying on one another’s expertise, we can ensure that we are always in a position to put the needs of our clients first.
While we don’t define our business or our culture by what we do here at Ion, that doesn’t mean we don’t take pride in it. There are no two ways about it - we started this business because we are good at what we do.
Going back to our people being our catalyst for success, it’s because of the extensive experience and broad professional backgrounds of our team that we can offer such a diverse service list to Western Canada’s oil & gas sector.
From designing and managing flow stations and facilities in Nigeria’s Delta State to vessel integrity and pipeline inspections across North America, our team experience in the energy industry with clients around the globe.
With our head office located in Edmonton, the heart of Canada’s oil & gas country, we are effectively able to provide timely service across our primary service areas of Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. Our service area has grown with our company, but despite this, we always strive to put our people where they can serve our clients best. This means being available when and where our clients need us. Whether we’re needed on site, or we are operating out of our HQ, Ion understands that availability is hallmark of a successful service provider.
Our project and client portfolios are always expanding as we look for new ways to provide complete end-to-end services, which has resulted in steady growth in recent years. Over the past half-decade, Ion has expanded to include services such as Non-Destructive Examination and Thermography/Thermal Imaging on our list of specialities, effectively growing our business to provide complete cradle-to-the-grave design, inspection, and management services.
We take a great amount of pride in the work we do and the services we provide. Like most businesses around the world, we envision the future of Ion as a true leading provider in our industry – not as a tagline for a web page, but in the eyes of our people and our clients. Like we said before, our goal is to always put our clients first, and that means living up to our promises. Growth is important to Ion, but we will never sacrifice the quality of our work our relationships with our clients just to grow our rolodex.
To understand the culture at Ion, it’s important to know our motivations. At Ion, are people are more than just a business asset we can deploy at will.
As people with families ourselves, the leadership team at Ion built this business with the understanding that there is more to life than work. We want to be always at our best, and that means taking some time for the important things and maintaining a healthy work/life balance. By keeping our people happy and comfortable, we know that our clients will never suffer from unengaged or absent-minded service providers.
To us, building Ion was – and still is – about combining our years of experience and building a service provider that features the best of what we have learned. This is the entire reason behind our collaborative leadership model, and consultative approach with our clients, and people-first mindset. Having been in the industry and around the world for more than a couple of years, we have seen what works, and what doesn’t.
We also understand that not everyone has their career planned out and people’s interests change. That’s why we collaborate – we put our people in the best position to succeed and help our clients, but we also like to expose our people to different roles, tasks, and locations to help build the experience that we ourselves value so highly and rely on daily. For us, we see our model as a win-win-win. Ion wins by keeping our clients happy and building a strong team of people with different areas of expertise. Our people win by building their careers in an exciting industry and by being valued by our accommodating, open leadership group. And finally, our clients win by being served by the experts we employ that are happy to be there, and have the client’s best interests in mind.
By joining our team or engaging our services as a client, you are getting a culture that is defined by people. We trust the experience and expertise of our staff, and we only put the best people in place to help our clients succeed.
We are always open to expanding our relationships. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business succeed. You can also check out our opportunities to see if you are a fit for our team.