Let us start the New Year – and consequently our trip in content sharing – talking about who we are and those people who help to build TETRAEPIK’s DNA on a daily basis.
The first person we would like to talk about is Elsa, one of the four founding partners of the company. If Efficiency had a first name, it would probably be Elsa. But actually, Elsa Efficiency doesn’t sound that nice, does it? Believe us though, it makes perfect sense!
Datasheet:
Full name: Elsa Maria Pereira Gomes
Age: 46
Birthplace: Lisbon
Academic degree: Master’s Degree in Translation (ISLA)
She was born in Lisbon, into a small family, but with great human values.
Fan of a good detective novel, addicted to Criminal Minds and with a passion for Agatha Christie, Elsa loves the exhilarating rush of adrenaline of a great plot. Hadn’t she seized with both hands the opportunity of a lifetime and embarked on this voyage called TETRAEPIK, she would probably be trying to uncover difficult cases of criminal investigation.
She loves to dance and it is a well-known secret that Elsa doesn’t miss a chance, at the company’s anniversary parties, to jump to the dance floor as soon as the music starts playing. At the age of 24 she decided to start a dance of her own, but not like the traditional “pas de deux” (literally a “step of two”), but in a “pas de quatre” (a dance for four) – she started, with three colleagues, what would become the project of a lifetime: the foundation of a language service provider that she had envisioned the moment she initiated her professional career in this field. For years, she got to experience other realities with other language agencies and soon became aware that not all companies dance to the same rhythm. Thus, she also knew exactly what tempo she would like to implement at her own company.
She considers herself stubborn, but she prefers to be considered resilient. Maybe that is one of the factors that allow her to bring values such as perseverance and spirit of sacrifice into the company, which were essential during what Elsa considers to have been the most difficult moment in TETRAEPIK’s life: the 2002 recession.
On the other hand, in her view, the best moment in TETRAEPIK’s history was being awarded an international prize in 2007 that actually represented a public recognition of TETRAEPIK’s daily work and aim: to put our best efforts and qualities into every project we accept.
She is a confident, self-assured and determined woman who states in a very affirmative way that she “can (almost) every time get to the right place, even if she occasionally gets lost along the way”. She has brought this energy on a daily basis to TETRAEPIK and feels really proud about having been able to turn an initiative marked for crashing and burning into something that has gone extraordinarily well.
TETRAEPIK: How is it like to be a founding partner and the Quality Director at TETRAEPIK and what are the main challenges you have to face daily?
Elsa: Being part of this company is easy. I had the luck and the privilege to find perfect partners. Being the Quality Director is far more difficult though. Quality is actually what defines us as a company and what allows us to be a successful player in our industry for more than 22 years now. It is a daily ongoing work and it is that ONE aspect that can never fail.
Looking to the past, analysing the present and imagining the future, Elsa considers that TETRAEPIK stands out from the pack due to the constant effort we put in to help our clients thrive. “Everything has to do with our clients and their interests”.
TETRAEPIK: What are we doing really well?
Elsa: A 100% dedication to all projects.
TETRAEPIK: And what are we not doing so well?
Elsa: We have had some difficulties in letting go of some old habits that might well benefit our clients’ needs and interests, but that actually prevent us from being competitive.
As an ending note, she states that her expectations for the future lie in the “solid and sustained growth of the company” and, leveraging her ability to communicate with others, she asked the genie in the bottle to make her wish come true and finally let TETRAEPIK show off its cha-cha-cha skills on international stages. We tried through this post to present Elsa and let you get to know her a little, but we failed. Actually, defining her is not easy because what defines her is “the constant effort to have no definition at all”.
