INSIGHT
like Frank Hilgers an addition to the KVT management team since the buy out. Relationships with PEM, Southco and Emhart are longstanding, KVT having represented these principals in Switzerland and other key markets for many years, contributing strongly to their development. A spectrum of other well-renowned technical brands includes bigHead Bonding, Tappex, Filko, Tubtara and Loctite. Expansion brings with it relationship
challenges, Christina Würthner, acknowledges. Many of the KVT supply relationships were founded on geographic agreements and over the last year she has led a series of negotiations to try to ensure the Group is able to offer its full breadth of solutions in all its markets. Her team is also working to rebrand
and develop KVT’s own range of products – and were that not enough, continually
help a partner bring a product to market.” Referring to supplier development
Christina summarises: “What has been done intuitively before is now done more consciously.” This articulates a theme that is clearly detectable throughout the discussion of all aspects of the KVT Group. “The emphasis is on functioning systematically as a global organisation,” Frank Hilgers echoes. “With the investors came some new management but we did not think we must change everything. Rather we looked carefully at the strengths of the company and how we could develop them.” The presence and contributions of
Swiss managing director and member of the executive board Philippe Graber, throughout the day are a clear validation of the point. The Swiss market continues to represent a strong pillar of the KVT business; more than half of the KVT business comes from the German market, with rapid growth from the ‘new regions’ of North America and Eastern Europe. “We have a sales force in the market that has both a solid reputation and a lot of experience,” says Philippe. “We have a technical partnership with our supplier, our sales people work closely with them,
seek out potential new supply partners. “Our objective is to create premium value from high growth innovative technologies and strong reliable partners,” she says. Equally emphatic is the belief that KVT is able to deliver substantial and potentially crucial benefits to those partners. The commercial opportunities presented by KVT’s reputation and relationship with major OEMs across many industry sectors, and its logistical and sales capabilities are clear. The quality of KVT’s laboratory facilities is also significant to smaller supply partners unlikely to be large enough to invest in as comprehensive a range of modern testing and inspection technology. “As well as the engineering and testing departments,” Frank Hilgers adds, “we also have a business development department that is able to apply its skills and resources to
often going together to the customer, presenting one face.” That approach is, he reiterates, strongly supported by KVT’s in- house technical facilities. “For example, if the customer needs to test corrosion capabilities or tensile strength we have the equipment and the know-how to do it.” “We are committed to providing the
best solution for the customer. It is quite usual for us to offer a number of potential solutions and while we will normally recommend the one we consider to be optimal, we respect that the customer has the final decision.” It is a commitment that extends for the lifetime of the relationship and includes provision and maintenance of the installation systems required to ensure the customer achieves maximum productivity. “Our aim is to provide the complete system for fastener technology for the customer. That includes the
52 Fastener + Fixing Magazine • Issue 69 May 2011
guarantee that we can repair and service their tools and equipment well into the future.” The theme of systematic management
recurs in relationship to the development of KVT’s human resources. “What surprised me coming into KVT was the tremendous industry experience in the group and the awareness of new developments and technologies in the market,” says Frank Hilgers. “We said ‘what about industry X or business opportunity Y?’ and the immediate and substantiated response was ‘yes, we’ve been working on that’”. “It is crucial that we systematically
replicate the experience and know-how to KVT people working in new markets. That means developing the infrastructure to work together, exchange that experience and knowledge, make the training available and create the opportunities for progression that allows people to grow in the company.” Having the appropriate initial material is also critical: “Where we are recruiting new sales people, as we have done in Eastern Europe, we look for people with an engineering background and industry experience – people whose natural instinct is to think first about the solution and secondly the price. Even so we know it will take a while to develop someone to be truly effective in KVT.” There is plenty more to discover
about KVT’s market segments and the solutions it offers to each. The Group’s web presence and literature does a comprehensive and highly competent job, as one would expect. It is a rare opportunity, though, to challenge a management team robustly, something to which KVT responded remarkably openly and thoughtfully. Two voices, reflecting on facets of the
future, go a long way to summarise the consistency of vision KVT emanates. From Philippe Graber: “The cycle of
product development in all markets is getting shorter and shorter. KVT aims to be closely integrated into that cycle with its customers, in order to work together to develop the solutions required for the next cycle.” From Frank Hilgers: “There is only
one way to survive and develop in mature markets, which is by effectively managing complexity. We need to go into the niches and to grow you need to have many niches, so the management of complexity is fundamental to growth”. For KVT ‘Solutioneering’ unquestionably
does have real meaning and its application is taken very seriously indeed – as is the clear invitation to both demanding fastener users and innovative suppliers to test its capabilities.
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