“Alignment and consensus are not words that I believe resonate with the agility needed today.”
sions had to be made. This cannot be done with policies alone and so you have to ensure that leadership is fully enabled. I have uploaded a lot of experience over the years and this gives you more confidence as a leader, even if it means making mistakes. Assertiveness in these times is very important. People want clar- ity. In our business, all decision-makers are fully enabled, we make decisions fast but we are also fast in realizing when the decisions are not good enough. As a result, we have been able to run all our operations virtually non-stop.”
The transformation into an integrated end-to-end supply chain prepared you well for the unforeseen events of 2020. Was this resilience a result of teamwork and collaboration or processes? “It’s not one without the other. We are competitive because our supply team is passionate about its business-enabling func- tion. We are never satisfied. Processes are important so that you understand how each decision is connected to the other. How- ever, you need to know who is making the big calls. COVID helped us appreciate the enormous knowledge, accountability and attitude within the organization and how key decisions are connected to each other. Because our decision makers are all in integrated teams we could react fast.
The demand for some of our products increased tenfold at times and although we couldn’t fully fulfil demand we stream- lined and achieved extra capacity, generated efficiency gains in factories giving us 25+% extra output, 50% extra in needed seg- ments, and brought forward investments planned for the next five years into one year. In this way we accelerated growth and activated our partner network which involved more than 100 source exchanges. In these situations, it’s agility and resilience that drive decisions.
In all markets we have gained market share and depending on the portfolio, increased capacity by 3-7 times. We are still grow- ing but our priority is to ensure that our employees, partners, families and customers are protected. We also have to be careful that we’re not damaging the supply chain. At the same time, we have an obligation to serve our consumers.”
Having successfully responded to the COVID pandemic, what are your challenges now, especially regarding digitalization and e-commerce? “In 2018 we set up the transformation, 2019 was about mak- ing sure it was running and in 2020-21 we have to make sure that we’re not missing anything. We have a very clear action plan to ensure that 2021 is a great year but our competitors are not sleeping either and so we are single-mindedly putting our efforts into what we can change through innovation and con- necting with our partners. One is the portfolio. Also, 2020 accelerated our use of digital tools, which we had not approached previously just for the sake of a cultural journey. We are using data analytics and digitalization to drive sustainability and sustainable performance and we use the data to drive effi- ciencies. We have also increased automation to add value and enhance quality and safety.
Regarding e-commerce, we have our own organisation for e-business which grew massively last year: the potential is huge
and we will continue to drive it. Personally, I admire the digital backbone in my Amsterdam office to see the numbers on my panoramic dash board opti- mized and I believe there is an opportunity to leap frog here. We are concentrating on ensuring that our product life cycle management is as agile and accurate as possible, so that we don’t have multiple agendas. While I believe that you need digi- talisation, we always have to ask, why am I here and what is the opportunity? You shouldn’t forget that you are here to serve con- sumers and the company.”
You want to offer consumers more than just a brand. What role does sustainability play in giving them extra value? “Supply chain has to ensure that we serve consumers’ needs and sustainability is a big thing. We as a business have not been very vocal for the last five years yet we have zero waste-to-landfill and we’ve reduced water consumption by over 40 per cent in factories over the last eight years. We use almost 100% renew- able energy in almost all our operations globally. A lot of our products are designed for sustainability within the home. For example, dishwasher cleaner, Finish, reduces water usage during washing-up. We want to add further value by reducing waste water in our own factories. Our ambition is for our factories to evolve to have water positive performance. That means that we continue reducing the use of water, maximise harvesting water and give back to society more water (in same or better quality) than we have taken out for manufacturing our products. It is a big ambition and not talked about widely but we will have such a factory running in India this year. We very proud and it keeps our teams very engaged. People want to do more than just make money!”
Interview conducted by:
Martijn Lofvers Owner, Publisher & Editior-in-Chief
Supply Chain Movement martijn.lofvers@supplychain-
media.nl
Oskar Verkamman Managing Director Inspired-Search 0skar@inspired-
search.com
17
SUPPLY CHAIN MOVEMENT, No.40, Q1 2021
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