NOVEMBER 2022 Ӏ INDUSTRY FUTURE


visionary thinking


We’ve looked at the past, now it’s time to focus on the future: we ask a number of key industry players what their strategy for further future development is.


Wim Sarens, SArENS CEo:


Our family’s blood runs Sarens blue, so I grew up in the world of heavy lifting. My first memory was attending a nighttime bridge lift in Belgium. I was about eight years old and there with my twin brother and father. Back then, the TC3200 we used was considered a very large crane, and the entire operation happened at night, which was exciting. With all the light towers and equipment, the entire scene looked like something out of a movie. By the time I was 12, my


grandfather was teaching me, my brother, and cousins to drive cars on Sarens’ old terrain in


Steenhuffel, where the company started. We used old, worn-out company cars that had over 300 kilometres on them, so we didn’t worry about dents and dings. (I think we did wreck a few, though!) I still remember that terrain: it had the old maintenance shops and old equipment, and we played there nearly every Sunday while our parents had dinner with our grandparents.


LEADING THE WAY Fast forward to today, and I’m now leading the company, and the giant cranes, that I used to be so in awe of as a kid. We have made incredible leaps since then: not only in the scale of our global operations, but the innovations we’ve made in crane design and engineering, as well as the tremendous projects we have worked on. We’ve moved everything from space shuttles to wind turbines, and have built the world’s biggest and mightiest cranes. In the world of heavy lifting,


Wim Sarens, Sarens CEO 68 CRANES TODAY


everything happens on such a large scale. Looking back over the past few years, the impact of world


events has been huge–but our vision for the future is just as big, and we’re excited for what is up ahead.


STRENGTH IN ADVERSITY Recently we’ve weathered significant macroeconomic changes, as everyone has: Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, and inflation among them. Each required close


coordination with our teams worldwide, and we invested a lot of time and energy reinforcing our organisation’s structure, processes, and lines of communication. During Covid, I made it a point to speak to every P&L-responsible person several times per week, and still start my week with those conversations. We also introduced very practical controls on cash spending, which we maintain. These macroeconomic changes, though challenging, have made me even more confident that we have a solid organisation equipped to deal with anything the future brings.


CREATING OUR FUTURE It’s up to us to create the future, which is why we aim to be as green as possible. We have installed solar panels on our headquarters and are making headway on building a windmill on-site.


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