“Everyone Will Feel the Energy““

Roy van Griensven has been the new head of Commercial Excellence since October 1. The Dutchman brings a wealth of experience to the table and has big plans.

He came to the interview in a visibly good mood and well prepared. When it comes to change or transformation processes, Roy van Griensven knows what he’s talking about. He has spent almost his entire career in positions where he had to drive such processes forward at companies, most recently at Mitsubishi Chemical in Japan. And he now has a clear plan for LANXESS that, once it picks up speed, will spur on continuous growth and create new opportunities. 

Mr. van Griensven, welcome to LANXESS! Tell me something that stood out to you during your first four weeks. 

The open-mindedness of the employees. Everyone has conveyed a sense of willingness to change and a positive attitude towards it. That was a very pleasant surprise and made me quite happy. 

How was the onboarding process?
Perfect, because I had the chance to participate in the GLC in September. There, I got to know the heads of all the BUs and GFs in one fell swoop. This is a process that would usually take months. I also learned a lot about LANXESS’s vision and, of course, about the Commercial Excellence Stream. On a personal note, I’m pleasantly surprised at how hard everyone is trying to make me feel at home here. 

Let’s talk about your new job as Head of Commercial Excellence. What’s the first thing you want to accomplish here?
We’ve successfully launched initial projects in the BUs. The first results are already visible. Now it’s a matter of persevering, scaling up, and expanding. That’s why my top priority for the coming period is to operationalize what we’ve started. We want to transform the initial positive effects of the pilot projects into lasting, long-term success. And to achieve that, we need to step things up a notch in order to strengthen the fundamentals. This means we now have to create the necessary structures, we need certain skills, we have to make tools and technologies available, and much more. We’re in the process of developing a clear roadmap for all of the BUs. It lays out how to collaborate and how to enable each of the individual BUs to achieve lasting success. This requires a great deal from many employees at the management and operational level. That’s why it is important that we build a large network of ambassadors for this transformation.

What do you mean by that?
When it comes to transformation, it usually also includes a focus on digitalization or the use of the latest technologies. They are important, of course, but they are only tools. In my experience, real transformation (and growth) only occurs when we inspire people – they have to be truly convinced of why they should now take action together. Through best practices, we have to demonstrate what needs to be done. And in the end, we have to tirelessly focus on supporting the teams in how it is done. We will only succeed in the latter if we continuously learn from our day-to-day work. That is why passionate employees are such valuable ambassadors. They create a sense of credibility that inspires others. And we need everyone on board in order to achieve lasting success. 

Where do we currently stand in this process? 
We have set out on this path, and once a company embarks on such a journey, it never really ends. This approach constantly yields new growth opportunities. We have now reached a point where we recognize our potential, although there are still many challenges to overcome. We still have a lot to discover on our journey to becoming a pure-play specialty chemicals company. We need to identify more products in all areas of the business – either on our own or with partners – that offer our customers added value in a variety of ways.

When will these developments be reflected in our financial results?
We are already seeing the first positive effects. This is an ongoing process. And if we now operationalize our new ways of working, increase transparency in all our processes, and at the same time invest in our business expertise as well as market and customer centricity, we are certain to see the positive results month after month.

Quote

People First
“They are the ones who will make this company a success.We’re currently still laying the groundwork and are at the beginning. But at some point everyone will feel the energy that comes from our fresh start, and then the process will take on a life of its own. I look forward to leading part of that and working with many
talented team members to write the next chapter in the story of LANXESS.“
Roy van Griensven

Infobox

What’s Been Achieved!

Commercial Excellence has either completed or launched the following projects so far:

Short-Term Price & Volume Gains: The Rollout is Progressing Well
• The project is currently underway in six BUs: an automated process continuously analyzes cost, revenue, and margin data, as well as competitor and customer data, to provide margin management recommendations.
• The goal is to include all relevant BUs in which we believe the process has potential by early 2025.

Customer Segmentation
• The segmentation concept was developed during a pilot project with the PLA BU. The next step is implementing the concept by providing differentiated levels of service and optimizing the channel approach.
• The findings from the first pilot project are now being applied in the F&F BU. IPG is on the verge of launching a segmentation approach for its distributors that has been developed over the past few months.

Contract Management: Successfully Completed
• Events focused on implementation in the BUs have begun.
• Application training is planned.

Value-Based Pricing
• The first pilot projects to identify value potential are currently being developed.
Learning Academy for Sales & Marketing
• Concept development completed; target audiences and learning path have been defined; rollout will begin in the first quarter of 2025.

Improving Customer-Related Processes
• Improvement of internal customer-related
processes is in progress.

... and many more will follow ...