fittings 06

2 EuropE’s (2nd) bEst staff magazinE! 16 toblEr closEr to bEcoming a full sErvicE providEr Ta

ke me

home

Your Top Priority in 2013

A Trojan horse

Corporate

Make this

in Twello

4

12

8

No. 6Winter 2013

30 min. update

a publication

Heroessometimes wear a suit and tie

Win an

iPhone

5

WolseleY shAre

sAve ProgrAm

Invest In your future!

dfd

AvAIlAble from mArch 2013

Inside

Around 2,000 col-leagues read Fittings in five languages, three times a year. It’s only 24 pages an issue but noth-ing on these pages is left to chance. An editorial board that includes repre-sentatives from all of the business units ensures the quality of the maga-zine. For our readership there are specific maga-zine qualities that mat-ter to them – content, look and feel, transla-tion, availability and rel-evance, which is prob-ably the most difficult of all to get right. We have to take different cultures, functions and expecta-tions into consideration. Putting all of this togeth-er to create a balanced magazine isn’t easy. A Tobler colleague picking items in Däniken has dif-ferent reading preferenc-es to a sales colleague in a branch in ÖAG. But overall, we succeed pret-ty well. The federation of European business com-

munications associations (FEIEA) has named Fit-tings as the 2nd best magazine in Europe from among a group of top-professional publications from 14 competing na-tions. Considering the fact that Fittings is only two years old, this is im-pressive. Something we can all can be proud of. We’re constantly looking for projects, ideas and ini-tiatives that can inspire colleagues at different levels of the organisation. Our editorial staff usually have a good understand-ing of what is going on in the units and they’re close to the MDs. This helps to ensure that the magazine’s content is al-ways relevant to the busi-ness

Happy reading

Fittings issue 6 · Distributed February 2013 · Fittings is the employee magazine for Wolseley CE staff in Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. Publication by Wolseley CE. Circulation: 2,300. Available languages: English, German, Dutch, Italian and French. Editorial responsibility: Wolseley CE/Charlotte Gullach Büttrich. Journalistic production and project management: Radical Communications/Patrick May. Design and layout: Appetizer.dk/Simon Johnsen. Photography: Martijn vd Griendt & Günter Wohlschlager. Print: CoolGray. Editorial committee: DT Group/Charlotte Gullach Büttrich, [email protected]; Wasco/Sacha Büchele, [email protected]; ÖAG/Markus Woegerbauer, [email protected], CFM/Cedric Faivre, [email protected] and Wolseley CE/Tobias Roser, [email protected]

Congrats! You are reading Europe’s (second) best staff magazine!

Fittings is a perfect example of how we collaborate. It supports and promotes collaboration and the sharing of excellent ideas across business units. According to a pan-European jury, we’re doing a great job. Fittings has been named the second best staff magazine in Europe 2012.

Charlotte Gullach BüttrichChief Editor [email protected]

Tobler +41 44 735 50 00CFM +352 4995-1Wasco +31 88 099 5000

OÄG +43 50406 0DT Group +45 39559700Wolseley +44 118 929 8700

USEFUL NUMBERS

You can write to Charlotte at [email protected] Feel free to share your ideas and comments – both positive and critical.

make this your Top PriorityHow to make 2013 a fantastic year

Act with Integrity Wolseley corporate values

A Trojan horse in TwelloIdeas@work

Close, closer, closestIdeas@work

stolen - with permission from FergusonSweet 16

let me engAge you!Action Plans Employee Engagement Survey

Fittings Quiz

We find solutions together“We replicate the best ideas”

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8Corporate heroessometimes wear a suit and tie

Tobler was established in 1957 and last year was its 55th anniversary. It celebrated this milestone together with customers

and suppliers by inviting 3,500 of them to an enchanting gala evening with excellent food and entertainment.

Customer Relations

or rather - nine gala evenings. Tobler’s cus-tomers are

spread over the entire country - and since they are served and supported locally - Tobler decided

that they should also par-ty locally. So Tobler hired travelling theatre group “Das Zelt” (The Tent) to bring the party to its cus-tomers rather than its customers having to trav-el to the party!

Das Zelt is no ordinary theatrical venue. It is a genuine VIP experience, making it the perfect ven-ue to celebrate Tobler’s anniversary with custom-ers

ZeltDas

3Fittings 6 · 2013

PriorityTopWelcome to 2013.

Our markets continue to affected by the European economic slowdown. But there are new opportunities.

And new challenges.

The impact on our businesses varies; depending on the local situation and the maturity of the business.

If we stay focused and keep our eyes open, crisis or not, 2013 can

become a fantastic year.

Make this your

4 Fittings 6 · 2013

Spotlight

More on next page

priorities 2013

“The Dutch market has been under pressure and it still is,” says Wasco CEO, Herold van den Belt. “It should come as no surprise that this has had an impact on our busi-ness. Our customers are experiencing hard times and they put pressure on their sup-pliers - which is us and our competitors. The situation requires us to be exact. There’s little room for failure.”

Be present where it counts“Our inbound sales department has to focus even more on col-lective sales and follow up on questions and complaints from our customers. Outbound sales must focus on selling the right mix of products, be present where it counts, ensure offers and quotes are exact and don’t have any errors. And follow up. All structures and processes are in place. It’s about using the ex-isting business framework and getting it right.”

Fewer mistakes = money saved“Our logistics staff must per-form at their very best. This means no mistakes. If we re-duce the amount of extra deliv-eries we have to make because we forgot an item or packed the wrong item, we save money. What’s more, we gain respect from customers. We do a lot of things well. We can see that in the customer survey. Custom-er satisfaction is increasing. Our logistic colleagues must deliver what we promise our custom-ers - and the quality of our de-liveries must be the best in the market.”

Don’t make it about price“Competitors drop prices to get

business from our customers

and it can be tempting to do the

same. But in times like this, it’s

important to keep emphasising

that price isn’t everything. We

deliver a great service. We have

our showrooms, we are doing

great in the WEC (see page XX)

and our service concepts work.

We should keep that in mind.

It is what differentiates us from

our competitors.”

12

Sales:Logistics:

3

Wasco

5Fittings 6 · 2013

21

priorities 2013

Tobler is doing well. Centralisation of the warehouse function (Däniken), an efficient network of professional Marchés and success in managing a customer-relevant assortment has put Tobler ahead of the competition.

Surveys show that Tobler’s customers appreciate its service, and the company’s staff feel they work for a great company. But according to company CEO Heinz Wiedmer: “We can always do better.” Here’s the Tobler to-do list for 2013.

Gaining market-share in a new product range Sanitary

“Today we have an as-sortment of both pri-vate label (Comfort) and branded products in front of the wall sup-plies. We started selling sanitary last year with-out making any big in-vestments. We use our existing stores and try to sell larger projects, where we are allowed to provide sanitary so-lutions for larger build-ings. It is a huge market and although we’re rela-tively new here, it is our ambition to gain market share in 2013.”

Adjust service levels“We are currently test-ing software (customer relationship manage-ment) that will help us plan customer visits and follow up on quotations more efficiently. The software will make it easier to see how many offers we’re sending out and how many of these are converted into sales. The software will also help us to differentiate our marketing messages and our service level in relation to our custom-ers. All in all, the soft-ware will provide bet-ter management of our customer base. We ex-pect to implement the software in the first half of this year.”

We’re the newcomer and we need to prove ourselves

Continuedon page 22

3

“Heat generation and systems are the new big thing in Tobler,” says Heinz Widmer. “We have invested significant re-sources and prepared the organisation to get this wildly fascinating range up and running. This is the moment of truth. This year we have to prove that we can sell this range. To ensure success, everyone in Tobler has to be aware of their contri-bution and perform be-yond expectations. We’re the newcomer in this market and we need to prove ourselves.”

“Our purchasers need to make sure that we have the best possible prod-uct availability, keep an eye out for new prod-ucts and make sure we

have all necessary prod-uct documentation. In lo-gistics, we need to make sure that we make no mistakes picking items. We’re selling systems and if one little item is miss-ing, the entire system is useless. The installer can-not finish his work and that will have a negative impact on our ability to sell.”

“Sales have to be clos-er then ever to the cus-tomer. They must guide customers, be clear and convincing and make in-clusive offers. Outbound sales have to promote the product range, inbound sales have to make sure the offers are detailed, include all the necessary items, and ensure cus-tomers are getting the correct technical draw-ings.”

ToBLER


We find

Human capital is the most important asset in our organisation. The CE workforce is diverse; in terms of culture, functions and in a many other ways. Human Resources has to ensure we have the right people with the right skills and competencies - at all times. And they have to create a good place to work.

It’s a large responsi-bility,” says Tobias Roser, CE’s HR Di-rector. “To get the

most of our combined ex-periences and competen-cies, we borrow each oth-er’s good ideas. There’s a solid culture of collabo-ration on all levels. On a Wolseley level, we dis-cuss issues of a strate-gic nature, like health and safety, personnel develop-ment, leadership training and the like. Discussions at this level have an inspi-rational character whereas collaboration on other lev-els is more practical, more hands-on.”

Finding inspiration elsewhere“One of the excellent ideas to emerge from our group-wide collaboration is the Employee Engagement Sur-

vey (EES),” says Tobias. “In DT Group, conducting EES has been a positive experience. So we were

able to copy processes and ideas for the ques-

tionnaires. On the CE level, we worked to-gether to adjust the survey and the pro-cesses so that it fits

with our organisation. The results and the experienc-es we got while conduct-ing the survey, we share again, group wide.”

Accelerate development“Why should we reinvent the wheel, when it’s al-ready operational in an-

other business unit?” To-bias asks. “Intelligent borrowing makes it possible for us to accelerate the de-velopment of the HR function in CE. There are a lot of things we could do to contribute to the devel-opment of the organisa-tion and to create a bet-ter workplace. But our resources are limited. By combining forces, we can do more than we would be able to do individually. We save money too. Process-es and tools we can copy, we don’t have to buy.”

“There’s another impor-tant purpose for working together,” Tobias explains. “We meet up and get to know each other. This makes it easier to pick up the phone and call a col-league from another busi-ness unit.”

The Wolseley Advantage

“We replicate the best ideas”

“Being a part of a larger family has advantag-es. Your family might include a mechanic who doesn’t mind taking a look under the hood of your car or a tech-savvy nephew who connects your iPhone with your iPad

in a jiffy. Wolseley resembles a big family where the sharing of skills, competen-

cies and experiences is just more structured.

one big family

7Fittings 6 · 2013

togethersolutions

Corporate

At first sight you might think Christoph Zelezo is your idea of a typical computer special-ist who spends all of his time in front of a computer. He is in fact a SAP specialist but we all know first impressions can be deceiving.

Because when the siren goes off Christof becomes an abso-lutely cool, calm and focused fireman - with the ability to act fast and be in the right place at the right time.

sometimes wear a suit and tie

Heroes

Christoph Zelezo


Resume

ÖAG has it’s own compa-ny fire brigade, established

in 1984. It includes six brave colleagues, peo-ple who actually run to-wards danger when all hell breaks loose. “Yes it can be dangerous,” Chris-toph explains. “That’s why we undergo basic training and why we con-duct monthly training sessions. When calami-ties occur, we have to be ready to act.”

When the sirens wake you upChristoph joined the fire brigade at ÖAG in 2003 but it was not a new field for him. “I was a volun-tary fire fighter before I started here. It has been my dream since I was a small boy. There’s some-thing heroic about it.” Christoph is married and has two kids. “Of course my wife worries when the sirens go off. Some-times in the middle of the night. Then I have to pack my gear and get going. She’s always happy when I get back in one piece.”

“The training we get, prepares you for a lit-tle bit of everything. Our main role is to pave the way for the profession-al firefighters, make sure they have access to water and to do as much dam-age control as possible. Of course, when the inci-dents are small, we can manage it ourselves. But our equipment compared to the professionals is

pretty limited. Let’s just say, it’s not what you’d call James Bond stand-ard.”

Ten crucial minutes“The first ten minutes of an incident are crucial. When a calamity occurs,

it takes between ten and twenty minutes before a fire engine is at our prem-ises. But the company brigade is already in the

building and where pos-sible, we can reduce the damage - make sure no-body gets hurt and control what can be controlled. Once the professional bri-gade arrives, we can guide them to the incident area and give them a full over-view of the situation so they can act fast.”

ÖAG’s brigade has around 30 operations a year. “One of the more serious incidents here at ÖAG occurred two years ago. A waste container caught fire. It was a po-tentially dangerous situa-tion because the container had a hydraulic press that was filled with hydrau-lic oil. That oil could have caught fire causing a se-rious danger for employ-ees. We could have had a major catastrophe on our hands. Fortunately we got the situation under control but it took us two scarey hours.”

“Today we’re 17 people: 3 women and 14 men. We manage but we could definitely use some more people. Preferably from different depart-ments as this will allow us to train together. After all, it’s hard for a department to have to miss three colleagues all at once. Of course there are certain requirements. To start with, you have to undergo a medical with our physi-cian because you need to be in good physical condition. We’re on standby from 7 - 17 on all working days. And you need to want to train with us.”

“It gives me great satisfaction knowing that I’m contributing to the safety of the people

around me. Why do it? My motivation is simple. If I was in need of help, I’d like

there to be people out there who can help me, who really know what

they’re doing.”

Find the firefighter inside of you

9Fittings 6 · 2013

Act with

IntegrIty( A l w A y s )

wols e l e y c o r p o r A t e v A l u e s

We act with integrity

We conduct our activities with fairness, honesty and integrity

We take responsibility for our actions and do not blame others

We have the courage to do the right thing for Wolseley, our people, customers and vendors

Wolseley corporate values

Patrick

Headon


IntegrIty

Between the lines

Personal values are functional guidelines, helping us

to make decisions. They reflect our sense of right and

wrong and influence our attitudes as well as our actions.

In a business context, our behaviour contributes to how

other people, including our business partners, perceive

our company. It has an impact on our reputation. Ulti-

mately, it has an impact on our business results.

Values tend to differ from person to person and to make sure

there’s coherence in the way we are perceived by our busi-

ness partners and stakeholders, Wolseley has developed a

set of three values that are consistent across the group (see

left page).

In ‘Between the lines’ Patrick Headon, CE’s CEO, will share

his personal take on this, making them more tangible.

In our business we must operate with-in the law and com-ply with our own cor-

porate policies,” Patrick Headon explains. “Both of these are non-negotia-ble. But there are situa-tions where neither the law nor our policies pro-vide sufficient guidance. It is in these grey zones where we need to be able to rely on our core values. We need to make sure we always do the right thing.”

“Act with integrity is the most important val-ue. It underpins our other values and it makes us consistent in our behav-ior. At CE we’re focusing on performance but I al-ways care about how we achieve results. We must be proud of our decisions

and feel good about what we’re doing. It is never a good idea to compromise integrity. When mak-ing a decision that feels awkward, listen to your conscience. Ask your-self whether what you’re about to do is something that you can be proud of. Is it something you would be able tell to your best friend or someone whose opinion you value?”

good for business“We’ve developed a train-ing module that deals with the principle values, which we will introduce soon. We believe it’s bet-ter to prepare than to re-ly solely on gut feeling. Managers have a cru-cial role. It starts with Ian Meakins (Wolseley’s CEO) of course but goes all the

way down to the team leaders. We expect man-agers at all levels to set a good example. It’s part of the responsibility of lead-ership. Integrity is also found in communication. In the past, we didn’t al-ways communicate bad news either because we were afraid the competi-tion would learn about it or it would worry staff. I believe that people have a right to know what is going on. Communication supports understanding and must include unpop-ular decisions.”

“Integrity is good for business. A workplace with a high degree of in-tegrity is a place where people like to work. It al-lows us to attract the right people. A clear set of values also makes

our decision processes smoother. We can make better decisions, faster. On top of that, most of our large customers have their own codes of con-duct; their guidelines, and they prefer to work with a supplier that operates with similar standards. It can cost us business with a customer or a supplier if we do not share these values. Recently, a sup-plier invited us and our competitors to the table to discuss market dynam-ics. After careful consid-eration we declined be-cause we feared there might be a discussion be-tween competitors - an inappropriate discussion.”

Fairness principles“Never compromise in-tegrity because it results in a bad reputation. We should set the standard and not look at what oth-ers are doing. Treat all of our customers with fair-ness and honesty. Don’t make promises we can-not keep and keep the promises that we make. Every customer deserves fair treatment and that includes the smaller ones.”

“

11Fittings 6 · 2013

Ideas@work

Fittings’ non-exclusive whiteboard where we share ideas

from all of the divisions - including the Nordic divisions.

The quality of the idea is not dependent on whether your

office is the boardroom or the cabin of a truck. The idea

doesn’t have to be rocket science either. On the

contrary, we love practical, applicable ideas that

can easily be copied by others.

A Trojan

our energy cen-tre is a service for customers who are inter-

ested in sustainable en-ergy solutions,” says Rob van Houten, Business Unit Manager Sustaina-bles. Since Rob started in September 2011, the WEC has had a steady flow of visitors. Not only customers but colleagues too; all visiting to learn about the latest develop-ments.

We get the products for free“We developed an inter-nal training for staff - and test all of the participants using a small E-learning module developed espe-cially for the purpose to make sure they have in-ternalised what they just learned. For some staff the training was compul-sory, for others voluntary. It’s of vital importance that staff know what

there is to know about sustainable energy so they can act as the best possible sounding boards for our customers.”

Rob has updated the showroom in Twello with the latest solutions avail-able on the market. “De-velopments certainly go fast within this area. For-tunately producers have an interest in showing their solutions in our cen-tre. Therefore we get the

products for free. We ed-ucate our customers in the technical details, the possibilities - and this helps our customers to sell sustainable solutions to the end user, which in turn gives us the oppor-tunity to sell the products to go with the solution. So this is really a win-win situation for everyone in-volved. Even the environ-ment wins.”

sustainable passion“The WEC has a rather unique position in The Netherlands,” Rob ex-plains. “We get custom-ers from all over the country. I try as much as possible to customise the

Up to speed on sustainable energy solutions

“

Twellohorse in

The Wasco Energy Centre (WEC) sounds almost too good to be true. It’s a showroom and a classroom at the same time. Installers can visit the WEC and learn about the latest sustainable energy solutions. Visitors can get all the ins and outs here. Free of charge.


presentations and work-shops to suit our custom-ers’ needs and require-ments. Some customers use sustainable energy as an opportunity to dif-ferentiate themselves from their competitors. We help them in the WEC to make this pos-sible.”

When you talk with Rob you know immedi-ately he is a passionate advocate for sustainable

energy solutions. “My in-terest in the technology is from way back when I started sailing tugs. Af-terwards I went to Shell - kind of by accident. The next step was Vail-lant, where I worked for 25 years, and build up substantial knowledge about sustainable en-ergy solutions. I like the idea of generating energy in a smart fashion with a minimal use of gas or electricity. I haven’t got a favourite. I can’t help myself - as soon as a new product comes in, I have to open and have a look inside. I have to see

how it is made and how it works for myself.”

differentiate through our solutionsYou’d expect that Rob’s home is equipped with the latest sustaina-ble technology but no. “It’s not possible to in-stall a heat pump for my house as it is too close to a public water instal-lation. But in the spring I installed solar panels on our roof.”

The future for sus-tainable energy is bright. Wasco with the WEC has taken an important step to be a significant player within this area. “We’re preparing the next impor-tant step. The solutions we offer today are semi-standard solutions. We’re now engineering our own combination of products and offer customers a far more finished and appli-cable solution than they can buy today. We be-lieve this will differentiate us positively in the mar-ket. None of our compet-itors are doing this. We expect to be able to mar-ket our new solutions lat-er this year.”

Ideas@work

“A popular topic is sustainable installation concepts,” says Rob. “We’ve developed a four-hour workshop where we discuss the energy standards that new buildings have to comply with, a combination of solutions like floor heating, heat pumps, solar energy and ventilation, the challenges and differ-ences between the solutions and how to implement them. We also discuss the initial investment versus the benefits.

The workshop typically takes four hours and we typically have around 10 partici-

pants for these kind of workshops. The objective is to give installers, project

managers and future homeowners a good idea on why and how to use

sustainable energy solutions.”

A typical workshop

Rob van Houten


closestTobler has taken an important step forward, dedicat-ing substantial resources in the battle for market-share in heat generation and systems. The sales team focusing on this cateogory, both inbound and and outbound, has more than 20 people. All of them oper-ate locally. And they are more than ready to support installers but also architects and project managers.

Heating solu-tions are com-plex,” says Christoph

Ernst, heating consultant in the region of Wintertur. “There are many param-eters to consider, which makes finding the right solution a serious chal-

lenge for our customers. Swissnet has been on its way since March 2010 and is born out of the vi-sion to be able to support them in every step of the process. This meant that we had to increase our knowledge base and our local competencies

so customers can get the same high level of sup-port regardless of their location. What’s more, it meant that all of depart-ments invoved had to im-prove communication to esnure customers experi-ence a seamless service.”

reaching out to architects and project plannersSwissnet is relatively new to customers and the first reactions are positive. Customers get an all-in-clusive solution: from ad-vice, to product, to ser-vicing and maintenance. Tobler does it all. Except installing the system. “When a customer buys a heating solution, he wants all of the compo-nents to fit and function flawlessly,” says Cristoph. “And if he has a prob-lem with his system, he wants Tobler Service to know what he’s got lined up in the basement and get the support he needs. Before we were basically operating like a tradition-al wholesaler. Thanks to Swissnet, we’re exploit-ing our expert knowledge and synergies. We’re like an orchestra, playing to-gether. And for every day we’re in the market, we’re getting better.”

Tobler closer to becoming a full service provider

“

(to our customers)

Close

Closer

Christoph Ernst


Close to customersTaking on the role of con-sultant is an integrated part of Toblers’ identity - its DNA. Tobler talks to its customers man to man and is accepted and respected as a sounding board. A role the organi-sation is able to play be-cause Tobler is close to the customer. Swissnet takes this to the next lev-el, allowing the company to get an even better un-derstanding of all of the customers’ needs in heat generation and energy systems. This makes the company an attractive sounding board, also with

new groups of customers, higher up in the value chain - like architects and project planners.

Product complexity increasesSilvio Ponti is a heat-ing consultant operating in the Ticino region. Sil-vio has been working for Tobler for 17 years; a sub-stantial part of his time in Sixmadun (now Tobler Service). “Our work has changed over the past few years,” Silvio says. “We sell fewer traditional heating sources. Our cus-tomers want heat pumps, solar energy - sustain-able energy solutions. The product range has changed. The amount of products has increased and with it the level of complexity. This of course also requires that we keep our product and technical knowledge up to date. At all times. We can’t get by with what we learned yesterday.”

my job has become more exciting“Our main customer is the installer but we need to be able to support the end user as well. They ei-ther have seen one of our ads in the papers or have been sent to us by To-bler Service or an install-er. Either way, we have to help them process a large amount of informa-tion and ensure they feel comfortable with the so-

lution they end up with choosing. It might make our jobs more demand-ing but it also becomes more exciting. Each cus-tomer has different re-quirements and often I end up proposing dif-ferent solutions. Some-times in collaboration with an installer, other times I send our offer to the installer after which he drafts the final offer for the end user.”

Ideas@work

Thanks to Swissnet, we’re exploiting our expert knowledge and synergies

Silvio Ponti

our customers want heat pumps, solar energy – sustainable energy solutions


with permission

from Ferguson

Sweet 16 2.0

sToLEn

Roel Gootjes


We are family

Being a part of a large family is a pain in

the neck sometimes. There’s rules and

regulations while decision processes

may not always be as fast as people

want. But at the end of the day, the ad-

vantages exceed the disadvantages.

In 2011, representatives from Wolseley’s European Business Units visited family in the U.S. - Ferguson, the largest distribu-tor of plumbing supplies in the world. The mission was to find inspiration and bring some good ideas home to CE.

They succeeded. The goodie bag they returned with included ‘Sweet Sixteen’, a concept that has now been implemented in all of units (except for CFM), and with good results.

S weet Sixteen is a carefully struc-tured sales ap-proach, designed

to boost sales while limit-ing the use of resources. Everyday tasks easily tend to dominate work and proactively approaching customers suffers from a very low prioritisation. The concept is simple: se-lect a time frame, for ex-ample every Tuesday be-tween 9 and 12. In this time frame you must call 16 carefully selected cus-tomers from your list. Not 15, not 17 - but 16. Typi-cally customers who buy little or next to noth-

ing for the moment. You call them with a specific, relevant offer. You won’t reach all of them. So you try again in the afternoon or the next day. For a pe-riod of a month you stay focused on these sixteen customers. So you typi-cally talk to each cus-tomer four times in one month. The objective is to activate these customers and turn them into regular buyers.

The recipe

@ WascoIn Maastricht, the South of the Netherlands, we meet Wasco inbound sales rep Roel Gootjes. He can’t hide his enthusiasm when it comes to Sweet Sixteen. “We’re used to customers calling us. Sweet Sixteen allows us to proactively contact customers that do not know us that well yet. The weekly offerings are a great excuse to call them and more than that. Because once you got your foot in the door so to speak, you can do a lot more with these potential customers. Out of 16, there are five customers that order directly. But I’m al-lowed to send one of our outbound sales reps to half of the leads I call. Of courses, the objec-tive is for them to get to know Wasco and be-come loyal customers over time. Most people I call are positive. With the right attitude and a good deal of humor, you can go a long

way. Should continue Sweet Sixteen? You bet. Give me a list with 1,000 customers

and I will call them all.”

Loyal customers

Sweet16 customers Wasco decided to work with a flexible customer segment for Sweet 16. Callers realised that some customers perceived one phone call a week as too aggressive. Customers who ac-cepted a visit from one of the Wasco sales consultants, were also removed from the list in exchange of new prospects (sales lingo for potential customers). Last but not least, customers who really didn’t appreciate being contacted, were also removed from the list. All in all, Wasco has evaluated the project positively, and considers a Sweet 16 2.0 shot - most likely increasing the amount of callers.

Start: August 2012 (14 weeks)

Additional revenue: + 24%

Callers: 8 in average (both in- and outbound)

Identified Sweet16 customers: 400

Amount of calls: 1,370

Orders booked: 170

Customers visited: 87

sweet 16


@ ÖAG

Sweet16 customers The customer segment identified for Sweet 16 was defined by revenue - all of the customers having a share of wallet below 20%. During this period, 237 customers ordered at least once. ÖAG chose to send out an offer to the selected Sweet 16 customers on a Monday and contacted them by phone the next day. A fantastic 44.6% of all those who were contacted accepted a meeting with sales staff.

Start: May 2012 (8 weeks)

End: December 2012

Additional revenue*: +46%

Callers: all sales staff is involved (both in- and outbound)


Amount of calls: >3.500

Orders booked: 245

sweet 16

@ Tobler

Sweet16 customers Tobler has been extremely structured and effective in its Sweet 16 ap-proach. The main customer segment identified for Sweet 16 were custom-ers that buy most of their supplies from head to head competitors. The objective was to get these customers attention and make them deepen their commitment with Tobler. Tobler reserved Tuesday from 08:30 to 10:00 for making Sweet 16 phone calls. The offers were on a ‘take it or leave it’ basis and sent out before the calls were made. With 912 orders and 440 visits in twelve weeks, the action has been very successful. Tobler is planning to continue with the approach and has asked all partici-pants to share experiences and ideas that can lead to improvements.

Start: June 2012 (12 weeks)

End: September 2012

Additional revenue: + CHF 291,437

Callers: 44 (outbound)


Flyers send: 6,300

Amount of calls: 4,927

Orders booked: 912

Customers visited: 440

sweet 16

Established: 1953

Part of Wolseley since: 1982

Headquarters: Newport News, Virginia, USA

CEO: Frank Roach

Number of branches: 1,300

Number of employees: 17,500

Revenue 2011: USD 8.8 billion

Ferguson in a nutshell

Roel Gootjes


A good place to work

Let me

We conducted a group-wide employee engagement survey in the first quarter of 2012. The results were awesome and in the last issue

of Fittings we could report that CE staff are happy with their work-places. The scores also showed room for improvement (isn’t there always?). We visited Wasco and Tobler to learn how they deal with

improvement issues.

Thanks to the set up of the survey, we are able to link the scores

of the survey to the indi-vidual departments and teams,” says Michael Engeler, Tobler’s HR Di-rector. “We have asked the individual manag-ers, together with their teams, to develop tangi-

ble action plans. At head-quarters we will make sure the action plans are being implemented and followed through.”

structure was lackingJust like Tobler, Wasco has delegated the re-sponsibility to develop ac-tion plans to local teams. However, there are a few

central issues that are be-ing picked up by head-quarters. “One of the hot issues within Was-co is employee devel-opment,” says Monique Valkenburg-Kok, Wasco’s HR Manager. “The sur-vey clearly showed that staff think we can im-prove here. The things is, we are doing quite a lot

Action Plans Employee Engagement Survey

“

EnGaGEyou!

Are we developing

as an organisation?


but the courses we offer have not been very struc-tured and therefore difficult for people to figure out.”

no need for rocket science “So to start with, we’ve mapped all of the cours-es and training so the op-tions are more transpar-ent. We’ve introduced assessments for most functions, which helps us to individualise person-al development. Last but not least, we’ve expand-ed available options with new courses and train-ing. Not all of it is rocket science. There has been a large demand for Ex-cel (spreadsheet applica-

tion) training. We found two internal Excel wiz-ards who now teach col-leagues spreadsheet magic. Employee devel-opment is an important focus area and I’m curi-ous to see how we score on this topic in the next survey.”

leadership trainingWasco and Tobler share most of the focal points. For exam-ple, employee de-velopment is also an issue in Tobler. “We’ve a lot to of-fer in terms of training, courses and education,”

says Michael. “But only a few of us had an over-view of the entire range of initiatives. So we de-veloped a catalogue that included everything. We made the catalogue ac-cessible for all staff on our intranet. We also de-veloped a

new leadership training - which was another issue that emerged from the survey. We’ve developed a set of basic leadership principles. The training will be available from the beginning of this year and

will include concrete leadership

We have installed PCs

with intranet access

in the warehouse


SatisfiedNot satisfied

EmployeeSatisfaction

tools as well as cultur-al training. The training is primarily aimed at line management.”

more information “We have done two things to improve infor-mation to staff,” says Michael. “To start with, we’ve restructured our in-tranet. We hope that it will be easier for staff to find the information they need. But not all staff have access to a com-puter at their workplace, so they can’t access the intranet. To solve this, we’ve placed a couple of PCs for public use in Däniken and the region-al sales headquarters, so staff in the warehouse can access the intranet.” Monique: “This issue took us by surprise to be frank. We feel we give staff a

lot of information. We have road tours, internal memos, internal news-letter, intranet. So what is lacking? To get a bet-ter understanding of what exactly it is that staff wants us to improve, we’ve asked line manag-ers to find out what infor-mation is lacking in their teams.”

The fine art of collaboration“Collaboration is anoth-er focus point for Was-co,” Monique says. “The survey revealed quite a few issues, which we’re taking action on. We do share knowledge and ex-periences, but we can do better. Last year we con-ducted a workshop where team leaders and senior team leaders discussed what actions to take. We

made sure the actions were SMART (Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely).”

Tobler Wiki: sharing best practices“Communication between departments can be im-proved,” says Michael. “The technical guys don’t often interact with the sales guys and vice versa. To improve mutual under-standing and collabora-tion we organised a series of fixed meetings during which product manag-ers, sales staff and other involved staff discussed technical issues and so-lutions. We also plan to

launch a Tobler Wiki later this year. It’s going to be an important feature on our intranet. We use the Wiki to share ideas and best practices.”

next step - next surveyMonique is looking for-ward to the next survey (expected in April). “It is interesting to compare our survey results with other business units but the value of this is rela-tive. The geographical markets and local cul-tures differ a lot. They influence the results of the survey. It’s going to be a lot more exciting to be able to compare this year’s results with last year’s. That will show us whether we are develop-ing as an organisation. Did we improve? Where are we doing better, less better?”

A good place to work

We use the Wiki to share ideas and

best practices


321

priorities 2013

2012 has been a tough year for CFM. The company had to operate in a tough market without a CEO for several months. Fortunately, in September there was good news. Cedric Faivre, 40, was appointed as the new CEO for CFM. Cedric has one clear objec-tive: bring CFM back to profitability.

Clear targets“In 2013, sales staff will have a well-defined custom-er portfolio that they will be responsible for. They will have clear targets in terms of numbers of meetings and expectations towards turno-ver and margins. I expect us to pick up the phone, be out in the field - not wait for the customer to contact us but be proactive and get close to them. We have to deliver on our promises. Offers have to be finalised and sent to the customer within 48 hours. We have to start acting with confidence and keep a focus on customer satisfaction.”

Check, double-check“For logistics staff the message for 2013 is clear: deliver what the customer or-dered - in time. We have to get it right the first time. When picking orders, I want us to check and double-check. Eve-ry mistake we make, costs money. Last year we made changes in our distribution process. We still outsource transporta-tion but we have taken over the planning of the routes so we can prioritise certain deliveries to certain customers. On top of that we now only pay for the actual amount of lorries that we’re using com-pared to a fixed monthly amount as we used to. This has reduced our costs by approximately 30% and had a great im-pact on our service level to customers.”

Positive attitude“In general, I’d like to see more happy staff. Staff with a positive attitude towards the opportunities that we are pursuing. Our attitude rubs off on our customers and influences our perfor-mance. Negative or positive. The choice is ours.”

Cedric Faivre has a master in Economics from the Sorbonne. He was born in France and has lived the past 15 years abroad (Germany, Hun-gary, Poland, Slovenia and Spain). He’s married and has two kids (7 and 12). Luxembourg suits him and his family. “It’s a small country with an amazing, diverse culture.” Previously, Cedric worked extensively in lo-gistic and in the automotive industry.

Cedric believes that CFM is a great company with an impressive repu-tation. “We’re doing a lot of things right. But we should be careful to not act in a business as usual fashion. We have lost customers. Our fi-nancial performance is below expectations. The good news is that we have a decent base from which we can get back on track and make

the company profitable again. Efficiency and performance are key parameters and we’re working on both of them. Reviewing all

processes to see where we can be more efficient. At the same time, we’re defining clear targets for everyone in the organi-

sation. We have a lot of talented, competent people and we owe it to them to get the best out of them.”

Continuedfrom page 6

Sales:Logistics:

cFM

Who is?Cedric Faivre:


321

Spotlight

“We’re not growing as we expected,” says Christian Kogler, Financial Director at ÖAG. “In our budget we expected sales to continue to grow at around 5% like we did the year before. We currently have flat sales in a market that has stopped growing. We have to downscale our sales expectations and adjust our cost base in all departments. We can take comfort in the fact that our competitors are facing the same situation. It doesn’t change the fact that we have to save money but it indicates how tough the market is.”

Sales“We need growth, but the growth needs to be profitable. We will do this by segmenting our customers and adjusting the service levels. Logistics, pricing and marketing services need to differentiated; based on impor-tance and profitability of our cus-tomers. We started targeting our least profitable customers and will continue to implement fur-ther service differentiation.”

Logistics“Our first priority is to be more efficient and reduce costs but without jeopardising the qual-ity of the delivery service. We will focus on efficiency with se-lected KPIs for each department. We also streamlined the setup and integrated the logistics plat-form in Graz into our central DC in Wels. This move will improve our efficiency and the availabili-ty for our customers but also re-duce working capital overall.”

Reduce costs“The focus is to reduce costs at all levels but without jeopardis-ing our business. We’re currently working together with consult-ants to improve our structure and processes in the area of sales and logistics. We are closing down our DIY business area be-cause we acknowledged that we were not geared up to succeed in this business. These changes will reduce complexity which is cru-cial for a leaner and a more cost efficient organisation.”

priorities 2013ÖaG

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Employed at:

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Send this coupon to:

DT GroupAtt.: Charlotte Gullach BüttrichGladsaxe Møllevej 5DK-2860 Søborg Denmark

1 how many times is the ÖAg fire brigade called into action in a year?

A 5 times

b 15 times

c 30 times

2 What is swiss-net?

A The name of Tobler’s heat generation and systems concept

b A brand new tun-nel construction in Switzerland

c The name of Tobler’s transpor-tation fleet

3 how many ÖAg sweet sixteen customers placed an order?

A 114

b 245

c 521

4 What is the objec-tive of the WeC in Twello?

A Update staff and custom-ers about sustainable energy solutions

b Increase sales within sus-tainable energy solutions

c Give suppliers the op-portunity to show their sustainable energy solu-tions to customers

5 Tobler is planning a new collabo-ration plat-form. What is the name of this tool?

A Tobler Share-point

b Tobler Wiki

c Tobler Academy

Jan van Loenen (Wasco - Apeldoorn) is the happy win-ner of the trip to Berlin. “I participated in quizzes before but I never won anything. I’ve never been to Berlin be-fore either. So yes, I’m very excited. I’ll take my fantas-tic wife along - it’s going to be great.” Jan is in inbound sales and has worked at Wasco for 28 years.

send your answers before march 15th 2013Use the coupon below or send your answers by e-mail to: [email protected]

The winner will be announced in the next issue of Fittings.

The winner is...

A b c

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fittings 06

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