Mr. Geißdörfer, can you capture the essence of the new strategy in a single sentence?

We are bringing venti­lation tech­nology into a new era with intel­li­gent and sustain­able solu­tions for our customers.

To achieve this, you are rebuilding the orga­ni­za­tion. What does this involve?

We are concen­trating on what we do well in order to set stan­dards in our industry. We see huge poten­tial in renew­able ener­gies, data centers and air condi­tioning, with heat pumps being a good example of an area where demand for certain prod­ucts has multi­plied over a short period of time. We need to build up capac­i­ties for this  which is why we are focusing on venti­lation and heating tech­nology. Venti­lation tech­nology, our largest busi­ness area, will be orga­nized on a regional basis.

“We see huge poten­tial in renew­able ener­gies, data centers and air condi­tioning.”

Firstly, this brings us even closer to our customers and, secondly, we can struc­ture our supply chains region­ally. After all, the pandemic taught us that global supply networks have the poten­tial to slow us down. Region­al­iza­tion makes us more resilient.

What will happen to the house­hold appli­ances, auto­mo­tive, and indus­trial drive tech­nology segments?

We are saying goodbye to the first two, as we can’t continue with them in a commer­cially viable way. The situ­a­tion is different for indus­trial drive tech­nology, which is a growing busi­ness area. We are currently looking at how to move this area forward.

Let’s look at venti­lation tech­nology: How should the regional orga­ni­za­tion be struc­tured?

The three regions, namely Europe, the Amer­icas and Asia-Pacific, will become even more inde­pen­dent. They will then cover the entire process from the initial inquiry to delivery to the customer. So, there will be local units for customer rela­tion­ship processes, supply chains and the product life cycle. This will enable us to create clear respon­si­bil­i­ties, simplify processes, and increase speed.

How will you ensure that the global and regional units can collab­o­rate effec­tively in day-to-day busi­ness?

This will start with the region taking the lead. The regional sales team will look after its local customers. The global units will have the job of coor­di­nating impor­tant matters across the company. This is also where the key accounts will be located, bringing together customer-specific solu­tions from the regions with global require­ments.

The company has already started taking a plat­form-based approach: what role will it play with regard to prod­ucts?

This is a corner­stone of our new strategy and is there­fore also embedded in the struc­ture. The regional Product Managers know what local customers need. Global Product Manage­ment will collate these require­ments and then define new modular elements accord­ingly: this could be motors, impellers, elec­tronics, or periph­erals. The devel­op­ment teams will imple­ment the respec­tive ­modules.

How will your customers benefit from the reor­ga­ni­za­tion?

We will be able to provide them with specific solu­tions more quickly: solu­tions that will inspire them! And with an even stronger focus on the require­ments of their regional market. Our aim is to create intel­li­gent and sustain­able solu­tions together with our customers. This is how we will make the future together!