Changing “the way”
It is an interesting and exciting time at Celanese. We’ve recently welcomed our new CEO, Mark Rohr. And for many of us in Dallas, we’ve been getting used to our new office building, trying to find the best way to get to the building and finding where everyone is in the new building. It is human nature to try to avoid change because most of us like the comfort of what is familiar. Whether it is “the way” we drive to work, “the way” we take our coffee, or many other things, generally, people like things to be routine or as expected.
Our customers are the same way.
Our customers want us to be consistent in “the way” we service their account. From the interaction they have with their sales manager and customer service, to the mode and time of delivery, our customers expect us to perform the basics of our day-to-day business right every single time. A high level of execution on the fundamentals is essential for us to maintain our existing business. But how do we make the business better?
In our company we talk about doubling the size of our company in the next five years. The only way to do this is through changing “the way” we interact with our customers. While it is critically important to continue to do the basics well, we will need to engage customers differently if we are going to create more value from our offerings to them. For each part of the Celanese organization, it means increasing our understanding of what success looks like for our customers, developing the best solution for them, and then executing on a value sharing model that creates a “win-win” for both Celanese and the customer. This is called the Customer Value Management process.
For instance, in Emulsions we are partnering with our Office of Strategic Growth, an internal organization that partners with our businesses to better align with customers and accelerate innovation, to gain further insights into what we do well in the Customer Value Management process. More importantly we are looking at the areas that we need to improve on if we are going to help Celanese achieve our earnings growth goal. In Ticona, we’re focusing on anticipating our customer’s future needs and working closely with them to develop value-added solutions for a world that is rapidly changing. An example would be looking at solutions around communication tools such as smart phones.
I am excited about what the future holds for Celanese. Each one of us will need to get comfortable with “the new ways” that we can more effectively interact with our current and potential customers such that we can reshape the value of our business for the future.
As always, please continue to make safety a precondition for everything you do.
Great Blog, Phil!
Change is the prerequisite of progress, becoming better and better. Leaving the comfort zone, is the only way to find new horizons, taking on responsibility for our future. Celanese has a proven record of creating value for our customers. Our continued job is to find the next leverage points and enhance value creation. I think we are well prepared! Future, here we come! Michael
Change is important and often necessary, especially if we want to grow as a company and as individuals. Change fosters new opportunities that we can leverage to help us to be excel as we try new things and review how we can improve what are customers already appreciate in us more.