82. The CEO Magazine - September 2014 theceomagazine.com

In The OfficeEXECUTIVE INTERVIEW

Relationship-Driven

Beijer Byggmaterial is going through a change of mindset by bringing the focus on its internal and external relationships. Leading this organisational change is CEO and

passionate people person, Anders Jakobsson.

Images courtesy of Beijer Byggmaterial

Anders Jakobsson was recruited by Beijer Byggmaterial five years ago to take the CEO position after his

extensive work in sales, marketing, and business and people development for Philips and Elektroskandia. He has always had a passion for people, both inside and outside business, and brings that same dedication and drive to his role at the helm of Beijer.

“Our business is all about people. We have very motivated staff and they enjoy serving demanding professional customers,” Anders explains. “And they’re very good at doing that and proud to do so. Many of our staff have been working with us for a very long time. We have a lot of gold watches. I think it’s a good fundamental that people can really develop and see Beijer as a good company.”

Coming into the role, Anders needed to grow and develop the business, both in terms of organic

growth and acquisitions. “We were coming from a period of cost cutting and trying to make the organisation more cost effective. Switching focus from cost to growth demands another kind of competence. So we have been focused on the leadership development during this year and training to make that shift from cost cutting to working with customers and sales in order to achieve growth.

“To structure sales we organised the whole branch network into seven regions, to ensure local engagement, because in our industry business is definitely local; you must be number one in your local city. Even if you are a national company, you can’t attract customers in the northern part just because you’re doing well in a city in the south. You must have a strong local focus. But that’s easier said than done. It turned out that all branch managers and people were not really prepared to go from working with a cost structure to

creating growth in the local market. So it was about changing, training, and helping people to adjust to this new mindset. We organised the branch network and we invested a lot of money into skills development and leadership training.”

The increasing speed of technology has made customer service more dynamic, to meet this challenge, Beijer has adopted an omnichannel approach to its client communications. “Our commitment today is to give our customers a great digital experience through our website. Our customers have immediate online access to their account, where they find accurate stock levels, their unique prices, and place orders. For customers adopting this new way of doing business they will gain a competitive advantage. They will save time staying onsite and have their orders picked, packed, and delivered to their site at the time they need it, while their competitor will be visiting another

“We have put a lot of work and thinking into the omnichannel strategy and we believe very strongly in that since we really want to serve our customers in the best possible way” - Anders Jakobsson

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“We have put a lot of work and brainpower into the omnichannel strategy since we want to serve our customers in the best possible way, regardless of whether they want to interact by phone, or physically in our branch network, or using our website. The industry is not leading the online arena, but e-commerce development is rapid, and Beijer will be on the forefront of this development.”

Anders has introduced some structural changes within the organisation to support growth and increase the company’s focus on customers and sales. One such initiative is Mission Felix, which aims to reduce 50 per cent of administrative tasks for all staff at the 75 branches. “We can unload the administrative burden from the branch and take that time and spend it with customers. It is a challenge for us, but that is what Felix is all about. To achieve that

we must work smarter, work with more data-driven decisions instead of just going on experience or gut feelings. So we base Mission Felix on three pillars: fix basic, work smarter, and be proactive.

“We made a time study and saw that 60 per cent of the branch network’s time was being spent on non-customer-related tasks; mostly admin tasks. One of our major goals in Mission Felix is to turn those numbers around; we shall spend at least 60 per cent of our time with customer activities and a maximum of 40 per cent on other things that you must do in the branch. For example, one of the things that comes with ‘fix basic’ and ‘work smarter’ is a huge investment around logistics.”

As part of Beijer’s efforts to become more customer-centric and streamline its operations, the organisation recently invested more than 100 million SEK into a new distribution centre in Stockholm. “We have 10 branches in the Stockholm metropolitan area. Before we moved distribution orders to this centre, the staff in these 10 branches used to spend 50 per cent of their working time on distribution orders. So what I mean about ‘fix basic’ and ‘work smarter’ is that we’ve invested in the distribution centre for the region of Stockholm, which is very important for us, and that saved our branch staff 50 per cent of their working time.

“With all distribution activities in one place and all of our branches in Stockholm are only pick-up or collect branches. So instead of spending time picking and packing orders to be delivered, we can now put that time into customer-facing time instead. On top of that, we have increased our delivery capacity within that distribution hub. So the service level has increased and there’s been a huge development in terms of how we distribute with our own trucks in the Stockholm area. The investment is also a big success from an environmental point of view. This was the pilot and now

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theceomagazine.com The CEO Magazine - September 2014 87.

we are rolling out distribution networks for the whole of Sweden in the coming years.”

Beijer is sharpening its focus on its branch network and applying best practice across the organisation. “The industry is not really driven by good, accurate data; we are making a lot of decisions based on relations with the customer, which is very important because it is a relation-driven business. Still, we need to have clearer guidelines around pricing, customer segmentation, and the product assortment. By optimising clear local mandate, reducing manual pricing, and centrally optimising pricing structures we can realise a hidden potential.

“In the context of Mission Felix, we believe that we can move taks from the branch to a regional or a central level. For example, establish a regional experts team on tenders; instead of everybody working on complex tenders in the branches, why don’t we take the best and train them and really have control of data, pricing, work, and support the organisation in the region with all tenders. So we make a bit of a specialist group and a hit team.”

Since Beijer is part of Wolseley Group, the company has access to a wealth of knowledge and resources from all over the globe.

“We are part of a Nordic cluster called DT Group, which is the company Wolseley bought some years ago. In the group, we realise a number of Nordic synergies in terms of purchasing IT, finance, and we try to benchmark across the divisions within the cluster. I am a part of the Nordic management team in those terms. We try to dig out what makes sense and create local competitiveness. If we decide to centralise a process or a decision on a national or Nordic level, the decision is made for us to gain advantages for our local branch, for example in Växjö, Luleå, or Karlstad.”

Anders notes the importance of maintaining both internal and external relationships as it facilitates continuous improvement within the business. “We are a big player in Sweden in terms of suppliers, so we have regular discussions and meetings with our big suppliers. The suppliers work with us on a Nordic level since many of the contracts that we have are cross-Nordic.

“Suppliers also help us on a local basis. We love our suppliers and they are as important to us as our customers. As a wholesaler and distributor we absolutely need to

have good relationships with our suppliers. Going forward, instead of spending too much time on terms and conditions, I hope we can switch over and see how we can increase the savings together with our customers.”

The development of Beijer will focus mainly on Mission Felix, which is a three-year journey for the company. “We currently have 12 projects ongoing; we administer Mission Felix jointly on a Nordic level, in a project management office where we do monthly follow-ups on all initiatives, ensuring a fast and efficient roll out. Even if we only acheive 75 per cent of our targets in Mission Felix, I think we can be a game changer in our industry.

“I want to see our branch network be a selling machine; they should not be doing things that we can do for them on a regional or central basis. Hopefully, with the logistics set up for the whole of Sweden, with the omnichannel strategy, supported by enriched digital content, we can transform the way we support our customers, be proactive and really stand the test of time. We are very good at reactive states, meaning that when you call us or come to us, we can work day and night to help you out; to be proactive sounds very easy, but the culture in the industry makes that a challenge for us.”

“We love our suppliers and they are as important to us as our customers. As a wholesaler and distributor we absolutely need to have good relationships with our suppliers.” - Anders Jakobsson

svenskafonster.se

It’s about aiming higher.About being more determined and moving onward and upward. At Svenska Fönster, we are leaders in our industry. We have two strong brand names – SP Fönster and Traryd Fönster – both of which have a long-standing history and

solid traditions in the Swedish timber industry. From this fi rm foundation, we have built up one of Sweden’s most state-of-the-art window manufacturing facilities and developed an extensive range of top-quality, modern windows.

Focus and aspiration The past five years have been eventful and exciting. In 2008, we

decided to significantly move our position forward. Our aim was

clear; to become the best partner for our customers. The first step

was to spread the Lean philosophy throughout the company to

make production processes more efficient and resource-friendly. In

2011, we launched a new generation of windows. Modern, virtually

maintenance-free windows with a perfect blend of beautiful,

innovative design and classic craftsmanship. Optimal from Traryd

Fönster and Balans from SP Fönster account for the majority of our

sales today. And it’s a continuing trend. We recently launched Intakt;

our new range of windows for apartments built using a brand new

technology platform.

We can also announce that our Optimal and Balans product series

together with the sliding doors are now available as BIM objects,

ready to use in CAD applications. This much-requested feature will

make work simpler for architects and engineers.

Environmental responsibility a core company valueOur manufacturing facility is located in Edsbyn, in the magnifi cent

forests of central Sweden. Perhaps it’s our proximity to the countryside

that makes it so natural for us to do everything we can to minimise our

impact on the environment.

Ours is one of the most environmentally-compliant facilities in northern

Europe. Our coating systems are water-based, which means that almost

no solvents are used in our production processes. Two years ago,

we were the fi rst window manufacturer in Sweden to be verifi ed as

complying with the new, more stringent criteria set by the Nordic Swan

Eco-label. The following year, our passive house windows were the fi rst

in Sweden to be certifi ed as meeting the strict German standard.

Welcome to Svenska FönsterIf you would like to fi nd out more about us, our products, and our

long-term commitment to driving Swedish window manufacturing to

even higher levels, please visit our websites. You will fi nd our products

at selected retailers throughout Sweden.

spfonster.se och trarydfonster.se