By Frank-Christian Raffel
Together with the managers of NETZSCH Pumpen & Systeme, Waldkraiburg and Lanzhou, MRL Advisors has shaped the strategic direction of NETZSCH’s service business, particularly in China, in a global project.
Starting Point
NETZSCH Pumpen & Systeme is the global market leader for progressive cavity pumps. The management of NETZSCH, represented by Mr. Felix Kleinert, has already relied on the principle “from the region – for the region” at a very early stage, albeit with very intensive networking of the global management and global coordination of the company’s strategic orientation.
As early as 1993, NETZSCH opened its facility in Lanzhou, in the northwest of China.
Objective
In order to further increase customer loyalty and satisfaction, NETZSCH wanted to strategically examine and further develop its own service offering. NETZSCH commissioned MRL Advisors to implement the “Service Excellence” project with the country markets Germany, France, China, India, USA and Brazil – the largest consulting project commissioned by NETZSCH to date.
Tasks of MRL Advisors
The tasks of MRL Advisors consisted of determining customer requirements and competitive offers with regard to the service business, which in addition to services also includes the supply of spare parts and wear parts to users. Among other things, MRL Advisors structured, conducted and evaluated extensive primary research in the project countries mentioned, i.e. customer surveys in the respective national languages.
Result for China
It has become apparent that NETZSCH – although market leader in China with satisfactory business development – still had considerable untapped potential in the service business.
During the project, the MRL Advisors team worked together with the local marketing and sales managers in China on “quick wins” that led to a short-term margin that exceeded the total project volume. The strategic directions that were still found were designed on a country-specific basis and harmonized globally in the management team.
Conclusion: In MRL Advisors’ experience, there is still considerable potential to be exploited in China with systematic and structured project work. The methods for corporate success developed in Western, rather stagnating markets can also be profitably applied in China if adapted locally.
