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Like a phoenix rising out of the ashes
For the industry, 2009 is remembered
for painful cuts, struggles for
existence and personnel cutbacks.
The global player Sauer-Danfoss has
meanwhile arisen out of the
worldwide economic crash and is
now stronger and more customeroriented
than ever.
Needless to say, the worldwide business
prospects were not particularly rosy on
the day in January 2009 when Sven Ruder
started work as the new President and
CEO of Sauer-Danfoss. Nevertheless, it
would only become clear by February just
how extensive the repercussions of the
intensifying crisis were on the customers
around the globe and that this would
soon impact Sauer-Danfoss as well. The
company was indeed not the only one to
be confronted with such challenges, but
Sven Ruder also saw a chance amidst the
crisis. Since the merger of Sauer-Sundstrand
and Danfoss Fluid Power in 2000,
the company found itself in the role of
market leader and could proudly point to
enormous growth. That was exactly why
Sven Ruder and his leadership team started
to take a closer look at the evident
discrepancies between the growth and
financial performance of the 14 Sauer-
Danfoss product lines. What emerged
was a number of marked differences between
customer needs and the spectrum
on offer. The customers gave Sauer-Danfoss
good marks for technical support,
quality, customer care, product value,
and application competence. However,
the feedback from the customers also revealed
other areas in which the expectations
of the customers were not being
met. On the basis of these concrete findings,
Sven Ruder and his team of managers
were able to make specific decisions
in good time about the future of the Sauer-Danfoss
organization and about a new
strategy. They did so with great success,
as the current development of the company
clearly shows.
Stronger after the crisis: with over 6,000 employees and a turnover of USD 1.6 billion, Sauer-Danfoss is
today once again considered the market leader in mobile hydraulics and electrohydraulics. (Photo:
Sauer-Danfoss)
I N T E R V I E W
„The subject of strategic purchasing has
Interview with Dipl.-Ing. Robert Lenzen, Procurement Manager Europe for the
KROMI newsletter: Mr. Lenzen, your company
has turbulent times behind it.As a relatively young
member of staff, what has been your experience
of the last few years?
Lenzen: We have indeed had some ups and downs.
The repercussions of the worldwide crisis have
also hit us hard here in Neumünster. Incoming
orders occasionally slumped to a fraction of their
normal level. There were phases when the
company‘s future was anything other than
secure.
KROMI newsletter: How did the company react to
that?
Lenzen: With the takeover of the majority of shares
in Sauer-Danfoss by Danfoss A/S in 2008, the strategic
management has also shifted to Denmark to
a stronger degree. As a result, the decision-making
processes have initially changed for us here
in Germany in Neumünster. However, what was
sometimes seen as an additional obstacle then
turned into a stroke of luck: in the wake of the economic
crash, when hardly any bank was willing to
make funds available for the continued existence
of a company anymore, Sauer-Danfoss was able to
continue doing business and get through the crisis
under its own steam thanks to the injection of
funds from the new owners.
KROMI newsletter: So, was it just financial
strength that has enabled today‘s success?
Lenzen: No, that is certainly due to a large extent
to the reorientation of the company under the present
CEO Sven Ruder, who became chairman of the
board in January 2009. In my view, he already set
the right course shortly after taking office. This
includes the reduction of manufacturing depth,
the product- and customer-oriented corporate
structure, and certainly also the fact that the subject
of purchasing has become a matter for decision
at the top management level.
KROMI newsletter: What do you mean by that?
Lenzen: Our company has done a great deal on its
own during recent years. During times of crisis it
then becomes clear that all these different things
going on have a negative effect on profit and that
one, of course, slips into the red when operating
in all these different fields. Consequently, one of