Executive Interview Series | Stephan Glander, CEO - Biesterfeld

Thank you, Ali. First of all, it's a pleasure to be part of this. I'm really enjoying the collaboration with your amazing company. The way I entered the chemical industry was—I'm a chemist and I started my career with Bayer, more in the commodity area, rubber business. I also saw plastics conversion companies with Huels and Quadrant, later Mitsubishi Chemical. What I always found really interesting and inspiring was the different markets and the different market dynamics—really intellectually challenging to understand what kind of languages are spoken in those market segments, what the dynamics are, and of course the combination of science and business is something which is still, to date, very appealing and inspiring to me.

Yeah, well, back then it was pretty much standard for a German chemist to enter one of the big—back then it was Big Three, still, when I started studying chemistry. When I finished it, it was still Big Two, and Bayer was one of the two. So I guess that's a short answer. But I also found the people I met there really inspiring, which is very important in the first phase of the career—to find the right boss.

No, I mean, I had a short stint in the startup world and the clean tech area. So I guess I've seen quite a distribution—from commodity business to very specialty business, also from rather big company to a rather small company. So I can also relate to what you have achieved in the startup world, which is certainly much more than I was able to achieve. But it was not always in the chemical industry, and I would also say that the plastics conversion sphere is slightly different.

I think we have to invest in all kinds of digital capabilities. Traditionally, we have not been able to really make good use of all the data we generate. So on a more strategic level, the most important part for us is knowledge management. I really feel that a company like us—we want to be consultants of our customers. We can play a specific role in the more specialty, specification-driven part of the business. It will be key and really critical, and will change dynamics in terms of market share. If a company is capable of bringing the knowledge in front of the customer in a digital way—a lot is still done by knowledge in the head of the sales rep or the development engineer—the company that's able to digitalize that kind of tribal knowledge plus some external data will win.

To be honest, I'm almost a bit surprised that the expectations do not change more quickly than they do in many industries we serve. The speed is rather slow because the technology is there already to do many things we as consumers expect from a supplier. I don't see that across the board in all industries, but it's clear that it's going to come. That's what I referred to earlier—all these different markets. The cosmetics business has different dynamics and expectations versus an aerospace or automotive market. I really believe we have to focus on areas where this change of expectations is leading and they're further advanced. The areas closer to consumer business tend to be leading in that respect. The differentiation between a specialty-driven market versus a commodity-driven market also plays a role. We will continue to see development at different rates, dependent on market dynamics, but it will go down the path of what a consumer-oriented market has seen already. The question is only when.

I couldn't agree more. I really believe that digital capabilities and sustainability in our market are key for employer branding, for attracting the right talent for the future. We are at the brink of a major demographic shift in the industry. If we want to attract the really good, bright young people you just described, only for that reason we need to be on a different digital competency level than most industry players are today. There's no doubt in my mind that this plays an important role.

Ali, we have one big advantage at Biesterfeld—we're a family-owned company, and the family has owned it for 117 years. So I have an easier time, compared to some of my peers, to convince our shareholder to buy into longer-term strategic initiatives. Personally, being a scientist and having approached the industry from R&D, I know you cannot switch these things on and off. You have to have consistency in your investments, consistency in the personnel and the experts that can drive this agenda. It's more a marathon than a sprint. There is no quick fix, one-two-year investment and then you're at the level. It has to be a continuous plan. That is actually part of the problem in distribution—I really believe this industry is, in nature, quite opportunistic and not super strategic. That's a big value we need to bring as management—to think about it in a more strategic sense and develop some kind of target we work towards. It's not a question of how we do it—we have to do it. And in our case, it's not so difficult to execute because our shareholders are very long-term oriented.

I believe some of our experts in digital feel that they are not really part of the core of our business. What I want to tell them is that needs to change. All strategic business decisions have to include digitalization and sustainability in their essence, in their business model, in their entrepreneurial decisions. I'm absolutely convinced it will be key for us to show significant progress. It's really essential for the future of Biesterfeld that we bring our digital competency to the next level. For me, sustainability and digitalization are the two key drivers for attracting talent. I am convinced we will be able to create a dynamic where it becomes part of our core business considerations and we build business models around digital competencies.

Yeah, we have just made some adjustments in terms of organizational structure to give this more importance and really more traction within the organization, but also in the interaction with our customers. In conjunction with the family ownership of our business and the size we have, we have a good chance to make this the hottest, coolest place to work for as a digital expert, at least in the chemicals distribution field.

Likewise, Ali.

Thank you so much for having me.