Chief Executive Officer, BELIMO Holding
ControlTrends Catches up with Belimo CEO Lars van der Haegen
Thanks to Lars van der Haegen for a great chat at the 2015 Belimo Platinum meeting. Lars, is the CEO of Belimo and gives us some insights on some new products Belimo is bring out in 2016.
About Lars Van der haegen
In a July 2015 interview at the Belimo Platinum distributor meeting, Lars van der Haegen, who had recently become CEO of Belimo Holding and moved back to Switzerland after 12 years in the United States, discussed the company's product developments and operational philosophy. He highlighted the company's "energy valve," which he described as a product that makes building energy use transparent through an integrated internet browser and app, enabling continuous commissioning and optimization of HVAC plants. Van der Haegen stated that "almost every plant you can increase the delta T and reduce the energy consumption of pumps and chillers often by 30 40 50%." Van der Haegen also addressed Belimo's corporate culture, saying that "the key is really the operational excellence and it all starts with the culture." He added that the company aims to have happy employees who care for customers, and that Belimo strives to be the best provider of actuators and valves in the HVAC industry. He noted that the company's Platinum distributors in North America are trained and licensed to sell Belimo products.
Transcript (17 segments)
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Eric Strom0:00
Eric Strom here. We're at the Belimo Platinum meeting in Aruba. I am here with Lars van der Haegen, the CEO of Belimo. So Lars, let me just start off by saying man, thanks for an awesome, awesome event.
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Lars van der Haegen0:39
Oh, thank you, and thanks for having me here. Thanks for joining our Platinum Distributor event. You know, we have a great group of Platinum Distributors that are trained and licensed to sell Belimo throughout North America. And it's just great to be together, to experience the power and energy they all have and the excitement in providing the Belimo products to the market.
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Eric Strom1:04
You guys just do things right. I mean, every year the Platinum Distributor meeting is some fantastic place, and this is no exception. It's absolutely beautiful. And again, congratulations Lars. You're recently the CEO of Belimo; you moved back to Switzerland, exactly?
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Lars van der Haegen1:18
Yeah, just in June I moved back to Switzerland after having been living in the US for more than 12 years, in Connecticut as you can tell from my Connecticut accent. And now I'm back in Switzerland, responsible for Belimo globally. And it's exciting. And we hope to bring more and better products to the market and to our customer base, making the HVAC world even more energy efficient in the future.
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Eric Strom1:48
I want to talk about that a little bit. You guys to me seem to be inventing the future with energy valves. When I think of Belimo, I think you guys do certain things really, really well. But it seems like the trend and the theme that you guys have and really focusing on is not only making better valves but better energy saving solutions. Everything from the energy valve to the fact that your zone valve saves money in terms of using less consumption.
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Lars van der Haegen2:13
Exactly, that's the point. The overall trend, that's a long-term trend of energy efficiency. We use energy to cool our buildings, to heat our buildings, and we have to do this in an efficient way. There's a really big untapped potential in savings from buildings, and therefore we develop products that save energy, like the energy valve. That is presented on energyvalve.com. It's a valve that actually increases the delta T in buildings. How about the delta T syndrome that we have in buildings? Are you familiar with that?
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Eric Strom2:49
Yeah, you know what, it's like, imagine it's a little bit like you're standing at the gas station, your gas pump takes 20 gallons, and you're sitting there at the car and you just got the gas pump on, and the gas is just coming out of the car because the car can just take so much gas, right? Same thing with coils in buildings.
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Lars van der Haegen3:08
Exactly, with a great analogy. That over pumping, whenever I went to a job site and I went to many job sites in my life, looking at the delta T, it was always very small. You see a three, four, five, six degree delta T, and it's always much smaller than it was specified. So almost every plant you can increase the delta T, and by doing so reduce the energy consumption of pumps and chillers, often by 30, 40, 50%. It's huge.
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Eric Strom3:37
And I think part of that is just inherently buildings and equipment is oversized. I mean, because hey, if you're an engineer and you undersize something that could be a career ending decision. And so there's this huge... the energy valve, we are so excited about that product. Ours is kind of a no-brainer. You guys have got this. It's not theory, it works. People like MIT have studies and it's great stuff. So it's excellent.
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Lars van der Haegen4:01
It simplifies really the whole process: the selection of the valve, the installation, commissioning. Commissioning is challenging nowadays. You look in a building, look up and down, and you don't really know what's going on. You can't see the water or the air flowing, but now we make it transparent. There's an energy valve, there's an app that you can look at, the internet, there's an internet browser built into the energy valve, so you can actually display the energy, see what's going on. And then also improve and optimize the plant, doing a continuous commissioning process.
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Eric Strom4:33
Oh, that's fantastic. What it is, continuous commissioning, so it continues commissioning. You get LEED points for that. Hey, if you're a consulting engineer, if you use an energy valve, you don't really have to worry about your GPMS and your flows. That all gets done for you with the energy valve because it compensates and it saves a ton of energy. So great product here. Energyvalve.com is a great website you can go to check out. You guys have done a great job with the website there. But I want to shift gears a little bit, Lars, because you guys as a company, I mean every great company has a great philosophy. And you know, everybody from Warner to Jürg now to you, I mean you guys are just known for doing things really, really well. I mean, so what are some of the cornerstones of Belimo's philosophy?
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Lars van der Haegen5:14
Well, one point was what we covered before: Innovation. We are the innovation leader, and we invest a lot in R&D. But then key is really the operational excellence, and it all starts with the culture. You know, we have to have happy employees that we care for within the organization. If our employees are cared for, they care for the customer, and therefore they are happy. Part of that is also the internal processes; things have to go smooth internally. If someone... all the processes have to be really smooth. Things have to work. If they don't work, then you have tensions amongst employees, and this affects the culture in an organization. So the culture is very important. We focus a lot on that. We have employees, and we've been actually number two in the best employers in Switzerland for employees for employers with more than a thousand employees. And this is just one part that we can then execute on things like fast lead time. 80% of the product range is available immediately, basically could be shipped today.
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Eric Strom6:31
You guys do that. You put a slide up at the presentation, and basically that slide said something to the effect of: If Belimo, if there's a problem with the Belimo product, no matter where it came from, a Belimo employee is going to make it right and take care of the customer. That's something that I think is huge. Being a customer of Belimo and having customers, I mean, nobody in your company has ever said, 'We're not going to get involved in solving the problem.' Kind of quite the opposite. I mean, anytime we've had an issue, your team has jumped on it. I mean, there's an attitude about, hey, there's a pride almost about, you know, the products are great, but the support and the service are just fantastic too. So I compliment you for your leadership.
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Lars van der Haegen7:14
Thank you very much. Yeah, well, we take this basically for granted. We just do that. We think that's standard process, but it's probably not in general if you sometimes look at other companies' services that you receive. But the key is also for me as the CEO being close to customers. I'm attending many trainings, customer meetings, meet customers because I really want to know what the issues are, and I want to have a relationship with them so that they tell me if there's a problem. I need to know about any issue, and we can fix it, so that we can make it better, so that we are the best in the industry. And a customer really can be certain that he has chosen the very best provider for our valves and actuators in the HVAC industry.
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Eric Strom7:57
Well, I as a customer, I really appreciate that attitude. You guys really listen, you get on it, you take care of stuff. And I got to tell you also for our ControlTrends community, Lars is on the nomination ballot for the ControlTrends Executive of the Year. So if you like what you see, vote for Lars. And Belimo is obviously well represented again at the ControlTrends show, so be sure to check your ballots for that. Also, Lars, on behalf of the ControlTrends community, thank you very much. Belimo is again a Platinum sponsor for the ControlTrends Awards. So without sort of enlightened companies like you, ControlTrends Awards wouldn't happen. So we thank you for that as well, my friend.
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Lars van der Haegen8:36
Well, thank you, Eric, for having me on ControlTrends. Thank you very much.
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Eric Strom8:39
You're welcome anytime, Lars. Thank you. Thank you, Lars van der Haegen from Belimo. Check them out, energyvalve.com and belimo.com. You can go USA or Europe, you guys are all over the world. Sure, thanks for listening. Thank you. Awesome.