Business structures for a global customer focus.

Jerry MacCleary, Senior Vice President, Performance Systems, Bayer Polymers LLC, told delegates that in order to shape the future, organizations need to change how they respond to the present. He focused on the route that the Bayer organization has chosen in response to emerging market forces. At Bayer, he said, it was felt that a fundamental reorganization of its business was the only way to successfully respond to the dynamics of the market place. "There was globalization of our markets, our customers and our businesses," he said. "We were also facing the commoditization of some of our products. After doing business the same way for 25 years, we sincerely felt that our four divisions--rubber, plastics, polyurethanes and coatings raw materials--needed to come together to better drive innovation, to improve value for our customers and to increase profitability for our shareholders."

MacCleary went on to say that Bayer had identified two key success drivers--operational excellence and marketing excellence. "If you were to characterize Bayer, it has always had a very strong research and technical background, but in today's market place that alone will not make you profitable," said MacCleary. "But we didn't want to lose these strengths, we wanted to build on them."

The second driver they looked at was marketing. "We had to be really frank in confronting the fact that our company has never really been at the top of the industry in what we consider marketing excellence," he said. As a technology oriented organization, there was a focus on product excellence MacCleary said. "But we often assumed that the market would be attracted by quality and product strength alone--and that just isn't the case."

There is a lot more to becoming a customer focused company than just saying it, he told the audience. "You must have an external focus--listening to the marketplace, listening to your customers--they are driving technology and shaping the future." Externally, Bayer reorganized to create three marketing regions--the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific--each charged with pursuing excellence in meeting regional customer needs. To balance the fact that some key customers were operating globally, requiring global service, the company implemented global key account management for those customers requiring a single contact for world-wide purchasing. This single-contact approach is supported by local technical support in every marketing jurisdiction.

"Where previously we might have had two or three technologies effectively competing for the same customer, now we are looking for the right technological fit for that customer," said MacCleary. It is a strategy that not only involves identifying the right product fit, but the proper service fit as well. "Some customers operate globally, but purchase regionally--and we need to be responsive to their needs. Some require more logistical support than others. And some of our customers want technical support, while others don't require it. We recognize that we are not operating a one-size-fits-all business, so we urgently needed to create an organization to fit our customers wherever they are and whatever they value from us."

Bayer also established an Industry Innovation Group as part of its push to create marketing excellence. "The Industry Innovation Group is a long term investment in our customers to build business and the industry," MacCleary noted. "They are not tied into day-to-day business. Their goal is to identify new trends, new opportunities, new applications and new markets. This is crucial to improving the value that we bring to our customers--and it's good for customers because it creates value for their businesses."

To truly become a world-class supplier offering world-class services you need to be close to your customers. You need to listen to them and you need to respond to what you are hearing, MacCleary told the audience. But he also cautioned that this is a double-edged sword. Modern businesses can't afford to be everything to everybody--to give a 100 percent of all our services to every customer. While that used to be our mindset, said MacCleary, we need a better approach. "Our success is going to come from our customers' success," he concluded. "We want Bayer Polymers to be a key industry driver--we must work very hard to engage customers in ways that shape the future--of not only its products and technologies, but its growth and opportunities."