Flashback Metal Meets – the 4. round
On 20 February 2020, leading heads of the metal industry met again at the KölnSKY and discussed the topic of customer centricity as part of this year’s Metal Meets. All participants agreed: Customer Centricity is a hot and central topic.
The morning was used to create a broad foundation on the topic of Customer Centricity with various presentations. Mr. Marc Hartmann, Senior Partner at B&C, opened the event. He introduced the topic of the day with the central questions “how does IT support the communication channels from and to the customer” and which “mindset must be available in which organizational form for Customer Centricity”.
Prof. Rembert Horstmann from the Cologne Business School then defined the scientific framework. Therefor he gave the participants an overview of the latest scientific findings on Customer Centricity and its successful application in B2B markets. This was followed by Mr. Stefan Grüll, CEO at Steelbutsmart, who impressively demonstrated with a practical presentation that his company understood the wishes of its customers and implemented them convincingly. In his presentation “Creating customer value through the use of new technologies (Blockchain@Work)” he explained how blockchain and digital identities can create a tamper-proof connection between quality data and product.
At the end of the morning, Mr. Marco Bauer, CEO of Up2parts, gave a practical presentation from outside the industry with the title “Customer Centricity – What changes if you take the topic seriously in a parts manufacturer?” He showed very impressively how Customer Centricity can be implemented through digitalization. After a lively networking lunch break, the discussion was further enriched by a panel study in the afternoon in which the conference participants assessed the status of customer centricity in the metal industry online.
In the very active discussion panel, the speakers from different industries (Dr. Jürgen Harland, Salzgitter Flachstahl, Jens Hartmann, Isabellenhütte Heusler, Dr. Jens Magenheimer, ISRA Vision Parsytech) exchanged their respective experiences in implementing Customer Centricity with and among the conference guests. Especially interesting and motivating were the reports on the demonstrably monetary results of the implementation of Customer Centricity.
The presentation “Customer Centri–city needs an integrated supply chain control approach”, held by Dr. Matthias Weber and Michael Jansen, both managers at B&C, completed the day in terms of content. The function and benefits of the B&C supply chain control framework for implementing Customer Centricity were highlighted. The successful day ended with Kölsch, finger food and a magnificent view of the carnival celebrations of Cologne. Additionally, inspiring suggestions for following themes of Metal Meets in 2021 were collected here!
„A very well organized event with exciting contributions about the different ways in which Customer Centricity can be used to develop a clear differentiation in the market.“
Oliver Santelli, CSO
Georsmarienhütte
„Understanding Customer Centricity as corporate culture, rather than a sales task. This insight has been impressively demonstrated by noteworthy examples. B&C organized a successful and entertaining event.“
Dr. Guido Stebner, CTO
Deutsche Edelstahlwerke
„B&C put together a very good mix of practical presentations and created a very pleasant event setting. The input on how measurable results could be achieved with Customer Centricity was particularly exciting for me.“
Gerald Zwickel, Member of the Board
Zapp
„B&C managed to prepare the topic of Customer Centricity in a very practical way, so that I was able to take a lot with me. In particular, the examples on how to expand customer centricity in the business model via technological developments and IT were valuable for me.“
Dr. Herbert Eichelkraut, CTO
HKM
