| DVZ, 04/05/2003 |  |
The Alternative to the Big Players
Geodis and Rohde & Liesenfeld believe in the success of their alliance
Geodis and Rohde & Liesenfeld (R&L) have united to defy the "global players" in the logistics market. The alliance is on the best way to achieve this goal, stressed Geodis chairman of the board Pierre Blayau and R&L boss Bodo Liesenfeld during an interview with DVZ. Peter Wörnlein asked the questions.
DVZ: Mr. Blayau, Mr. Liesenfeld, you both created an unusual alliance one year ago: between a French listed joint stock company and a German, privately owned and managed business. It could be assumed that different mentalities and leadership styles collide with each other. What is your interim report?
Blayau: We are still convinced that both enterprises complement each other very well because of the different adjustment of their networks - Geodis is strong in Europe, Rohde & Liesenfeld overseas. It is very important that the employees in these enterprises are convinced of the correctness of this step and are committed to the tasks resulting from it. For me this is the evidence that we are on the right track. However we still are working on creating the conditions for an optimised co-operation. It is therefore that only in one or two years we will be able to prove that our cooperation will lead to the results that we are hoping for. Allow me one more personal remark on the co-operation between Germans and French: I worked for many years in a steel company with German colleagues, I speak German better than English, and I appreciate the German style of management.
Liesenfeld: I agree with my alliance partner completely. Naturally we need some time for preparation, but meanwhile we have come far enough to state that we are cooperating successfully. So far everything has lived up to our expectations.
DVZ: Which goals have you set yourselves for this year, and what needs to be done still in order to reach them?
Liesenfeld: We still work on the integration of networks and processes. Our goal is to appear in the market as one corporate network with homogeneous product offers, so that the customer will enjoy the benefit of being serviced by the corporate network. We are also in the final stages of expanding the service product range at different locations and are developing distribution centres, for example in Latin America.
Blayau: Naturally the co-operation refers not only to production and sales of common logistics services, but also to the purchasing. Thus we introduced a "Global Ocean Freight Purchasing Committee" for the negotiations of global sea freight contracts.
DVZ: Mr. Blayau, concerning Geodis I still cannot recognize a conclusive strategy in view of the positioning of your enterprise in the logistics market. Surely Geodis is a heavyweight in France, but neither in Europe nor worldwide considered to be one of the large players. Can this lead to success in the long term?
Blayau: What we have done so far had one intention: the improvement of profitability. This is a matter of priority, because if the results are insufficient, the best strategy is useless. When I came to Geodis two years ago, we had a cashflow problem; that has become significantly smaller now. We reduced debts to the extent of 150 Mio. EUR, now we are in a substantially better situation. We are however still in a phase of restructuring. A very large problem for us has been the structure of the organization. It was divided into four sections: Logistics, air and sea freight, Full load services and general cargo. That was one of the reasons for the difficulties we encountered. We have completely changed this organization: Now the management of the individual national entity is responsible for the development of the different divisions. Meanwhile we have reached a point where we can make strategic plans. One thing is clear: We want to become even more of a Global Player, to even better live up to the requirements of our customers. They expect us to offer a complete range of services.
DVZ: How do you want to achieve this?
Blayau: In two ways: first of all by extending our own organization in France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain and secondly, by working in strategic partnerships such as the one with Rohde & Liesenfeld and with Elix.
DVZ: However, partnerships only work if the partners understand each others really well.
Blayau: Right, one cannot decide everything alone in a partnership. Nevertheless it is possible to develop a strong market position; the high quality of the partners is an important requirement.
Liesenfeld: We have a common goal: We want to appear in the market as the true alternative to the large multinational logistics companies. Clearly at the present neither Rohde & Liesenfeld with its overseas activities, nor Geodis with its own network, belongs to the top five or six Global Players. However, regarding the network, process management, IT solutions and financial resources put together, we are strong enough to play within this league. We are also an attractive alternative because of our structure allowing us to accommodate customer requirements flexibly by a fast decision making process.
DVZ: In 2002 the world economic situation slowed down. Logistics companies also were amongst those. How did business develop for you? Are you satisfied?
Liesenfeld: We are satisfied. Overall results proved to be better than expected at the beginning of the year, and our forecasts for the current year are even slightly better than there were in 2002.
Blayau: We managed to improve our operational results significantly; this explicitly applies also to the net result: We are back in the black figures. Regarding the results of the first months of this year, we can say that we have made further progress and that we were able to win some new, large logistics contracts. However we have to stress, that we cannot foresee all of the effects related to the Iraq war.
