01. Copperberg Podcast
Episode 05
Event Recap: 2024 Aftermarket Business Platform Power of 50
Running a smart and agile manufacturing operation
In October 2024, 50 aftermarket leaders gathered to discuss strategies to elevate the customer experience by integrating customer-centric practices in the service lifecycle. This episode brings you key moments from that event through the delegates’ eyes.
02. CONTENT
With a mix of keynote summaries, delegate reflections, and roundtable insights, this episode paints a vivid picture of how industry leaders are navigating and driving service excellence.
Experience the pulse of the event:
- Resilience and Innovation: Hear stories of strength and transformation from aftermarket leaders who have navigated immense challenges and turned obstacles into opportunities for growth.
- Keynote Insights: Our speakers share thought-provoking ideas on topics like the power of smart analytics, strategies for amplifying customer-centricity, and the critical need for continuous transformation in a rapidly evolving service landscape.
- Roundtable Takeaways: Get a sense of the crucial themes that emerged from the five rounds of peer-to-peer discussions that happened that day.
- Panel Reflections: Listen as our expert panelists synthesized key themes and provided actionable insights to drive sustainable success in the aftermarket.
Whether you’re a service professional, technologist, or industry leader, this episode is packed with insights that will get you thinking about the future of the aftermarket and your role in shaping it.
03. Speakers
Copperberg Conversations on Manufacturing Matters is your go-to podcast for candid discussions with the industry’s top thinkers and innovators.
04. Listen now
Event Recap: 2024 Aftermarket Business Platform Power of 50
Throughout the episode, you’ll hear inspiring stories and practical takeaways from thought leaders who are redefining the customer experience in aftermarket services.
05. Transcript
Nina Roper Yearwood (01:00)
All right, so today’s episode will be a bit different from our usual sit-down interview because we’re giving you a recap of and spotlighting some fantastic conversations we had with event delegates, speakers and partners at our last in-person event in Copenhagen.
This was of course the 2024 Aftermarket Business Platform – Power of 50, our 15th edition, where we brought together 50 aftermarket leaders – hence Power of 50 – from all across Europe to talk about what it means to elevate the customer experience in aftermarket services. And let me tell you, Copenhagen really showed up for us with some surprisingly beautiful sunny weather over the two days that we were there. The event was held at the gorgeous Marriott Hotel, and trust me, there was no shortage of action.
The day before the big event day, we had a pre-event workshop and socials to break the ice. The next day was of course the main event day where aftermarket professionals, industry leaders and technologists were all in the same room to listen to keynotes, exchange ideas during the round tables and just to really learn and connect, putting on their respective learning hats to gather knowledge and insights while in turn also sharing their own ideas and experiences.
Needless to say, it was a super duper-packed two days of back-to-back activities with everyone bringing together great energy and making the event a success.
We even had a special appearance of a fire alarm going off in the afternoon, making sure everyone was wide awake and just blasting away any mid-day slump that we have.
To set the mood, I’ll play you a short clip we recorded live from the event where you’ll hear Copperberg’s Managing Director, Lisa Hellqvist, giving us a context of this aftermarket event.
Lisa Hellqvist (03:06)
Welcome to the Aftermarket Business Platform Power of 50 in Copenhagen. We are live, we’ve just kicked off the meeting inside this very room. We started in 2009. If you don’t recall that year, I can tell you that Susan Boyle won Britain’s Got Talent that year. So that’s how old we are. If you want to stay live on the feed from today, just follow us on this platform.
Nina Roper Yearwood (03:36)
Okay, now to give you a vivid sense of what it all felt like or to help you relive it if you were there with us, we’ll start with snippets of our chats with delegates during the breaks, after which we’ll chronologically walk you through how the day went as you will hear the event speakers share with us key points from their keynote presentations, followed by our event partners and roundtable moderators sharing with us what stood out from their five rounds of roundtables or idea blitz discussions, as we call it, and just the overall conversations we’ve had during the day.
We’ll end this with our closing panel, which rounds out the key themes discussed at the event. So get comfortable and let’s get going.
Our Marketing Director, Malin Mostofi, did a little mingling of her own and caught up with some of our fantastic delegates. She asked them things like why they decided to attend and what they were most excited about. So let’s hear what they had to say.
Our first interview clip comes from Simon Dhaenens and Isabelle De Bourderé who global marketing leads at TVH. Here, they’ll be sharing with us what they’re expecting from today’s event.
Malin Mostofi (05:13)
Ok so, I’m here with Simon and Isabelle, and can you state your titles and companies as well?
Simon Dhaenens, TVH (05:18)
So we both work at TVH and we’re actually both global marketing lead.
Malin Mostofi (05:23)
Perfect. And we have just started the event today, but what are you expecting from today’s event?
Simon Dhaenens, TVH (05:30)
To connect with people from other industries you usually don’t connect with. So we’re similar companies, we’re all in the manufacturing and the parts business. But we’re still in very different industries and it’s very nice to hear that there’s similarities and ideas we can share. So, connection, a lot of connection.
Malin Mostofi (05:54)
Fantastic, and you?
Isabelle De Bourderé, TVH (05:56)
I think we want to learn from each other. For me, that’s a very important objective today, to learn from other companies how they do things when it comes to parts aftermarket. I’ve been in both sides. I’ve been in the original parts sector now and I’m basically in aftermarket. So it’s very nice to see if there are synergies, but also to learn from other companies. Like, for example, at TVH, we are thinking about developing a very important factor on sales enablement. I’ve already learned some things today even after one hour on sales enablement. So I’m happy.
Malin Mostofi (06:35)
That’s great feedback. Thank you. I hope the day continues the same. Thank you so much.
Nina Roper Yearwood (06:46)
Next up, let me introduce you to Jannis Chatzilamprou, Team Lead Service Product Management and Digital Services from Outotec. He is a familiar face at our events, having joined us many times before. This year, he was eager to share what he hoped to take away from this edition. Let’s hear from him.
Malin Mostofi (07:06)
Okay, so now I am here with Jannis. And do you want to say what company you represent in your title?
Jannis Chatzilamprou, Outotec (07:14)
Yeah, I’m part of the Metso, a Finnish company coming from Germany, Outotec. We are actually in the area of the metals industry, part of the group in Metso. I’ve been here in previous years. It’s, I think, a very good event, and I think as we discussed also on this title, what we can actually take away this year, it’s probably some things about the AI, how to support our services, towards customer intimacy, and definitely some references of the colleagues, what they have to present in some service cases, and the models that they exist around towards customer support and definitely is some new people that I have already the opportunity to meet and discuss very interesting things and to keep in contact for the next years, for sure.
Malin Mostofi (08:22)
Fantastic! Since you have been at our Power of 50 events a few times before, why the Power of 50? What do you like about the concept?
Jannis Chatzilamprou, Outotec (08:31)
I think it’s this generosity and the general thing that it has as an event, not a specific topic, but definitely the servitization and everything around service which comes in the last years more and more, the need of it and the challenges that we have in the industry and also the needs of the customers, it makes a good overview.
Like all of us here has the opportunity to meet peers from the industry and also from providers for services. It’s all in all a good thing. Not that of course the other things of Copperberg are not good, but comparing to Manufacturing Pricing Excellence or Field Service Forum is a bit more specific and focused. Here is a bit more general so you can discuss about everything that you have learned also in other events and you can take a bit more takeaways.
Nina Roper Yearwood (09:37)
Now, you will hear from a delegate who has been with the aftermarket and service business for over a decade now, sharing with us what he wants to learn from our event.
Malin Mostofi (09:44)
Ok, fantastic, and can I just ask you what is the kind of main reason you want to attend today’s event? What are you looking forward to the most?
Event Delegate (09:53)
Well, I am in the service and after sales business quite long time, last 10 years. And during that period, we have learned a lot about the machine and men because both are in behind the service business.
So now I am here to know how we can go one step ahead. That means from the manual to fully digitalization. Because we know the human brain and mind is very complex. Don’t always we get the proper feedback from them. So other way by using the latest technology how we can get or read their mind and brain.
Nina Roper Yearwood (10:43)
And to finish up the segment, we’ll hear from Lucas Rodríguez, Director of Services, Sales and Channel Management at Tetra Pak. He’s going to share what stands out to him as the most valuable aspect of this event. Let’s hear his thoughts.
Malin Mostofi (10:50)
So I’m here with, if you want to state your name and the company you work for?
Lucas Rodríguez, Tetra Pak (10:53)
Lucas Rodriguez, I work for Tetra Pak.
Malin Mostofi (10:58)
Great! What’s your position at Tetra Pak?
Lucas Rodríguez, Tetra Pak (11:00)
I work as director for sales management and portfolio support.
Malin Mostofi (11:08)
Fantastic! And is this the first time you’ve been to Aftermarket Power of 50?
Lucas Rodríguez, Tetra Pak (11:11)
It’s the second one.
Malin Mostofi (11:13)
Second one, great! And what has been your impression of this event so far?
Lucas Rodríguez, Tetra Pak (11:17)
I think the value that adds for me is basically a lot of opportunity to benchmark against other industries because usually you know what is happening within your industry but this is a good way also to understand what our peers are doing in other industries and we can learn from each other, so for me that’s a lot the value that I get out of this event.
Nina Roper Yearwood (12:01)
That ends our quick chat with the delegates. Now we’re moving on to the next part. We will be listening to our short interviews with the event speakers and partners.
Here in this segment, you will hear from some of our event speakers. First up, we have Vincent Sieben, Head of Services Marketing at Philips, who presented a keynote on why generating demand for advanced services is vital. In the clip you’re about to hear, he gives us a quick summary of what his talk was all about. So let’s listen in.
Vincent Sieben (12:29)
It was great to open this morning here in Copenhagen. I really like to be with like-minded people talking about services. It was for me an opportunity to share the journey we had over last nine years. Talking about, on the one hand, establishing our proposition of service agreements and splitting that from good, bad, or best into a broader service offerings set-up, service offerings agreements, the pricing next to that, but also touching upon how do we then position that ultimately in the market and also how do you promote that in front of the customer’s building awareness, demand generation, and also ultimately loyalty. So just touching upon all the four marketing piece and it was really exciting to be here with this group today.
Nina Roper Yearwood (13:15)
Vincent’s presentation really captivated the audience with one delegate saying how the insights were delivered crisp, clear, and incredibly timed. Now we’re going to hear him share with us his thoughts about the event as a whole.
Vincent Sieben (13:31)
Well, the great thing of those kinds of events is that you don’t need to sell anything. Normally you are interacting lot with customers and try to pitch a lot, here you are really to learn and to connect with people. You don’t need to sell anything because the next one is in cranes, the next one is in pumps and whatever. It’s really good to learn from each other and also at the same time experience a bit what are they facing internally, which struggles to get services on the agenda.
And on the other hand, also great examples where are other companies successful and how can I apply that back in my organization. So it was a great moment to interact with other executive services leaders across Europe. So it was a great moment to be here together.
Nina Roper Yearwood (14:12)
Next up, we have Olga Litvinchuk, Aftersales Manager at Titan Machinery, who stilled the room and earned everyone’s deep respect as she shared Titan Machinery Ukraine’s incredible resilience through the hardest of times. What you’ll hear now is her giving us an overview of her keynote on how to amplify customer centricity for enhanced service lifetime value.
Olga Litvinchuk (14:48)
My keynote was about customer-centric approach. What is this actually? What is this, customer loyalty during the time when the war is above your head? And actually, how should you forecast what your customer needs and what he or she will need in the future?
And actually the obstacles made us think a bit forward and adopt to the reality and provide several solutions which were not present at the market at all. For example, video consulting, online consulting, service expert team. So something the customer needs just because actually the obstacles are like this. So this is the way how to understand your customer even when the circumstances are extremely difficult and it is turmoil. And we did.
Nina Roper Yearwood (15:53)
It was truly an inspiring moment for all the leaders there. One of our delegates was so moved by the presentation, she said, and I quote: “In light of the ongoing conflict, they faced challenges that most businesses could hardly imagine. Yet, Olga has not only navigated these challenges, but has also led the company through a wild transformation developing new business areas and creating a healthy, future-proof enterprise. It really puts things into perspective. While many companies are grappling with transformation and hesitating to take the first steps, Olga’s example shows us that when you have to change, you can.”
Now, let’s hear from Olga herself as she shares her take on the event.
Olga Litvinchuk (16:51)
This is my third time with Copperberg and I really appreciate for all the invitations I got. I’ve been in Warwick, in Amsterdam, also with a speech and today here in beautiful sunny Copenhagen in October. Who knows how it happened. Nevertheless, Copperberg for me is always an event which actually helps to think out of the box because this is always multi-industry event.
When you are coming to regular one industry, mono industry event, you just thinking, just straight as you do every day at work, sometimes left and right. And here you are listening to your peers, to the colleagues who have some other experience in other industry. And you open your mind. And this is, I think it is crucial. It is extremely important to continue this practice for us to exchange our experiences.
Nina Roper Yearwood (17:58)
Next in line is Matt Rudden, VP Global Lottery Field Services at IGT, who’s taking us through the main points of his keynote, Transforming Service with Smart Analytics.
Matt Rudden (18:14)
We have been on a journey at our company and smart analytics, I think, is a term that perhaps has been misused in the past. But actually, we found that on this journey, we found many different avenues for it. And I think that’s really what I wanted to impart today was what that really means for us at IGT and what it could mean for all the people in the room here.
Nina Roper Yearwood (18:41)
Now, you’ll hear Matt share his impressions of the event and what stood out to him.
Matt Rudden (18:50)
The main thing that I get from this is there are so many different industries here. And my industry is very niche, but as is everybody else’s. And there are some major, major heavy machinery type of industries. There are smaller industries. There’s industries like ours, which are small machines, but very large in the number of deployments. But actually the challenges that we have are very similar.
And so that was really interesting in getting some of the solutions that people have found. And I’ve got lots of things to take back to my company for sure. And I’m sure everybody else has as well. So it was a really, really well run event.
Nina Roper Yearwood (19:29)
Last, but certainly not least, we have Vincent van Hellemondt, who talks about the key insights from his keynote presentation, how the concept of the connected manufacturer accelerates growth in the aftermarket.
Vincent van Hellemondt (19:47)
Yes, sure. And five was a lot, but a lot of insights I gained today. And I want to share two insights for today. So first one is the importance of organizational change still. It strikes me that many organizations, like-minded organizations, struggle how to convert, how to adopt, and how to increase sales within their organization.
The second part is how to use data. All these manufacturers possess a wide variety of data, but how to convert and how to make tangible services out of that remains difficult.
Nina Roper Yearwood (20:28)
And here’s Vincent sharing with us his perspective on the overall event.
Vincent van Hellemondt (20:34)
Today’s event was super fruitful. A lot of great discussions, like-minded discussions. And I want to take out one quote, which is, I spoke to one of the manufacturers today and they said, well, we’re actually not doing that bad. We thought we did worse. And I think that sums up today. It’s about getting comfort. It’s about getting to know other organizations and get be inspired by them. And I think Copperberg succeeded.
Nina Roper Yearwood (21:08)
That wraps up the interviews we’ve had with our keynote speakers.
Nina Roper Yearwood (21:26)
We’ll now move on to the next part, where you will get an impression of what the discussions were like throughout the day. Now, let us turn our attention to our roundtable moderators and event partners, who are giving us an overview and key takeaways from the conversations that took place that day.
You will now hear from Christian Schaub, Sales Director, Austria and Switzerland at proaxia consulting, who talks about his main takeaways from the round of discussions that day.
Christian Schaub (21:51)
Yeah, there are many key takeaways actually. We started with the genetic expression of service excellence and we find out that there are so many ways to get to there, to the service excellence. And the important thing is that you have the service capabilities, skills, solutions, behavior to find the right path to it.
And it was really very, very interesting, the different stories, the different experience coming together and the wish that they all can increase the service excellence.
Nina Roper Yearwood (22:33)
Next, you’ll hear him reflect on the event.
Christian Schaub (22:36)
It is a great event and I like this format very much where we can, I would say, not cozy but in a very close atmosphere on the round table, really we can speak without loudspeakers, we have no flip charts or powerpoints. So this brings us really close together. This is a great format. I liked it very much.
Nina Roper Yearwood (23:00)
Coming up shortly is Marcus Ljungdahl, Global Account Executive, Service and Aftermarket at IFS, who will let us in on what stood out to him during his conversations on AI and the service lifecycle.
Marcus Ljungdahl (23:19)
The takeaway I think is that the engagement that I mean to discuss AI in the service lifecycle. It’s everyone is engaged and it’s very, very interesting to hear people’s experience. Some of the customers actually have real experience. Some of them will do it in the short term and some of them wish to do some things in this area. So it’s very engaged discussions.
Nina Roper Yearwood (23:53)
Now, listen in as he shares his view of the event.
Marcus Ljungdahl (23:57)
I think it’s a perfect platform for discussing or sharing ideas with industry leaders. And especially to see how digitalization could bring value into service operations. I think it’s a fantastic platform for discussing that.
Nina Roper Yearwood (24:18)
Wrapping up this segment, you will hear from Thomas Lindahl, Client Executive at Syncron, who will give us a sense of the key points that stood out during his roundtable discussions on service contracts.
Thomas Lindahl (24:35)
Yeah, the key takeaways is in talking to customers about service contracts, we see the challenges that these customers are going through when the CFO says, I want to double my after sales on contracts and they get to execute on that. So looking on those challenges and the manual work they have today and then how they can actually build and be guided on how I can do this and build this that it will take some years, but I know how to start it. That’s why the perfect intro with Vincent from Philips gave a perfect setting for me to discuss, this is how you see how others have done it. So let’s walk back and see how you can come into the same position. So for me, it was a fantastic event.
Nina Roper Yearwood (25:24)
Here’s what he has to say about the event.
Thomas Lindahl (25:28)
Yes, I earlier mentioned that looking at, sitting at table talking about the topic – this is not the traditional sales event. This is something where you actually share knowledge and experiences between customers. And I have the privilege to listen in. So I just moderate the customers and companies, they do the talking and I share knowledge and get excited on the topic.
So for me, it’s amazing to have the privilege to listen in and I learn a lot and I bring that back to my company to say that, well, these are the things we need to modify in order to address these things and here we’re pretty good. So all in all, to meet potential customers and customers here and also to learn a lot that is important for my company, that tells you a lot.
Nina Roper Yearwood (26:20)
Okay, now we move on to the final part of our interviews. You will now hear from our panelists who will take us through the main points of their concluding panel discussion on how to amplify customer centricity for enhanced service lifetime value.
We begin with Anna Jern-Houttu, VP Service Solutions at Kalmar Global.
Anna Jern-Houttu (26:53)
Yes, think the subjects we talked about, so service and customer centricity. I guess my key takeaway here is that service is customer centricity is what I would dare to say because as we’re moving from being a product driven company to a service driven company, as I hear that also other companies are doing, service is basically realizing the customer centricity because it is about making sure that the products actually serve the customers and answer to the customers’ need and make sure that the customers can run their operations. I think that’s my key takeaway. Service is customer centricity.
Nina Roper Yearwood (27:35)
Now let’s hear what she has to say about the event.
Anna Jern-Houttu (27:37)
I think it was great to meet all these people from different industries. Small and big companies. I guess it’s comforting to know that we are facing similar challenges. How to be customer centric, how to reach over the organizational silos, how to meet the sustainability targets and all of this.
Just really encouraging that we are in the same boat and we can learn from each other. So, yeah, great, great day.
Nina Roper Yearwood (28:10)
Coming up, we have another panelist, Navè Orgad, Director, Advanced Services at Konecranes, talking about his main takeaways from the discussion.
Navè Orgad (28:22)
I think the key takeaway is that there’s still a lot to do about customer centricity and how to develop services that actually answer to the customer needs. At the same time, I also found out that, or reconfirmed that a lot of problems are common to many other companies, so it’s reassuring to know that we are all on the same journey, maybe at different points in the journey, but we all have the same goal and we need to get there sooner or later. I would say that was the main takeaway for me.
Nina Roper Yearwood (29:03)
And now for his take on the event.
Navè Orgad (29:06)
Yeah, today’s event was great. As usual, I’ve been participating in the Copperberg events for a few years, over the last few years again. And it’s been great as usual. I think this smaller format compared to the past gives more space to workshops and to interactions with people. And it gets a bit more personal in a way, so you can really address a few of the topics and hear best practices from other peers in the service network. So that’s definitely positive for me.
Nina Roper Yearwood (29:40)
By closing this portion, you will hear Jason Moore, Head of Global Aftermarket Solutions and Sales Enablement at Grundfos. He will tell us about what stood out to him during the panel discussion.
Jason Moore (29:57)
I one of the key takeaways I’ve got is that, you know, we’ve been a lot of people here today talking about aftermarket, talking about the journey to servitization. And it’s kind of interesting that nobody has the silver bullet to what that journey is or how to solve that problem to certain degree. And there’s many different aspects which needs to be solved as part of that journey. We’ve talked about customer centricity and understanding customers’ needs.
And that’s something which of course, should be the foremost thought of everybody when it comes to servitization. And that needs a different kind of approach to looking at the customer’s needs from a product centric perspective. And when you’re looking at a hardware product, so looking at what a solution should be from a customer centric perspective. But it’s also interesting to see that from an internal organisational perspective, people are also having similar struggles to stay to that organisation on the same page. Because there are many different aspects of an organisation which need to come together. The sales team needs to move from a transactional point of view towards more to a solution selling point of view and that’s a different skill set. We need to have the product management side looking at how they develop new different business models, for example.
And obviously from the service delivery perspective as well how we do that. So there are many different aspects and it’s sometimes feels overwhelming of the journey that we’re on that we have to try to fix all these. But of course, that’s part of the journey that we are all on. And it’s interesting to see that many people are having the same struggles to a certain degree, which is kind of reassuring and maybe a little bit depressing if that’s the way I’m describing it.
But I think it’s good to get this community together to understand that it’s okay. That we don’t all have the answers. It’s okay that we don’t have the solution to what should be fixed here. But we have the end goal in mind and we will get there eventually.
Nina Roper Yearwood (32:01)
To finish off, let’s now listen to Jason’s overall impression of the event.
Jason Moore (32:08)
I thought it was very well organised. I think the location is excellent. And the different, you can say, profiles of people who are attending was very interesting. It’s not like everybody is from the same industry or the same profile. And that makes good for the diversity perspective to understand different perspectives and different needs from different participants in that respect.
So, yes, I enjoyed very much the event over today and I certainly would be interested in attending another one, that’s for sure.
Nina Roper Yearwood (32:45)
And there you have it. Those are the major highlights from the interviews we’ve had during the 2024 edition of the Aftermarket Business Platform, Power of 50. To those of you who are still listening up to this point, we made it. Big, big, big thank you for sticking around.
I hope that this has given you a vivid picture of the event and I hope that you got a good sense of the key pieces to note about customer centricity in the aftermarket. Maybe even some motivation to join us in our upcoming events.
You can visit copperberg.com, where you can find all the details on what’s coming up, plus tons of insightful content to keep you in the know.
Once again, thank you very much for tuning in today, and see you next time!
