Guido Brüggemann, Managing Director of the Zürich Service Center, has had an unmatched impact on the operations of Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) in Switzerland. On September 30, he is passing the baton to his successor, Steve Barrot. “Steve is exactly the right person. No one could do it better. If this were my company, I would feel good about handing the center’s management over to him.”
This vote of confidence is based on cooperation whose beginnings date back more than two decades. “During the early years, we traveled together through Switzerland like twins, visiting customers and suppliers. We pursue the same business philosophy and have the same way of working: No empty talk. Just get the job done. Whether it’s dirty hands or even flecks of oil on a shirt, that’s part of selling – for both of us. The customers pay us back with their orders. Whether the person is a manager or assembler at a machine, we deal with everyone on an equal footing,” Brüggemann said.
Barrot puts it this way: “I want to have a visible presence at the customer. This is where the action is. Direct access to the Lead Centers is just as important to me, since the Lead Centers develop and produce the solutions for our customers.” In the future, he would like to keep moving on the same course – taking the “Swiss route” – that the Service Center has charted. “We have an agile way of operating. Everyone is a small-scale entrepreneur here. This is what Guido has established. What he’s done here is fantastic. He has cleared the way for me.” At times, Barrot gained experience in management at a global mechanical seal manufacturer in Switzerland between 2010 and 2016. But Brüggemann was able to lure him back to the Zürich Service Center – at first for the number-two position and eventually for the top spot.
Revenue 20 Times as High
Brüggemann’s time at Freudenberg’s Zürich office began in the late 1980s. Right from the start, he had an impact on the Service Center’s business, first in the field in western Switzerland, and for the entire Confederation as the new millennium began. He talks about perseverance and a sustained transformation as he compares the 1989 strategy and financials with those of today. Revenue is now 20 times what it was back then, with not even twice as many employees. The share of costs as a percentage of revenue has seen a huge decline, “and earnings naturally have to be right as well,” he said. What was once 90 percent catalog business with standard items has now become 90 percent customer-specific orders. Brüggemann’s strategy was to concentrate on major, high-revenue customers and offer them a full selection. “We also do the small stuff for the big companies,” he said.
The purchase of trade ware externally was also part of the formula. “This strengthens our position in difficult negotiations,” Brüggemann said. It was a pioneering achievement of today’s Zürich Service Center to complement the FST product portfolio by purchasing trade ware from outside the Freudenberg Group. Brüggemann was one of the first Freudenberg executives to establish a network for this purpose in Italy. “This service to the customer is also part of sustained customer engagement.”
“The Company Is Close to My Heart”
As far as Brüggemann is concerned, the factors in the Service Center’s success have included superb service, flexibility and speed. Each is an element of a customer focus that is lived and breathed. “Our warehouse is one of the core elements of our success,” he said. Across every market segment, it ensures fast availability. Distribution services include packaging – now even in a clean room – and the assembly of component kits. In a special lab, for example, complaints can be immediately assessed. “That means we can quickly provide information to the customer,” he said. He considers the bundling of technical competencies in the “Lube & Seal” initiative with those of corporate colleagues at Klüber Lubrication on the same floor to be another guarantee of success. “The crucial part is still the technology. It has to win the customer over,” he said.
Technology is also one of the main reasons why Brüggemann has remained loyal to Freudenberg over more than three decades. “Freudenberg really has tremendous products and technologies. The people in the Lead Centers and at the production sites, the development engineers, the material and technology experts – they embody the true Freudenberg spirit.” That is exactly what he enjoys to this day. “My heart still beats for the company. There’s a lot of passion there. When I close my laptop late in the evening, I want to have a good feeling. I want to believe that today I did something concrete and measurable – even quantifiable in euros – for the company.
That’s why he won’t disappear overnight from the Freudenberg scene after his retirement and will still be contributing his experience, his expertise and his unbridled energy to the company. But perhaps there will be more time for him to relax and spend time with his life partner, his guitar-playing – “from Bob Dylan to the Rolling Stones”– or his home renovation project.
