Interview with Andy Sharpe
On his path to CEO of the North American (NAM) region, Andy Sharpe has seen his share of wins. In this interview he shares what helps him succeed, and how he plans to keep the win streak going.
Interview: Nick Manley, March 25, 2021
Let’s start by making you brag about yourself for a bit. Everywhere you go, whether it’s a Bühler location or a trade show, people are constantly stopping you to talk and “have a few words with Andy”. What is it about Andy that everyone wants a piece?
One of the things I always try to do is focus on culture. Early on in the training I have had about culture, we were asked to create a leadership statement. Mine is: “Create disruption in the North American region, create inspiration, and remain present and consistent while doing it.” The most important part of that statement is “remaining present and consistent.” When engaging with people, I actively listen to really hear what they are saying, rather than listening in order to reply. I think people respond to me because I listen.
Another aspect has to do with something Stefan Scheiber has said many times: “We are playing to win.” I am also “in it to win it”, and perhaps that’s a part of my personality that people like to engage with. I definitely prefer to be on a winning side, and I work very hard to help other people win as well.
Given your successes, you have options on where you could work. Why do you work for Bühler?
One of the reasons Aeroglide was interesting to me was because it deals with opportunity first and risk second. I’d come from a company that was absolutely risk adverse. They just couldn’t get past risk to get to an opportunity. At Bühler, there’s a genuine willingness within the business to go after opportunity and manage risk. Even as I’m developing the 2025 strategy for NAM region, one of the things I want people to understand is the need to go after opportunities. I want them to raise the risk curve, because that’s where our opportunity lies. So don’t be risk averse, but be risk aware.
The second reason is “purpose.” The work we’ve been doing over the last 18 months with Partners in Food Solutions, and around our targets for sustainability – that is something that really gets me out of bed in the morning. It’s knowing that we make a difference. One of the phrases that Stefan used at Networking Days 2019 really gets to me: “We have to remember we’re only borrowing this planet from our children.”
I think the toughest judges I’ve got are my two children. When they say, “Hey, Dad that’s really cool,” I know I’m doing the right thing.
You are passionate about culture. What is culture and why is it an important consideration for a CEO?
Culture, for me, can be paraphrased as “the way we get things done around here.” It’s really easy to come up with culture statements – “We’re going to do this. We’re going to do that.” What I’ve tried to with Bühler Aeroglide and the North American region is engage as much of the leadership team as I can to develop statements that we can stand behind. We need to remain present and consistent.
I think sometimes we very easily hang culture statements on the walls, but we need to make sure it’s in the halls, as well. Every single day, we have to demonstrate aspects of that culture.
The culture is a fuel for what drives us, it’s not about KPIs. It’s not about hitting those numbers every year, every month. Of course they’re important, but if you have a culture, and people are coming in ready, willing, and passionate about what they’re doing, the numbers are one of the results. That demonstration of a passion we can bring into the organization and to our customers, makes a difference. Customers feel it.
How do the TOP values factor in?
Trust, Ownership, and Passion are about the person, the self. It’s the “I” statements that strengthen culture – “I will make the difference in terms of trust, ownership, and passion.” The only person you can possibly deal with is yourself. I can’t guess what somebody else might feel because they have different backgrounds and the diversity that they bring is something we should celebrate, not try to change to a personal point of view. Everybody should be empowered to voice an opinion and have an interpretation, and then we can work through those different points. The culture creates a framework that gives people room to create that alignment.
How has the pandemic impacted the culture you’re trying to cultivate in NAM?
I think there are four key things we’ve learned during this Covid-19 period that speak volumes about how we respond to challenges. First, we’ve learned how to connect effectively through the different virtual platforms. We owe a debt of gratitude to our ITP teams for making sure all that works. Second, the innovation cycle around digital was accelerated beyond anything we thought possible. We’ve grown our digital business exactly when needed. The value for our customers is really starting to take off. Third, we now know everyone’s calendar is viewed by everybody, and every waking moment seems to get a meeting in it. I think this has given us true appreciation of our own and other people’s time and made us manage our time more effectively. Finally, I think we recognize that physical meetings are so important, BUT, they will never be the way it was. Meaning, I think we now understand that just jumping on a plane to go see a customer is no longer the way to go. I think, going forward, these physical meetings will be much more structured, more agenda-driven making better use of our time.
Transparency is near and dear to you. Why is it important?
I think the team deserves to know how they’re doing. If we’re playing a game, and we’re playing to win, we need to know what the score is. For me, understanding what the score is in terms of where we are on turnover, profitability, what’s good, what’s bad, that is transparency. People need to see as much as we can possibly share. Obviously, there are some things that are confidential, but I really work hard to make sure people are informed and involved on a very regular basis.
What’s your strategy for growth in the NAM region?
I think growth is going to come to us from Customer Service, in changing it from being a parts supply to a customer experience. We want to take it from the first point of contact all the way through. Within the Apollo strategy, we’re talking about going from free to fee. We need to make sure people understand that we’re bringing value into the services we are creating, including digital services. To understand how customer plants are running, we need to be connected digitally. Data analytics is really going to help us with the overall service experience.
Growth to me means taking on a little bit more risk, in terms of what we do for our customers, in terms of managing maintenance plans, improving OEE for a line, and actually getting rewarded for doing that. There are business models that could be very interesting for us in the future.
We’re in the middle of a red-hot market on alternative proteins, and we’re quite successful in that because we want to be the full solutions partner for that industry. Nobody is better placed than us, especially with the new Food Application Center (FAC) in BMIN. The FAC is absolutely critical for us to use in that marketplace to help that growth.
Industry is in the midst of a digital transformation. How do we use that transformation in NAM to serve our customers better?
One thing we’ve learned as a business is it’s not about our products, it’s about relationships. It’s about being on the journey with the customers, because the first thing customers have to do is trust us with their data and feel that the management of their data is secure. They then have to see the monetized benefit of allowing us to have that data. We’re finding that is becoming an easier conversation.
The foundation of our digital service offering really is our process knowledge. That’s a differentiation between us and others. The ability and the speed with which we've adopted the cybersecurity options has enabled data to be shared, which allows us to apply our process knowledge, which then allows us to generate value for our customers.
What we see going forward to 2025, is digital is not going to be a standalone business. By that, I mean it’s in every bit of our business. It’s in financial, it’s in supply chain, and it’s in the sales options to our customers – all of which are going to develop monetary benefit for us and our customers.
Describe Destination 2025 in NAM.
Ultimately, we’d like to just about double our contribution to EBIT from the region to the overall global business, and we firmly believe there’s an opportunity to do that. We believe the market we’re playing in is worth more than USD 4 billion in terms of potential. A 25% market share is not an unreasonable target.
The key drivers are around service and the service experience. For the Consumer Foods business, the developments around a snacking on-the-go and protein formulations are another huge area of growth for us. The red hot market at the moment is alternative proteins. We are seen as an industry leader in this segment. Mix that together with digital, and you see the building blocks we’re putting together to drive forward to 2025.
Has the pandemic affected our plans?
The key metrics we track like orders released and turnover didn’t meet budget. But we wound up 10% off of the previous year. Our networking capital improved dramatically in 2020 and improved our liquidity position, which is not something a lot of businesses can say about their pandemic journey. This helps us make decisions, and support our marketplace better in a challenging time. It’s significant that the last months of the year we were booking USD 40 million a month. That tells us that our market is still wanting to do business and we’re still very relevant. And we’ve been sensible in setting budget for 2021, enabling us to concentrate on margin, which we’ve improved by about one to one and a half points, having improved it the year before by a little more than one point. This improves our quality of sales and our contribution to EBIT. Overall in the region, the team has really pulled together, stepped up our level of collaboration. The willingness to work together, again, speaks for our culture and our commitment to realizing Destination 2025, with people achieving more than they thought they ever could.
What will the challenges be in NAM?
The challenge for us is to establish sustainable business models around services. We need to review how we actually get paid for these services, and we need to increase the customers accepting or understanding how the overall process works. This will likely mean a couple years of fail-fast learning, but I think we shouldn’t shy away from it as long as we keep our destination in mind. I compare it to the Apollo mission. The Apollo 11 mission, when they actually landed people on the moon and brought them back safely, they were only on target for 3% of the time and they made over a thousand course corrections in achieving that. We need to keep in the back of our mind that we can still be very successful without being exactly on target all the time.
Coming back to you – what makes you happy?
I am happy, when my family is happy. If my wife and my two young adults are happy in what they’re doing, that makes me feel great. I enjoy helping people grow. It’s really quite peculiar now that my two young adults are coming to me and asking for advice on how to work with bosses, college professors, and coaches. It’s nice to hear that they finally worked out that Dad knows something. That’s pretty cool.
When my wife and I get a great meal out together, and have a fantastic evening together, that’s a win. If I’m able to help my son and daughter in anything at all, that’s a win. Obviously, I just love winning.
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