Interview: the New CEO at BTS Places Equal Emphasis on Flexibility and Focus

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PROCESS: Is it not true to say that your success in China is primarily based on business from affiliates and global players and that you tend to have pricing problems when you approach local Chinese companies?

Van Meirvenne: Every company tries to define its USP (unique selling proposition). Our USP is our owner’s engineering mentality which you rarely find in the market. A customer can give us his wallet with the confidence that we will manage his money wisely. To an increasing extent, the customer relationship is evolving into a long-term partnership. Business with a short horizon or commodity engineering with a short-term profit mentality is not our strategy, and that includes also emerging markets like China.

PROCESS: For years, BTS has being claiming that its close proximity to the plant operations environment and its owner’s mentality has given the company a competitive advantage. Are these arguments not losing some of their luster after eight years of autonomy?

Van Meirvenne: No, the success of BTS shows that this is definitely not the case. Sustainability has become a major issue everywhere, and it plays a huge role in our customer relationships. It has been my experience that if you try to do things fast and cheap, in most cases it actually takes longer and costs more. Because of our operational background, we are able to instill confidence. Customers are convinced that we do things right and can help them improve their performance over the long term.

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