Leading light
Johnny Thijs, CEO of bpost, spoke to Mail & Express Review after his triumph in Copenhagen at the World Mail Awards earlier this year. It has been a busy year for Johnny Thijs, but one that has been equally rewarding. As well as spearheading Belgian Post’s rebranding to bpost, the CEO followed in the footsteps of Helge Israelsen, John E Potter, Elmar Toime, and last year’s recipient Peter Bakker, by collecting the prestigious Industry Leadership Award at the 2010 World Mail Awards in Copenhagen. Mail and Express Review’s Chris Dolan caught up with him.
The essence of leadership
When asked what was the essence of good leadership in business, the CEO emphasised a strong willingness to learn. “I guess one needs a good and well balanced mixture of a variety of values and capabilities, but in today’s business environment I would suggest that three attitudes are key to a good leader: a strong willingness to learn and to keep on learning, a capacity to listen carefully and with an open mind to your customers, stakeholders and team members, and finally the capacity to focus on key objectives in spite of the constantly changing environment.”
The last time Thijs was interviewed by the Review he explained how the organisation was going through a major transformation process. This has obviously been successful.
“In the course of the past seven years many changes have demanded considerable energy and a great capacity for adaptation on the part of our employees. Almost all jobs have been revised. But we are now reaping the rewards for those efforts.
“Our company’s finances came out of the global financial crisis stronger. We are maintaining our quality at a good level, although we cannot afford to rest on our laurels, customer satisfaction continues to grow and the motivation of employees has increased, despite the numerous changes. We are in pole position to achieve the last stage of complete liberalisation in our country.”
Thijs highlighted two key tasks that remain on the agenda: “I am particularly thinking about the reorganisation of our delivery network and the completion of the overhaul of our points of sale network. These projects have been approved and are in the course of implementation.”
From La Poste/De Post to bpost
The recent company rebranding aims to give the organisation a modern identity that represents the future.
The Review quizzed Thijs on this rationale: “Though we’ve long become an open, modern business that has fully reorganised itself with regard to its customers’ needs, we were sometimes still regarded as the old postal operator of the past. It’s time to show now that the new postal operator is ready, which is why we are changing our colours with a new name – bpost – and a modernised logo. A name that fits in better with the international context, but also clearly states that we are a postal company with firm roots in our homeland. Our new logo will show everyone that we are a business oriented to the future and to the customer.”
The impact of the recession
The Review asked about the impact of the economic downturn. Thijs was honest as he responded that “bpost did not escape the effects of the economic crisis in 2009. However, it was able to respond swiftly and energetically, taking the necessary measures to drastically reduce costs. This enabled the company to reap good results, continuing the upward trend of previous years. Better still, operating profit was higher than in 2008, which was a very favourable year. bpost has experienced a fall in mail volumes of around 4%. That is a lot compared with previous years, which were characterised by an annual average fall of 1%, but it is lower than other postal operators have recorded.”
Physical and digital
So, with technology high on the agenda in Belgium, does Thijs see bpost in the end to end communications business, irrespective of physical or digital formats? “bpost is an integrated group with a coherent offering of products and services, both physical and digital or combined” said the CEO.
Thijs mentioned that the company’s subsidiary, Speos, markets management services for generators of administrative and financial documents such as invoices, bank statements and wage slips. These services include physical and electronic management together with document handling and scanning, laser printing, envelope insertion, e-billing and electronic archiving.
“Through our eXbo subsidiary, which markets technological, digital and hybrid mailroom solutions to manage inbound, outbound and internal document flows, we have brought a new service to market – digital delivery – whereby inbound paper documents are digitised for businesses that receive a large quantity of mail.
“And in secure email, an expanding market, our Certipost subsidiary achieved growth of almost 20% in 2009 and now provides high-quality secure electronic document exchange, sending and receiving, to more than 60,000 businesses and 500,000 residential customers. To meet the specific needs of customers better, a new service, the e-certificate, was brought to market in 2009. This enables businesses to send statements, such as their VAT declaration, to various administrations by secure email.”
E-commerce and international
The Review asked how bpost is maximising the opportunities arising from the growth in e-commerce. What steps have been taken to improve the information flow and flexibility of delivery for consumers?
Thijs explained that in 2009, parcel volumes had shrunk compared with previous years. On the flip side, Thijs said: “In spite of that, Taxipost has performed well and has improved its profitability. One of the explanations is the quality of the services offered, characterised by track and trace, and next-day delivery quality of over 96%, which put us among the best postal operators in Europe. The acquisitions of Express Road, Courier Network System and MG Road Express strengthen our express service offering through our Euro-Sprinters subsidiary by enhancing its geographical coverage and enlarging its customer portfolio. We have also augmented our Taxipost parcels operations by adding new high added value services to the product portfolio.”
On the international stage, bpost has acquired a majority holding in MSI Worldwide Mail, an American company specialising in mail and parcels distribution, in support of its very successful international business. “We have taken a stake in MSI with the aim of ensuring the expansion of our international activities, especially in the United States” said Thijs.
A winner in retail
As well as scooping the Industry Leadership Award at the recent World Mail Awards, Thijs’team also picked up the Retail Project Award. The Review asked the CEO to share some of the key transformation approaches. In particular, how did he see bpost’s role in financial services evolving?
“We have developed various access channels for bpost products and services since 2005. In doing so, we have had three clear goals: modernising the post office network and facilitating access to basic postal products and services, improving customer satisfaction, and moving towards the financial equilibrium of the network. The age in which post offices were the only place you could buy postage stamps, send parcels and collect a registered letter is over. Depending on their needs and lifestyle, bpost customers now have various points of access: Post Points for basic postal products, stores for postage stamps, the eShop and the call centre, and post offices, mainly for banking and financial products.
“During the past year we continued to fit our post offices with ATMs that take all Belgian bank cards and bank statement printers. These machines are expected to help cut waiting times at post offices. Another way of driving some growth is the development of simple and trustworthy financial products, especially in this time of deep-rooted financial crisis. Bank van De Post, a 50-50 joint venture between bpost and BNP Paribas Fortis, experienced a very positive 2009, based on two sound values: simplicity and security. By the end of the year, almost 60,000 new accounts had been opened.”
The greening of bpost
Given the CO2 factor of the whole industry, we asked what measures bpost has in place to be as green friendly as possible. Thijs reiterated that care for the environment is part of bpost’s ‘corporate responsibility policy’, and that the organisation must act as a responsible company in all circumstances.
“We have expressly undertaken to reduce our CO2 emissions by 35% in the course of 2007-2012” Thjis explained. “Through our ambitious Green Post programme we expect to reduce our energy consumption by 15% between 2005 and 2012 and promote the responsible use of paper at our company and among our customers. Since the end of 2009 we no longer use anything but recycled paper or paper with the FSC label. We have entered into a partnership with WWF-Belgium to help us achieve this programme. Our customers can accordingly be confident that the handling of their letters and parcels has the lowest possible impact on the environment and that this will be further reduced in the future.”
Looking to the future
With the rebranding process complete, what does the future hold for bpost and how does it intend to grow? Thijs said: “Our strategy continues to be founded on the same principles: strong results and total reliability”.
He added that “obtaining strong results means that we will do everything within our power to maintain our sales and turnover, despite structural falls in volumes that could be caused notably by electronic substitution. We will also do everything we can to continue to improve our operating results. Our goal is to take our place in the leading group of European postal operators. We put all of our efforts into the essential competences of bpost and will continue to focus on our core business. For us, the goal is and will continue to be to guarantee the delivery of letters and parcels, but also to propose specific banking and insurance services. Based on our fundamental activities, we can seek and develop new competences to guarantee the Group’s sustainable and profitable growth.
“Total reliability is at the heart of our concerns. It must be total and unqualified. And yet, this will not be possible unless we constantly work to maintain the quality of our mail and parcels services, reduce waiting times at our points of sale and efficiently handle customer information requests and complaints. In these areas we can and must redouble our efforts to improve performance.”
In conclusion Thjis emphasised that “when all is said and done, everything stands or falls on customer satisfaction. It will be essential once the market has been fully liberalised. We have made good progress in this area, but we still have much to do. bpost is ready to provide the universal service over the next few years and to maintain the public service tasks it has been entrusted with. We wish to preserve our community profile and earn the trust of the population. Our goal is to play a leading role in a totally liberalised environment. In doing so, we will enter the next decade by presenting ourselves as an attractive partner for our customers, our employees, our shareholders and all stakeholders.”
Complete with a fresh name that befits a postal organisation that has clearly entered the 21st century, Thijs has proven he has the necessary credentials to build on bpost’s success.
Biography
Johnny Thijs joined Belgian Post in 2002. Before that he worked in sales and general management roles in other companies in Belgium. He started his career with Vander Elst, of the Rothmans group, in charge of product and marketing management. Thijs then joined Masterfoods, dealing with marketing and sales management for Belgium and surrounding countries. Subsequently at Cote d’Or – Jacobs Suchard, he was in charge of corporate marketing and then in general management. He joined the Interbrew group in 1991 and was CEO for Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa from 1995 to 1999.
This article was published in September 2010’s Mail & Express Review. To subscribe to the industry’s leading quarterly publication, please click here.
