Business Track Workshop
Session chair: Rudi Füssl, Germany

The Basic Problems of our Industry
After a long period of price stability we have faced in the last 18 months an unexpected and continuous price pressure mainly caused by the base raw materials. Also we experience additional costs from other sources, like energy, increasing environmental efforts and customers requiring faster actions.
All this created a difficult time for adhesive manufacturers and their suppliers. A sluggish economy, all around the globe, is one more and additional reason why we all have problems in fulfilling the earnings expectations of our shareholders. This workshop follows the basic idea that price cutting is actually a too often used - or abused - instrument.
Our industry however has a lot of good examples where other marketing concepts are successfully applied to improve and secure the business.
To cultivate the process of adding value to the business is the main target of our afternoon session. We present suceess stories as best practice examples, discuss them and listen to the parallel experience from other industries.
Rudi Füssl, Germany

Adding Value - Theories and Successful Practices
Typically in mature industries products become commodities and prices and manufacturing costs seem to be theonly weapons of competition.
The lecture presents current theories and models of innovation, service and supply chain management especially from the point of view of adding value is seemingly mature businesses. The issues, theories and methods will be explained by examples of successful practice companies like ABB, Nokia, Roche and others.
Prof. Dr. Rainer Völker, University of St. Gallen, Switzerland

How to Add Value in the Automotive industry - a Problem Solver
For adding value to adhesives the Qlympic motto may serve as a guideline: Citius, Altius, Fortius - Faster, Higher, Stronger.
Citius: Our customers do not want to buy adhesives; they want to buy an engineered solution in order to combine materials in a most efficient way. Consequently, an adhesive that improves the customer´s production process will be less price sensitive.
Altius: The adhesive can do much more than only holding substrates together. It can be

- a safety device such as a flame retardant or tampering protection
- a functional part of the composite such as a vapour barrier, a sound absorbing layer or a
  shock absorbent.
Fortius: Adhesives can replace other fixing technologies altogether such as 
- nuts and bolts
- welding
- sutures and clips in medical applications
Willi Schwotzer, Dipl.-Chem. Dr. phil. II, Senior Vice President Technologies, Collano AG, Switzerland

Adhesives in the Construction Industry - an Ecological Concept
Today professional and private consumers are not only asking for reliable information on products for the indoor use; they require that building materials and equipment - including products for the installation of floor-coverings - will not pollute the indoor air with volatile organic compounds (emissions) and odours. Major adhesive manufacturers therefore have founded the Association for the Control of Emissions in Products for Flooring Installations (GEV). They have developped lowest emission products and a product classification system EMICODE®, a guideline classifying the emission behaviour with a view to consumer and environment protection.
Improved indoor air quality is a benefit for consumer safety and quality of life.
Wolfgang Heck, Henkel Bautechnik GmbH, Germany

Adding value is not only applicable in the business of adhesive suppliers. Also raw material suppliers can add value. 
We can contribute to the work load of our customers, the adhesives industry, by the process of Vendor Managed Inventory. Another good example of logistics partnership is the case where we developed in close cooperation with the customer a way of using the transport tank as his storage tank, saving money for both and facilitating the handling of heated liquid polymers.
Dr. Wolfgang Siebenhaar, BASF AG, Germany

Business Track Paper Session
Session chair: Arnd Picker, Henkel KGaA, Germany

Will E-Business Accelerate European Integration?

The hype is over – the challenge is still there.

The influence of the Internet on our private and business life is obvious and is getting more important day by day. No matter whether we look at positive impacts like the official approval of an electronic signature with all its implications or whether we look at negative impacts like the extreme turmoil on the so-called "new markets" and the numerous bank-cruptcies. The introduction of the EURO is impending and the further integration of Europe will be enhanced. What are the impacts on our business, both strategically and day-to-day?

In our session we will receive 3 presentations, which consider

- the external processes, e.g. customer and supplier relationship

  management

- the internal processes, e.g. a workforce optimization model

- E-business activities of a multinational company.

These presentations will concentrate our current discussion on the real important issues: Selection processes, correction of overestimated expectations, change of success factors. A lively discussion with the audience will be highly appreciated.

Arnd Picker, Henkel KGaA, Germany

Customer and Supplier Relationship Management with Focus on External Processes
Customer and Supplier Relationship Management has become more and more critical for business. To be successful in a highly competitive environment companies need to focus more on customer and supplier as partner in their business relationship. Within the presentation the major issues around CRM and SRM will be explained. Results from actual projects specially for return on investment and critical success factor will been shown. There will be answers to questions like:

What is the value of a customer and a supplier?

What is the purpose of CRM and SRM?

What are the key and critical processes for CRM and SRM?

How to treat customer and supplier in the same way?

What are the issues for adhesives manufacturers in CRM and SRM?
Christoph Albrecht, KPMG Consulting AG, Germany

Optimizing Workforce Performance

e-Commerce has enabled businesses to grow beyond "bricks-and-mor-tar" by allowing customers to process transactions themselves.

Therefore, sales representatives can now focus more on the overall customer relationship rather than handling specific transactions. In the Workforce Optimization model, the same concepts hold true. By providing information and access directly to the affected employees, administrative staff can now focus more on true value-adding tasks. This presentation illustrates how the Internet can have an equally profound impact on internal operations as it has had on external relationships and why companies who use the internet to optimize their workforce’s performance can achieve significant competitive advantages.

Ronald B. Zanten, Cisco Systems GmbH, Germany

E-Business Activities of Henkel

E-Business will increasingly become a matter of efficiency, responsiveness and flexibility and at the end a matter of competition.

The Henkel Group did launch first internet activities in 1995. Focusing first on the web appearance, in the meantime a comprehensive program has been established considering business processes, organizational issues, internal administration, relationships to internal and external partners and of course also new business models.

As several projects have been set up and standards are mainly set, it is essential to exchange experiences and knowledge. Therefore the E-business activities of "the e-enabled company" are permanently supported by top management and an appropriate international organisation.
Christoph Neufeldt, Henkel KGaA, Germany

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