Im Rahmen einer globalen Neustrukturierung von HP wird Christoph Schell, Alumnus des deutsch-französischen IPBS-Links, zum 1. November erster Chief Commercial Officer des Konzerns. Im Interview verrät er mehr über seine neue Rolle, die Zukunft der Branche und sein persönliches ESB-Highlight.
As part of a global restructuring at HP, Christoph Schell, alumnus of the German-French IPBS link, will take on a new role as the company's first-ever Chief Commercial Officer on November 1. We've talked to him about his new role, the future of HP's business and his personal ESB highlight.
(English)
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- Christoph, Congratulations on your new role as CCO at HP. This newly created position is accompanied by extensive changes in HP‘s organisational structure. What are the major developments?
Essentially, we are simplifying our operating model and becoming a more digitally-enabled, customer-centric organization while also evolving our strategic priorities, including our business models, portfolio and profit pools.
As the first step on November 1, we will activate a new global operating model and organizational structure that will further strengthen our ability to serve our customers and partners around the world.
We are moving from our current structure – which is built around three large regions – to a single Commercial organization with 10 geographic markets, which will each be led by a newly appointed managing director, reporting directly to me.
Reducing the number of management layers in our go-to-market process will make us more agile and efficient, drive faster decision making, and increase flexibility and authority at the local level where it counts the most. Simply put, this brings us closer to our customers than ever before.
- HP has never had a CCO before. Where are the strengths and advantages of this position in your opinion?
I’m super excited about my new role leading the commercial team. The word commercial in this context represents the responsibility that my team and I have in managing the revenue and margin while executing consistently across the 4P’s of marketing and responsibly managing OPEX and Field Selling cost around the globe.
One of the key advantages of my position as CCO is our ability to drive a more consistent approach to how we go-to-market globally. The importance of driving one consistent value proposition to customers in an ever more transparent market is key. We’ve received feedback on this topic from our customers and partner ecosystem as we operated, until now, in a much more decentralized setup.
In addition, this model allows us to move our resources from three disparate regions and the worldwide team closer to customers in 10 global markets. This will drive more agility at a local level, very close to the markets and the customers we serve, while providing the needed consistency in customer value proposition across products and services I touched on earlier.
We are also implementing centres of excellence to better enable our digital transformation efforts and transform our go-to-market model. They will own all aspects of pricing, sales operations, omnichannel management and go-to-market data analytics and focus on evaluating the needs and requirements of how we operate in a contractual and outcome-based business environment. - When you think about the future of HP, which projects, trends or developments are you most excited about?
- Digital transformation - the speed of decision making, the need for global consistency of 4P management and the data available to us from our products in market and ecosystem of partners, make digital transformation a core competence. As such, this is a key capability we will continue to build across all aspects of HP.
- Industry move from transactional to contractual – customers are focused on outcomes. They need for their strategic partners to drive impactful value propositions while having skin in the game. This has a material impact on how HP develops products and services and how we make them available to customers.
- Digital manufacturing/3D print – HP’s opportunity to lead the 4th industrial revolution is simply awesome. I fully expect that we will continue to disrupt manufacturing and business models by supporting our customers and ecosystem partners to move to digital manufacturing across vertical industries.
- Digital transformation - the speed of decision making, the need for global consistency of 4P management and the data available to us from our products in market and ecosystem of partners, make digital transformation a core competence. As such, this is a key capability we will continue to build across all aspects of HP.
- Looking back on your career so far, what were the crucial decisions you made or key experiences that shaped you? Do you have any career advice for ESB students or (recent) graduates?
The ability to blend into other cultures and countries - as an education at ESB pushes us to do - has been integral to my ability to move up the ranks, taking on new positions all over the world. Throughout my career, I’ve worked in Dubai, Australia, Singapore (twice), throughout Europe, and the United States and I’ve been fortunate enough to hold positions at three major companies - HP, P&G and Phillips. In fact, it was my multi-cultural education at ESB that prepared me to take on such a broad spectrum of opportunities.
Second - ESB taught me the importance of building a network. ESB's global network of alumni has been crucial to my success in every job I’ve held. Because of ESB, I have connections across multiple industries—from banking to finance to marketing. It is amazing to see how powerful this network is at times when you transition into new challenges. This has been super helpful throughout my career.
Another benefit of my education at ESB is that I didn’t go deep into any specific business practice such as finance, marketing, legal or operations; I became immersed in a number of areas across the business context that have been essential to my growth in general management and more importantly, to my growth as a leader.
My advice for ESB students and recent graduates is this: gain experience across different companies and cultures. Your ESB education has prepared you well. Take advantage of the opportunity. Build a portfolio of experience - across different industries, business models and countries.
I also encourage you to pursue your passion – be passionate about something that goes beyond your job description or technical skill. For me, at HP this has come to life in my passion for our company commitment to Diversity & Inclusion and Sustainable Impact. I am a firm believer in the power of different experiences and backgrounds because it leads to a diversity of thoughts, which ultimately drives innovation. And at HP, we have embedded this philosophy into how we operate. - We can’t let you go without sharing your favourite ESB memory. Anything that comes to your mind?
There are so many! Aside from meeting my wife Astrid at ESB, it probably is the ESC Reims Rugby team, where I came to appreciate this fabulous sport and its camaraderie.