International Women’s Day Edition 2024

STRATEGY, DIGITALISATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER TARA BURDESHAW SHARES INDUSTRY INSIGHTS IN OUR Q&A

Head of Procurement and Quality at ZAMP discusses the company’s journey of supply chain transformation and digital innovation

HANANE PELISSIER ON PROCUREMENT

AT TELEHOUSE FRANCE

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from the founder

Welcome to the International Women’s Day edition of CHAIN!

For the first time ever, we’re bringing you eight exclusive interviews with our female supply chain leaders from the past year. As a female business founder, I am incredibly proud to feature so many women who are making an impact on the supply chain, logistics, and procurement industries.

In our cover feature, we sit down with Tassia Pacini, Head of Procurement and Quality at ZAMP to discuss the supply chain transformation behind the company’s success in its new chapter (p6).

Alongside this interview, we’re highlighting interviews and insights from female leaders from various companies, including Telehouse France (p32), FläktGroup (p54), Areas (p68), Craft (p88), SLB (p102) and DP World (p120).

We hope you enjoy this collection of highlights from the past year. Make sure you’re subscribed to receive all the great interviews we have planned for 2024 directly to your inbox.

Danielle Harris Founder and Director

WHAT'S INSIDE...

54

Tassia Pacini ZAMP

Hanane Pelissier Telehouse France

Nadine Hessel FläktGroup

Tara Burdeshaw

102

Janaina Ruas Filiponi SLB

Elske Messemaker-Kleijn DP World

Paula Lopez AREAS

Priscilla Bueno Craft

An appetite for AND

Tássia Pacini, Head of Procurement and Quality at ZAMP – formerly Burger King Brazil – discusses the company’s transformational journey in the past year while driving innovation and supply chain transformation across such a vast country.

ZAMP Brazil is a renowned restaurant operator with a broad portfolio of authentic brands that deliver food diversity and customerfocused service provision.

n August 2022, after 10 years as Burger King Brazil, the company adopted the name ZAMP. The change came with the objective of presenting the company's new chapter, focusing on new experiences for the consumer and the advancement of digital transformations for employees and consumers.

Here to talk more about the ZAMP’s journey to conquer and connect with new markets, flavours and consumers is Tássia Pacini, Head of Procurement and Quality at the company.

A journey of transformation

Tássia begins by highlighting how ZAMP is responsible for two major brands, Burger King and Popeye’s, with 1,000 restaurants across Brazil. But one of the biggest sources of pride for ZAMP is they operate 80 per cent of these restaurants, selling 15 million hamburgers per month.

“We are the biggest operator of brands in Brazil and we impact a lot of people here,” says Tássia. “I came here to be part of this big new moment for the company, to give more

agency to the procurement and supply chain dynamics of ZAMP.

“We are very market focused, but in the past two years ZAMP placed more emphasis on developing and empowering a supply chain focus in our operations. My role here is to

oversee all aspects of our supply chain, procurement – direct and indirect – and quality control, research and development.”

Speaking to ZAMP’s transformational journey in the past 12 months, Tássia highlights the fundamental importance of

digital transformation within its supply chain and operations.

“We are going very deep into digital transformation not only with technology but in innovation,” explains Tássia.

“So as part of this journey, the company is accelerating at a

pace we’ve never seen before. And I can say that our digital transformation is not only from the inside out, but also from the outside in.

“We are very focused on having close contact with our clients but making our engagement even

deeper and more meaningful.

We are investing heavily in digital restaurants and ‘totems’ – digital displays that show rich information to our consumers, allowing them to have a better, more personalised experience in our restaurants, thereby improving our relationships with the guests.

“Alongside this, we are investing in systems like our loyalty club that we started two years ago. We were one of the pioneer companies in Brazil to have

this kind of service and now we have more than 12 million users in our loyalty club. Our huge membership base generates a terrific volume of information and we only want to increase that as part of our digital transformation.

“We also have to consider our entire environment, the ecosystem of information or touchpoints with our customers. Here our total network is 17 million users, including the twelve million people in our loyalty club.

“As we have been embarking on our digital transformation journey, it has become even more important due to the implications of challenging economic conditions in recent years. But we were very confident we would recover and it heightened our focus on technology and digitalisation. We accelerated our digital transformation because we knew it would benefit our consumers but also benefit us as a company in terms of efficiency, cybersecurity and supply chain benefits.

“We accelerated our digital transformation because we knew it would benefit our consumers but also benefit us as a company in terms of efficiency”

“In particular we have seen fantastic progress within our logistics efficiency. In a country as large as Brazil, with so many restaurants spread out over such a huge area, it’s crucial to be efficient with our deliveries.

“We are also investing in automation to enhance our processes, increasing the speed and agility of our internal work but also how we engage with our customers.”

So how will ZAMP build on this momentum and what are its growth plans for 2023 and beyond?

Tássia answers that ZAMP will continue to focus on its digital transformation and dive even deeper into digitalisation. But the company also has ambitious plans to embed new technology into its stores and open more of them.

“Our plan is to close 2023 with 100 restaurants transformed into entirely digital stores – which constitutes 10 per cent of our operations in Brazil,” says Tássia. “We also want to universalise the presence of self-service ‘totems’ in every single one of our restaurants. Another valuable investment we are making in technology focuses on better understanding the behaviour of our customers. We want to become even more innovative with what we can offer to our clients.

Finally, by the end of 2023, we aim to open 80 more restaurants to join the 1,000 we already operate.”

Societal role

Tássia thrives on the energy and innovation at ZAMP but she also celebrates how the company takes a threepillar approach to its environmental, societal and corporate governance (ESG) responsibilities.

“Our plan is to close 2023 with 100 restaurants transformed into entirely digital stores – which constitutes 10 per cent of our operations in Brazil”

“We really believe in doing the right thing because at ZAMP we see it as our role in society because we impact the lives of many, many people”

Tássia Pacini, Head of Procurement and Quality at ZAMP

ZAMP’s three pillars all promote progressive approaches to ESG with core strategies related to people, food and the company’s ‘pegada’ – which translates to ‘footprint’ in English, but here means ZAMP’s way of doing things.

People

When it comes to people, Tássia explains how ZAMP champions equality and inclusivity.

“We are a very open-minded company and about half of our leadership team are females,” emphasises Tássia. “For Brazil, these are very strong numbers that reflect our diversity and commitment to equality. But even more than this, ZAMP is committed to promoting female empowerment and eliminating any form of restrictions in our selection or promotion processes. We are open to all kinds of diversity,

without prejudice towards anyone regardless of their race, gender or socio-economic circumstances. We also host and promote awareness meetings for different groups of employees within the company, training and educating our people on issues ranging from maternity leave and communication strategies to empowerment.

“ZAMP is a wonderful place to work. The culture here means I feel like

I can be myself and I also feel totally supported and equal with my colleagues.”

Food

For the second pillar, food, ZAMP relishes its goal to offer its customers the most pleasurable experience possible.

But Tássia emphasises how the company extends its sense of

accountability beyond enjoyable cuisine and promotes transparency, responsibility and inclusivity around its food.

For instance ZAMP includes certification of origins on its packaging and recycles 100 per cent of the oil used by its restaurants.

But Tássia is particularly proud of how ZAMP was the first fast food

“By 2025, we want to remove artificial ingredients from 100 per cent of our menus.”

The final piece of the puzzle for ensuring their food provides a pleasurable experience is ZAMP’s focus on reaching new consumers and markets by diversifying their offerings.

Here Tássia stresses the importance of business

“PlantPlus Foods were the first company we worked with to help us provide food for everyone and diversify our menu. We worked together to offer more vegetarian options and plant-based foods, culminating in the release of our first plant-based hamburger”

company in Brazil to pioneer a clean labelling programme.

“We started the clean labelling programme almost three years ago and since then we have eliminated 90 per cent of artificial ingredients from all our menus,” lauds Tássia. “It was a huge undertaking to find the right suppliers, develop ingredients, attract investment and execute extensive research programmes for the benefit of our customers.

partnerships and ZAMP’s work with PlantPlus Foods.

“PlantPlus Foods were the first company we worked with to help us provide food for everyone and diversify our menu,” says Tássia. “We worked together to offer more vegetarian options and plant-based foods, culminating in the release of our first plant-based hamburger.

“We weren’t used to making these kinds of products because in

Brazil, compared to other countries, vegetarian or vegan diets aren’t as prevalent.

“But more and more people come to our restaurants with diverse dietary needs or preferences and we decided to develop our menu, production, marketing and innovation efforts to serve these customers and connect them to new flavours. We want everyone to feel welcome in our restaurants and part of that involved transforming what choice we can offer them.”

Pegada

ZAMP’s ‘pegada,’ or ‘way of doing things’ is the term used for the third pillar of the company’s approach to ESG.

Elaborating on the term, Tássia explains “In Brazil, ‘pegada’ is like our ‘footprint.’ This third pillar can cover things like having better energy efficiency in

our restaurants and using renewable sources of energy wherever possible.

“Today we have about 80-90 percent of our energy from renewable sources because we have a partnership with five green power plants that generate electricity through solar or wind power.

“A lot of companies approach ESG with costsavings at the front of mind ahead of sustainability.

But at ZAMP, we are proud to flip this on its head with our three pillars because our ESG endeavours put progress and sustainability before cost reductions or considerations.

“We really believe in doing the right thing because at ZAMP we see it as our role in society because we impact the lives of many, many people.”

For more information about ZAMP, visit their website zamp.com.br.

Added Value

Cultural curiosity

Tássia embraces open-minded curiosity in her personal life and professional career, where she actively explores the experiences of different people and cultures to learn from them.

“I love to understand what motivates people and engages them. I find it fascinating to learn about different cultures, different countries, different ways of working and different ways of thinking. As I built my career I have lived and worked in several countries: France, Japan, USA and Sweden for instance. Every time I visit a new country I take notes so I can learn from my experience there.

“People make the world go around and it is important to me that I continually expand my horizons because it deeply interests me.

“One of my favourite books that grapples with our shared experience as humans is Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.”

Events

Tássia is looking ahead to November with excitement, when she will be attending Brazil Supply Chain, Logistics and Procurement Summit 2023.

SENIOR LEVEL END-TO-END SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER TARA BURDESHAW

SHARES INDUSTRY INSIGHTS INTO HIGH-LEVEL STRATEGY, CHANGE MANAGEMENT, THE ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY AND HER OWN EXPERIENCE ESTABLISHING A NEW COMPANY.

Tara

Burdeshaw stumbled into supply chain after college and since has worked in the sector for more than 20 years. Today she joins us to discuss leadership, strategy, technology and starting her own company.

On her journey into the supply chain sector after completing higher education, Tara said, “There weren’t supply chain degrees then, so I received a business degree.” After graduating, her first industry experience was with Coca-Cola, Tara continues: “When I worked for the CocaCola company, I was the project manager for the procurement and inventory department for the fountain equipment division. It was then that I began to learn about supply chain. From there I started managing end-to-end

supply chain which included logistics, procurement, demand and supply planning, sales and operations planning (S&OP) and inventory management. I’ve worked in various industries and small to large-sized companies. I’ve managed wonderful teams and have had a great career.”

In 2021 you started your own supply chain company. Let’s talk more about Burdeshaw Supply Chain Solutions, LLC.

You have more than 20 years of experience as a leader in the supply chain industry: what factors compelled you to build something of your own?

I’ve always enjoyed helping companies get to the next level and I love the process

and working on process improvement projects. I wanted to go into consulting for years and finally decided to do it. I enjoy looking at the current state and putting together a robust scalable future state for companies.

Can you tell us about any exciting projects or partnerships you’ve had so far?

Wow, I’ve had so many great ones, it is hard to pick. I think one of my favourites, which was my first one was developing the S&OP process for a healthcare company. The client was fantastic and we worked together to build a process that helped them plan better and optimise their inventory. We were also able to increase the service levels for their customers. I couldn’t have asked for anything better for my first consulting project!

How have you found your first two years as an independent consultant?

The first two years have been fantastic. I have had, and do have, really great clients and have been really successful

ONE OF MY FAVOURITE WHICH WAS MY DEVELOPING THE FOR A HEALTHCARE

FAVOURITE PROJECTS, FIRST ONE WAS THE S&OP PROCESS HEALTHCARE COMPANY

in helping them achieve their goals. It is fun and fast paced and I’ve worked on diverse projects, which I really enjoy. It allows me to be strategic, but also allows me to roll up my sleeves and get into the detail. So, I am doing everything from developing strategic roadmaps and analysis to putting together executive-level presentations, which is so much fun.

What have been some of the crucial learnings or takeaways that you’ve gleaned along the way?

Honestly, it can be tough being an independent consultant. You must juggle a lot of balls and constantly have a lot on your plate. The best learning I’ve had is to not be so hard on yourself. When you are doing a good job, praise yourself for your accomplishments and keep moving forward, learning and getting better each day.

How can supply chain leaders build high-performing teams to secure superior results and enhance their strategy execution?

First, it is all about people. A great team allows everyone to

ONE AREA I’VE SEEN AN INCREASE IN IS DEMAND SENSING. DEMAND SENSING USES MACHINE LEARNING TO TAKE SUPPLY CHAIN DEMAND FORECASTING TO THE NEXT LEVEL

be successful. So, I would say get to know your team on a personal and business level. Understand their personalities and what they like and don’t like. Also, understand their capabilities and where they are strong or may need a little help. You should look at each role and ensure the right person is in each of them. You may have someone spectacular

on your team, but they may be in the wrong role so rebalancing that is key.

Second, set SMART goals and common goals where everyone is working towards the same thing and identify clear expectations. Be transparent and communicate, communicate, communicate. But remember,

communication is a two-way street so your door should always be open. Give constructive feedback and let your team know it is okay for them to give feedback to you as well. I’ve learned so much from the feedback I’ve received from my teams over the years.

Lastly, ensure you are promoting when and where it is possible and encourage personal development. Your team should be rewarded for their hard work and given the chance to grow both personally and professionally.

Navigating change comes with opportunities and obstacles:

what do you feel characterises effective and efficient change management?

I preach this all of the time. If you do not have effective change management, you will not succeed. In a corporate setting or as a consultant, change management should be at the forefront of your mind. The key is working with people. Don’t tell people what you are going to do, rather work with them to come up with the best possible solutions. Involve them as much as possible. Change is hard for all of us and it’s

important for the client to know they are being heard and you want their help. It is a joint effort. I always want clients to know how the change is going to help them, their team and their organisation. Communicate, be transparent and build a partnership with your client.

What roles will AI and technology play in supply chain planning in the coming years?

I’m already starting to see it because I do a lot of planning projects. I think Covid really brought to light the need for planning and inventory optimisation. Most of my clients have either been in Excel and want to implement a software solution for planning or they are using software for planning, but it is not meeting their needs.

One area I’ve seen an increase in is demand sensing. Demand sensing uses machine learning to take supply chain demand forecasting to the next level. Demand sensing is a combination of methodology and technology to predict nearfuture demand based on shortterm data. It uses daily and even hourly data. It can help companies make decisions more quickly and

pivot when needed. It increases forecast accuracy and helps optimise inventory. More and more companies need realtime data vs relying on what happened a year or two ago.

There has been a lot of back and forth recently as to whether the US is in a recession or not. Rather than dwell on the negative connotations of economic downturn, how do you think leaders and colleagues in the supply chain sector can proactively analyse, adapt and lean into what might be on the cards in the coming months or years?

In a recession or not, supply chain has come full circle in terms of being visible. I think now more than ever the importance of supply chain is top of mind in organisations and particularly at the executive level where before it was not as much. So, I would continue to promote the criticality of supply chain, network with colleagues and understand what they are seeing and how they are responding. Learn from each other and continue to push supply chain further. There are always ways to improve and we as supply chain leaders should

be thinking about that every day and pushing forward with new ways of doing and thinking.

In your experience, what roles can inventory optimisation play in driving bottom-line growth in the P&L?

Inventory optimisation plays a huge role in driving bottom-line growth. It is so important, but it is often overlooked or not managed properly. Reducing your cost of goods sold can have a significant impact on your profitability. The better your turns, the better your cash flow.

With optimised inventory, you will have better service levels to your customers, which means customers will buy from you again and won’t switch brands because you are consistently out of stock. So, it is a positive revenue impact. If your inventory is optimised, you won’t have the expense of potentially expediting freight or air freighting, which is very costly.

Lastly, with optimised inventory, you will lessen the amount of slow and obsolete (SLOB) inventory, so you will have fewer write-offs, which affects your balance sheet

and income statement. There are so many ways this impacts the bottom line, but these are a few.

What’s next for Burdeshaw Supply Chain Solutions, LLC?

I want to continue consulting and working with great clients. There is a lot of opportunity on the private equity (PE) side. I would love to develop partnerships with some PE firms and help them as they acquire businesses. I could help on the supply chain side, creating process improvements and creating cost savings initiatives. I also provide staff augmentation services, which can be beneficial here as well.

Connect with Tara

Added Value

Tara looks forward to networking events with industry professionals and higher education institutions…

“I am working with a few companies now to do roundtables and speak at conferences this year. I generally do two-three per year and I really enjoy meeting new people and learning about them and what they do. I also was asked to be an advisor for a university and help them build their Supply chain program, so I’m really excited about that. And, Gartner has just come out with a Peer Community forum and I am an ambassador, so that will be a great way to contribute ideas and ask fellow supply chainers’ questions.”

CONNECTIVITY, RELIABILITY, FLEXIBILITY AND SECURITY

RELIABILITY, SECURITY

FOUNDED IN 1989, TELEHOUSE FRANCE PROVIDES INDUSTRYLEADING DATA CENTRE COLOCATION SERVICES AND MANAGED IT SOLUTIONS WITH GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY AND REACH.

t is owned by KDDI, a Japanese Fortune 500 company which is one of the top ten telecommunications companies in the world. Telehouse has more than 45 data centres in over 24 cities – including such key locations as London, Frankfurt, Paris and Marseilles.

Representing Telehouse France, a subsidiary of Telehouse Europe,

and here to tell us more about the company’s procurement, technological, environmental and security strategies is Hanane Pelissier, their Head of Procurement and Financial Control.

With more than 16 years of experience in the industry, Hanane is a procurement and financial management expert. She specialises in project organisation

and management, performance monitoring and improvement, transformation and change management. Recognised for her emotional intelligence, rigour, leadership and agility she is a business partner and a growth enabler at Telehouse who steers the organisation's trajectory with engaging leadership while developing a growth strategy that combines economic performance, resilience and sustainable development.

When asked to describe the company’s services, Hanane says, “Telehouse France is a leading provider of data centre services in France. We operate five carrier-neutral data centres, offering a wide range of services designed to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes looking for secure, reliable, resilient and scalable data centre solutions.”

Telehouse offers a different range of colocation options including

Shared Facilities Management (SFM), from half-rack to full modules, which has been developed for clients with space requirements that are likely to change over time. They also offer Dedicated Facilities Management (DFM). Dedicated suites provide the confidentiality and security required for certain critical activities. All of their facilities are equipped with state-of-the-art security systems including biometric access control, CCTV surveillance and 24/7 security staff on site.

“WE PRIDE OURSELVES ON THE QUALITY OF OUR SERVICES”

“In addition to colocation services, Telehouse France also offers a range of managed IT solutions including connectivity, security and network services,” Hanane continues.

“We pride ourselves on the quality of our services. Telehouse is committed to upholding the highest environmental, security and corporate social responsibility standards. This is reflected through our various ISO-obtained certifications, including ISO 9001 for Quality Management System, ISO 27001, HDS and PCI DSS for Information Security and Business Continuity. Telehouse has a proven record of meeting the highest international data centre standards, so we have the full scope requested for data centres in order to operate correctly.”

When asked what sets the company apart, Hanane

“OUR PROCUREMENT STRATEGY REFLECTS OUR ORGANISATION’S VISION AND GOALS TO SUPPORT TELEHOUSE’S PRIMARY OBJECTIVES AND BUSINESS STRATEGY”

identifies four key factors, “Telehouse is well regarded in the industry for their connectivity, reliability, security and flexibility. We are trusted partners for companies in the business world looking to scale their IT operations, connect their business and stay competitive in an increasingly digital marketplace.”

But where does Hanane operate within these endeavours?

“I'm a member of the Executive Committee and responsible for leading finance controlling and procurement functions on our different sites. I make sure we are developing and driving the implementation of finance and procurement strategies to sustain transformation and growth at Telehouse,” she says.

5 PILLARS OF PROCUREMENT STRATEGY

Telehouse sees procurement strategy as a roadmap to be implemented and ultimately make the business more competitive in its markets. For them, it defines how an organisation runs its procurement function, provides a governance framework and gives direction for the way the organisation intends to conduct its procurement function and activities.

Hanane elaborates, “Our procurement strategy reflects our

organisation’s vision and goals to support Telehouse’s primary objectives and business strategy. Our procurement strategy is based on five key points: cost optimisation, supplier management, risk management, compliance and strategic sourcing. We aim to build strategic relationships with competitive suppliers so we can acquire necessary goods and services of the best quality, within a specific cost range and ensure they are delivered on time. As a global provider of data centres, Telehouse’s procurement strategy is designed to support the company’s growth and success. It focuses on ensuring that Telehouse can secure the goods

and services needed to operate efficiently, effectively, securely and affordably.”

Technology and digitalisation are crucial to this strategy. “Digitalisation plays a transformative role in procurement and in finance, it is reinventing these two functions,” says Hanane.

“By leveraging digital technology, we streamline our procurement and financial operations to reduce costs and improve efficiency and accuracy. By digitalising procurement, we can address current challenges and stay future proof. We have been on a journey towards digitalisation of our procureto-pay (P2P) process for several years now. This has helped us to automate some mundane tasks, accelerate purchase approval workflow, streamline certain transactions, reduce costs and processing times, mitigate the risk of error in banking transactions, free up data and improve expenses control alongside budget monitoring. Taken together, these advantages contribute to improving the technological, economic and also logistical performance of our department.

“TELEHOUSE AIMS TO OPTIMISE COSTS ACROSS ALL AREAS OF OUR PROCUREMENT OPERATIONS WHILE PAYING PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE QUALITY”

“So today and in alignment with our current business model, we are investing in new digitalisation projects as we consider it to be crucial for the success of our business.”

DRIVING GROWTH BY IMPROVING EFFICIENCY

Underlying their digitalisation and procurement strategies, Telehouse is always looking to improve efficiency and thereby drive growth. For instance in cost optimisation, Hanane explains, “Telehouse aims to optimise costs across all areas of our procurement operations while paying particular attention to the quality. We identify opportunities in all purchasing categories by considering total cost of ownership (TCO) when analysing offers, negotiating multi-year agreements, leveraging automation and digital technology and optimising our process. We also implement short-term initiatives allowing quick wins, such as reviewing and monitoring current contracts terms, challenging technical specifications, avoiding maverick spending and challenging uncompetitive suppliers.”

Telehouse considers risk management a critical and continuous process. Appropriate risk assessments are undertaken, reviewed and managed throughout the procurement journey, so the company built a robust risk management framework to mitigate the risks associated with procurement and finance. This includes identifying potential risks, developing contingency plans and implementing measures to monitor and mitigate these different threats.

In terms of supplier management, Telehouse maintains a strong and close relationship with key partners in order to ensure that they meet company standards for quality, reliability and security.

“We care deeply about delivering the best overall value and service to our customers and society. Partnerships with our suppliers are an integral part of this goal, because we consider our suppliers as a seamless extension of the wider Telehouse team. We need the best

partners by our side to overcome obstacles, embrace opportunities and build an exciting future. As such, we developed performance matrixes to monitor our partner compliance while also developing a robust system of analysis of our partners’ performance. We are very careful when selecting and shortlisting providers before going to do business with them because our vision for procurement at Telehouse is to become the primary customer for the best suppliers,” summarises Hanane.

“RIBBON COMMUNICATIONS IS ONE OF OUR KEY PARTNERS FOR THE TELEHOUSE METROCONNECT SERVICE”

One such supplier that Telehouse works with is Ribbon Communications.

“Ribbon Communications is one of our key partners for the Telehouse Metroconnect service,” says Hanane. “Telehouse selected them as a partner after a full market assessment. The high-performance solutions they offer convinced us to go ahead with them for our strategic connectivity projects. They are a global provider of real-time communications software and IP optical networking solutions.

“In fact, before choosing them we looked for a partner offering a high level of security and operational excellence because we must have these conditions to connect our Parisian sites, which

Making Data Centre Walls Transparent

Handling More Interconnection Traffic with Lower TCO

Imagine that the world relied on one giant data centre with all the zettabytes of application and storage data whizzing about between servers over an area of only several tens of square kilometres. Located at the Nor th Pole for cooling, powered by several nuclear plants and linked to the world’s telecommunications networks using optical fibres strung along the lines of longitude, this might be considered the height of efficiency

Of course this vision is impractical for reasons of latency, data redundancy and competition between businesses. The result is that the world today suppor ts about 8,000 data centres. The challenge then becomes to network these data centres together, to make them transparent to each other, for caching data locally to reduce latency, interworking between applications and mirroring data for business continuity This requires many thousands of high speed optical links spanning distances from tens to thousands of kilometres. And every year inter-data centre traffic demands keep growing.

Ribbon’s solution to this challenge is a revolutionary optical transpor t platform, Apollo OT9408.

Optimised for data centre residency with front to back airflow and a 600 depth, OT9408 suppor ts more traffic over fewer wavelengths while d lowering the cost per bit . It does this by delivering:

• Best Wavelength Reach – To transpor t multiples of 100GbE, 400Gb future 800GbE client traffic, OT9408 exploits next gene transceiver technology to deliver industry-leading 1.2T haul, 800G wavelengths that cover the entire metro-regional space, tripling the reach of current competitor solutions, and 400G for ult

• Industry-leading Density – OT9408 suppor ts industry-highest 19.2 in a 2RU form factor.

• Best Power Efficiency – With consumption as low as 0.11W per gigabit, OT9408 consumes 50% less power per bit than competitive solutions. This green characteristic is especially impor tant to reduce data centre energy costs.

• Optimal Spectrum Use – OT9408’s high performance 1.2T solution uses 150GHz spectral bandwidth that aligns with the 75GHz bandwidth needs of its cost-power optimised 400G solution. This enables multiple solutions to co-exist on a single fibre without any wasted spectrum.

• Advanced Pluggability – OT9408 uses pluggable technologies for all client and line interfaces, enabling pay-as-you-grow economics and facilitating field maintenance.

• Superior Openness – OT9408 is designed for easy operation, including field replaceable modules and streaming telemetry. Moreover, its wavelengths can be deployed over existing line systems as alien wavelengths, with control exercised in a disaggregated fashion using standard OpenConfig interfaces. Its 400G wavelengths also suppor t OpenROADM interoperability.

Contact

Ribbon now to see how Apollo OT9408 can enhance your data centre interconnect solution. rbbn.com

are a crucial connectivity hub in France providing direct access to more than 750 global operators.

“Ribbon offered us advanced technology capability with a turnkey custom installation of their solution. So, thanks to this strategic partnership, we successfully offer our corporate customers the ability to optimise their costs by hosting their IT infrastructure in our Telehouse 3 campus and benefit from highspeed, reliable and low latency connectivity with our central connectivity hub in Paris TH2

Voltaire site which is one of the five most connected data centres in the world.

“In fact, thanks to Ribbon and our strategic partnership, we have been able to break down data centre walls to help more customers benefit from our connectivity.”

However, IT infrastructure needs the right facility to host it, and here Telehouse works closely with Cap Ingelec – one of the leading French data centre design and construction companies.

Cap Ingelec is one of the French leaders in engineering, thanks to its know-how in the design and construction of technical buildings, particul arly in the fields of datacentres, cleanrooms and critical facilities. We offer our engineering expertise through project management and turnkey projects.

“We rely on their know-how to support our engineers and help them progress on our various expansion projects and plans. This includes, among others, our new project in Telehouse 3 campus, while also respecting our expectations and requirements in terms of reducing our carbon footprint,” says Hanane.

“Cap Ingelec are committed to our objective of implementing

But even the fastest, most reliable technological solutions hosted in the latest state-of-the-art data centres still need one fundamental resource to function: energy. For Telehouse, it is vital that this energy be as sustainable as possible.

Since 2015, Engie has been the energy provider for Telehouse. Commenting on this eight-year partnership, Hanane lauds

“CAP INGELEC ARE COMMITTED TO OUR OBJECTIVE OF IMPLEMENTING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS AND DESIGNS, OPTIMISING OUR CAPEX COSTS AND REDUCING OUR TIME-TO-MARKET”

innovative solutions and designs, optimising our CapEx costs and reducing our time-to-market. These advantages represent a real competitive differentiator in our business. With Cap Ingelec we introduced a new contractual model guaranteed maximum price contract (GMP), an openbook agreement. Thanks to this new contract model, we work with full transparency and confidence with Cap Ingelec – allowing us to move forward quickly, to unite our forces and skills to face market challenges, all while controlling our costs and deadlines.”

the connection between the companies, “We have a longterm relationship with Engie. They provide all our data centres with green electricity. Our partnership is based on proximity, listening, responsiveness, expertise and trust. Our objective in working with them is to consume less and better.

“So even with the recent situation in the energy market with high costs and volatility which strained international European governments and companies, our energy procurement strategy and

“WE HAVE A LONG-TERM RELATIONSHIP WITH ENGIE. OUR PARTNERSHIP IS BASED ON PROXIMITY, LISTENING, RESPONSIVENESS, EXPERTISE AND TRUST. OUR OBJECTIVE IN WORKING WITH THEM IS TO CONSUME LESS AND BETTER”

our strong relationship with Engie allowed us to control our energy costs,” says Hanane.

Telehouse is highly aware of the environmental impact of data centres and the huge volume of energy consumption they need to operate.

“According to an international energy agency, data centres use nearly one per cent of the global electricity demand and contribute to 0.3 per cent of all global CO2 emissions,” explains Hanane. “So in this context, Telehouse is always on the lookout for any opportunity to reduce our energy consumption and environmental impact. We have present and future projects brimming with innovative solutions allowing a considerable reduction in our consumption. We are committed to a serious environmental plan, including the development of a photovoltaic park, engagement in PPA contracts

and using excess waste heat from data centres recycled for use in nearby houses, businesses, or communities.”

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE

So what are the principal ambitions at Telehouse for 2023 and beyond?

Besides maintaining growth and success, Hanane draws attention to their exciting ground-breaking expansion project in the Paris area which will become their main campus.

“Our new TH3 campus is a hyper-scale data centre facility with an environmentally responsible design that reconciles environmental impacts and energy performance, integrating new technology while also offering a high level of scalability. We are targeting a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of 1.3 and a

ENGIE has been Telehouse’s energy supplier-advisor since 2015, providing green electricity for all its data centres.

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• Close relationships, expertise and customer focus via a team of two dedicated contacts

• Energy budget management expertise

• Eco-friendly solutions

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WUE (Water Usage Effectiveness) close to 0,” Hanane describes.

“These goals are ambitious, but we are excited to be focusing on this new data centre. Located 15.5 miles southwest of Paris, the TH3 campus is strategically located. Easily accessible from the capital, the TH3 campus allows companies and organisations to keep control of their data and retain sole access. At the right distance from the many data centres concentrated northeast of Paris, away from possible risks, TH3 is the ideal campus to provide redundancy for the IT infrastructures hosted there, as part of a strategy for diversifying sites.”

The TH3 campus is not only ambitious in terms of its sustainability but also its sheer scale and security goals. Hanane elaborates, “The project is made up of five new buildings for a total IT space of 12,000 square metres. This is an exceptional size facility in the French market, making it a kind of hyper-scale data centre where our customers can expand without any limits in terms of physical space or energy needs. The new data centre has a total power of 18 megawatts.

“Moreover, the site is secured to military defence levels. The data centre is being installed on a former military site building offering exceptional security and technical specification to guarantee continuity of service for our customers. Of course, there are standard CCTV and security measures in place but we also provide constant surveillance from dedicated staff 24/7. We have a clear focus on security.”

With these exciting developments in the near future, Telehouse prides

“THE TH3 CAMPUS IS NOT ONLY AMBITIOUS IN TERMS OF ITS SUSTAINABILITY BUT ALSO ITS SHEER SCALE AND SECURITY GOALS”

itself on how it looks after its staff during times of change and growth.

“Two topics, I think, are crucial for our business success are developing team skills and retaining talent,” says Hanane. “It's especially important for me as a manager in my procurement and financial

functions. We believe categorically that developing team skills and retaining talented employees are critical components for our success. By investing in these areas, we can improve productivity, foster innovation, boost morale and reduce staff turnover and, of course, enhance customer services,

TH3 campus

NOS for the Cloud) ta es this disagg egation and ability one step fur ther. Now proven at scale in the world’s largest cloud networks, SONiC is built around a containerized architecture and uses containerized applications, linking them quickly across the network, using a common language and standards-based APIs to deploy network applications on any hardware.

Integration

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because ultimately Telehouse is a highly customer-centric company.”

We look forward to seeing where Telehouse goes and hearing all

about its new Parisian facility when it opens.

For more information, visit www.telehouse.fr

ADDED VALUE

For Hanane, at a personal level, her children and family are a true source of energy and purpose. She insists, “There is no success without your loved ones around you.”

Hanane also emphasises her gratitude to her mentors. “For me, I value the input from my mentors who inspire me enormously and who allow me to always see bigger, farther and more positively. They make even the most challenging circumstances seem a little bit easier.”

But for Hanane it is not only the mentors we know that are important, but the input of strangers is also incredibly insightful too.

“Today, thanks to interconnectivity we have access to a wealth of information. We can follow intellectuals online, absorb new information, discover new challenges and innovations –which is a great privilege. But the one thing I’ll note is that we must

also be careful because too much information can kill communication.”

“I'm excited to be joining several different conferences this year where I look forward to participating, adding some value when possible, exchanging knowledge with different people and seeking opportunities to grow as a professional.”

Hanane has written an article due for publication soon about the criteria of choice for providers and their procurement process which will be dedicated to the new technology sector.

To connect with Hanane and see her article when it is released, you can find her on LinkedIn.

IMPROVING AIR QUALITY AND FOR PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD

Nadine Hessel, Global Director for Supply Chain & Infrastructure at FläktGroup discusses the company’s innovative technology and supply chain strategies as a leader in the indoor air quality industry.

AND SAFETY WORLD

WITH A HERITAGE STRETCHING

BACK MORE THAN A CENTURY,

FLÄKTGROUP IS A MARKETLEADING COMPANY SPECIALISING IN INDOOR AIR QUALITY AND CRITICAL VENTILATION SOLUTIONS.

he name stems from ‘Fläkt’ – the Swedish word for ventilation, an integral part of the company since its original inception in 1909.

FläktGroup was formed in 2016 when Fläkt Woods joined forces with DencoHappel (formerly part of the GEA Group) to become a market leader for energy-efficient Indoor Air Comfort and Critical Air solutions serving a global market.

We sat down with Nadine Hessel, Global Director for Supply Chain & Infrastructure to discuss

the supply chain strategy and innovation at FläktGroup.

Nadine begins by explaining how the company takes a holistic approach to their operations since they cover all stages from design and manufacturing products to delivery, after-sales and servicing provision.

“You can find our products everywhere – in commercial buildings, residential buildings, industrial buildings, and critical applications like data centres,” says Nadine. “We

have 13 production sites, 3,500 employees and we sell in 65 countries around the world. I’m responsible for the supply chain and infrastructure in our business area Services. My main focus is the global availability and storage of spare parts within our service supply chain. This is a bit different from the manufacturing supply chain as the sourcing is not only build and buy, but you can also repair a unit or secure replacement parts.”

So what does the supply chain strategy look like at FläktGroup?

Nadine describes how the approach to the service supply

chain today looks different to the provision offered in the past.

“For us, we need to focus on all components of the supply chain,” explains Nadine. “All aspects provide room for improvement. So if we start with planning it has always been important, but it has shifted from planning for just-intime delivery or just-in-case delivery for service, to now even getting components at all. So it's quite different from the way it used to be. We try to have inventory buffers on the one hand, and on the other hand, we seek to find alternatives for missing components. But if there are some components with a lead

time of two years, the customer can't wait that long.

“So instead of replacing them one by one like we used to do, we try to find an alternative part if it's available. Consequently, one of the core components of our strategy is multi-sourcing. So, of course, we have our main suppliers and it's vital to keep our relationships strong with them. But I'm always open to getting in contact with new suppliers. So I have a lot of suppliers that reach out to me on LinkedIn for example. Usually I meet with them and listen to their propositions. Maybe they will have some components I can use. So that has changed.

“The important thing to note with FläktGroup is that we are a group of international companies put together through acquisitions. So growing together is a challenge for us. Therefore it's quite important within the supply chain strategy to take a global view. To find a component for an urgent service visit, for instance, I can check the stock in our factories around the world. I can ask them ‘What is your production stock like?’ and ‘Can I have that part?’ When you have high commodity availability, you can look at individual entities. But in today's situation, I think a global view is critical. So this has brought

“My main focus is the global availability and storage of spare parts within our service supply chain”

Nadine Hessel, Global Director for Supply Chain & Infrastructure

us closer together within FläktGroup. We have cross-departmental support and always set a global strategy, even for small parts. I can always just look at all the stocks we have and find parts somewhere.

“What is special about the service supply chain is that the demand is not predictable. But it's a good thing because if it was predictable, it would represent bad news for product failures. There are some components that you can exchange and maintain on a service visit, but most of the demand levels for parts are unpredictable. But nonetheless, for me, it's important to have an overview of what we have sold to do some kind of forecasting when possible. So planning is still super important.”

At FläktGroup the company’s supply chain strategy hinges on embracing innovation and transformation to keep their operations and service

provision for customers at the leading edge of the air technology industry.

“Especially in a changing business environment, it's important to be flexible and open for innovation,” says Nadine. “I'm not only responsible for the supply chain, but for the infrastructure at FläktGroup as well. We combine those two things, which for me is fantastic because I love IT and bringing them both together. It's

with the benefits and then decide whether it's the right tool at the right time. Not all innovation is good innovation.

“But at the moment, digitalisation is super important for us and we aim to have user-friendly and efficient tools. Here, we have been working with Würth Phoenix for several years to introduce Microsoft Dynamics 365. I started to work with them on a sales project some years ago, and now

“By working with Würth Phoenix, our service technicians can do most of their administrative tasks with a smartphone, say to record their hours or fill out service reports”

a strong combination because if I see there are some processes or systems we need to adjust, I'm then responsible for those changes as well.

“As a company we are always looking for innovation be it in technological terms or digitalisation. But on the other hand, you cannot follow every trend and we won't explore them just because they're hip. Instead, we will compare our experience

in my new role it’s a pleasure to work with them again on behalf of our service technicians. By working with Würth Phoenix, our service technicians can do most of their administrative tasks with a smartphone, say to record their hours or fill out service reports. Of course, many technicians within the group were able to do this before but as we are different companies put together, we used to have different systems. Now we would like to harmonise

that into one global system for everyone.

“Another exciting technological innovation for our service technicians could be smart glasses they wear out in the field. That is one thing we are testing right now. Say the technician requires some support from the back office, their colleagues might need to see the unit as well to help them –especially with such technologically complex products. With smart

glasses, the technician can share exactly what they are seeing with their colleagues – crucially leaving both hands free to continue their work on the ground. In turn, back office staff can then share images, instructions or files with the technician from their end as well and the technician will see them clearly within the device on a small monitor.

“Another important aspect of innovation and transformation for

“We put QR codes on our unit and customers can scan it and find all details regarding their orders like manuals, spare parts lists – everything they need for the order”

FläktGroup is to make life easier for customers as well. So we have started working with QR codes. For example, we put QR codes on our unit and customers can scan it and find all details regarding their orders like manuals, spare parts lists – everything they need for the order. Additionally, we put QR codes on components, so our customers can find a list of contacts and know where to order a new part easily and quickly.

“Besides these QR codes, our customers can also make spare parts requests directly on our website. What’s more, we also have some units that offer remote access and we will be expanding this feature to benefit our customers and enhance the assistance we offer them. As I'm responsible for the whole service supply chain, this includes digital service provision and site visits. Remote access has been a gamechanger because it saves time and

costs for both parties, which is a fantastic innovation for us.”

Underlying the innovation and transformation at the company, Nadine highlights the importance of partnerships for FläktGroup’s supply chain strategy.

“So for us, strong and reliable partnerships are fundamentally important to our operations,” explains Nadine. “We are dependent on primary materials or components and our partners help us meet our requirements and support us in difficult situations. So even if there are lengthy lead times we can talk to our suppliers. If we don't have materials, we cannot produce units or parts. Without partners, there is no growth or success so partnerships are super important to our supply chain strategy and it all starts with the initial supplier. In turn we not only rely on the partnership with our suppliers, but we have to consider the relationships they have with their suppliers as well. Even if our suppliers have a high vertical integration, they rely on others at some point in their supply chain. As a result, it's crucial to share information. So if our supplier knows there are some parts that are at risk, but we know about that in advance, it's less of a problem because we can adapt

accordingly. So if you have partners, you have to share information and be open to each other. Sharing information is important but I also think it's a huge advantage to have partners who know your requirements. For instance with Würth Phoenix, we've been working with them for years. They know our processes, they know our businesses and they know our IT landscape – so they know what we need. Long-term partnerships are essential for our business.”

At FläktGroup innovation, transformation and robust partnerships built on transparent communications are the core components for achieving success with its supply chain strategy. But what are some of the major challenges facing supply chain professionals today that these approaches help offset?

“More and more challenges are coming our way,” says Nadine. “At first it was about optimising processes, saving costs and things like that. Then we had to adapt to sustainability policies and new legal requirements such as the Supply Chain Act in Germany. Now we are facing a shortage of materials which in turn makes it incredibly difficult to decide about warehouses and what needs to be stored because it's always a question of capital

commitment versus the risk of not having material. Supply chain professionals also need to consider new applications or technologies they could deploy – whether these are companywide platforms or dedicated software. But perhaps the most prominent challenge I see is the availability of materials coupled with rising inflation and therefore costs – especially when you need access to materials 24/7 for critical applications such as data centres.”

But despite these challenges facing supply chain professionals, Nadine loves her role and is excited about the future of the supply chain industry and how it might look different in the future.

“In the coming years, I hope that the availability of material will improve or return to normal, so we no longer have to create overstocks. But no one knows how long the shortages will last,” emphasises Nadine. “I think that digitalisation will become even more important and artificial intelligence will play a bigger role in inventory management, warehousing and so on. Lastly, I think the focus on sustainability will keep increasing in the coming years.”

For more information about FläktGroup, visit their website www.flaktgroup.com.

EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY

Environmental awareness and striving for sustainability are causes close to Nadine’s heart. She wrote her thesis on carbon footprints and she loves to find ways to become more sustainable. For instance, in her research, she realised how much CO2 is generated by streaming services.

“I try to stream consciously, so I pause the movie whenever I leave the room,” says Nadine. “Not because of the electricity used by the TV, but because the data centre in the background creates so much CO2. Small steps like that have added a lot of value to my life because sustainability is important to

me. Everyone knows when you're driving around with a car, it's creating CO2, but no one thinks about that when streaming Netflix or even if you just watch a video on your smartphone – it’s all generating CO2.”

EVENTS

Nadine is excited to attend the next Digital X event in Cologne which will take place September 20-21, 2023. She loves how unique the experience is at the exposition, where cafes, bars restaurants and even laundromats become exhibition stands.

“It’s a super cool concept and I’m really looking forward to attending,” says Nadine.

Connect with Nadine

Revitalising the travel hospitality experience by putting excellence first

Clint Westbrook, Chief Operating Officer, Steve Byrne, Vice President of Concepts and Standards, and Paula Lopez, Director of Purchasing at Areas USA open up about the company’s core values and holistic approach to transformation.

features fresh, healthy foods by sourcing local, sustainable and organic ingredients.

Urth Caffe & Bar is located in Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International and

Every year, Areas Worldwide welcomes 348 million customers to its 1,900 restaurants and points of sale in 10 countries around the world.

Its subsidiary, Areas USA, operates over 140 restaurants and retail stores in ten major airports and 13 travel plazas in three states.

The company’s US locations in major international airports include Houston Hobby, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Miami, Chicago O’Hare, Newark Liberty, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Orlando, Detroit and Indianapolis.

Areas USA also operates travel plazas along the central highways in Florida, Maryland and West Virginia.

Areas USA champions the group’s belief that travel is more than just a destination and travellers have diverse motivations and expectations for their journeys. The company specialises in understanding these needs and adapting services and culinary

The Spot, set to open in late December at Houston Hobby Airport, is an island-casual spot that features mouth-watering burgers, fresh seafood and hand-spun shakes.

Yard House, set to open at Houston Hobby’s Central Concourse late next year, will feature the best qualities of this national sports bar favorite: rotating taps of imported, craft and specialty ales along with great food and classic rock music.

offerings so their guests have memorable experiences when they travel.

Here to talk about the supply chain optimisation, sustainability strategy and cultural transformation underway at Areas USA are Clint Westbrook, Chief Operating Officer, Steve Byrne, Vice President of Concepts and Standards, and Paula Lopez, Director of Purchasing.

Clint begins by describing the company’s culture and core values that guide its direction as a business.

“Areas USA is driven by four pillars, what we call the Areas spirit,” begins Clint. “The four pillars are excellence, belonging, responsibility and collaboration. We channel the Areas spirit to our team members, our partners, our guests, the people who encounter our company and, more broadly, the planet.”

As Paula explains, excellence is the overarching component of these values and the company culture.

“All of our core values are focused on excellence,” adds Paula. “Excellence in how our teams operate, excellence in our

partnerships and excellence for our guests. We make sure that everything we do brings the best out of each team, not only internally but also our landlords. We want anyone that is going into our stores, brand outlets or encountering our company to experience this excellence as well – it is paramount to our company culture.”

“It's

a

spirit of trying, as a company, to make the people who are working in the field much better within themselves and so we get the best out of them,” adds Steve. “The goal that we've instilled

“Supply chain optimisation is a major component in Areas USA’s endeavours to manifest excellence in its complex and expansive operations”

over the past year is to exceed expectations: first, of the guest, second, of each other, third, of our partners out there at the airports and motorways and of the people in the field. Here at our central Support Centre, we want all the people involved in our operations to see us as their ultimate support system so they can happily go on with their day and deal with their staff and their guests and not worry about the factors we can handle for them.”

Clint joined Areas USA in March 2023 and in his first week had the privilege of meeting Oscar Vela, CEO of Areas Worldwide and other top-level directors.

“The most fascinating takeaway I had from that early meeting was hearing Oscar talk about Areas as nimble and humble,” recalls Clint. “We never want to start a conversation with our clients or

partners with the word ‘no’ – we will always look at possibilities. It defines how we achieve our goals and engage with people to get things done. Excellence is the key term in our vernacular because it’s what we strive for, nimbly and humbly, in every way.”

Supply chain optimisation is a major component in Areas USA’s endeavours to manifest excellence in its complex and expansive operations.

“We have a complicated supply chain since we are not a company with just one brand which is easy to execute across the country,” explains Paula. “At Areas USA, we have over 150 different locations. We have multiple vendors, national brands, local brands and our own brand – our supply chain tends to be more complicated than a typical supply chain. So optimising our supply chain is always our priority. How we do this falls into seven categories.

“First of all, we are a data-driven organisation. We look at the data we analyse, ensuring that everything we're doing has a cause and effect. This helps us to make decisions quickly and effectively. We are very lean and agile.

“Closely related to this are the second and third components, where we are investing in technology and tech integration. These optimisations are helping us send data insights directly to our vendors, making sure invoices are electronic and performing supportive tasks so the people out in the field can focus more on what they need to be doing, like serving our guests, rather than focusing on the administrative side.

“Our technology development in the past two years has helped us with the fourth and fifth components of our supply chain optimisation: category management and inventory management. Optimising our category management involves making sure that we have the right products, that we are profitable and that we have what the guest is expecting us to have in our assortment. Inventory management entails working with our operations team to ensure outlets have the right inventory on hand and we are not keeping money on the shelves. What we have developed is a highly effective rotation system by working with the distributors, so we have the correct deliveries, right when we need them.

“Belonging is having everyone feel like they're part of the Areas family. That's the culture that we promote within the organisation: one Areas”

Clint Westbrook, Chief Operating Officer

“Tying into this is the sixth aspect of our supply chain optimisation, which focuses on having great relationships with our partner vendors. We are constantly looking at how we can improve our company performance as a whole, but part of this is working with reliable partners that are aligned with our strategies as well.”

Steve elaborates on the final component of supply chain optimisation at Areas USA: sustainability. He emphasises that supply chain optimisation has sustainable components focused on the company’s ESG credentials at a strategic level – but sustainable optimisation is tangible, measurable and realistic at Areas USA too.

“Areas is the third largest provider of travel meals in the world and this means we have a duty to be responsible,” says Steve. “We are doing everything that we can, with an emphasis on realistic strategies, to preserve some of the best things that the Earth gives to us. Water is one of those precious resources. We have developed an advanced water flow system for our motorway rest areas. The amount of water flowing through those sites in a

“Every year, we do a Worldwide Challenge and our valued partner Danone is crucial in helping us roll it out. We challenge our operators to bring incremental sales increases through innovative and sustainable optimisation projects”

24-hour period is staggering. But we've built an innovative water flow system that's been engineered specifically for our outlets. In the system’s first year of being operational, we will have used 1.6 million gallons of water less than we did in the previous year.

“Every year, we do a Worldwide Challenge and our valued partner Danone is crucial in helping us roll it out. We challenge our operators to bring incremental sales increases through innovative and sustainable optimisation projects. Whichever airport or travel plaza optimises the most incremental revenue gains is sent to Barcelona to receive a prize.

“Food is also a precious resource. We have a new system we brought in called ‘Crunch Time.’ It involves

“Areas is the third largest provider of travel meals in the world and this means we have a duty to be responsible”

Steve Byrne, Vice President of Concepts

detailing exactly what we have to prepare, in terms of food needed for the day, according to what the sales are going to be. This means we haven't got staff prepping food all day for us, only to throw it away the next day. That waste has happened for generations in this business.

“To complement the Crunch Time system, we've actually removed all the rubbish bins out of our kitchens. Instead, we use a 10-gallon see-through container where employees can see everything that’s been thrown away, and they can see it all day. This has fostered a sense of responsibility within the workforce. It's dropped our costs by two-tenths of a per cent. That doesn't sound like a lot but multiplied out across the number of sales we do, it's an awful lot of money. The offshoot is we're not buying anywhere near as many plastic garbage bags now either.

“Another major sustainability incentive we’re rolling out that touches every part of the business is a project called ‘Operational Excellence,’ where we are concentrating on the very basics of what our company stands for. So far, it’s helped us reduce our food waste even further and consider our labour performance by

exploring how we can best place people in places or roles that are comfortable for them, to best bring out their potential.”

Areas USA’s focus on its people and workforce extends beyond the Operational Excellence project, and the company is embarking on holistic culture transformation to promote diversity, equality and inclusion.

“As we think about the pillar of people and team members, a very large focus for us is a sense of belonging that really does cross over all of those areas of diversity, equality, inclusion,” says Clint. “Belonging is having everyone feel like they're part of the Areas family. That's the culture that we promote within the organisation: one Areas. It doesn't matter which country you work in. It doesn't matter where you come from. We have an incredible record for the number and percentages of the population that we represent. A total of 68 per cent of Areas’ employees are from diverse and inclusive groups of people. Almost 60 per cent of our leadership team are women. We feel very strongly about opportunities. We feel very strongly about the chance for our family to grow internally. We champion the idea of ‘promote from within’: 75

to 80 per cent of our promotions come from within the Areas family. That leaves us a healthy 20 per cent where we can attract talent to come to the organisation, to be part of that family, and bring new ideas and new thoughts with them.

“We really focus hard on the whole person, because it's not just about work. Work is important but it must exist alongside the priorities of the health and wellbeing of each individual. We encourage

people to make sure they have a good balance, that they have the opportunity to improve themselves and grow with the organisation. This then allows them to also be present for their family, their friends and their community, and to be able to give back because they're healthy, they have that wealth and they have the opportunity for career growth as well.

“In years gone by, it was often work first and everything else came

Hi-Lo Diner is located in Terminal 1 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International, offering a true diner-style experience with traditional classics and modern eats.

second. And in a lot of cases – a distant second. But we like to think about the people that work for us as being able to work so they can live, versus living to work. We're really excited about how that pans out at Areas and it’s a source of great pride.”

Clint elaborates how the company’s excellent work in promoting diversity, equality and inclusion exists within a broader cultural transformation at Areas

– catalysed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“All the way from Barcelona to Miami and beyond, the focus has been around how we redefine experiences in line with the four pillars of excellence, belonging, responsibility and collaboration,” explains Clint.

“When we compare pre- to postpandemic circumstances, there is never going to be a larger cultural

shift we will see. Whether this is the culture of work or family, we believe making them inclusive is the number one priority. Number two, we want to give everyone the opportunity to work in the environment that best suits them – whether it be here in the Support Centre, for our remote workers or the people on the ground in our outlets. We are geographically spread out, so it makes sense for us to be able to encourage and also support people working in other parts of the US or around the world, yet still be connected to what we're doing.

“Since we became a private organisation, we're able to make those decisions quicker in a nimble and humble way so we can recognise what's important for the people that work for us and be sensitive to their needs.”

Looking ahead to the future, Areas USA has ambitious goals to double its revenue as a company in the next three to four years. Steve reiterates how achieving this goal depends on doing things differently and innovatively while pursuing growth.

“One example is we have a design for a restaurant, that's

hopefully going to be coming into play in the next 12 months, that’s ventless – there’s no gas or fumes,” shares Steve. “It will create a great workplace for the staff and a terrific experience for our guests. But it's also wonderful for our clients at the airports or travel plazas because they're not having to restructure their buildings.

“We opened two new restaurants in Houston recently with menus that exceed your typical airport expectations. When you visit an airport, nine times out of 10 there’ll be regular breakfasts with bacon and eggs, and you might have a hamburger at lunchtime. We're trying to break that mould. So in Houston, on our dinner menu, we're serving dishes involving more exotic ingredients from mussels to shishito peppers –we’re trying to wow people and exceed expectations for clients and customers. We believe breaking the mould and exceeding expectations in the process will help us grow, gain more business, attract new customers and bring back existing ones.”

Paula adds that interdepartmental collaboration to increase sales in specific locations, in a healthy way, is crucial to the growth strategy at Areas USA.

“Increasing sales is important, but it has to be in a healthy, profitable way”

Paula Lopez, Director of Purchasing

“Increasing sales is important, but it has to be in a healthy, profitable way,” says Paula. “This stems from our category management with current partners, but also arises from the work done by our purchasing department: making sure we’re finding ways to potentiate new items, exploring new ideas in collaboration with the other departments, but also ensuring

Added Value

Reading, relaxing and the Red Devils

Steve loves reading autobiographies and non-fiction books and highly recommends Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect by Will Guidara.

“Unreasonable Hospitality is absolutely eye-opening and thought-provoking,” says Steve. “I love to read on the porch on a Sunday afternoon, spend time with my family and go fishing –that keeps me out of trouble for a couple of hours. I’m also a mad Manchester United supporter and follow them religiously.”

we achieve good profitability with those items.”

Clint emphasises the importance of focusing on local sourcing and cuisine when pursuing expansion and growth.

“We love expanding into new areas, but first and foremost we focus on the local aspect of that region of the country,” says Clint.

Motherhood and leadership

Unlike Steve, Paula prefers to read fiction as a means of taking her mind off the demands of daily life. But she also finds tremendous value in exploring the overlap between being a mother and being a leader.

“Something I’ve been focused on lately is how do I lead my team, from a female perspective and from a mother’s perspective,” shares Paula. “There are a lot of analogies between me being a mother and having a team. As a mother, you’re constantly asking yourself how to be better for your children and make them happy. The same applies to my team: how do I improve as a leader and make sure they are happy?”

“What are the local chefs doing? What are the local restaurants doing? Asking these questions means we can bring that representation into our airports and our plazas. From there, there’s a ripple effect, from that local outlet to the region, that travellers like to see.

“Our business development team has more than tripled in size in

the past year, so we can put the right people in place and drive opportunities. We have no cookie-cutter plan for growth, we customise and localise it to be more effective but also respectful to the regions we serve.”

For further information and to learn more about Areas USA, visit us.areas.com.

Paula recognises she is very target-driven, which not only manifests at work but also in her new running hobby. She is training for a half marathon and finds the progress, structure and goals very motivating.

“For me, it’s about being aware of these different parts of myself and blending them together to get the best of all of them.”

Recognising talent and embracing experiences

Clint relishes the chance to identify and nurture talent.

“I like to mentor people and watch as they succeed,” says Clint. “Mentoring allows you to both pass on knowledge and experiences but also receive

different perspectives and new ideas from your mentees.”

On a more personal level, Clint loves to travel and spend time with his family.

“I think travel creates the opportunity to have memories as opposed to having material things that are just that: material things,” Clint emphasises. “The experiences you can have in travel, from meeting terrific people to doing great things, has been a passion of mine for a long time.

“I'm a strong believer in family values. We just welcomed a new granddaughter to the family and her name is Sophie-Grace. I love to see the family grow and be successful – and I can’t wait to someday look back on it all.”

Priscilla Bueno, Chief Transformation Officer at Craft discusses the company’s comprehensive approach to international supply chain innovation.

Craft is a Brazilian multinational specialising in international transportation, focused on the consolidation and negotiation of contracts in ocean, air and land to all stakeholders of the logistics industry.

Founded in 1997, it has operations in 10 countries and 35 offices spread across South and North America.

Based on solutions of scale, Craft optimises and ensures quality, frequency and control of every shipment by connecting its 1,100 specialists to global networks specialised in each modal through technology and people. It is the founder of its own procurement centres in Asia, Europe and the United States (LP Global and WSL) and is known for its close relationships with its customers and partners. Craft offers exclusive routes and services that only a neutral

wholesaler with significant volume and flexibility can provide.

Here to tell us more about the supply chain innovation and technological strategies at Craft is Priscilla Bueno, Chief Transformation Officer.

Priscilla sets the scene by explaining how Craft wields a relationshipdriven approach to global logistics,

drawing on the company’s rich heritage of operating in complicated and challenging circumstances, and elaborating on her role leading the transformation strategy at the company.

“According to a Gartner Future of Supply Chain Survey, whilst 95% of supply chains must quickly react to changing conditions, only 7%

are able to execute decisions in real-time. Craft is a company that is unique in a way that it’s never been afraid to react quickly and go wherever the industry needs, in order to improve the ease of doing business in the complex environment of international logistics, which is even more challenging in the South American market, where we were born into,” says Priscilla.

“But moreover, we understand the meaning of relationships in order to act effectively in such circumstances, on all key points of the supply chain, and the way our teams are built clearly reflects that. Based on both these factors, the best use of technology accelerates our model in not only operational excellence, but more importantly, commercial innovation as well. Whilst several

“First and foremost, Craft believes that each one of its people is key to ensuring longlasting relationships and partnerships in all of our markets, at all levels”

Priscilla Bueno, Chief Transformation Officer

industries are struggling to power up their supply chain capabilities, Craft already has in its DNA the capacity to offer such skills ‘as a service’, with a modular and flexible portfolio of solutions to logistics providers.

“With our stronghold in market and product intelligence, combined with a fine-tuned grasp of the movements of transportation around the world, we expand our capability towards a more modern and scalable model, where the business and all its connections are still at its core – which is where transformation really thrives. My role is not only to put together a strong technology team, but also to oversee people & purpose, communication & marketing, governance, agility and education and connect them to all areas of the business – while inspiring change only in the areas where we

know we will benefit from them as a company. That is, it’s not change for the sake of it, but rather a movement to connect and ensure that every company and person that is part of our ecosystem feels like they have prospered more with us as a part of it.

“Our five business and innovation drivers are sustainable growth through international and product

expansion, excellence in operations and fast delivery of complex data in a simple manner, governance and security with a focus on the value chain, people development and intra-entrepreneurship and business transformation through technology. With these five drivers in our everyday actions, we honour what we have built so far and seek to enhance it. In light of this, my role is to be an interpreter between all valid

interests in the everyday business, a crucial position in the facilitation of transformation.”

So how has Craft taken these five drivers and deployed innovation within its supply chain strategy in recent years?

“From the building of every one of our products in the South American markets, we have pioneered in

expanding the concepts of a neutral consolidator beyond the LCL groupage,” explains Priscilla. “Based on solutions of scale, Craft optimises and ensures quality, frequency and control of every shipment with specialists in each modal. With that in mind, we founded our own procurement centres for ocean and road transportation in Asia, Europe and the United States (through the brands LP Global and WSL). From Asia, we are the largest procurement centre in our markets. With initiatives such as these, and human-centric work, we offer exclusive routes and services that only a neutral wholesaler with significant volume and flexibility can provide. And furthermore, while 75% of supply chain leaders believe engaging in circular economy activities is important, and only 1 in 5 use such principles, our business model is built entirely on offering one of its key models, with optimisation and consolidation of movements as our main offer.

“Innovation then arises naturally from how we manage our solutions, with exclusive hubs and contracts, multiple points of entry and how we are applying technology in order to successfully control allocation, track and trace in real-time with 98% accuracy, people training and reskilling to

adapt to artificial intelligence and machine learning. We also promote innovation competitions internally and accelerate winning initiatives. Our most recent ones included developments in customer experience, product enhancement, people development in direct coordination overseas and robotic process automation in customer care.

“Craft always seeks to apply efforts using an ambidextrous mindset. We look to the present and to the future simultaneously, in order to embrace all three horizons of innovation, which are:

1. Optimising core operations for efficiency, reducing resource consumption and enhancing sustainability within existing business processes.

2. Exploring adjacent opportunities and markets, investing in sustainable services to capture emerging trends and foster longterm growth.

3. Pursuing radical innovation and disruption by investing in transformative technologies and business models.

“Balancing these three horizons through aligned management enables us to drive value creation while actively contributing to a more sustainable and competitive future.”

“As Craft navigates transformative change as a company, Priscilla adds that strategic partnerships are essential for promoting growth and commercial success”

Priscilla emphasises the importance of technology within the innovative transformation strategies at Craft, but stresses that it is people who ultimately wield these solutions for the benefit of the business.

“Technology and people play a key role in terms of providing us with the necessary framework and sustainable base for change,” says Priscilla. “And it works because we are able to connect the business to their developments. In return, our technology teams drive us towards an agile mindset, in keeping with our data-driven fluency in check,

ensuring that all our developments are cloud-first, and effectively guiding us with the best use of new market developments arising from game changers such as the fast advance of artificial intelligence, advanced analytics, machine learning and process and/or task mining. As such, we are building skills to analyse data on the fly and execute real-time decisions.”

As Craft navigates transformative change as a company, Priscilla adds that strategic partnerships are essential for promoting growth and commercial success.

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“First and foremost, Craft believes that each one of its people is key to ensuring long-lasting relationships and partnerships in all of our markets, at all levels,” says Priscilla. “It is at our core to address problems and to connect our entire ecosystem in a neutral and problem-solving manner – whether they are freight forwarders, customs brokers, inland air and ocean carriers, insurance companies, terminals and all other players in the logistics chain – into a perspective where international logistics is made approachable and connected towards the prosperity of everyone involved. That goes much beyond just our core business and that’s why today about 30% of our team is focused on relationships and sales alone. Another 25% is focused on product intelligence and relationships with providers and our core partners around the globe, which we call ‘product specialists’. Hence it is not by chance we control 90% of all business generated in each country we are located in, which differentiates us greatly. We take relationships personally and believe that they are the key to the sustained growth we continue to see year on year.”

To learn more about Craft, visit www.craftmulti.com

The global technology company driving the future of energy towards sustainability

Janaina Ruas Filiponi, Europe Head of Supply Chain & Sustainability at SLB, on the company’s journey to embed sustainability into the supply chain function and the role the supply chain plays in its vision for a decarbonised, sustainable future.

In the last century, global technology company SLB has evolved and adapted to the ever-changing demands of the energy industry, its customers and partners.

ith a heritage of innovation behind the company, SLB positions itself as an early adopter and pioneer of new mindsets poised to tackle the dual challenge of guaranteeing energy security and affordability while reducing carbon emissions to meet our net zero goals.

In October 2022, Schlumberger announced its rebranded name, SLB, as part of the company’s new identity

focusing on decarbonisation and technology innovation to address the world’s energy needs and forge ahead with global energy transition. The new chapter for the legacy Schlumberger brand underscored the company’s commitment to decarbonisation, digitalisation, new energy systems and innovation in the oil and gas industries. SLB’s bold vision is to accelerate the energy transition with sustainability at the core of its ambition.

Here to tell us more about the supply chain digitalisation, innovation and performance underpinning SLB’s new chapter is Janaina Ruas Filiponi, Europe Head of Supply Chain & Sustainability.

Janaina’s background is in engineering and she has been at the company for over 20 years, working in various departments, starting in operations and now business functions. Today Janaina heads up the supply chain department for SLB’s European operations and oversees the region’s sustainability endeavours. She orchestrates sourcing, supplier management, materials, logistics and regulations alongside taking charge of the internally focused sustainability strategies for that geography.

The two main layers to Janaina’s role are intrinsically linked, since

enacting change with sustainability goals in mind almost always winds its way to a supplier, procurement policy or logistics strategy of some kind, she explains.

“I’m personally very passionate about sustainability. As my awareness about overall sustainability developed, it made sense for me to start embedding sustainability into our supply chain discussions. For example, if we want to go ahead with changes to a solar project, switch the LED lights in our offices or transition our fleet to electric vehicles or electrical forklifts – everything was naturally linked to supply chain discussions,” summarises Janaina. It means we also get to work on our sustainability in terms of our ongoing community engagements and human rights policies across our supply chain.”

SLB embraces innovation across the board as a global technology company and it is also particularly prevalent in the supply chain strategies it has been rolling out since the rebrand last year in 2022.

“Innovation has been embedded into the DNA of SLB, for a very long time,” describes Janaina. “It’s built into the company and with the new chapter where SLB is being guided by sustainability, decarbonisation and a global energy transition, we understand that change

won’t happen without determined and focused innovation efforts. If businesses and companies continue to do things as they are today, the pace of change towards reducing emissions or reaching net zero will be too slow. Therefore, innovation and new mindsets are imperative.

“So if we consider innovation at SLB from a supply chain perspective, our mission is trying to understand from the business and operations sides what our internal demands are and where we need visibility to recognise opportunities for improvements in terms of the goals we’re striving towards. Once we identify the places to focus on, we usually have a supplier linked to them.

“Just over two years ago, we introduced our Supplier Innovation Program (SIP). Here we engage with our top 15-20 suppliers worldwide and as a business, we challenge them to propose a win-win supply chain innovation for us both to adopt.

“After we consider these presentations, we fine-tune our focus towards a few of the most promising proposals and start those projects on the ground. Not only does this catalyse innovation, but it also strengthens our relationships with our high-level suppliers and these relationships evolve into collaborative partnerships.

“We work in the world of data, technology and AI. Everything can have better visibility, more innovative approaches and improved effectiveness”

“SIP started as a global initiative but now we’re cascading it down to the regional divisions of SLB,” continues Janaina. “For example in Europe, we are rolling out the SIP approach to our specific suppliers. But supply chain innovation at SLB is not just limited to the global or continental levels, although the bigger picture perspective is of course crucial. We also explore innovation at a granular level and encourage teams to suggest efficiency improvements that affect our daily processes and operations. That can come in the form of a different way we do tasks or new approaches to apps and data with enhanced visibility.

“We work in the world of data, technology and AI. Everything can have better visibility, more innovative approaches and improved effectiveness. We instil this mentality into our teams. Consider our operations in Europe where we have about 6,000 suppliers. If we aren’t embracing innovation

and efficiency in the supply chain department, missed opportunities and inefficiencies soon multiply out and interactions become more complicated across the board. We want our people to work on valueadded tasks with less time spent on menial or transactional tasks.”

Janaina explains how digitalisation and performance are two core components of SLB’s supply chain innovation.

“At one level we help our clients on their journey towards excellence in performance and digitalisation, so it makes sense for us to embrace them as a company as well,” says Janaina. “More specifically we are currently focusing on the digitalisation of our data. We have a tremendous volume of transactions every single day and if we weren’t digitalising this process, it would hinder visibility and have knock-on effects throughout the entire business. Digitalisation is key for our supply chain and company growth.

“When it comes to performance, it is a mindset for us at SLB embedded into our brand and how our teams operate. So for instance, if we consider the supply tender process, today we are trying to implement new ways of thinking within the existing sourcing process. We’re building in factors such as

security, sustainability or energy consumption.”

SLB champions sustainability by deploying advanced technological innovation, facilitating decarbonisation and striving towards new energy systems. But Janaina describes how these externally directed endeavours have been reflected by internal development as well. She highlights two major initiatives related to training and visibility that have been particularly impactful at SLB within its supply chain.

“Even before our rebranding in 2022 and that shift towards greater emphasis on sustainability and the global energy transition, we recognised a need to improve our internal awareness in terms of sustainable initiatives,” states Janaina. “In the past two years, we’ve been working incredibly hard to develop our awareness and training related to sustainability. It was a huge, multifaceted effort to keep the entire business aware of our sustainability initiatives.

“We started at a global level by developing formal training programmes with supply chainspecific modules. Over time we refined our training efforts and enhanced our courses by

partnering with universities and research centres to advance our awareness even further.

“Many of our key stakeholders, managers and supervisors are being invited to enrol in these 2-3 month training programmes.

“We’ve now turned our attention more broadly towards engagement to capitalise on this momentum, but in a fun, compelling way. We partnered globally with a science education platform that works with companies to highlight the subject of sustainability, based on the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change data, but in an accessible and entertaining way. In our region we also launched a Sustainability

Roadshow where we engage in a fun and interactive way with a short inperson workshop focusing not only on the company global directions and priorities but also our own sustainability initiatives to reach all levels of the organisation. That has been successfully ongoing since June, involving several different countries.

“The second pillar of our efforts towards sustainability centres on visibility regarding our emissions. As with any company, we have better control over our scope 1 and scope 2 emissions since they are internal. But it is the scope 3 emissions where the greatest potential impact lies.

“Even though this is the most challenging area to catalyse change,

as a company we have committed to reducing our scope 3 emissions and partnered with CDP Worldwide to improve SLB’s environmental impact with external accountability.”

Janaina describes how SLB has asked its key suppliers to disclose their emissions for several years now. “It's not an easy exercise and we don’t expect details from all our suppliers because some might not have the bandwidth or maturity for now,” she admits. “But it is possible for some of our key suppliers, and for the others, we built frameworks to help them advance their capabilities so they can offer insights. It's critical to work in collaboration with our key suppliers on that journey.”

Due to the global nature of SLB’s operations, Janaina explains that the company recognises its messaging related to sustainability needs to be adjusted to the diverse countries and cultures where they are based.

“In my region we cover over 20 countries, so we created a framework where we could organise ourselves a bit better based on locations. We formed a sustainability SteerCo where we define the direction and priorities in each place. In turn, we adapted different communication strategies to approach our colleagues. To give better transparency and visibility in what we are implementing in the region, we developed an app where

“Teamwork has been an empowering force that propels many of our teams towards collective success”

we provide visibility on all our ongoing projects, their status or progress and who is involved in them.

“This has not only helped us to fulfil that internal demand from our people to have transparency in what was happening across the company, but also it has helped us to track the sustainability projects at a higher level.

“We divide these endeavours into three broad categories. The first is our internal sustainability and emissions. The second is focused on the social side, in terms of our community and human rights work. The third pillar focuses on how we are helping our clients either on the new energy side or how to decarbonise their emissions.

“With the support of many different teams in place, we put all these systems in place so we have transparency from the top down, but also the bottom up. For instance, on the same portal employees can upload ideas for new projects and volunteer themselves to participate in some of those projects. So our engagement is thorough and clear, and we can track what is happening.

“Communication is a key element in any successful endeavour, especially one as complex as sustainability. Timely and transparent information sharing across teams and stakeholders is vital to fostering

collaboration and results. The more education and information that flows towards our teams, the more initiatives and ideas emerge, driving sustainable practices and resilience.

“By leveraging the power of communication, I believe that we can create a more informed and motivated sense of community, engaged towards a more sustainable future.

But Janaina reiterates that major projects like reducing scope 3 emissions and educating its staff on sustainability or deploying supply chain digitalisation and performance require teamwork, partnerships and collaboration.

“Teamwork has been an empowering force that propels many of our teams towards collective success,” says Janaina. “To achieve many of those results, I’m lucky enough to work with a cohesive team and different stakeholders who have been instrumental in helping to achieve our aspirations. The more we work on collaboration across different teams, the more we are able to tackle challenges, overcome obstacles and achieve what would not have been possible without that synergy.

“We cannot solve these profound global challenges by ourselves,” says Janaina. “These issues are very complex, and we rely on allies to help us.

Introducing Entro: Your Partner for Energy and Environmental Improvements that pay off

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One of our key selling points is our commitment to achieving significant energy savings for our clients. Our estimates suggest that, in most cases, we can obtain substantial reductions in energy use. We understand that committing resources to energy-saving initiatives can be challenging when the returns on investments are uncertain. That’s why we have developed a risk-free approach that ensures you only pay when you see measurable energy savings.

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With Entro’s “no-cure-no-pay” business model, you have the freedom to prioritise energy savings without straining your budget. We believe that sustainability should be accessible to all businesses, regardless of their size or financial capacity. Our model allows you to make significant progress towards your sustainability targets while remaining cost-effective.

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“Entro helped us understand our habits better and with their assistance we reduced our consumption considerably at our Aberdeen facilities in the first year – it has been a very successful partnership”

“For example, we work closely with Entro – an energy efficiency company from Norway – to reduce our consumption at some of our facilities. We kicked off the project with them at our operations in Aberdeen, Scotland. We have a ‘no cure, no payment’ deal in place with Entro. They visited our sites and deployed their expertise to analyse where we could decrease our energy consumption. From there, we agreed that if they achieved a certain drop in consumption for us within a specific period of time, we would pay them a portion of the savings.

“Entro helped us understand our habits better and with their assistance we reduced our consumption considerably at our Aberdeen facilities in the first year – it has been a very successful partnership.

“We hope we can build on this partnership and expand it to other SLB facilities in Europe.

“Another example of a productive and valued partnership is our work with Red Wing Safety. Red Wing is our PPE provider and we collaborate not only on safety but sustainability as well. For instance, we have been developing more sustainable

overalls and boots that will benefit both companies and work towards goals we are both trying to achieve – always keeping safety front and centre.”

So what does the future hold for SLB?

“I trust there will be a lot of exciting developments in the coming years,” says Janaina. “I envision further

“Red Wing is our PPE provider and we collaborate not only on safety but sustainability as well”

growth related to energy security as this is such a crucial topic. But I also think we are well positioned with the right concepts and right mindset to grow in the right direction, helping our clients but also positively impacting the planet as well. There’s a tangible feeling of excitement here at SLB for this new chapter in the company’s rich history. We’re looking at promising new relationships with many different stakeholders, providers and clients that may evolve into collaborative partners – it’s very fluid and stimulating to witness and be a part of, especially on the new energy and decarbonising side of the company.

“SLB is an innovative company, and we know there are a tremendous amount of opportunities for us to work towards. There is no way that the global energy transition and the drive towards net zero will happen without innovation and that’s embedded into our DNA as a company.”

Learn more about SLB by visiting slb.com.

Personal passion meets professional purpose

During the height of the Covid pandemic, SLB gave employees time off to help them cope with the demands and challenges of lockdowns. Janaina recalls using this opportunity to take on additional training and professional

development related to sustainability since it was a cause close to her heart.

“At a personal level, I wanted to better understand the situation before us,” shares Janaina. “It opened my eyes and once you have that awareness, you can’t ignore it. It just so happened that at the time SLB was focusing more attention on sustainability and everything fell into place for me to embrace the second layer to my role related to sustainability beyond the underlying supply chain dynamic.

“Beyond that, being able to be more aware of the sustainability cause and passing that to my family and kids has been rewarding. I’m a very proud mum of two and they started to talk more about the topic and take the small actions in our daily lives that shows their own early awareness about the theme.”

Book

Janaina is currently reading Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More by Chris Bailey and highly recommends the

book to anyone grappling with all the information, priorities and distractions we juggle in modern daily life.

Wellbeing

Janaina believes in finding ways to nurture well-being. “Our mental health is super important,” she insists. “Recently I’ve been more committed to making time for my mental health, which for me meant tweaking my schedule so I can exercise at the start of the day, every day, as much as much as feasible, even if on busy days that means only few minutes. My current year-to-date average daily is around 50 minutes per day. I’ve built this habit over the past year. I realised that if I make exercising a habit it is easier for me to actually keep track of it. Besides the physical benefits of the exercise, it also helps me to cope with so much information ongoing (i.e. such as online training, webcasts, podcast, etc) and overall has been incredibly helpful for my mental wellbeing.”

Connect with Janaina

In the company of...

Welcome to our spotlight profile feature where we chat with leaders and innovators in the supply chain, procurement and logistics industries.

For this month’s In the company of… we sit down with Elske MessemakerKleijn, Vice President of Procurement Europe, DP World.

A brief summary of what your company does and your role

I am the Vice President of Procurement of DP World Europe, leading a team of roughly 100 ambitious procurement professionals throughout the region. DP World is an end-to-end supply chain provider and we are pivoting from being a traditional port operator to an end-to-end integrator. We own and operate strategic assets in all parts of the supply chain to offer end-to-end service offerings from the factory floor to the customer door.

How did you start working in procurement?

I was inspired by my first boss, who very convincingly shared his love for procurement and even though I’ve embarked on several journeys outside it, in the end, I always stay.

What has been the biggest highlight of your career to date?

I always like taking on a challenge and being able to drive and implement change. Currently, that is exactly what I am doing now by working in a large multinational. Over the last year, we have been able to integrate into one procurement organisation with a centre-led,

hybrid structure, developed a procurement academy, overdelivered 20% of our initial savings, developed and set up a Shared Service Centre in Romania to fuel future growth, redesigned our P2P process, rolled out a new procurement policy and all of that with 100% retention of our people. For me, I’m particularly proud of the latter aspect.

Which emerging trend do you think will be most crucial in your industry in the next ten years?

Procurement is evolving beyond cost-cutting and is now pivotal for how businesses function. In 2024, I see AI enhancing its automation and expediting processes, offering templates, generating quotes and boosting overall efficiency. It's an exciting benefit for crafting purchasing apps too, fostering intelligent dialogues among stakeholders.

If you could spend a day in the life of another profession, what would it be and why?

I have always been curious about working for the CIA or as a detective, analysing the facts and trying to solve a mystery. Being able to really puzzle different things together and in the end

come up with an actual answer and impact would be an exciting profession.

Outside work, what helps you feel like the best version of yourself?

Several elements are important to me and keep me balanced as a person: challenging my mind (work), creativity, cooking, being in contact with my gut feeling/ inner self and horse-riding. These elements and hobbies keep me in balance.

Before we go: what advice would you like to share with our readers?

Happiness or success is not determined by others, it truly is about autonomous and independent happiness. Be sure to achieve that and you can deal with everything else that life gives you.

www.dpworld.com