A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services. Valerie Mathieu

      Foreword

      I am very honored that Valérie Mathieu has asked me to write the Foreword to her book. I am even more honored because the CMA CGM Group, with its customer-oriented approach, is a perfect example of how the dynamic relationship between a company and its markets can create value for both the customers and the service provider. The organization of our group, a world leader in maritime shipping and logistics, shows how a company in the B2B sector can create value by giving an important role to its managers. It is, therefore, a great source of pride to contribute to this book, which will be read by students and professionals alike, as our group works, as part of its employer brand strategy, to showcase the variety of jobs in the transport and logistics sector, an emblematic B2B sector.

       Relationship with the customer at the heart of value creation

      CMA CGM has always placed the customer at the center of its concerns and priorities. This may sound like a banal statement for a company, but in reality, we have to know how to organize ourselves to listen to their needs, and even try to anticipate them, in order to design and deploy efficient services, and establish processes around customer satisfaction.

The core service we have historically offered – transporting goods in maritime containers – can very easily be done by one of our competitors. Hence, for several years, we have witnessed a “commoditization” of our industry. Faced with a plethora of choices, our customers chose their shipping line based on price alone. The industry engaged in an intense price war, which each of the players hoped to compensate with volumes. This logic led to overcapacity and serious difficulties for the sector in 2009 after the subprime crisis. It was at this point that the group completely rethought its approach, seeking to answer the question of how we could get a client to choose our services, even if we were more expensive than the competition.

      This was a long-term process that required constant dialogue with our customers and partners. We had to understand what their problems were, what their challenges were and what they expected from their shipping company.

      And contrary to what we thought, price was not necessarily the determining factor in their choice. One example of this is the premium service we have implemented on the Transpacific, which has been a huge success. This service makes it possible for an exporter or importer to have guaranteed space on a vessel and offers faster availability thanks to a Fast Lane upon arrival in Los Angeles.

      Paradoxically, we know today that the peripheral services related to maritime transport are our best assets to develop customer loyalty and relationships.

       An evolving relationship

      And we are evolving with them: with the acquisition of CEVA Logistics, the CMA CGM group has changed its nature and is now able to offer end-to-end services, anywhere in the world. We can support our customers throughout their supply chain, with air transport solutions for shipments that do not suffer any delay, or warehousing and storage solutions to delay the pace of imports according to their specific needs.

      The group has also started a major digitalization movement, in order to give our customers more autonomy in managing their supply chain.

      Finally, we have taken the relationship to the extreme, since, thanks to our global presence and the customer portfolio we have developed over the past 40 years, we have become a true “business provider” for our customers who would like to expand internationally and are looking for reliable suppliers or partners.

We are now seeing that the future of our competitiveness is being played out in areas that were still weak signals in our industry 10 years ago. For example, our group launched studies on the use of liquefied natural gas as a fuel for our container ships, and today, ships capable of carrying 23,000 containers are operating service using this cleaner source of propulsion. In the meantime, environmental issues have become absolutely crucial for our largest customers, who now require their carriers to have a committed environmental approach.

       The manager: essential interface for a win–win customer–supplier relationship

      In maritime transport, it is absolutely crucial to know how to foresee. This is true for the crews on our ships. It is also true for our employees who are in the field every day, in contact with our customers. At CMA CGM, we have developed a very decentralized organization, where the managers of the agencies in the countries where the group is present (160 worldwide) occupy a central position. They are the ones who can inform the lines about changes in their region, about development projects, about companies that are setting up internationally or that, on the contrary, have growing import needs. Hence, we pay particular attention to their training. We have a training program specially dedicated to them, so that they have all the necessary assets to listen to our customers. It is on the initiative of these field managers that we develop new lines, new offers and new services. It is thanks to them and the special relationship they have with their customers in the field that we can set up pilots that can then be extended to our range of services. This requires them to be in a constant position of observing and actively listening to their clients and to maintain an ongoing dialogue with managers and department heads at headquarters so that they can study, design and deploy tailored and adapted solutions. This requires true teamwork, with each party working hand in hand to create value.

      The experience and organization of our group resonate with the book we are holding in our hands. It offers an excellent opportunity to question, learn and progress for B2B companies like the CMA CGM Group that I represent.

      Thierry BILLION

      General Secretary

      CMA CGM Group

      November 2021