Technology to Drive the FutureCFO of Flender Ltd. ChinaGeneral Manager of Winergy Gears
Flender Ltd. China
FLENDER Ltd., China was established in 1996. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the FLENDER Group. The company’s main location is in Beichen Technology Industrial Park, covering an area of about 255,000 square metres, but it has another branch in Tianjin High-tech Industrial Park area. Furthermore, there are 10 branches and 20 sales offices distributed throughout China. In total FLENDER Ltd. China employs approximately 2,400 employees.
FLENDER and Winergy are two strong brands under one corporate roof. The FLENDER brand (established in 1899) concentrates on drive systems and services for various branches of industry. The Winergy brand was established in 2001 to better meet the special requirements of the wind energy industry, supplying them with gear units, generators and services for wind turbine systems.
FLENDER’s vision focuses on working closely with all their stakeholders in jointly shaping a sustainable future and in achieving optimum value for their customers. In short, their major aim is to be “the Partner of Choice for a Sustainable Future”.
Please tell us a little about your career history, and how you came to be involved in Flender.
I joined the Siemens Group at about the same time as Flender in 2005, but while Flender already had more than 100 years’ work experience, for me it was a fresh start as a global Siemens Group management trainee. The 2-year management trainee program gave me an invaluable opportunity not only to get to know the company better, but also to work in China for the first time. Since then, I have been involved in several business units serving different industrial markets. In 2018 I took the opportunity to move forward in the wind energy business with Flender (at that time part of Siemens).
Although you spent most of your life in Europe, you’ve been involved in projects in China for many years. How did you adapt to a completely different environment and culture?
Though Europe and China are separated from each other by a thousand kilometres, what connects the people is a passion for technology and business, and the willingness to improve daily. Additionally, multi-national corporations in China act, in many ways, as a bridge between the two regions. Both aspects made it easy for me to work, live and enjoy my time in China. Since I set foot in China in 2005, many things have been changing, and efforts to revitalize nature, particularly, have been remarkably successful and contributed massively to improving the quality of life.
What part of China attracts you the most? What made you take the decision to move to China for work?
I have always regarded China as a country of opportunities. Over the years, I discovered that this word can be used in so many aspects of life and business. To name some examples, I could mention food, culture, technology, nature.
What makes Flender stand out from your global competitors?
Flender, with its two brands––Flender for industrial applications and Winergy for wind energy application––contains two strong global market leaders in its respective fields. Our customers appreciate our technical leadership, our global footprint and the broad portfolio. As General Manager of Winergy Gears of Flender Ltd. China, what are your major responsibilities, and what do you find to be most challenging in your job?
Working in the single biggest market for wind energy is a great honour for me. With the support of all departments and functions, and their invaluable employees, I need to make sure that we are always one step ahead of the competition by serving our local and global customers with the right products and services. To be successful in that in China also requires a high level of customer orientation and dedication to being fast and agile.
Are you satisfied with where the company stands at the moment? What are your ideas for enhancing the services and products the company provides?
I am proud of the milestones we have achieved in recent years to position ourselves as a strong global and local supplier in the market. We have nearly doubled our output in the last few years by maintaining high customer satisfactions in all relevant KPIs. On the other side, we also have a strong culture of continuous improvement that helps us to see plenty more opportunities to improve even further.
The renewable energy and wind energy business is a comparatively young business, and is characterized by a continuous drive for improvements in costs and quality. With the welcome carbon neutrality targets announced by the major global economies, including China with its 3060 program, this industry has gained full attention in all countries. With our product range, we can serve nearly all wind turbine applications and technologies, and thus are confident that our new hybrid drive solution (integrated gearbox and generator) will provide additional momentum to the market.
What exciting new plans and goals have you got for the future of Flender in Tianjin?
We have developed Flender in Tianjin to become one of the most important locations in the global group, with around one third of the total of global employees. We are now in the process of developing it further towards becoming a global excellence hub in engineering and product development, and thus strengthening our global R&D footprint.Also, the manufacturing footprint in the Winergy business is developing further to drive the overall market development to achieve bigger wind turbine power ratings, which is translating into products of a larger size and weight. Logistics excellence is becoming increasingly importance to our business.
Do you collaborate with other companies to work towards achieving Flender Ltd. China’s goals, and if so, how?
Tianjin must be the unofficial world capital of the wind energy business as it hosts many global and local companies in the overall supply chain of wind energy. Naturally, we have not only customers but also suppliers located in Tianjin, with whom we work closely together.
As manager of a very successful business focusing on a sustainable future, what would be your advice for future business leaders? In particular, what message would you like to send out to young people to encourage them?
To lead a market or to lead a team or business, in all cases you need to be courageous, and confident, but also down-to-earth. To live these values, it is very important to look for the business field you can put all your passion into.
Can you tell us a little about your personal life and family? How do you like to spend your leisure time? What are your hobbies?
Currently, there is too little time to finish many items on my bucket list; instead more ideas keep popping up to be added on top of this list. My leisure time in Tianjin I do spend mostly with my wife and my two beautiful kids. They help me daily to see the world as it really is–– a colourful place with plenty of opportunities.
Please tell us about your career history, and how you came to be CFO of Flender.
My life was always full of changes and challenges. I changed the place I lived with my family every four years on average, usually also changing my professional function. That helped me to accumulate a lot of different experience. Before coming to Tianjin, I had already had three assignments in other Chinese-based companies. Both facts made me suited to the Flender management job in October 2019.
You’ve had extensive business experience in Asia. Could you tell us how that has contributed to the skills and knowledge you bring to Flender Ltd. China?
About half of my vocational life I spent in Asian countries, including Bangladesh, China and Japan. Business is always local. To succeed, you have to understand the special circumstances and culture of the business environment. You cannot drive an Asian company solely with a European mindset. And to me, it’s amazing how dynamically the economic situation, particularly in China, developed during the nearly 30 years I had the chance to monitor it. And it was a pleasure to guide and coach young people who were very ambitious to develop their career. Since then, I have always strongly believed that motivation is the most valuable driver of every process.
Flender offers an impressive number of different services and products. Please tell us about some of them.
Our company is very complex. We deliver short-cycle products for the wind industry as well as developing customized solutions for our industry customers where every product is a unique project. And we are ready to service our products, wherever they finally end up.We operate six service workshops in China. With the generators newly acquired from Siemens, Flender now has not only mechanical technologies but also an electric section. That enables us to deliver complete drive trains to our wind energy customers such as Vestas, Shanghai Electric, Siemens Gamesa or Nordex, to name the biggest.
How do you deal with the challenges of handling the financial aspects of so many different services and products? What do you find to be most challenging in your role as CFO?
As a finance person, you have the advantage that the different kinds of products have much more in common commercially than the specific technical knowledge which is required. In the end, it’s all about commercial value engineering––control your costs and create value which allows you to achieve prices on the market that match the expectations of your stakeholders. In that regard, the electronic PCB (printed circuit board) has a lot in common with a mechanical gearbox or an electromechanical motor. As a modern CFO, you are not limited to financial knowledge; you have to understand the specific process requirements to be able to develop and realize successful business plans.
The challenges come from the volatile business environments. Economy is a roller coaster. Ups and downs have to be managed effectively, including changing demands for human resources and as was the case recently, extraordinary developments in the raw material markets.
In your opinion, what makes Flender stand out among global competitors?
Nobody is alone in the world. In every market you have to prove that you are eligible to compete in terms of quality, cost and logistic performance. And Flender tries in each field to be a little better than others. The more than 120-year history of Flender indicates that we are thinking long-term. Our products have a long lifespan, can be serviced worldwide, and with new digital technologies such as condition monitoring, unplanned interruptions can be prevented. Sustainability is part of our business model.
What significant accomplishments has Flender Ltd. China achieved during your time with the company?
Although I have only been with Flender for nearly two years, I have had very exciting times already. Due to the strong wind market supported by subsidies from the Chinese government, we had to manage exorbitant growth rates of more than 60%. A lot of players have had to perform brilliantly in the supply chain to get this realized. This development made Flender interesting for new shareholders, and so by March this year, after 15 years in Siemens, the ownership of Flender transferred to the American Carlyle group, giving us a lot of new impulse and investment budgets. Decisions are getting made faster, and we have already started to enhance our capacities by building additional production halls. On the other hand, the previous Siemens infrastructure has to be managed in a stand-alone approach now, adding a lot of administration functions (treasury, tax, legal, a.s.o.) to the company.In addition, we have a new company leader, Dr.-Ing Jianhui Gou, who has profound professional knowledge and rich experience for multi-national company management. Together as a team, we will provide better product and service to our customers, and keep a leading role in drive technology field.
Your inspiring motto is “The best is yet to come”. What exciting new plans and goals do you have for the future of Flender Ltd. China?
You can’t change the history, so you’d better look ahead. But you can learn from the history and make things better in the future. And technical developments are adding new possibilities. Digital tools will significantly change the way we do things today with their impact on social life, thinking of the debate about home office, for example. Positive thinking gives us the necessary confidence to prepare our Flender team for the future. And Learning will never end. What led us to today might not lead us to the future.Do you collaborate with other companies to work towards achieving Flender’s goals, and if so, could you tell us more about this?
As stated already, we are not alone and need partners in our supply chain. We regularly reflect on our operations and think about what are really our core competencies that we have to keep in our hands, and what other things might we be able to do better, and what outsourcing will strengthen our effectiveness. For that, you need strategic partnerships with suppliers. As China is no longer only the factory of the world but is also getting more and more competent in engineering, we find such partners locally, and that helps with our goal to localize material and knowledge as much as possible. It saves cost, shortens lead time and hedges the currency at the same time.
As CFO of a very successful business focusing on a sustainable future, what would be your advice for the future business leaders? In particular, what message would you like to send out to young people to encourage them?
According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, it is the one who is adaptable to change who will succeed in the end. In translation to a business career, that means you have to monitor what’s going on, make use of new possibilities and never, really never, stop learning. Connected to this, I’m convinced that there are some cardinal virtues which will always have a value–– ambitiousness, diligence, and sometimes even patience. Success will happen when good preparation meets a lucky situation.
You speak several languages. Could you tell us how you came to achieve this, and how it has helped you in your career?
The essential information here is that among the languages I’m good at, Mandarin is not one of them. I sometimes feel ashamed that even though I’ve been in the country for a total of nearly 15 years, I have only some fundamental Mandarin ability. I should have known in 1993 when first entering China that I would come back so often. And during my time in school (well, some decades ago) the focus was on European languages. For a German, there was English or French as a first choice, and later, Roman languages like Italian or Spanish were offered. But as seen from what I said above, I should have learned more Bengali, Mandarin and Japanese, all of which I all started, but due to business pressure, never found the time to improve to a conversational level. However, I’m fluent in English.
You are also engaged in many social activities. Can you tell us about them?
Managers are also human beings. So before I entered into my current profession, I dreamed of a career as a musician playing piano and keyboard, and leading a small music band. It prepared me for a leadership function and getting used to a stage, but didn’t take me into the charts. So for the happiness of my parents, I decided to start a more “serious” career.
My understanding of international mobility always included my family, which was always a stable backbone of my life (Thanks Alix!) When we arrived in Shanghai in 1994, there was no German school for my daughters, so, with the initiative of German industry, I was one of the co-founders of the French-German school in Shanghai, which grew very fast to become the biggest German school outside of Germany. For three years, I was the treasurer of the school, doing this, of course, in my leisure time in the evening or at the weekend. But it was worth to do so. We were proud to have established one reason for many German expats to go to Shanghai with their families.
弗兰德传动系统有限公司成立于1996年。它是弗兰德集团的独资子公司。公司的总部位于天津北辰经济技术开发区，占地面积约25.5万平方米，在天津高新技术产业园区设有分部。此外，在全国设有10个分部和20个销售办事处，共有约 2,400 名员工。
弗兰德和威能极是同一企业旗下的两个强势品牌。弗兰德（成立于 1899 年）专注于为各个行业提供驱动系统和服务。威能极成立于 2001 年，旨在更好地满足风力发电行业的特殊要求，为风力发电机组增速齿轮箱、发电机和传动系统服务。
弗兰德的愿景是与所有利益相关者紧密合作，共同塑造可持续的未来，为客户实现最佳价值。简言之，他们的主要目标是成为“可持续未来的首选合作伙伴”。
优格思博
（弗兰德中国）威能级中国风电齿轮箱
总经理
请讲述一下您的职业生涯，以及您是怎么加入弗兰德集团的。
我在 2005 年加入了西门子集团，也在几乎同一时间加入了弗兰德。虽然弗兰德已经拥有了100 多年的历史，但对我来说，作为一名西门子集团全球管理培训生，这是一个全新的开始。为期两年的管理培训生项目给了我一个宝贵的机会，不仅让我更好地了解公司，而且让我有了第一次在中国工作的机会。从那时起，我投身于多个工业市场的业务部门。2018 年，我非常荣幸加入威能极，与弗兰德（当时是西门子的一部分）一起推进风能业务。
您过去的大部分时光都是在欧洲度过的，同时又与中国的项目有着非常密切的合作关系,那么您是如何适应一个截然不同的环境和文化的？
虽然欧洲和中国相距上千公里，但是对技术和商业的热情、以及逐日递增的发展的意愿可以让人们跨越距离障碍。此外，中国的跨国公司在许多方面充当了两个地区之间的桥梁。这两点都让我在中国的工作、生活变得轻松，且让我享受在中国的时光。自从我 2005 年涉足中国以来，很多事情都在发生变化，尤其是在生态方面取得了非常亮眼的成就，为改善生活质量做出了巨大贡献。
中国哪里最吸引您？是什么让您决定在中国定居开始工作？
我一直都认为中国充满了机遇。这些年来，我可以在中国非常多的方面上看到“机遇”，比如，食品、文化、科技、以及这里的大自然。
是什么让弗兰德在全球脱颖而出？
弗兰德旗下有两个品牌：一个是专注于工业应用的品牌弗兰德，而另一个则是致力风电行业应用的品牌威能极。它们在各自领域里都是强大的全球市场领导者，客户们赞赏我们的技术领先地位、全球广泛的业务范围和产品组合。
作为（弗兰德中国）威能级中国风电齿轮箱总经理，您的主要职责是什么，平时会遇到什么挑战吗？
在全球最大的风能市场工作对我来说是一种荣幸。在所有职能部门及其宝贵员工的支持下，我需要通过为本地和全球客户提供合适的产品和服务来确保我们始终在竞争中领先一步。要在中国取得成功，还需要高度以客户为中心，并致力于提升提供服务的速度。
您对公司目前的现状满意吗？您对提高公司服务和产品的质量有什么建议？
我为我们近年来在市场上成为了一个强大的全球和本地供应商感到自豪。通过在所有相关 KPI 中保持较高的客户满意度，我们在过去几年中的产值几乎翻了一番。另一方面，我们还拥有持续改进的企业文化，这有助于我们看到更多的机会并进一步改进。
可再生能源和风能业务是一项相对新兴的产业，而此产业的特点是需要去不断地推动成本和质量的改进。随着包括中国，一个有着3060计划的国家在内的全球主要经济体宣布的碳中和目标的提出，该行业得到了各国的充分关注。凭借我们的产品系列，我们可以为几乎所有的风力发电机应用和技术提供产品与服务，因此我们相信我们的新产品混合驱动解决方案（集成在一起的齿轮箱和发电机）将助力风电产业进一步发展。
在天津未来会有哪些令人兴奋的新计划和目标？
我们将弗兰德中国发展成为弗兰德集团全球最重要的基地之一，并已拥有全球约三分之一的员工。我们现在正在进一步发展，使其成为全球卓越的设计和产品研发领域中心，进一步加强我们的全球研发力度。
此外，威能极的业务的足迹正在进一步发展推动整体市场发展，我们在不断地研制更大的风力发电传动系统产品以满足单机容量不断增大的风力发电机组需求。卓越的物流对我们的业务变得越来越重要。
在实现（弗兰德中国）威能级中国风电齿轮箱的目标的同时，您会与其他企业通力合作，共同实现目标吗？如果有的话，会是怎样的呢？
天津一定是风能行业的非官方世界之都，因为它在整个风能供应链中拥有许多全球和本地公司。当然，我们不仅有客户，还有位于天津的供应商，我们会与他们密切合作。
作为一个注重于可持续发展的公司的管理者，您对未来的商界领导者有什么建议吗？换句话说，您对年轻人有什么想说的话？
领导一个市场，领导一个团队或企业，在任何情况下，你都需要有勇气，有信心，同时也要脚踏实地。为了践行这些价值观，寻找一个符合你兴趣的，可以让你投入全部热情的业务领域非常重要。
可以讲一下您的家庭和个人生活吗？您如何度过闲暇时间，有什么爱好呢？
就目前来说，用来实现我人生目标的时间太少了；而且，新的想法也在持续地跳进我的脑海里。在天津，我的闲暇时间一般会与我的妻子和两个孩子相处。他们代表了这个世界最美好的存在——在这个充满机遇的世界里与他们生活。
高峰
弗兰德传动系统有限公司
首席财务官
请讲述一下您的职业生涯，以及您是如何成为弗兰德的首席财务官的。
我的生活总是充满了变化和挑战。平均每四年，我就会与我的家庭更换居住的地方，通常也会改变我的职位，这帮助我积累了丰富的人生经历。在来到天津之前，我有着三段在公司工作的经历，这些都为我于2019年 10月加入弗兰德做了充分的准备。
弗兰德提供了许多卓越产品和服务。可以列举一些吗？
我们健全的企业制度。我们为风力发电行业提供满足全周期的驱动产品，并为客户开发定制解决方案，每个产品都是一个独特的项目。无论产品最终到达何处，我们做好了随时为产品提供服务的准备。
我们在中国有六个售后服务工厂。通过从西门子新收购的发电机业务，弗兰德现在不仅拥有先进的机械技术，还拥有先进的电气技术。这使我们能够为我们的风能客户提供完整的传动系统，我们的主要风电客户包括维斯塔斯、上海电气、西门子，歌美飒或恩德等。
您如何应对处理这么多不同服务和产品的财务方面的挑战？作为一名首席财务官，您认为最具有挑战性的是什么？
作为与金融有关的人员，你的优势在于，你了解的是不同类型的产品在商业上的共同点，而不是其所需的特定技术知识。最后，这完全是关于商业价值的——控制成本并创造价值，使你能够在市场上获得符合利益相关者期望的价格。在这方面，电子 PCB（印刷电路板）与机械齿轮箱或机电电机有很多共同之处。作为现代首席财务官，您不仅限于金融知识；您必须了解具体的流程要求才能制定和实现成功的商业计划。
多变的商业环境带来挑战；而经济就像是过山车，必须有效管理其起起落落，包括不断变化的人力资源需求，比如说最近原材料市场的迅猛发展。
您认为是什么让弗兰德在全球中脱颖而出？
没有人是一座孤岛。在每个市场中，你都必须证明你有资格在质量、成本和物流绩效方面进行竞争。而弗兰德试图在每个领域都比别人做得更好。弗兰德 120 多年的历史表明，我们的思考是长远的。我们的产品使用寿命长，可以在全球范围内提供服务，并且通过状态监测等新的数字技术，可以防止意外中断。可持续性是我们商业模式的一部分。
在您任职期间，弗兰德中国分公司实现了怎样的非凡成就？
虽然我只在弗兰德工作了将近两年，但我已经度过了一段非常激动人心的时光。由于中国政府补贴支持的强劲风电市场，我们不得不在超过 60% 的过高增长率的这个状况下管理我们的公司。许多参与者必须在供应链中表现出色才能实现这一目标。而这一发展使弗兰德寻找到新股东，到今年 3 月，在西门子旗下运营15 年之后，弗兰德的所有权转移给了美国凯雷集团，而这给了我们很多新的动力和投资预算。决策的拍板越来越快，我们已经开始通过建造更多的生产车间来提高我们的产能。一方面，以前依托于西门子的组织架构现在必须以独立的方式进行管理，为公司增加了许多管理职能（例如财务、税务、法律务等等）。另一方面，今年4月我们迎来了一位新的领航者，勾建辉博士，他的专业知识和丰富的管理经验，将带领我们中国团队，更好的服务我们的客户，让弗兰德继续领跑于传动领域。
您的格言是“完美将至”。您对弗兰德中国有着怎样宏伟的愿景和目标？
举凡过往，皆为序章。但是你可以从历史中吸取教训，让未来变得更好。不断发展的技术正在为这个世界提供新的可能性。数字工具将极大地改变我们工作的方式，它们对社会生活的影响，例如关于家庭办公室的辩论。积极的思考能够给我们提供必要的信心，而这会为我们的弗兰德团队为未来做好准备。学习永远不会结束。引领我们走到今天的东西，可能不会引领我们走向未来。
您是否会与其他企业合作以实现弗兰德的目标？
如前所述，我们并不孤单，我们的供应链中需要合作伙伴。我们会定期反思我们的运营，思考哪些才是我们真正需要掌握的核心竞争力，还有哪些其他方面我们可以做得更好，哪些外包可以提高我们的效率。为此，你需要与供应商建立战略伙伴关系。随着中国不再只是世界工厂，而且在研发方面的能力也越来越强，我们在当地寻找这样的合作伙伴，这有助于我们尽可能实现材料和知识本地化的目标。它节省了成本，缩短了交货时间，同时对冲了货币。
作为一个注重于可持续发展的公司的首席财务官，您对未来的商界领导者有什么建议吗？换句话说，您对年轻人有什么想说的话？
根据达尔文的进化论，适者生存。将这一句话运用于商业上，这意味着你必须监控正在发生的事情，利用新的可能性，并且永远不要停止学习。与此相关，我相信一些基本的美德总是有价值的——雄心勃勃、勤奋、耐心。越努力越幸运，当充足的准备遇到幸运的情况时，成功就会发生。
您掌握多种语言。您是怎么做到的？它们在您的职业生涯里起到了什么样的作用？
重点是，在我擅长的语言中，普通话不是其中之一。我有时会感到惭愧，虽然我在国内总共待了将近 15 年，但我只有一些基本的普通话能力。1993年我第一次进入中国时就应该知道我会经常回来。在我上学期间（嗯，几十年前），学习的重点是欧洲语言。对于德国人来说，我们首选的是英语或法语，后来又提供意大利语或西班牙语等罗马语言。但是从我上面说的来看，我应该多学点孟加拉语、普通话和日语，但由于业务压力，一直没有时间提高到会话水平。不过，我的英语很流利。
您参加了很多的社交活动，能和我们分享一下吗？
再严厉的管理者也需要有正常的社交生活。所以，在开始现在的职业之前，我梦想成为一名演奏钢琴和键盘的音乐家，并领导一个小型乐队。这个梦想让我为担任领导职务做好了准备，并且适应了公众舞台。为了父母的愿景和要求，我决定开始一份更“踏实”的职业。
我认为，跨国工作生活是包括家庭的，而家庭也一直是我生活的稳定支柱（谢谢 Alix！）1994 年当我们到达上海时，这里没有教授德语的学校，所以在German industry的倡议下，我是上海法德学校的联合创始人之一。该学校发展迅速，成为德国以外最大的教授德语的学校。三年来，我一直担任学校的司库；当然了，我是在晚上或周末的闲暇时间做这件事。这样做是值得的。我们很自豪能够为许多德国侨民与家人一起去上海多提供一个条件。
MIDSUMMER BUFFET PARTY
and "Dragon Boat Race"
Award Ceremony
Technology to Drive the FutureCFO of Flender Ltd. ChinaGeneral Manager of Winergy Gears
Flender Ltd. China
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