Next Round - Consistently focusing on customer requirements is a fundamental building block in a sustainable customer-supplier relationship. This is particularly true in a tough market environment. To counteract the economic crisis, many chemical players were tempted to focus on the improvement of their own operational efficiency and less on their customers' needs.

To what extent has this impacted the supplier-customer relationship in the European chemicals industry? Where do both parties see short, mid and long-term priorities? As of September 14, the top management panel Chemical Customer Connectivity Index (C3X) entered its next round with the objective of getting to the bottom of what is at the top of the European chemical companies' and their customers' agenda right now. At www.chemanager-europe.com/c3X the survey offers executives the opportunity of putting their customer orientation to the test.
The financial crisis and resulting economic downturn has had a strong impact on chemical suppliers and customers alike. Collapsing demand of customers in the automotive, construction and textile sectors posed significant challenges to chemical players across Europe and beyond. As a consequence, many chemical manufacturers had to make all-out efforts to secure their cash flow, often making significant restructuring unavoidable. Despite some rays of hope due to recent recovery of demand, the situation remains tense.
"At first view it seems to be clearly understandable that in a crisis such as the current one, chemical manufacturers have primarily focused on strengthening their financial position rather than dealing with their customers' current or future needs. This, however, carries an inherent danger - because if companies lose track of what their customers really want they will miss out on an important opportunity to sustain or even strengthen their long-term competitive edge. Anyone who wants to outperform his competitors and achieve lastingly value-enhancing growth has to be working constantly to address the needs of their customers," says Dr. Tobias Lewe, Partner in the Process Industries Practice at A.T. Kearney.
To generate a reliable picture of the issues that are crucial at the interface to the customer, the management consultancy A.T. Kearney, CHEManager Europe and the Westfälische Wilhelms-University Münster, Germany, have most recently started the third round of their top management panel C3X.
Next to the recurring questions, this issue will again contain a special section devoted to the impact of the financial crisis with a particular focus on the post-crisis world. It will look into companies' mitigation reactions and lessons from the crisis: What were the main reactions to counteract the economic downturn and how successful have they been? For example, to what extent were innovation goals impacted and how well have companies build up abilities to cope with potential further economic challenges?

Joining The Panel

Until October 15, executives of chemical companies as well as executives of customer industries such as automotive, pulp and paper, consumer goods and pharma can register as members of the C3X top management panel at www.chemanager-europe.com/c3x and take part in the third survey. Therewith they can make a crucial contribution to improve both parties understanding of the issues surrounding the customer-supplier relationship in the European chemical industry.
Answering the questions on our portal will not take longer than 10 - 15 minutes. All of the information will be treated in strict confidence and only anonymous information will be included in the overall evaluation.
Register today at www.chemanager-europe.com/c3x to take part in the next survey, and benefit from the opportunity to increase your share of the post-crisis "market-pie". As a reward, participants can receive the survey results in an exclusively edited form. The results of the survey will be published in the November issue of CHEManager Europe (publishing date Nov. 12).