It was a pleasure to meet Pietro Gheller, since last April the new director of the Wood Division of SCM, a group he joined in 2019, after a professional career in the world of strategic consulting and consumer goods and which today finds in B2B “machinery” the scope for further growth.
“Since my arrival at SCM, I have been lucky enough to learn a lot, measuring myself in a context where it is not only the consumer, but the relationship with companies and entrepreneurs that is the ultimate goal,” Gheller told us. “Investment decisions that are based on rational and medium-long term evaluations and, above all, on the vision of your own business. The latter is a fascinating theme, because there is no doubt that even in the world of wood we must try to imagine where the market will go, guess what customers will do, in which direction the industry could move, and amalgamate all this to define a strategy”.
Did you regret the choice?
“Not yet,” he replied with a laugh. “It’s been five intense years, in which I have been confronted with a sector full of high-level professionalism, which is the great value of this industry where people stay longer than in other sectors. It is an industry that has many skills hinged within it and it will be precisely those skills that, in my opinion, will allow it to overcome the challenges of the future.
In fact, the characterizing element of this sector is certainly the importance of defining a medium-long term relationship with the customer: loyalty, the ability to maintain a long-term relationship with them makes the difference between a successful company and the rest. Even more so today that new players are appearing, especially Asian, asking precise questions such as, for example, on the side of sustainability, rather than on price competition: it is our responsibility to propose new business models, which allow the customer to maintain the economic and financial balance of their company, finding the right balance between these and many other factors”.
“With this in mind, SCM has equipped itself with a top-level strategic infrastructure, which passes through a concept that was very clear at the recent Xylexpo: a virtual and digital representation of a process, including a physical one, a new dimension in which we want to be pioneers. A path of change linked to the strategy of servitization that will not fail to have repercussions on different fronts. First, in the commercial field, because it is not enough and will no longer be enough to offer a range of technological solutions, however advanced and where every barrier between sales and after-sales will fall.
At SCM we are convinced that focusing on service and skills, as well as machines, is a promise to be honored at any cost: therefore not only “servitization” in terms of sales, but also “service excellence”, that excellence in after-sales that will increasingly make the difference. We will all have to rethink products within an even longer-term logic, continuing to offer value to our customers: our “Digital Control Room” enabled by our “IoT Maestro connect” system, which we brought to Xylexpo and is the heart of our new Technology Centers in Rimini and Villasanta (Monza Brianza) as well as our other branches abroad.
It is thanks to this new service that we can manage data and information in real time to keep an intelligent channel open with our customers, wherever they are: an effective and efficient service that allows us to constantly monitor the performance of connected SCM machines around the world to ensure proactive support, offering and obtaining information that will also be used to start a different design process. It is not only a marketing issue, moreover absolutely effective, but the focus of a completely new strategy adapted to the evolution of markets and the use of services”.
Dr. Gheller, you are telling us about a world that is certainly different from the one we know: will it be within everyone’s reach?
“Absolutely. It is inevitable that, from certain points of view, the gap of needs between large groups and small and medium-sized handicraft businesses is widening more and more, but from our point of view this does not mean having to choose which side to be on. SCM’s history shows that we always know how to relate to anyone with the right product, thanks to a highly diversified portfolio of solutions. We feel a strong duty and honor to think of all customers in the sector, and the “Digital Control Room” will also be a help in this sense, allowing us to structure and convey a model of offer of common services that can and must be tuned to the needs of each one, packages adapted to the specific needs of each company, obviously with levels of “advisory” that will be more relevant as we move towards larger companies, customers with whom it will be inevitable to work together to improve production processes and results.
All this involves another change that I believe is momentous, namely the need to “read” the various production processes as a whole: we will no longer have to work only with highly specialized teams, linked only to the SCM brand, but with people able to have their say on the entire process of our customer, offering transversal solutions.
We must be part of a new ecosystem where we will be working alongside our customers and, where necessary, with other companies, qualified and selected companies that produce machines, aggregates and everything we need to integrate and complete our offer.
I see a future in which the coexistence between craftsmanship and the need to work for ever larger numbers will be even more organic. It will be what we could call a “middle range” of companies that will necessarily have to choose which models to be inspired by and in this scenario companies like SCM have the responsibility and the possibility to offer new business models.
I strongly reiterate: we feel in all its weight the responsibility to continue to be leaders in a world in which “producing” is changing strongly, and I do not hide from you that we are working on many projects that will lead to hyper-technological solutions that will not remain confined “to the upper floors”, but will progressively give life to a heritage that everyone can and must draw on the basis of their own specificities, rather than their size”.
We mentioned your “revolutionary” participation in Xylexpo…
“Our participation in the last Xylexpo was something that no one expected. A disruptive choice, if you will, which has strongly indicated that we do what we believe in: just think about what this choice means in terms of sustainability… We organized our exhibition space into corners where, with advanced digital and immersive tools, we were able to show an ocean of 360-degree information, much more than we would have communicated by operating a selected range of machines or systems. Scm Group no longer needs to demonstrate how good it is at building solutions for woodworking, as well as plastics or composite materials with the other company in the group, CMS: everyone has known this for decades. Now there is something else to give meaning to, because the market is asking us how we can be at the side of companies with solutions that respond to all those new elements we have talked about so far”.
Dr. Gheller, one last topic. There is a lot of concern about the current economic season: what do you think?
“We are living in a moment that is certainly not the most encouraging or promising, but it is essential to look into perspective: 2024, on balance, could align with the “pre-Covid” economic dynamics and let’s not forget that we are talking about an industry linked to “real estate”, to long-term development that are structurally destined to grow. The pandemic years have been exceptional from every point of view: now we are back to normal. And it could not be otherwise.
Although the first six months of the year suggest caution, we are confident that the second half of 2024 will give us different indications. A similar injection of confidence comes from “large-scale” engineering projects: as SCM’s Wood Division we have long since exceeded 100 million in turnover in large orders, an absolutely profitable business also considering that it is an extremely “demanding” segment, which requires us to be very careful in terms of costs and benefits. A world, that of engineering, which is increasingly important for us and in which we will continue to invest in terms of resources and dedicated products and services.
All this while always keeping a very high focus on the development of the competitive scenario, knowing full well that although the “threats” increase for companies with a tradition and a “desire for the future” like ours, there is only one way to follow, which is to continue to invest in technology, services, skills”.