Successful launch of TMD Friction’s ‘Future Perfect’ customer conference series

Leverkusen, October 2017. Brake specialist TMD Friction is encouraging direct dialogue with customers with its new customer conference series ‘Future Perfect Conference’.

The first conference started in Southampton in early September based on this new concept. TMD Friction would like to use this to intensify the interaction with customers of the international aftermarket (IAM) by exchanging views about the visions and strategies of the future. This is also what the name of this new conference series ‘FuturePerfect’ stands for since it is used as a synonym for the group’s future orientation. The core of this group strategy is to prioritise customer requests even further, because – the way that TMD Friction sees it – this is the only way that the future, with its massive technical and social changes, can be effectively addressed.

Fittingly, the event in Southampton was attended by a list of high-profile speakers: In addition to John Hudson, CEO of TMD Friction, who gave an overview of the group’s strategic orientation, the Marketing and Technical Directors were able to explain the plans which they intend to employ to support these goals. To expand on issues concerning the outlook for the future, external speakers were also invited, including Alan O’Neill, a certified expert in change management, and Neil Pattemore, Technical Director of FIGEFA, who outlined the framework conditions of the future market.

A great deal of interest was aimed at a presentation by Robert Lightfoot, Executive Director of Sales EMEA at TMD Friction, which focused on IAM. The development of TMD Friction from a manufacturer for friction material to one of the world’s leading brake specialists, namely a provider whose range includes all components and services related to brakes, has been very well received by customers. This is accompanied by a paradigm shift in which the focus is no longer on the single product, but rather on the complete solution. Only those who offer a needs-based solution of this kind will be able to survive in the future. However, in order to be able to offer these ‘needs-based’ solutions, active collaboration and further qualification of business customers is required.

In line with the new conference concept, the subsequent question and answer session received a great deal of attention from customers, who were able to discuss the topics with the speakers. The responses to the portfolio expansion and dealer participation was positive on the whole.
“Thanks to the large amount of customer feedback, we have already been able to gather important information for the operationalisation of our strategy in Southampton,” said Robert Lightfoot, Executive Director Sales EMEA at TMD Friction. “As well as this, the high level of customer involvement has encouraged us to continue this new conference concept. We have enough interesting topics that we will discuss with our international customers very soon.”

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Caption 1: The open question and answer session triggered a lively exchange with stimulating ideas. This session was attended by (from left to right): Michael Dunkel, Director Category Management; Neil Pattemore, Technical Director at FIGIEFA (guest speaker); John Hudson, Chief Executive Officer (TMD Friction); Marco Loth, Executive Director Marketing (TMD Friction); Robert Lightfoot, Executive Director Sales EMEA (TMD Friction); Lawrence Bleasdale, Sales Director (TMD Friction)

Photo: Copyright TMD Friction, 2017. Free reprinting permitted as long as the source is quoted. Please send us a specimen copy.

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