Cummins gets fit for age of change

In Conversation…

With Ann-Kristin de Verdier and Thierry Pimi

Cummins Magazine recently brought together Ann-Kristin de Verdier, Executive Managing Director of Distribution Europe, and Thierry Pimi, Vice President of Cummins International Distribution Operations, to discuss the strength of the Cummins business structure, the company’s approach to the energy transition, and plans to leverage diverse talent across the organisation.

Cummins’ new vice president of international distribution operations Thierry Pimi has begun implementing a bold three-pronged strategy for commercial success.

Thierry has identified three core areas of improvement: greater use of technology to improve efficiency and the customer experience; enhanced focus on delivering end-to-end value to the customer; and a drive to create what he calls “the right environment” by building diverse, inclusive and highly motivated teams.

Progress on these three action points is seen as vital to raise the already high bar of Cummins’ service levels and satisfaction among its customers across some of the world’s most important business segments, including data centres, mining, marine and power generation.

“We want to continue to make it easier for customers to do business with us,” said Thierry. “One of the ways to do that is to make sure we are constantly looking to improve our operational efficiencies. For instance, making sure the way we operate in our branches is as universal as possible for a seamless customer experience.

“We are investing very heavily, and Europe, under Ann-Kristin’s leadership, will be spearheading a modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) system that is going to revolutionise the way we do business.”

Ann-Kristin is in full agreement: “I’m tremendously excited about the transformation that’s coming for our processes and the tools available to us across Europe. It will allow our employees to spend more time with customers and unlock real value.”

Thierry, who was born in Douala, Cameroon and who has held a number of strategically important roles within Cummins, now presides over the company’s global Distribution Unit (DBU), a company-owned network of more than 15,000 employees spread across 190 countries and territories operating from around 460 locations.

It is the nature and scale of the Cummins network that makes the brand so attractive, especially to larger, multi-national businesses. “Whether it’s data centres, or power generation, or high-horsepower users, these customers see our network as the biggest plus because of the consistency in the quality and the capability which we have built around the world to support them.”

Ann-Kristin points out that in Europe, many Cummins customers export equipment outside of the region, and there is comfort in knowing there is product available that can fit into their equipment and which meets local needs and regulatory requirements.

“They can also be confident there is service support for their product wherever in the world it is being used, and we also operate a number of global account management contracts, which means we can collaborate more seamlessly than some of our competitors who have mostly independent distributors.

“The fact we're one company makes doing business a lot more straightforward.”

Turning his thoughts to the great energy transition, Thierry says Cummins’ Destination Zero strategy offers a robust framework “but change will not be like flicking a switch”. Different applications will adopt the transition at different phases.

Ann-Kristin believes the distribution side of Cummins will have a key role to play. “Our customers know we have the expertise to help and guide them,” she says. “When the technology and the product is less mature, support needs are more intense and we provide highly skilled technicians during the ‘infant care’ period.

Thierry is confident Cummins will rise to any challenge presented by the drive toward clean energy, saying the company has earned an enviable reputation for reliability over the past 105 years.

While the competitive landscape is going to keep changing and the needs of Cummins’ customers are bound to evolve, Thierry is adamant one thing will remain constant and that’s the company’s focus on the customer experience.

“We don't just want to make it easy to do business with the customer, we want to drive the customer loyalty, and we do that by competing on service and the customer experience. The role of our distribution network is to ensure the customer gets the value expected from a premium global brand.”

In Europe, Ann-Kristin’s focus is on making sure Cummins has the right support in every country across the region, “whether we have a local Cummins-owned branch there, or whether we have channel partners, whether it's sales, application engineering, or aftermarket support”.

Ann-Kristin stresses the importance of stability in the network, knowing that some of the ‘traditional’ products Cummins sells today, particularly high-horsepower engines, could have long working lives.

“With regular servicing and the possibility of multiple rebuild cycles, these engines could be working for 20 years or more. Similarly, we can upgrade the electronics on our generator sets to prolong their life.

“Knowing the distribution network will be there for the full life of the product is really important, and we are fortunate to have some very long-standing and loyal service partners, including a lot of family businesses that go back generations, which also gives our customers added confidence.”

Thierry agrees: “These partnerships are part of the DNA of Cummins. When you find partners that have similar values, it helps to create a culture that sticks.”

The right environment for personal growth

Wherever Thierry Pimi has worked within Cummins, he has developed a reputation as a superb leader of people: someone who can bring the very best out of the individual and collective talent at his disposal.

In Ann-Kristin, he has found a fellow business leader equally committed to creating the best conditions for colleagues to showcase their skills and leadership potential.

“We call it creating the right environment,” says Thierry. “If we want to be the leading power solution provider in the next century and beyond, being able to design and deliver better solutions than our OEMS can do in-house, or than our customer can find from someone else, the key will be to have the most capable talent and skills.

“The world today is a global village, and we’re working on processes that will allow us to move the best and most appropriate talent to wherever they are needed, as seamlessly as we can. 

“I want us to be seen as one single distribution unit rather than a group of regional operations.”

Thierry revealed that he and Ann-Kristin had been working together on a multi-faceted programme to develop the skills of leaders and supervisors. The programme covers themes such as how to deliver constructive feedback, how to foster open communication, and how to be authentic and vulnerable. These skills and others form the basis of Cummins leadership behaviours.

Taking inclusiveness to a new level

Cummins has taken heart from being voted among the top 100 companies in Europe for building an inclusive workforce through its focus on diversity.

The influential Financial Times Diversity Leaders list for 2024 placed Cummins at number 76, helped by the launch of the Cummins Powers Women initiative.

While encouraged by the top 100 position, Thierry believes Cummins can go a lot further, helped by being committed to valuing difference.

“This is really the frontier today of where we are going,” says Thierry. “We are going beyond diversity and inclusion by admitting difference in the room. Valuing difference is about us getting to a point where we value, recognise and appreciate what's unique and different about the other person.

“This is not just superficial. We are going beyond the cosmetic and beyond even the traditional understanding of diversity, equality and inclusion to a really new place, and that is something that makes me proud to be part of Cummins.”

Ann-Kristin says valuing difference is a core component of Cummins’ recruitment strategy. “Europe is inherently diverse, with so many different languages and cultures, but we can always do better at valuing differences.

“We must keep asking ourselves if we are doing enough to develop people at all different levels of the company, and with a broad set of skills and capabilities so they have opportunities across the region.”

Thierry Pimi

Before taking up his position as head of international distribution in July 2024, Thierry Pimi led the Cummins business in Africa Middle East. Before that, he ran Cummins Southern Africa distribution business.

Thierry is a mechanical engineer who joined Cummins in 2008 in the Corporate Strategy team at Columbus, Indiana where he led several projects involving growth, profitability, divestiture and acquisitions.

In 2011, he was appointed Africa Mining Territory Manager, and in 2014, he assumed the role of General Manager of Cummins North and West Africa Regional Operations, overseeing the deployment and consolidation of company-owned entities in Morocco, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana.

Thierry is a staunch supporter of promoting local talent and has unleashed diverse and capable teams across the regions in which he has worked, combining seasoned industry leaders with exciting new hires equipped with strong local knowledge and solid regional culture.

He cites his mother and Nelson Mandela as his two most important role models.

Ann-Kristin de Verdier

Building strong relationships with regional distribution partners and driving business growth has been a recurring theme throughout Ann-Kristin’s career, which started in Sweden at Ericsson.

Her experience encompasses product development, project portfolio management, strategic marketing, sales and service operations.

Ann-Kristin currently leads a Europe-wide sales and service organisation that includes 15 wholly- owned distributors and more thar 200 local dealers. 

Ann-Kristin has an MSc in Automation Engineering from Chalmers, an MSc in Computer Science from Imperial College and an MBA from Stanford.