Tony Makosinski, Head of marketing UK & Ireland and Radim Rocek, Sales manager Eastern Europe & Russia, Honeywell, for our magazine talk about strategic plans and the way of achieving a stronger business development in the region.
Author: Elmir Majstorić
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A&S ADRIA: Honeywell is now for decades present on the market of Southeast Europe. How is this presence manifested and are there any plans to expand and strengthen the presence in this region? Radim Rocek, Sales manager Eastern Europe & Russia: Basically, i can say that we are straightening our presence in this region trough our partner companies. We are collaborating with a number of companies in tree market segments, including the residential field, commercial security systems and the industrial segment.
Actually, when we are talking about South-Eastern Europe, we should look on it country by country. In some of them we already have working partners, while in others we are still looking for new companies with whom we could build a partnership. I will soon start to visit these countries much more frequently than in the past. Recently i visited some of these countries, and among others i was also in Bosnia, for the first time in Sarajevo. This means that we are trying to find some long term partners who will be able to compete in these specific market segments in whom we are present. This companies should be able to effectively cover the country in which they are present, and finding adequate partners in every country will help us cover this region effectively. We are also looking for quick developing companies that could potentially become our long term partners. We plan to create partnerships in various business segments, and that’s why we need partners that are able to successfully work on long term projects. Tony Makosinski, Head of marketing UK & Ireland: Honeywell is present i many countries and each one has it’s own level of market development. Eastern Europe, including also the South-Eastern European countries, is one of the fastest developing markets. Eastern Europe and Russia, Latin America and East Asia are regions were we see growth opportunities in energy conservation and industrial productivity. Some parts of Eastern Europe are already good, strong developed markets. So i think there is a quit few things that we do to straighten our presence in that region. One of them is to build strong links with domestic companies and cooperate with them giving the market what it really needs. Honeywell is a global leader in in providing various security solutions. We offer our partners an opportunity to take their company to the next level. Honeywell has a complete line of products and services designed to compliment their business and maximize their solutions offerings. We created a well adapted partnership program that allows our potential partners to establish long-term and successful relationships with our company, offering them the services and resources to support attractive margins, ensuring incremental and profitable Honeywell business. Together we are investing in a partnership offering greater return on their investment. A&S ADRIA: What should this partnership look like? What kind of business strategy will you deploy with regional distributors and partners? Radim Rocek: Our partnership strategy will be based on a non exclusive basis. This means that we are not searching for only one company that will cover a hole country or region and be an exclusive distributor or reseller of Honeywell products. You could have a situation were you have a long term partner that is working well, but he will be your only hold there witch represents a very risky agreement. The other side of the problem is that we will not generalize this markets like if they would be manifesting the same market conditions.
We are looking at this market country per country, as similar but still different markets with their own specific conditions. So the principle of our strategy in this region is that we are seeking for several partners in each of the countries who will represent us in each of the tree business segments, and who will eventually compete whit each other. The goal of Honeywell’s partnership program is to build and strengthen long-term relationships with our partners, value-added resellers that demonstrate superior knowledge, support and marketing of the Honeywell security product line, resulting in profitable growth for both parties. Our partner program reflects a commitment to key Honeywell initiatives, including growth, productivity and people. Tony Makosinski: I think that’s probably the key to success. We have appropriately approached our partnership relations. This region has great potential as a developing market, with many infrastructural project underway, and also many planned. We are not just talking about big projects like oil and gas infrastructure, but also about residential and commercial systems. So basically what we are looking for here is somebody that has the experience and expertise to take different items and put them together into a working system. We are not trying to force growth in one particular market segment of those tree mentioned, that is something that we will not be able. We are not here to make quick money with some boxed solutions, we are not box shifters trying to put a box into somewhere and say sell. We want their business to grow because that way we will also get business. Our program is a partner first program that helps our partners to grow on a long term basis. I think it’s a very successful partnership arrangement. We will try to back these companies to become leaders in their respective country. If we give them reliable products that fit in the specific market, it will help them to grow. So we will keep them informed, keep them updated with products to help them coming forward and meet the market demands which helps both sides to grow. That is our approach that will help us develop distribution networks. A&S ADRIA: You said that these countries are manifesting similar but still different market conditions. Does this mean Honeywell will take a different approach for every country? Tony Makosinski: This is the reputation that Honeywell has. We are a global player and we have an easy approach to underdeveloped markets by connecting with regional players. But the approach that we are using here is mainly different from what we have in other developing markets like that of the Latin American countries. That’s why we are making various products suitable for each of these markets. There is nothing such as a global product or a global market place. The situation varies throughout Europe and the world. There is no one state of the European safety/security market. We really see a mixture of effects and market conditions around Europe.
What we offer are finework products, which is global. We are costumising products to fit specific markets, because some products adapted for one market might not go well in another, even if they are neighbour markets like the Slovakian and Chech markets. For example, the difficulty in recruiting and retaining skilled alarm installers has meant companies are increasingly using the remote diagnostic and service programmes that we have developed. This also has the benefit of being a greener way of working, reducing the installer’s carbon footprint by cutting out routine visits. What Honeywell has is the expirience of market developement and the knowladge of that what every specific market really needs. Developing markets also have different regulations and standards that must be also taken into consideration. We are flexible and so our products. Radim Rocek: We have seven different countries here and there are big differences between each of those markets. The Slovenian market for exemple is more mature and more similar to those of Western Europe. On the other hand, we have the Croatian market where we also contribute, and which is a strong developing market. The Bosnian, Serbian, Macedonian market are also expiriencing significant growth with quite a few changes.
The situation is very different country by country. That’s why this market is very interesting, because whatever it is creating we have allready solutions for it. This region has a great developing perspective together with the Russian market. It is giving us many opportunities of business because of undergoing projects including highways, hydroelectricity power station, airports and so on. This region reminds me of countries Chech Republik, Slowakia, Hungary in the early 90’s when they experienced a strong economic growth with many big projects. We want to intensify our presence here because it’s a market that gives great business oportunities.
Tony Makosinski, Head of marketing UK & Ireland and Radim Rocek, Sales manager Eastern Europe & Russia, Honeywell, for our magazine talk about strategic plans and the way of achieving a stronger business development in the region.