-: Jay, it's great to see you.
Thanks for joining us here today.
-: Thank you, Aljoscha.
-: What challenges was Element facing
when you took over as a CEO, and what led you
to engage on this transformation journey?
-: Well, as you know, Element Fleet Management
is the world's leading pure-play fleet management company.
Element was born about ten years ago.
Through a series of back-to-back acquisitions,
they were able to indeed create market leadership
in each of the three regions in which we operate.
Unfortunately, the speed by which that was attempted
resulted in an inability to integrate
the various acquisitions that were being made.
And as a consequence, saw a significant erosion
in confidence with employees, with clients,
as well as with shareholders.
-: What were some of the secrets
for the success of this transformation?
-: I think firstly, our ability to narrow the strategic focus
of the organization.
That ability to stay focused on a three-prong strategy
throughout the two-and-a-half-year journey
allowed the organization to center its focus
and to amass its resources against a few things
that mattered most.
Secondly, quick wins.
That ability to gain traction immediately
with the transformation agenda,
to demonstrate the fact that it was realizable,
and to create funding that would allow us to
progress the entire transformation agenda
in keeping with the pace of change
that we wanted for the organization.
-: Reflecting back, what do you see
as the key results and key successes?
-: This really was kind of the wholesale transformation
of the organization.
There wasn't any aspect of the business
that wasn't examined, and in the end, remediated,
improved for the benefit of multiple stakeholders.
And as I think about it through the lens
of our stakeholder communities,
our employees were seeking strategic clarity.
They got it.
From a client point of view.
As you know, this has been all about the client
from the outset, and creating a consistent, superior
client experience.
And we see the evidence of our success
in net promoter scores that have moved
from negative to extremely positive.
We see it in the ability of the organization
to identify literally billions of dollars
of productivity savings.
We see it in a dramatic reduction in churn,
in client attrition.
Further, the organization itself
has seen its market value triple
as a consequence of these changes.
And we have consistently performed
in the top quartile in terms of our comparators
and total shareholder return over this period.
-: What would your advice be to a new CEO
stepping into that role
and stepping into a multi-year transformation journey?
-: I do believe that successful transformation begins
in the office of the CEO.
You need to make this your primary purpose.
You need to be actively engaged in advocating for this
as a focal point for the organization.
I think secondly, I would strongly recommend
that narrowing the strategic focus of the organization
is of critical importance.
The resources that are consumed in a transformation,
to do it well and do it right, are quite exceptional.
Diffusing those resources across competing agenda items,
I think can be quite dysfunctional in terms of
achieving a successful outcome.
There is a long-lasting benefit
that accrues with transformation.
And that is the ability to materially shift
the culture of the organization.
When I think about the transparency
that this organization now demonstrates
with all of its stakeholder communities.
When I think about the agility
and the accountability of the organization
and how much more enhanced it is.
They're all byproducts of transformation,
and not just the what we changed,
but the choices we made around how we were going to change.
-: Jay, thank you for making the time.
It was great seeing you again.
-: Thank you, Aljoscha.
It's so nice to reminisce.