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