YES WE CAN

After holding a variety of management roles at the Dutch headquartered express logistics company since first joining as a depot general manager in 1988, Onno Boots arrived in Asia in 2006 to take over the position of regional managing director for South East Asia & India.

Under his leadership, TNT’s regional business has undergone a significant transformation, particularly in infrastructure development and integrated air/road capabilities. In June, the company announced a further 4.5 million euro investment in its Asia Road Network, which now serves seven countries and 127 cities in Southeast Asia and southern China.

Q: After two decades in Europe, what attracted you to come and work in Asia?

A: In my previous position to this, I was responsible for establishing and overseeing the growth of TNT’s Global Accounts program. Being the only centralized function in a decentralized organization, it was quite challenging to set up the structure, acquire the competencies, and get it embedded.

Once all that was successfully achieved, I thought it was the right time to go back to running a business again, which is something I really wanted to do.

Given the nature of Global Accounts, I was already spending a lot of time in Asia anyway. I could see that the balance of power was beginning to shift from west to east, and together with being attracted by the diversity and the culture of Asia, I had a strong feeling that my future should be here rather than in Europe.

Q: What were your first impressions of the opportunities and challenges for TNT in Asia?

A: I realized quite quickly that we needed to change the business model, because the image we had back in 2006 was that of a courier company; at least that’s what many of our major customers told me when I arrived here.

Given our leading market position in integrated road and air networks in Europe, I could not see why we could not achieve the same in Asia – the major origin of manufactured goods-flow back to Europe.

So it was my responsibility to develop strategic plans for restructuring the business, establish a high growth platform, get the necessary investments approved, and start executing – all with the aim of becoming a full-fledged integrator.

Q: How would you rate your success so far?

A: If you look at what has been achieved over the last four years – building hubs, our own flights to the region, the focus on freight, and the Asia Road Network, our branding campaigns – you’ll see that, yes, there has been a complete turnaround in competencies, a huge scaling up of our infrastructure, and a marked increase in TNT brand awareness. And when I speak to customers these days they no longer tell me we’re a courier company, which is a great reward in itself.

Our results also point to the success of our initiatives – we have grown double digits every year. This year is also looking good, with in excess of 20 percent growth so far. But I think what was particularly spectacular was our performance in recession-hit 2009, when we still delivered double-digit growth. And we were able to achieve that – and capture market share from competitors – precisely because of our investments in infrastructure, the expansion of our addressable market, and our new areas of focus.

Q: Talking about competitors, how do you seek to differentiate the company and get customers to choose TNT?

A: First of all, and importantly, we do not try to be everything to everyone, because I believe you can only be very good in a few things. So we are very focused in what we do, and in those areas of focus we understand our markets thoroughly and develop and deliver world-class value propositions for customers.

Take healthcare, one of our key verticals. This is a pretty broad area and so you need to pretty clear how and where you want to compete. For TNT, our focus is on the clinical trials and supply segment, and this market involves much, much more than just shifting boxes around. You need to understand the regulatory environment, how the clinical supply chain is structured, and how to manage cold chain processes.

So it is definitely not about saying, “We move parcels, can we have your business?” Once you choose to be in a particular market you have to invest in the enabling infrastructure and, even more importantly, in the knowledge to reach the necessary level of expertise for the sector.

On top of all that, we also have a level of flexibility in delivering the right solutions for our customers, something you don’t often see in our industry. This is what is behind our Sure We Can tagline – which really reflects the DNA of this company and our can-do ability.

Q: Service Logistics has been identified has one of the growth platforms for TNT in the region. Could you explain more about this?

A: This is a massive market globally and one that is rapidly evolving in Asia. We are in quite early in the game with a focus on two areas: Return to Bench – where we pick up faulty product, consolidate in one of our facilities, and then do basic screening before it either goes into a repair cycle or is swapped out; and Installed Base – placing critical spares stock at forward locations where our customers need it.

Again, this is not moving parcels around; it takes a very special set of skills to manage a service logistics business. But we would not go to the extent of actually repairing the items ourselves because as I just said, you can only do a few things really well and repairing has nothing to do with our core business.

Q: Pushing through a large number of changes in a relatively short space of time, how to ensure that you take people with you?

A: When I first came here I was quite aware of the fact that many people thought I was a bit crazy because of some of the things I wanted to do – like building a road network all the way from Singapore to China.

So what I had to do was to convey a passionate growth message, because the first thing that catches people is passion. But passion alone is not enough; you need to have to have substance and you have to deliver. When people saw that what I actually said I would do I did, that’s when it began to accelerate and everyone began to share in the same strong belief.

You know, I often get asked about my proudest moments at TNT here in Asia, and people usually expect me to say something along the lines of the Asia Road Network. But no, what has been the most rewarding aspect has been taking a team of thousands of people on a journey and leading them to the success that we hoped for. And seeing them grow, get promoted, become better has been really satisfying.

Q: Given that the Dutch are known to be pretty direct, have you faced any issues in working in the different cultural environment of Asia?

A: I would agree that the Dutch “straight shooter” approach can be perceived as being quite confrontational in this part of the world. That does not mean that we are not respectful, it is just part of the culture to be very direct in discussions.

So as a leader, this challenges you to find an approach that works here, because yes, if you are too direct then all the doors will shut and you can’t get anything done. You learn to adapt your style, to be non-confrontational, to be sensitive to “face”, and to pick up more on what’s not being said rather than just what’s being said.

This does take time, because you learn from experience – you can’t just read what you need to know from a book. For me, I can say that I have definitely become much more of a rounded leader through being in Asia, and my style has become much more open and engaging.

Q: What kind of people do you like to bring into the organization?

A: As we have grown, I have interviewed a lot of candidates for senior positions in the region. Many of them are highly qualified with all sorts of MBAs, etc, but I know they will never make it! Why? Because they cannot translate all that knowledge to an action, to a result.

So my philosophy is yes, of course you need the qualifications, but that is just the base. What I am looking for are people with passion, conviction, perseverance, and a positive attitude. If you have those then I can teach you the rest. But you can’t teach these four aspects; you either have them or you don’t.

Q: Finally, your remaining ambitions for TNT in Asia?

A: Having ramped up our infrastructure and capabilities in Southeast Asia, I am currently spending a lot of my time in India, where we are more at the beginning stage of development of a high growth platform. We already have a large business in India but there is still a lot of untapped potential, especially with the changes to the states’ taxation system, which will have massive effect on transportation needs.

More broadly speaking, I look forward to the time when Asia Pacific becomes the dominant force in what has traditionally been quite a Euro-centric company. As the balance of power shifts further from west to east and as our major investments continue to pay off , I am convinced that we are well on the way to achieving this goal.