A decade ago, Linde Material Handling was reporting substantial losses and struggling to retain its employees and customer base. In 2004, Carl Smith joined as managing director after 22 years at Crown. Under his leadership, the company turned its loss into a profit, increased its market share to double figures, and transformed its culture into a positive and productive one over just three years.
Since achieving that remarkable milestone, Carl and his team have been focusing on ingraining positive values into the companys culture, investing in its products and people, and exploring new channels for growth.
The CEO Magazine recently sat down with Carl to discuss the dramatic turnaround that he and his team have executed across Linde Material Handlings operations, the vision and values that power the business, and the aggressive growth plans for the companys future.
The first thing I needed to do was establish what was driving the result. I knew it could not be the quality of the equipment, having worked in the industry for 22 years: The Linde brand was always considered to be a premium product. Therefore, it had to come down to people, processes, and attitude.
My first three months were spent travelling the country, talking to and listening to staff in a number of branches, and understanding the issues they faced each day in their jobs.
At the same time, I also met and spoke to many Linde clients to gain their opinion and perception of the Linde product and service in Australia, and how well as an organisation and partner we met their expectations. Having completed my analysis, I set about putting the people in place who had the skill, drive, and passion to turn the business around. Key roles were filled by some who had worked with me previously, local Linde employees, or Linde staff from our European operations.
