Chairman at PSB Industries, Olivier Salaun, has seen major changes since joining the business. He talks to The CEO Magazine about the journey to becoming an international company and the highlights along the way.
The CEO Magazine: When you joined PSB Industries, what possibilities did you see for growing its market share, and what strategies did you roll out to achieve this?
Olivier: That was in September 2012, and I decided, with the team already in place, that we would run a diagnosis on the entire company. I appointed an external company to conduct a customer satisfaction survey, as well as an internal employee survey to gather insights on the organisation from within. I then created a new role in strategy and business development that reported directly to me to help guide the executive team throughout this process. It took around 6 to 8 months for the executive team, along with the different teams across the company, to work on all the fundamentals — the values, vision, mission, and strategies. We then built it all into a strategic plan called Ambition 2020, which was launched in 2013.
We targeted 4 key markets where we wanted to become leaders: luxury and beauty packaging; healthcare and hygiene packaging; food and retail; and specialty chemicals for lighting and high-tech industry applications.
With the 2020 plan, we could then define the actions to be put in place and executed within the teams in order to achieve these ambitions. At that time, we also changed our mindset in order to evolve from an industrial, technology-driven company to a more market-, business- and customer-oriented company.
You have almost doubled the turnover in 4 years. What have been your key areas of growth?
We did that primarily through acquisitions. In the past 2 years, we have finalised 3 major acquisition deals — 2 for the luxury and beauty business, and one for the healthcare business. The reason we made these acquisitions was really to gain additional capabilities in terms of innovation, marketing, and international positioning — specifically moving into the Asian market — as well as new customers, such as Avon and Estée Lauder; pharmaceutical groups; and new segments such as fragrance or medical devices. One of the acquisitions was also to position ourselves as a significant player in the healthcare industry.
