Sandvik Coromant president sees a need for speed

Nadine Crauwels is set to take Sandvik Coromant into the digitalized world of manufacturing, and she is impatient. She sees the need to move quickly, to be creative and to think outside the box to be successful.

Nadine Crauwels became the new President of Sandvik Coromant, Sandvik's largest product area, in May 2017.

For those who don't know you, can you please share a bit about your background?

I was born and raised in Belgium, where I gained a master of science degree in mechanical engineering. I have worked in the manufacturing industry for 22 years, 17 of which have been at Sandvik Coromant, in different roles and locations. I live with my family: my husband and two children – a daughter, 17, who goes to high school and a son, 19, who is studying in Florida in the USA. I spend my free time outdoors as much as possible with my husband, running, skiing, hiking and supporting our children's activities and interests.

How would you describe your leaderhip style?

I love to see people grow, and I strongly believe that people excel if you give them opportunities. I am a demanding person when it comes both to myself and to others. We are a team of extremely talented people, and we need to utilize this power.

Nadine Crauwels, President of product area Sandvik Coromant.I feel a sense of urgency when it comes to speed. This is a challenge, but I will never let our size and history be an excuse to slow things down. Being an engineer, I have a strong awareness of the fact that we need to do things right, but we also need to move forward, push ourselves out of our comfort zone a bit, be creative and dare to fail.

So what does Sandvik Coromant do to push boundaries?

We operate in a time of rapid change. We are used to understanding exactly how we can increase our customers' productivity, and we are used to having a fairly static set of competitors. With digitalization, this arena has changed. New technology continually opens up new ways of providing value for our customers.

This gives us several opportunities to widen our scope. Digitalization also opens up new competitors, such as companies that are good at analyzing data. You don't need to be a metal-cutting company to do that. Here too we need to challenge ourselves, be creative and think outside the box to be successful.

What makes Sandvik Coromant unique in this new environment?

Apart from innovative worldclass tools, our brand is built on trust, close relationships and manufacturing knowledge. Everything we do going forward is based on these values, but in new ways. We are broadening our offering into new parts of the customer value chain, providing digital solutions and finding ways to communicate with the customer, not necessarily through a personal meeting with a sales person. By sticking closely to our brand on our journey into the digital world, our concept will continue to be really difficult to copy.

What synergies do you see between Sandvik Coromant and other parts of Sandvik?

We can benefit from commonground research, and digitalization really opens up new opportunities when it comes to synergies and collaboration on neutral platforms. Additive manufacturing is a good example, where one business area is driving the platform, another one is providing unique material insights and raw material, and the product areas contribute with customer needs and market trends.