Promoting success

New Chairman, Peter Tjan, plans to increase CEC’svisibility and communicate the importance ofthe work it does

Following a degree and PhD in Chemical Engineering Peter Tjan went straight to work for Shell – mainly drawn by the chance of an international career. “Shell was a great place to work," he explains, “I didn’t have to change employer to change role, and so I have had plenty of variety in my career. With a number of expat assignments in the US, UK, Canada and in Europe, and being lucky enough to work on markets in Latin America and Asia Pacific, I was able to really travel the world."

Despite his university choices, he did not opt for a career in science – he found himself attracted instead to more managerial positions. “I had responsibility for lubricants and commercial businesses in a number of countries but also ran a refining system in the US. In my last job I managed marketing teams across 28 European countries and, although I was theoretically based in the Netherlands, I spent most days on the move between the various locations. All of these opportunities at Shell have given me a breadth of experience that I hope will be valuable in my new role as CEC Chairman.”

In 2001 Peter retired from Shell and moved to Brussels as a lobbyist for the refining industry – here he quickly learned that his experience in marketing and in dealing with different nationalities and cultures was going to be useful.

“As a lobbyist I now find myself marketing ideas rather than marketing products – but the principles are essentially the same.”

Critical moment for CEC

Appointed to office for a two-year stretch, which could be extended to three, Peter found that there was no time to relax into the role. “I had to get my feet under the table pretty quickly to solve a pressing issue. In December 2014 the CEC Secretariat announced their intention to retire, which meant that my top priority was to find new people to take up these vital roles so CEC could keep running.”

“You have to remember the incumbents had been there for 14 years. During this period they had acquired deep knowledge of industry issues and progressively taken on more responsibility. While this may have been convenient for Management Board members, already very busy carrying out their main job, it made CEC vulnerable and accountabilities were not always as clear as would have been desirable."

"With a new Secretariat there is an opportunity to adjust and clarify roles and responsibilities. It also means that the Management Board must be very clear about its priorities and direction."

Peter sees this as a really critical moment for CEC. “I’m pleased to say that I think we have been successful in recruiting an excellent new Secretariat, and so far there have been no major disasters, but only time will tell because stepping into these well worn shoes is going to be a real challenge for the new secretariat staff.”

Opportunities for improvement

When asked what he hopes to bring to the CEC Chair position Peter first explains what he is not planning to bring.

“I’m not bringing technical expertise – it is managerial experience I aim to contribute. I’ll be looking at how the CEC functions and what improvements we can make.”

CEC is a serving body not the driving force and as such its priorities are determined by the four stakeholder associations – ACEA, ATIEL, ATC and CONCAWE. “It is good to see a group of industries working together and sharing competencies to deliver meaningful tests. What is important is that we don't get distracted into doing what is academically interesting rather than what is needed to answer industry issues. I believe we must manage the process carefully by ensuring we have a clear project definition that identifies what are we solving, why is it necessary and when is it needed.”

Once these priorities are agreed Peter must help to ensure CEC executes the programmes efficiently. “I think I will bring discipline, transparency and accountability. This is essential if we are to fully support the technical experts to deliver high quality tests in a timely and cost effective manner that meet the needs of all the stakeholders. I’m not sure we are doing that well enough right now – and I see this as a great opportunity for us to improve.”

Securing the best resources

CEC relies on its members and sponsors to provide resources and Peter feels that one of his key priorities is to ensure the best resources are made available for the required time. “People with technical and project management expertise are critical success factors for us and right now they are scarce – and the ones that are there are already being pulled in a number of different directions.”

“To gain priority on resource allocation, we need to increase our visibility and communicate the importance of the work we are doing.”

But its not just the best people that CEC needs to secure. “We also need the right hardware to be made available so that we can develop appropriate test methods. This can be a challenge and we need to convince OEMs that what we are doing is important so they make the right modern engines available to us. Unfortunately we have not been very good at promoting the work that CEC carries out at an appropriately senior management level in the industry, and I need to assess how to enhance our credibility with the key decision makers.”

Another challenge centres on the increasingly global market place in which the industry operates. “While the ‘E’ of CEC stands for European, our industry is globalising fast and European OEMs are now selling the majority of their vehicles outside Europe . We need to be clear about what this means to CEC – are the tests we develop for European OEMs in Europe or globally?"

"Clearly our priorities will change as we serve an increasingly globalising market.”

But he also sees a big question around whether – in the current market and environment - a Eurocentric organisation can be successful. “I think the answer is no, we have to interact with organisations similar to CEC from around the world, it won’t happen overnight but we must seek out these opportunities. If we can establish CEC methods in markets like India and China for example this would be of real benefit to our member organisations.”

Priorities for action and change

Having resolved the short term issue of finding a new Secretariat, Peter is now turning his attention to the longer term.

“I have already mentioned a number of issues that need to be resolved, but it will be a long process and I am unlikely to see the results in my time as Chairman. My priority is to establish our reputation by convincing stakeholders that what we do is essential so that we can secure the best resources. I want to ensure the Secretariat, Management Board and other stakeholders give sufficient support to the technical groups.”

“I am really proud of the fantastic group of highly knowledgeable technical experts we have on board to develop the new tests; I hope by being more supportive we can help them to be even more effective.”

Although he will not be helping to solve any technical issues himself, Peter does have ambitions for delivery in other areas in his term of office. “I hope that before I leave we will have a better structure, better accountability and better processes, along with improved clarity and transparency so that our technical people find it easier to perform their jobs. I also plan to raise industry awareness of CEC and, if by the end of my term as Chairman, a CEO at a major OEM tells me they have heard of CEC and understand its value that would be a real measure of success.”

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